FOOTNOTES

¹ It is unnecessary for us to discuss the anachronism involved in this identification.

² This is not the place to enter upon the proof of the matter, but I hold that the fact stated in the text is correct, in spite of all that has recently been written on the other side.

³ Surah LIII., 19.

⁴ In Assyrian Ilu is God, ilatu is "goddess." Allatu is probably from the Accadian.

⁵ As we shall have to refer to it again, it may be well to

⁶ Others, e.g. Prof. Sayce (in his Lectures on the Religions of Egypt and Babylonia), hold that this was an original Semitic idea.

⁷ Surahs XVI., 59; LIII., 19-21, 28.

⁸ The of Herodotus has doubtless preserved in its last syllable the word Ta'ala'. The first part of the word is of uncertain derivation: it may be a corruption of Allah. With Allah Ta'ala' cf. the of Gen. xiv. 18, 19, 22.

⁹ So also a nephew of Muhammad was called Ubaidu'llah.

¹⁰

¹¹ For example, we find in the Diwan of An Nabighah the following lines:—
(Poem I., ll. 23, 24, ed. Ahlwardt.)

And again:—

(Poem III., ll. 9, 10.)

And so also in Poem VIII., ll. 5, 6:—

Labid has also the following verse:—

¹² Quoted in Ibn Hisham's Siratu'r Rasul, Egyptian edition, Part I., pp. 27, 38.

¹³ Ash Shahristani in quoted by Abu'l Fida (Hist. Ante-Islamica):—

Surah (Surah XLV., 23).

(Fleischer's ed., pp. 178-81.) See also on the same subject Krehl, Über die Religion der vorislamischen Araber, pp. 4 sqq.

Surah (Surah L., 14).

¹⁴ In the Mawahibu'l luduniyyah the tale is told in several forms. One runs thus:—

Another form of the story is given in the same book in these words:—

This story is also related in much the same way by Ibn Ishaq, and it is accepted by Ibn Hisham, the amplifier of his account of Muhammad's life (Siratu'r Rasul, vol. i. pp. 127 sqq.). Tabari and others also give the tale as true, as do the commentators Yahya' and Jalalu'ddin, and also Baidawi, in commenting on Surah Al Hajj (Surah XXII.), v. 51, the verse quoted at the end of the above extract. Al Ghazali, Baihaqi, and others fiercely deny the truth of the prophet's fall into approval of idolatry, even for a moment. But, unless the story be true, it is difficult to account for its acceptance by the above authorities; and the verse we have just referred to seems to require the story to explain it.

¹⁵ Surah LIII., An Najm, 21, 22, 23.

¹⁶ Siratu'r Rasul, pp. 27 sqq.

¹⁷ Ibid.

¹⁸ Herodotus III. 8, quoted above, p. 32.

¹⁹ Regarding the observance of the month of Ramadan as a time of "penance," vide pp. 269 sqq.

²⁰ Quoted above, p. 32.

²¹ Some Arabs wear their hair long, as they used to do in Muhammad's time. There seems to be no religious rule on the subject, hence the difference in Muslim practice in different places.

²² Hist. Ante-Islamica, ed. Fleischer, p. 180.

²³ That is the time before Muhammad's mission.

²⁴ See also the Apology of Al Kindi, Sir W. Muir's translation, pp. 92, 93.

²⁵ As is well known, this pilgrimage to Mecca is still incumbent upon every male Muslim who can possibly make it.

²⁶ Others say that the heathen Arabs used to perform the Tawwaf (the ceremony of running round the Ka'bah) naked, but that Muhammad introduced the wearing of the Ihram.

²⁷ In Islamic times this unfortunately went out of use.

²⁸ As in the Laws of Amraphel (Hammurabi).

²⁹

³⁰ Siratu'r Rasul, part I., p. 27:—

³¹ Muhammad has also borrowed certain fables current among the heathen Arabs, such as the tales of 'Ad and Thamud and some others (Surah VII., 63-77). Regarding such stories Al Kindi well says to his opponent: "And if thou mentionest the tale of 'Ad and Thamud and the Camel and the Comrades of the Elephant" (Surahs CV., and XIV., 9) "and the like of these tales, we say to thee, ‘Those are senseless stories and the nonsensical fables of old women of the Arabs, who kept reciting them night and day’":—

Sprenger (quoted in Rodwell's Preface, p. xvii) thinks that Muhammad learnt the tales of 'Ad and Thamud from the Hanifs (see chapter vi of the present volume), and that the latter were Sabians and held sacred the "Volumes of Abraham" mentioned in Surah LXXXVII., 19 in which Apocryphal books these tales may have found place. But this can hardly be considered as proved. May not the "Testament of Abraham" (rediscovered a few years ago), of which we shall have to speak in chapter iv, be included among the Suhuf Ibrahim?

³²

³³ Regarding the Mu'allaqat it may be well to quote the following from Abu Ja'far Ahmad ibn Isma'il an Nahhas (died A.D. 338,). He says:—

As Suyuti says very much the same, though he also refers to the story that the verses were hung up in the Ka'bah as possible (Mudhkir, II., 240).

³⁴ This is the opinion of Sir C. J. Lyall, than whom it would be difficult to find any one better qualified to speak on the subject of ancient Arabic poetry. In a letter which he has kindly sent me regarding the authorship of the lines in question attributed to Imrau'l Qais, he expresses his conviction that they are not his, giving reasons rounded principally upon the style and the metre. I have incorporated some of his observations into this Appendix, and I owe to him also the preceding note. His arguments have caused me to modify the opinion on the subject expressed in my Persian work, Yanabi'u'l Islam.

³⁵ The Rev. Dr. Zwemer, of Bahrain, however, informs me that he has found the words Danati 'ssa'atu wa'nshaqqa 'lqamaru (cf. Surah LIV., 1, Iqtarabati 'ssa'atu wa'nshaqqa 'lqamaru) in the last section of the last poem of Imrau'l Qais in an edition which he possesses. He adds: "A Shaikh taught in Al Azhar tells me that this evident quotation perplexes learned Muslims."