Fetching
One moment.
Fetching
One moment.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1The orphan was taken care of by his grandfather ‘Abd al MuZ¢alib, who showed for him very great affection, and at his death, which happened two years later, left him to the guardianship of his son Abu T4lib, afterwards one of the most prominent persons in Muslim history. To support himself the young Mohammed was obliged INTRODUCTION. xix to tend the sheep and goats of the Meccans, an occupation which, even at the present day, is considered by the Bedawin as derogatory to the position of a male. Of this part of his life we know but little, for although Muslim historians relate innumerable legends about him, they are for the most part obviously false, and quite unimportant to the real understanding of his life and character. At the age of twenty-four he was employed by a rich widow, named ‘/adigah, to drive the caravans of camels with which she carried on an extensive trade. So well did Mohammed ingratiate himself with his employer, who was also his kinswoman, that she offered him her hand, and although she was forty years of age and he barely twenty-five, their union was eminently a happy one. Long after her death his love for “Hadigah remained fresh in Mohammed’s heart ; he would never lose an opportunity of extolling her virtues, and would often kill a sheep and distribute its flesh to the poor in honour of her memory. ‘Ayeshah, daughter of Abu Bekr, whom he married three years after ‘Hadigah’s decease, was in the habit of saying that she was never jealous of any of his wives except ‘the toothless old woman.’ Six children were the issue of this marriage, four girls and two boys; both of the latter died at an early age. But of this portion of his career, too, we have no authentic information; all that is certain is that he was an honest, upright man, irreproachable in his domestic relations and universally esteemed by his fellow-citizens, who bestowed upon him the sébriquet of El Amin, ‘the trusty.’ Mohammed was a man of middle height, but of commanding presence; rather thin, but with broad shoulders and a wide chest; a massive head, a frank oval face with a clear complexion, restless black eyes, long heavy eyelashes, a prominent aquiline nose, white teeth, and a full thick beard are the principal features of the verbal portraits historians have drawn of him. He was a man of highly nervous organization, thoughtful, b2 XX THE QUR'AN. restless, inclined to melancholy, and possessing an extreme sensibility, being unable to endure the slightest unpleasant odour or the least physical pain. Simple in his habits, kind and courteous in his demeanour, and agreeable in conversation, he gained many over to his side, as much by the charm of his manners as by the doctrine which he preached.
2Simple in his habits, kind and courteous in his demeanour, and agreeable in conversation, he gained many over to his side, as much by the charm of his manners as by the doctrine which he preached. Mohammed had already reached his fortieth year when the first revelations came to him. They were the almost natural outcome of his mode of life and habit of thought, and especially of his physical constitution. From youth upwards he had suffered from a nervous disorder which tradition calls epilepsy, but the symptoms of which more closely resemble certain hysterical phenomena well known and diagnosed in the present time, and which are almost always accompanied with hallucinations, abnormal exercise of the mental functions, and not unfrequently with a certain amount of deception, both voluntary and otherwise. He was also in the habit of passing long periods in solitude and deep thought; and he was profoundly impressed with the falsehood and immorality of the religion of his compatriots and with horror at their vicious and inhuman practices, and had for his best friends men, such as his cousin Waraqah and Zaid ibn Amr, who had, professedly, been long seeking after the truth and who had publicly renounced the popular religion. At length, during one of his solitary sojournings on Mount ‘Hira, a wild and lonely mountain near Mecca, an angel appeared to him and bade him ‘READ?!’ ‘I am no reader!’ Mohammed replied in great trepidation, whereon the angel shook him violently and again bade him read. 1 In Arabic iqra’; a great difference of opinion exists even among Mohammedans about the exact meaning of this word. I have followed the most generally accepted tradition that it has its ordinary signification of ‘ reading,’ and this is supported by the reference immediately afterwards to writing; others take it to mean ‘recite!’ Sprenger imagines it to mean ‘read the Jewish and Christian scriptures,’ which, however ingenious, is, as an Arab would say, barid, singularly frigid and foreign to the spirit of the language. INTRODUCTION. XXi This was repeated three times, when the angef uttered the five verses which commence the 96th chapter : ‘READ! in the name of thy Lord, who did create— Who did create man from congealed blood. READ! for thy Lord is the most generous, Who has taught the use of the pen — Has taught man what he did not know.’ Terribly frightened, he hastened home to his. faithful wife ‘Hadigah, who comforted-him. The vision of the angel was not repeated, but his hallucinations and mental excitement continued to such an extent that a new fear took hold of him, and he began to wonder whether he were not, after all, possessed by a ginn, one of those dread supernatural beings of which I have before spoken.
3The vision of the angel was not repeated, but his hallucinations and mental excitement continued to such an extent that a new fear took hold of him, and he began to wonder whether he were not, after all, possessed by a ginn, one of those dread supernatural beings of which I have before spoken. Persons afflicted with epileptic or. hysterical symptoms were supposed by the Arabs, as by'so many other nations, to be possessed, and we find the constant complaint in the Qur’4n that he was regarded as such by his fellow-citizens. Poetic frenzy was evidently recognised by them as nearly akin to demoniacal possession, and of this charge, too, the prophet frequently endeavours.to clear himself. His habit of fasting and watching throughout the night would and no doubt did increase his tendency to mental excitement. and visionary hallucinations. The celebrated ‘night journey’ or ‘ascent into heaven, which many of the Muslims allow to have been merely a dream, was doubtless. the result of one of these fits of mental exaltation, It must be remembered, however, that to an Eastern mind the reducing it to a dream by no means detracts either from its reality or its authority, dreams being supposed to be direct revelations from God; see. the Story of Joseph, Chapter XII, and the same as recorded: in the Old Testament. That he himself thoroughly believed in-the reality of his revelations there can be no doubt, especially during the early part of his prophetic career. The chapters which belong to this period abound in passages which were XXii THE QUR'AN. evidently uttered in a state of complete ecstasy; but the later portions of the Qur’4n, in which more consecutive stories are told, and in which ordinances are propounded for the general guidance of the believers, or for individual cases, are of course couched in more sober language, and show traces of being composed in a calmer frame of mind. _The thought that he might be, after all, mad or possessed (magniin) was terrible to Mohammed. He struggled for a long time against the idea, and endeavoured to support himself by belief in the reality of the divine mission which he had received upon Mount ‘Hira; but no more revelations came, nothing occurred to give him further confidence and hope, and Mohammed began to feel that such a life could be endured no longer. The Fatrah or ‘intermission, as this period without revelation was called, lasted for two and a half or three years. Dark thoughts. of suicide presented themselves to his mind, and on more than one occasion he climbed the steep sides of Mount “Hira, or Mount Thabir, with the desperate intention of putting an end to his unquiet life by hurling himself from one of the precipitous cliffs. But a mysterious power appeared to hold him back, and at length the long looked-for vision came, which was to confirm him in his prophetic mission.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1The orphan was taken care of by his grandfather ‘Abd al MuZ¢alib, who showed for him very great affection, and at his death, which happened two years later, left him to the guardianship of his son Abu T4lib, afterwards one of the most prominent persons in Muslim history. To support himself the young Mohammed was obliged INTRODUCTION. xix to tend the sheep and goats of the Meccans, an occupation which, even at the present day, is considered by the Bedawin as derogatory to the position of a male. Of this part of his life we know but little, for although Muslim historians relate innumerable legends about him, they are for the most part obviously false, and quite unimportant to the real understanding of his life and character. At the age of twenty-four he was employed by a rich widow, named ‘/adigah, to drive the caravans of camels with which she carried on an extensive trade. So well did Mohammed ingratiate himself with his employer, who was also his kinswoman, that she offered him her hand, and although she was forty years of age and he barely twenty-five, their union was eminently a happy one. Long after her death his love for “Hadigah remained fresh in Mohammed’s heart ; he would never lose an opportunity of extolling her virtues, and would often kill a sheep and distribute its flesh to the poor in honour of her memory. ‘Ayeshah, daughter of Abu Bekr, whom he married three years after ‘Hadigah’s decease, was in the habit of saying that she was never jealous of any of his wives except ‘the toothless old woman.’ Six children were the issue of this marriage, four girls and two boys; both of the latter died at an early age. But of this portion of his career, too, we have no authentic information; all that is certain is that he was an honest, upright man, irreproachable in his domestic relations and universally esteemed by his fellow-citizens, who bestowed upon him the sébriquet of El Amin, ‘the trusty.’ Mohammed was a man of middle height, but of commanding presence; rather thin, but with broad shoulders and a wide chest; a massive head, a frank oval face with a clear complexion, restless black eyes, long heavy eyelashes, a prominent aquiline nose, white teeth, and a full thick beard are the principal features of the verbal portraits historians have drawn of him. He was a man of highly nervous organization, thoughtful, b2 XX THE QUR'AN. restless, inclined to melancholy, and possessing an extreme sensibility, being unable to endure the slightest unpleasant odour or the least physical pain. Simple in his habits, kind and courteous in his demeanour, and agreeable in conversation, he gained many over to his side, as much by the charm of his manners as by the doctrine which he preached.
2Simple in his habits, kind and courteous in his demeanour, and agreeable in conversation, he gained many over to his side, as much by the charm of his manners as by the doctrine which he preached. Mohammed had already reached his fortieth year when the first revelations came to him. They were the almost natural outcome of his mode of life and habit of thought, and especially of his physical constitution. From youth upwards he had suffered from a nervous disorder which tradition calls epilepsy, but the symptoms of which more closely resemble certain hysterical phenomena well known and diagnosed in the present time, and which are almost always accompanied with hallucinations, abnormal exercise of the mental functions, and not unfrequently with a certain amount of deception, both voluntary and otherwise. He was also in the habit of passing long periods in solitude and deep thought; and he was profoundly impressed with the falsehood and immorality of the religion of his compatriots and with horror at their vicious and inhuman practices, and had for his best friends men, such as his cousin Waraqah and Zaid ibn Amr, who had, professedly, been long seeking after the truth and who had publicly renounced the popular religion. At length, during one of his solitary sojournings on Mount ‘Hira, a wild and lonely mountain near Mecca, an angel appeared to him and bade him ‘READ?!’ ‘I am no reader!’ Mohammed replied in great trepidation, whereon the angel shook him violently and again bade him read. 1 In Arabic iqra’; a great difference of opinion exists even among Mohammedans about the exact meaning of this word. I have followed the most generally accepted tradition that it has its ordinary signification of ‘ reading,’ and this is supported by the reference immediately afterwards to writing; others take it to mean ‘recite!’ Sprenger imagines it to mean ‘read the Jewish and Christian scriptures,’ which, however ingenious, is, as an Arab would say, barid, singularly frigid and foreign to the spirit of the language. INTRODUCTION. XXi This was repeated three times, when the angef uttered the five verses which commence the 96th chapter : ‘READ! in the name of thy Lord, who did create— Who did create man from congealed blood. READ! for thy Lord is the most generous, Who has taught the use of the pen — Has taught man what he did not know.’ Terribly frightened, he hastened home to his. faithful wife ‘Hadigah, who comforted-him. The vision of the angel was not repeated, but his hallucinations and mental excitement continued to such an extent that a new fear took hold of him, and he began to wonder whether he were not, after all, possessed by a ginn, one of those dread supernatural beings of which I have before spoken.
3The vision of the angel was not repeated, but his hallucinations and mental excitement continued to such an extent that a new fear took hold of him, and he began to wonder whether he were not, after all, possessed by a ginn, one of those dread supernatural beings of which I have before spoken. Persons afflicted with epileptic or. hysterical symptoms were supposed by the Arabs, as by'so many other nations, to be possessed, and we find the constant complaint in the Qur’4n that he was regarded as such by his fellow-citizens. Poetic frenzy was evidently recognised by them as nearly akin to demoniacal possession, and of this charge, too, the prophet frequently endeavours.to clear himself. His habit of fasting and watching throughout the night would and no doubt did increase his tendency to mental excitement. and visionary hallucinations. The celebrated ‘night journey’ or ‘ascent into heaven, which many of the Muslims allow to have been merely a dream, was doubtless. the result of one of these fits of mental exaltation, It must be remembered, however, that to an Eastern mind the reducing it to a dream by no means detracts either from its reality or its authority, dreams being supposed to be direct revelations from God; see. the Story of Joseph, Chapter XII, and the same as recorded: in the Old Testament. That he himself thoroughly believed in-the reality of his revelations there can be no doubt, especially during the early part of his prophetic career. The chapters which belong to this period abound in passages which were XXii THE QUR'AN. evidently uttered in a state of complete ecstasy; but the later portions of the Qur’4n, in which more consecutive stories are told, and in which ordinances are propounded for the general guidance of the believers, or for individual cases, are of course couched in more sober language, and show traces of being composed in a calmer frame of mind. _The thought that he might be, after all, mad or possessed (magniin) was terrible to Mohammed. He struggled for a long time against the idea, and endeavoured to support himself by belief in the reality of the divine mission which he had received upon Mount ‘Hira; but no more revelations came, nothing occurred to give him further confidence and hope, and Mohammed began to feel that such a life could be endured no longer. The Fatrah or ‘intermission, as this period without revelation was called, lasted for two and a half or three years. Dark thoughts. of suicide presented themselves to his mind, and on more than one occasion he climbed the steep sides of Mount “Hira, or Mount Thabir, with the desperate intention of putting an end to his unquiet life by hurling himself from one of the precipitous cliffs. But a mysterious power appeared to hold him back, and at length the long looked-for vision came, which was to confirm him in his prophetic mission.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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