Part 287

4 By making war in the holy month.

5 Comp. Tract Cholin, c. 3.

6 Lit. on blocks or shafts of stone. These were set up by the pagan Arabs in front of their houses for the purpose of sacrificing thereon. See Freytag's Einl. p. 462, and Tr. Cholin, p. 39, 40, 41.

7 It was the custom to draw lots for joints of a camel with arrows, some feathered and others unfeathered, kept for this purpose in the temple of Mecca. See Pocock, Spec. Hist. Ar., under the word Hobal.

8 In the sense of sound, healthful.

9 Thus Talm. Tr. Berachoth, 46.

10 This refers to the oath of fidelity which Muhammad's followers took at Al Akaba. Abulf. Vit.Moh.p.43.

11 It is quite uncertain to what events this refers. The commentators narrate, and have doubtless invented, various incidents as having occasioned it.

12 Verses 15-38 belong probably to the period shortly before the taking of Chaibar in the beginning of Hej. 7. It is remarkable that Muhammad, although he has invented these twelve leaders of tribes, should nowhere mention the number of the Apostles. There is no doubt, however, from the ancient biographies, that he chose twelve assistants for the propagation of Islam. See Gagnier, Vie de M. ii. xvi.

13 The space between the mission of different prophets.

14 Called by the Arabians Habeel and Kabeel. The dialogue between Cain and Abel is slightly varied from that given in Targ. Jerus. on Gen. iv. 8, and Jonath. Ben Uzziel.

15 Or, the sin against me, i.e. of slaying me.

16 In the Jewish tradition the raven shews the mode of burial to Adam, not to Cain. Pirke R. Elieser, c. 21. Midr. fol. II ap. Weil (Legenden, p. 39).

17 Or, corpse.

18 Thus Mischn. Sanhedr. iv. 5, "We find it said in the case of Cain who murdered his brother-'The voice of thy brother's bloods crieth'-It is not said, blood of thy brother, but bloods, i.e. his blood and the blood of his seed. Therefore was man created single, in order to shew that to him who kills a single individual of Israel it shall be reckoned as if he had slain the whole race, and that he, etc." precisely as in the text. Comp. also the same form of expression in Bab. Tal, Kidush, § 1, "If one fulfil but one commandment, he causes the scale of innocence to preponderate for himself and the whole world; but if he commit one sin, he causes the scale of guilt to preponderate for himself and the whole world.

19 Muhammad is said by the early traditionists to have punished a woman who had been guilty of theft in this manner while on the route to Mecca previous to its capture. We are, therefore, able to fix the date of verses 39-44.

20 Usury, bribes.

21 Ex. xxi. 23-27.

22 This may refer to proposals made to the Muslims to enter into alliance with the Jews and Christians against the heathen, after the reverse at Ohod. Lane observes (Mod. Egyptians, i. 358) with regard to this precept, that "of the leading features of the character of the Mooslims none is more remarkable than their religious pride. They regard persons of every other faith as the children of perdition; and such the Mooslim is early taught to despise." They are, however, "as remarkable for their toleration as for their contempt of unbelievers."

23 Weil suggests that verses 64-88 were revealed subsequently to contests with the Jews, but before Muhammad had broken with the Christians, i.e. between Hej. 4 and 8.

24 That is, God has ceased to be bounteous. The Muslims believe that at the day of judgment all the Jews will appear with the right hand tied to the neck.

25 That is, the Koran. The Jew was to retain a faith in the Towrât, or Law; the Christian in the Injil, or Gospel; but both Jews and Christians were to receive the Koran as the complement of both.

26 See Sura [xci.] ii. 59, p. 344.

27 I Thess. ii. 15.

28 Did not give herself out to be a goddess. Djelal.

29 That is, were human beings, and subject to the usual wants and liabilities of ordinary persons.

30 See Sura ii. 61, p. 344. Mark viii. 30.

31 Geiger derives both the Arabic words from Syriac terms, and renders elders and clerics, p. 51. But the root of the Arabic word rendered monk is generally said to be rahaba, to fear.