THE BIBLE, THE KORAN, AND THE TALMUD

OR

BIBLICAL LEGENDS OF THE MUSSULMANS

BY DR. G. WEIL

[NEW YORK, 1863]

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NOAH, HUD, AND SALIH

AFTER the translation of Idris, the depravity of men waxed so mightily, that Allah determined to destroy them by a flood. But the prophet Noah, who had in vain attempted to restore his followers to the path of virtue, was saved: for Allah commanded him to build an ark for himself and family, and to enter it as soon as his wife should see the scalding waters streaming from the oven. 1 This was the beginning of the flood; for it was followed by incessant rains from heaven (as from well-filled leathern bottles into which a sharp instrument has been plunged), which mingling with the subterraneous waters that issued forth from all the veins of the earth, produced an inundation which none save the giant Audj the son of Anak survived. 2

The ark floated during forty days from one end of the earth to the other, passing over the highest mountains; but when it came to Mount Abu Kubeis, on whose peak Allah had concealed the black diamond of the Kaaba, that it might serve in the second building of this blessed temple, it rode seven times round the sacred spot. At the lapse of six months the ark rested on Mount Djudi in Mesopotamia, and Noah left it as soon as the dove which he had sent to examine the state of the earth returned with an olive leaf in its mouth. Noah blessed the dove, and Allah gave her a necklace of green feathers; but the raven which Noah had sent out before the dove, he cursed, because, instead of returning to him, it stayed to feast on a carcass which it found on the earth, 3 wherefore the raven is no longer able to walk like other birds.

But, spite of the calamities of the flood, which Allah intended to serve forever as a warning against sin, Iblis soon succeeded in banishing virtue and goodness from the human family as before. Even Noah's sons, Cham and Japhet, forgot the reverence that was due to their father, and left him uncovered when one day they found him asleep. Cham even derided him, and became on this account the father of all the black races of mankind. Japhet's descendants remained white, indeed, but it was written that none of them should attain to the dignity of a prophet.Sham (Shem) is the sole ancestor of the prophets, among whom Hud and Salih, who lived immediately after the flood, attained to high distinction. 4

Hud was sent to the nation of giants which dwelt in Edom, a province of the Southern Arabia, then governed by King Shaddad, the son of Aad. When the prophet exhorted this king to the faith and fear of Allah, he inquired, "What shall be the reward of my obedience?" "My Lord," replied the prophet, "will give thee in the life to come, gardens of eternal verdure, and palaces of gold and jewels." But the king answered, "I stand not in need of thy promises, for I can even in this world build me gardens and pleasure-houses of gold, and costly pearls, and jewels." He then built Irem, and called it the City of Columns, for each of its palaces rested on a thousand columns of rubies and emeralds, and each column was a hundred cubits high. He next constructed canals, and planted gardens teeming with the finest fruit-trees and the fairest flowers.

When all was completed with prodigal magnificence, Shaddad said, "I am now in actual possession of all that Hud has promised me for the life to come." But when he would have made his entrance into the city, Allah concealed it from him and his followers, nor has it since been seen by man, save once in the reign of Maccavia.

The king and his people then wandered through the wilderness in rain and tempest, and at last sought shelter in caves. But Allah caused them to fall in, and only Hud escaped.

The destruction of this tribe induced their kinsmen, the Thamudites, who numbered seventy thousand warriors, to choose the region between Syria and Hedjaz as their abode, for they also feared to be destroyed, and hoped to secure themselves against the wrath of Allah by building their houses in the rocks. Djundu Eben Omer, the king of the Thamudites, built him a palace there, whose splendor had never been equaled on earth, and the high-priest Kanuch erected a similar one for himself. But their most costly and most perfect building was the temple. In it there stood an idol of the finest gold, and adorned with precious stones: it had a human face, a lion's figure, a bull's neck, and a horse's feet.

One day, when Kanuch, after his prayers, had fallen asleep in the temple, he heard a voice which said, "Truth shall appear, and delusion shall vanish." He sprang to his feet in terror, and rushed toward the idol, but lo! it was lying on the ground, and beside it lay the crown which had fallen from its head. Kanuch cried for help; the king and his viziers hastened to the spot, restored the idol to its place, and replaced the crown on its head. But the occurrence made a deep impression on the high-priest's mind. His faith in the idol failed, and his zeal to serve it cooled.

The king soon discovered the change that had passed within him, and one day sent both his viziers to apprehend and to examine him. But scarcely had his messengers left the royal palace when they were struck blind, and were unable to find Kanuch's dwelling. Meanwhile, Allah sent two angels, who carried the high-priest to a distant valley unknown to his tribe, where a shady grotto, supplied with every convenience of life, was prepared for him. Here he lived peaceably in the service of the one God, and secure against the persecutions of Djundu, who in vain sent out messengers in every direction to discover him. The king gave up, at length, all hope of his capture, and appointed his own cousin, Davud, as high-priest in Kanuch's stead. But on the third day after his inauguration, Davud came to the king in haste, and reported that the idol had again fallen from its place.

The king once more restored it, and Iblis cried from the idol, "Be steadfast in my worship, and resist all the temptations into which some innovators would lead you," On the following feast-day, when Davud was about to offer two fat bulls to the idol, they said to him, with a human voice, "Why will you offer us, whom Allah has endued with life, as a sacrifice to a dead mass of gold, which your own hands have dug from the earth, though Allah has created it? Destroy, O Allah, so sinful a people!" At these words the bulls fled, nor were the swiftest riders of the king able to overtake them. Yet it pleased Allah, in his wisdom and long suffering, to spare the Thamudites still longer, and to send to them a prophet who should labor by many wonders to convince them of the truth.

Ragwha, the wife of Kanuch, had not ceased to mourn since the flight of her husband; yet in the third year, Allah sent to her a bird from Paradise, to conduct her to his grotto. This bird was a raven, but its head was as white snow, its back was of emerald, its feet were of crimson, its beak was like the clearest sunbeam, and its eyes shone like diamonds, only its breast was black, for the curse of Noah, which made all ravens entirely black, had not fallen on this sacred bird.

It was the hour of midnight when it stepped into Ragwha's dark chamber, where she lay weeping on a carpet, but the glance of its eyes lit up the chamber as if the sun had suddenly risen therein. She rose from her couch, and gazed with wonder on the beautiful bird, which opened its mouth and said, "Rise and follow me, for Allah has pitied thy tears, and will unite thee to thy husband." She rose and followed the raven, which flew before her, changing the night into day by the light of its eyes, and the morning star had not yet risen when she arrived at the grotto. The raven now cried, "Kanuch, arise, and admit thy wife," and then vanished.

Within a year after their reunion she gave birth to a son, who was the very image of Seth, and the light of prophecy shone on his brow. His father called him Salih (the pious), for he trusted to bring him up in the faith of the one only God, and in piety of life; but soon after Salih's birth Kanuch died, and the raven from Paradise came again to the grotto to take back Ragwha and her son to the city of Djundu, where Salih grew rapidly in mind and body, to the admiration of his mother, and of all who came to visit them; and at the age of eighteen he was the most powerful and handsome, as well as the most gifted youth of his time.

It then came to pass that the descendants of Ham undertook an expedition against the Thamudites, and were to all appearance on the point of destroying them. Their best warriors had already fallen, and the rest were preparing for flight, when Salih suddenly appeared on the battle-field at the head of a few of his friends, and by his personal valor and excellent manuvres wrested the victory from the enemy, and routed them completely.

This achievement secured to him the love and gratitude of the more virtuous part of his tribe, but the king envied him from this day, and sought after his life. Yet as often as the assassins came to Salih's dwelling to slay him by the king's command, their hands were paralyzed, and were only restored by Salih's intercession with Allah. In this wise, the believers in Salih and his invisible God gradually increased, so that there was soon formed a community of forty men, who built a mosque, in which they worshiped in common.

One day the king surrounded the mosque with his soldiers, and threatened Salih and his adherents with death unless Allah should save them by a special miracle. Salih prayed, and the leaves of the date-tree that grew before the mosque were instantly changed to scorpions and adders, which fell upon the king and his men, while two doves which dwelt on the roof of the mosque exclaimed, "Believe in Salih, for he is the prophet and messenger of Allah." To this twofold wonder a second and third one were added, for at Salih's prayer the tree resumed its former shape, and some of the Thamudites who had been killed by the serpents returned to life again.

But the king continued in unbelief, for Iblis spoke from the mouth of the idol, calling Salih a magician and a demon.

The tribe was then visited by famine, but this also failed to convert them. When Salih beheld the stubbornness of the Thamudites, he prayed to Allah to destroy so sinful a people.

But he too, like his father, was carried by an angel to a subterraneous cave in sleep, and slept there twenty years. On waking, he was about to go into the mosque to perform his morning devotions, for he imagined that he had slept only one night; but the mosque lay in ruins; he then went to see his friends and followers, but some of them were dead; others, in the idea that he had abandoned them or been secretly slain, had gone to other countries, or returned to idolatry. Salih knew not what to do.

Then appeared to him the angel Gabriel, and said, "Because thou hast hastily condemned thy people, Allah has taken from thee twenty years of thy life; and thou hast passed them sleeping in the cave. 5 But rise and preach again. Allah sends thee here Adam's shirt, Abel's sandals, the tunic of Sheth, the seal of Idris, the sword of Noah, and the staff of Hud, with all of which thou shalt perform many wonders to confirm thy words." On the following day, the king, and priests, and heads of the people, attended by many citizens, went in procession to a neighboring chapel, in which an idol, similar to that of the temple, was worshiped.

Salih stepped between the king and the door of the chapel; and when the king asked him who he was, for Salih's appearance had so changed during the twenty years which he had spent in the cavern that the king did not recognize him, he answered, "I am Salih, the messenger of the one only God, who, twenty years ago, preached to thee, and showed thee many clear proofs of the truth of my mission. But since thou, as I perceive, still persistest in idolatry, I once more appear before thee in the name of the Lord, and by his permission offer to perform before thine eyes any miracle thou mayest desire in testimony of my prophetic calling."

The king took counsel with Shihab his brother, and Davud his high-priest, who stood near him. Then said the latter, "If he be the messenger of Allah, let a camel come forth from this rocky mountain, one hundred cubits high, with all imaginable colors united on its back, with eyes flaming like lightning, with a voice like thunder, and with feet swifter than the wind." When Salih declared his readiness to produce such a camel, Davud added, "Its fore legs must be of gold, and its hind legs of silver, its head of emerald, and its ears of rubies, and its back must bear a silken tent, supported on four diamond pillars inlaid with gold."

Salih was not deterred by all these additional requirements; and the king added, "Hear, O Salih! if thou be the prophet of Allah, let this mountain be cleft open, and a camel step forth with skin, hair, flesh, blood, bones, muscles, and veins, like other camels, only much larger, and let it immediately give birth to a young camel, which shall follow it every where as a child follows its mother, and when scarcely produced, exclaim, 'There is but one Allah, and Salih is his messenger and prophet.'"

"And will you turn to Allah if I pray to him, and if he perform such a miracle before your eyes?"

"Assuredly!" replied Davud. "Yet must this camel yield its milk spontaneously, and the milk must be cold in summer and warm in winter."

"Are these all your conditions?" asked Salih.

"Still farther," continued Shihab; "the milk must heal all diseases, and enrich all the poor; and the camel must go alone to every house, calling the inmates by name, and filling all their empty vessels with its milk."

"Thy will be done!" replied Salih. "Yet I must also stipulate that no one shall harm the camel, or drive it from its pasture, or ride on it, or use it for any labor."

On their swearing to him to treat the camel as a holy thing, Salih prayed: "O God! who hast created Adam out of the earth, and formed Eve from a rib, and to whom the hardest things are easy, let these rocks bring forth a camel such as their king has described, for the conversion of the Thamudites."

Scarcely had Salih concluded his prayer, when the earth opened at his feet, and there gushed forth a fountain of fresh water fragrant with musk: the tent which had been erected for Adam in Paradise descended from heaven, and thereupon the rocky wall which supported the eastern side of the temple groaned like a woman in travail; a flight of birds descended, and filling their beaks with the water of the fountain, sprinkled it over the rock, and lo! there was seen the head of the camel, which was gradually followed by the rest of its body; when it stood upon the earth, it was exactly as it had been described by the king, and it cried out immediately, "There is no God but Allah; Salih is his messenger and prophet."

The angel Gabriel then came down and touched the camel with his flaming sword, and it gave birth to a young camel which resembled it entirely, and repeated the confession that had been required. The camel then went to the dwellings of the people, calling them by name, and, filling every empty vessel with its milk. On its way all animals bowed before it, and all the trees bent their branches to it in reverence.

The king could no longer shut his heart to such proofs of God's almightiness and Salih's mission: he fell on the prophet's neck, kissed him, and said, "I confess there is but one God, and that thou art his messenger!"

But the brother of the king, as well as Davud, and all the priesthood, called it only sorcery and delusion, and invented all kinds of calumnies and falsehoods to retain the people in unbelief and idolatry. Meanwhile, since the camel, by constantly yielding its milk and praising Allah as often as it went down to the water, made daily new converts, the chiefs of the infidels resolved to kill it.

But when many days had passed before they ventured to approach it, Shihab issued a proclamation, that whosoever should kill the mountain camel should have his daughter Ranjan to wife. Kadbar, a young man who had long loved this maiden, distinguished as she was for grace and beauty, but without daring to woo her, being only a man of the people, armed himself with a huge sword, and, attended by Davud and some other priests, fell upon the camel from behind while it was descending to the waters, and wounded it in its hoof.

At that moment all nature uttered a frightful shriek of woe. The little camel ran moaning to the highest pinnacle of the mountain, and cried, "May the curse of Allah light upon thee, thou sinful people!" Salih and the king, who had not quitted him since his conversion, went into the city, demanding the punishment of Kadbar and his accomplices. But Shihab, who had in the mean time usurped the throne, threatened them with instant death. Salih, flying, had only time to say that Allah would wait their repentence only three days longer, and on the expiration of the third day would annihilate them like their brethren the Aaadites. His threat was fulfilled, for they were irreclaimable. Already on the next day the people grew as yellow as the seared leaves of autumn; and wherever the wounded camel trod, there issued fountains of blood from the earth.

On the second day their faces became red as blood; but on the third they turned black as coal, and on the same day, toward nightfall, they saw the camel hovering in the air on crimson wings, whereupon some of the angels hurled down whole mountains of fire, while others opened the subterraneous vaults of fire which are connected with hell, so that the earth vomited forth fire-brands in the shape of camels. At sunset, all the Thamudites were a heap of ashes. Only Salih and King Djundu escaped, and wandered in company to Palestine, where they ended their days as hermits.

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Footnotes

1 The generation of the flood was chastised with scalding water.Midrash, p. 14.
2 Besides Noah, Og the King of Bashan was saved, for he seized hold on one of the beams of the ark, and swore to Noah that he and his posterity would serve him as bondmen. Noah made an opening through the wall of the ark, and gave Og some food daily, for it is written, "Only Og the King of Bashan survived of all the giants."Midrash, p. 14.
3 The Midrash, p. 15, relates the same, and draws from it the conclusion that no one should seek to accomplish his ends by (unclean) unlawful means: the raven being unclean (unlawful) but the dove being clean.
4 Hud is probably the Eber of the Scriptures, whom the Rabbis esteem as a prophet, and the founder of a celebrated school of divinity.
5 The idea of a prophet's intercession with God is of Scriptural origin. Abraham and Moses interceded with God, the one for Sodom, the other for his people; and, according to the Hebrew legend, the Jews, on hearing Isaiah denouncing the judgments of God, threatened to put him to death, because he had not sought to turn away His wrath, as Moses had done under similar circumstances. Our Savior's parable of the gardener, who begged another year's respite for the unfruitful tree, is on the same principle. So is also Christ's reproof to his disciples, when they would have called down fire from Heaven. The punishment of Salih, therefore, however prettily introduced, must, like every other truth of the Koran, be referred to the knowledge which the Moslem had of the Scriptures.

THE BIBLE, THE KORAN, AND THE TALMUD

OR

BIBLICAL LEGENDS OF THE MUSSULMANS

BY DR. G. WEIL

[NEW YORK, 1863]

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ADAM (A MOHAMMEDAN'S LEGEND)

THE most authentic records of antiquity which have come down to us state that Adam was created on Friday afternoon, at the hour of Assr.1

The four most exalted angels, Gabriel, Michael, Israfil, and Israil, were commanded to bring from the four corners of the earth the dust out of which Allah formed the body of Adam, all save the head and heart. For these He employed exclusively the sacred earth of Mecca and Medina, from the very spots on which, in later times, the holy Kaaba and the sepulchre of Mohammed were erected.2

Even before it was animated, Adam's beautiful form excited the admiration of the angels who were passing by the gates of Paradise, where Allah had laid it down. But Iblis coveted man's noble form, and the spiritual and lovely expression of his countenance, and said, therefore, to his fellows, "How can this hollow piece of earth be well pleasing in your sight? Nothing but weakness and frailty may be expected of this creature." When all the inhabitants of heaven, save Iblis, had gazed on Adam in long and silent wonder, they burst out in praises to Allah, the creator of the first man, who was so tall, that when be stood erect upon the earth his head reached to the seventh heaven.

Allah then directed the angels to bathe the Soul of Adam, which he had created a thousand years before his body, in the sea of glory which proceedeth from himself, and commanded her to animate his yet lifeless form. The Soul hesitated, for she was unwilling to exchange the boundless heavens for this narrow home; but Allah said, "Thou must animate Adam even against thy will; and as the punishment of thy disobedience, thou shalt one day be separated from him also against thy will." Allah then breathed upon her with such violence that she rushed through the nostrils of Adam into his head. On reaching his eyes, they were opened, and he saw the throne of Allah, with the inscription, "There is out one GOD, and Mohammed is his Messenger."

The Soul then penetrated to his ears, and he heard the angels praising Allah; thereupon his own tongue was loosed, and he cried, "Blessed be thou, my Creator, the only One and Eternal!" and Allah answered, "For this end wast thou created; thou and thy descendants shall worship me; so shall ye ever obtain grace and mercy." The Soul at last pervaded all the limbs of Adam; and when she had reached his feet, she gave him the power to rise; but, on rising, he was obliged to shut his eyes, for a light shone on him from the throne of the Lord which he was unable to endure; and pointing with one hand toward it, while he shaded his eyes with the other, he inquired, "O Allah! what flames are those?" "It is the light of a prophet who shall descend from thee and appear on earth in the latter times. By my glory, only for his sake have I created thee and the whole world.3 In heaven his name is Ahmed, 4 but he shall be called Mohammed on earth, and he shall restore mankind from vice and falsehood to the path of virtue and truth."

All created things were then assembled before Adam, and Allah taught him the names of all beasts, of birds, and of fish; the manner in which they are sustained and propagated, and explained their peculiarities, and the ends of their existence. Finally, the angels were convoked, and Allah commanded them to bow down to Adam, as the most free and perfect of His creatures, and as the only one that was animated by His breath. Israfil was the first to obey, whence Allah confided to him the book of Fate. The other angels followed his example: Iblis alone was disobedient, saying, with disdain, "Shall I, who am created of fire, worship a being formed of the dust?" He was therefore expelled from heaven, and the entrance into Paradise was forbidden him.

Adam breathed more freely after the removal of Iblis; and by command of Allah, he addressed the myriads of angels who were standing around him, in praise of His omnipotence and the wonders of His universe; and on this occasion he manifested to the angels that he far surpassed them in wisdom, and more especially in the knowledge of languages, for he knew the name of every created thing in seventy different tongues. 5

After this discourse, Allah presented him, through Gabriel, with a bunch of grapes from Paradise, and when he had eaten them he fell into a deep sleep. The Lord then took a rib from Adam's side, and formed a woman of it, whom he called Hava [Eve], for he said, I have taken her from (hai) the living. She bore a perfect resemblance to Adam; but her features were more delicate than his, and her eyes shone with a sweeter luster, her hair was longer, and divided into seven hundred braids; her form was lighter, and her voice more soft and pure.

While Allah was endowing Eve with every female charm, Adam was dreaming of a second human being resembling himself. Nor was this strange, for had he not seen all the creatures which had been presented to him in pairs? When, therefore, he awoke, and found Eve near him, he desired to embrace her; yet, although her love exceeded his own, she forbade him, and said, "Allah is my lord; it is only with his permission that I may be thine! Besides, it is not meet that a woman should be wedded without a marriage gift."

Adam then prayed the angel Gabriel to intercede for him with Allah, that he might obtain Eve for his wife, and to inquire what marriage gift would be demanded. The angel soon returned, and said, "Eve is thine, for Allah has created her only for thee! Love her as thyself, and treat her with indulgence and kindness. The marriage gift which he requires of thee is, that thou shouldst pray twenty times for Mohammed, his beloved, whose body shall one day be formed out of thy flesh and blood, but whose soul has dwelt in Allah's presence many thousand years before the creation of the world." 6

Ridwhan, the guardian of Eden, came leading Meimun, the winged horse, and a fleet she-camel. The one he presented to Adam, the other to Eve. The angel Gabriel assisted them in mounting, and conducted them to Paradise, where all the angels and animals present saluted them with the words, "Hail! ye parents of Mohammed!"

In the midst of Paradise there stood a green silken tent, supported on golden pillars, and in the midst of it there was a throne, on which Adam seated himself with Eve, whereupon the curtains of the tent closed around them of their own accord.

When Adam and Eve were afterward walking through the garden, Gabriel came and commanded them, in the name of Allah, to go and bathe in one of the four rivers of Paradise. Allah himself then said to them, "I have appointed this garden for your abode; it will shelter you from cold and heat, from hunger and thirst. Take, at your discretion, of every thing that it contains; only one of its fruits shall be denied you. Beware that ye transgress not this one command, and watch against the wily rancor of Iblis! He is your enemy, because he was overthrown on your account; his cunning is infinite, and he aims at your destruction."

The newly-created pair attended to Allah's words, and lived a long time, some say five hundred years, in Paradise without approaching the forbidden tree. But Iblis also had listened to Allah, and resolving to lead man into sin, wandered constantly in the outskirts of heaven, seeking to glide unobserved into Paradise. But its gates were shut, and guarded by the angel Ridwhan. One day the peacock came out of the garden. He was then the finest of the birds of Paradise, for his plumage shone like pearl and emerald, and his voice was so melodious that he was appointed to sing the praise of Allah daily in the main streets of heaven.

Iblis, on seeing him, said to himself, "Doubtless this beautiful bird is very vain: perhaps I may be able to induce him by flattery to bring me secretly into the garden."

When the peacock had gone so far from the gates that he could no longer be overheard by Ridwhan, Iblis said to him,

"Most wonderful and beautiful bird! art thou of the birds of Paradise?"

"I am; but who art thou, who seemest frightened as if some one did pursue thee?"

"I am one of those cherubim who are appointed to sing without ceasing the praises of Allah, but have glided away for an instant to visit the Paradise which he has prepared for the faithful. Wilt thou conceal me under thy beautiful wings?"

"Why should I do an act which must bring the displeasure of Allah upon me?"

"Take me with thee, charming bird, and I will teach thee three mysterious words, which shall preserve thee from sickness, age, and death."

"Must, then, the inhabitants of Paradise die?"

"All, without exception, who know not the three words which I possess."

"Speakest thou the truth?"

"By Allah the Almighty!"

The peacock believed him, for he did not even dream that any creature would swear falsely by its maker; yet, fearing lest Ridwhan might search him too closely on his return, he steadily refused to take Iblis along with him, but promised to send out the serpent, who might more easily discover the means of introducing him unobservedly into the garden.

Now the serpent was at first the queen of all beasts. Her head was like rubies, and her eyes like emerald. Her skin shone like a mirror of various hues. Her hair was soft like that of a noble virgin; and her form resembled the stately camel; her breath was sweet like musk and amber, and all her words were songs of praise. She fed on saffron, and her resting-places were on the blooming borders of the beautiful Cantharus. 7 She was created a thousand years before Adam, and destined to be the playmate of Eve.

"This fair and prudent being," said the peacock to himself, "must be even more desirous than I to remain in eternal youth and vigor, and will undoubtedly dare the displeasure of Ridwhan at the price of the three invaluable words." He was right in his conjecture, for no sooner had he informed the serpent of his adventure than she exclaimed, "Can it be so? Shall I be visited by death? Shall my breath expire, my tongue be paralyzed, and my limbs become impotent? Shall my eyes and ears be closed in night? And this noble form of mine, shall it perish in the dust? Never, never! Even if Ridwhan's wrath should light upon me, I will hasten to the cherub, and will lead him into Paradise, so he but teach me the three mysterious words."

The serpent ran forthwith out of the gate, and Iblis repeated to her what he had said to the peacock, confirming his words by an oath. "How can I bring thee into Paradise unobserved?" inquired the serpent.

"I will contract myself into so small a bulk that I shall find room in a cavity of thy teeth!"

"But how shall I answer Ridwhan if he addresses me?"

"Fear nothing; I will utter holy names that shall render him speechless."

The serpent then opened her mouth: Iblis flew into it, and, seating himself in the hollow part of her front teeth, poisoned them to all eternity. When they had passed Ridwhan, who was not able to utter a sound, the serpent opened her mouth again, expeeting that the cherub would resume his natural shape, but Iblis preferred to remain where he was, and to speak to Adam from the serpent's mouth, and in her name. After some resistance, she consented, from fear of Ridwhan, and from her anxiety to obtain the mysterious words. Arrived at Eve's tent, Iblis heaved a deep sigh: the first which envy had forced from any living breast.

"Why art thou so cast down to-day, my beloved serpent?" inquired Eve, who had heard the sigh.

"I am anxious for the future destiny of thee and of thy husband," replied Iblis, imitating the voice of the serpent.

"How! Do we not possess in these gardens of Eden all that we can desire?"

"True; and yet the best of the fruits of this garden, and the only one which can procure you perfect felicity, is denied you."

"Have we not fruits in abundanee of every taste and color? why should we regret this one?"

"If thou knewest why this fruit is denied you, all the rest would afford thee no pleasure."

"Knowest thou the reason?"

"I do; and it is precisely this knowledge which fills my heart with care; for while all the fruits which are given you bring with them weakness, disease, old age, and death, that is, the entire cessation of life, this forbidden fruit alone bestows eternal youth and vigor."

"Thou hast never spoken of these things until now, beloved serpent; whence derivest thou this knowledge?"

"An angel informed me of it, whom I met under the forbidden tree."

Eve answered, "I will go and speak with him;" and, leaving her tent, she hurried toward the tree.

On the instant, Iblis, who knew Eve's curiosity, sprang out of the serpent's mouth, and was standing under the forbidden tree, in the shape of an angel, but with a human face, before Eve had reached it.

"Who art thou, singular being," she inquired, "whose like I have never seen?"

"I was man, but have become an angel?{sic}"

"By what means?"

"By eating of this blessed fruit, which an envious God had forbidden me to taste on pain of death. I long submitted to his command, until I became old and frail; my eyes lost their luster and grew dim, my ears no longer heard, my teeth decayed, and I could neither eat without pain, nor speak with distinctness. My hands trembled, my feet shook, my head hung down upon my breast, my back was bent, and my whole appearance became at last so frightful that all the inhabitants of Paradise fled from me. I then longed for death, and expecting to meet it by eating of this fruit, I stretched out my hands and took of it; but lo! it had scarcely touched my lips, when I became strong and beautiful as at first; and though many thousand years have since elapsed, I am not sensible of the slightest change either in my appearance or in my energies."

"Speakest thou the truth?"

"By Allah, who created me, I do."

Eve trusted to his oath, and plucked an ear of the wheat-tree.

Now, before Adam's sin, wheat grew upon the finest tree of Paradise. Its trunk was of gold, its branches were of silver, and its leaves of emerald. From every branch there sprung seven ears of ruby; each ear contained five grains, and every grain was white as snow, sweet as honey, fragrant as musk, and as large as an ostrich's egg. Eve ate one of these grains, and finding it more pleasant than all she had hitherto tasted, she took a second one and presented it to her husband.

Adam resisted longour doctors say, a whole hour of Paradise, which means eighty years of our time on earth; but when he observed that Eve remained fair and happy as before, he yielded to her importunity at last, and ate the second grain of wheat, which she had had constantly with her, and presented to him three times every day.

Scarcely had Adam received the fruit when his crown rose toward heaven, his rings fell from his fingers, and his silken robe dropped from him. Eve, too, stood spoiled of her ornaments and naked before him, and they heard how all these things cried to them with one voice, "Woe unto you! your calamity is great, and your mourning will be long: we were created for the obedient only: farewell until the resurrection!" The throne which had been erected for them in the tent thrust them away and cried, "Rebels, depart!" The horse Meimun, upon which Adam attempted to fly, would not suffer him to mount, and said, "Hast thou thus kept the covenant of Allah?"

All the creatures of Paradise then turned from them, and besought Allah to remove the human pair from that hallowed spot, Allah himself addressed Adam in a voice of thunder, and said, "Wast thou not commanded to abstain from this fruit, and forewarned of the cunning of Iblis, thy foe?" Adam attempted to flee from these upbraidings, and Eve would have followed him, but he was held fast by the branches of the tree Talh, and Eve was entangled in her own disheveled hair, while a voice from the tree exclaimed, "From the wrath of Allah there is no escape: submit to his divine decree! Leave this Paradise," continued Allah, in tones of wrath, "both you, and the creatures which have seduced you to transgress: by the sweat of your brow alone shall you earn your bread; the earth shall henceforth be your abode, and its possessions shall fill your hearts with envy and malice! Eve shall be visited with all kinds of sickness, and bear children in pain. The peacock shall be deprived of his voice, and the serpent of her feet. The darkest caverns of the earth shall be her dwelling-place, dust shall be her food, and to kill her bring sevenfold reward. But Iblis shall depart into the eternal pains of hell."

Hereupon they were hurled down from Paradise with such precipitancy that Adam and Eve could scarcely snatch a leaf from one of the trees wherewith to cover themselves. Adam was flung out through the Gate of Repentance, teaching him that he might return through contrition; Eve through the Gate of Mercy; the peacock and the serpent through the Gate of Wrath, but Iblis through that of the Curse.

Adam came down on the island Serendib, Eve on Djidda, the serpent fell into the Sahara, the peacock into Persia, and Iblis dropped into the torrent Aila.

When Adam touched the earth, the eagle said to the whale, with whom he had hitherto lived on friendly terms, and had whiled away many an hour in pleasant converse on the shores of the Indian Ocean, "We must now part forever; for the lowest depths of the sea and the loftiest mountain tops will henceforth scarcely preserve us from the cunning and malice of men."

Adam's distress in his solitude was so great that his beard began to grow, though his face had hitherto been smooth; and this new appearance increased his grief until he heard voice which said to him, "The beard is the ornament of man upon the earth, and distinguishes him from the weaker woman."

Adam shed such an abundance of tears that all beasts and birds satisfied their thirst therewith; but some of them sunk into the earth, and, as they still contained some of the juices of his food in Paradise, produced the most fragrant trees and spices.

Eve also was desolate in Djidda, for she did not see Adam, although he was so tall that his head touched the lowest heaven, and the songs of the angels were distinctly audible to him. She wept bitterly, and her tears, which flowed into the ocean, were changed into costly pearls, while those which fell on the earth brought forth all beautiful flowers.

Adam and Eve lamented so loudly that the east wind carried Eve's voice to Adam, while the west wind bore his to Eve. She wrung her hands over her head, which women in despair are still in the habit of doing; while Adam laid his right hand on his beard, which custom is still followed by men in sorrow unto this day.

The tears flowed at last in such torrents from Adam's eyes, that those of his right eye started the Euphrates, while those of his left set the Tigris in motion.

All nature wept with him, and the birds, and beasts, and insects, which had fled from Adam by reason of his sin, were now touched by his lamentations, and came back to manifest their sympathy.

First came the locusts, for they were formed out of the earth which remained after Adam was created. Of these there are seven thousand different kinds of every color and size, some even as large as an eagle. They are governed by a king, to whom Allah reveals his will whenever he intends to chasten a wicked people, such as, for instance, the Egyptians were at the time of Pharaoh. The black letters on the back of their wings are ancient Hebrew, and signify, "There is but one only God. He overcomes the mighty, and the locusts are part of his armies, which he sends against sinners."

When at last the whole universe grew loud with lamentation, and all created beings, from the smallest insect up to the angels who hold whole worlds in one hand, were weeping with Adam, Allah sent Gabriel to him with the words which were destined to save also the prophet Jonah in the whale's belly:

"There is no God besides thee. I have sinned; forgive me through Mohammed, thy last and greatest prophet, whose name is engraved upon thy holy throne."

As soon as Adam had pronounced these words with penitent heart, the portals of heaven were opened to him again, and Gabriel cried, "Allah has accepted thy repentance. Pray to him, and he will grant all thy requests, and even restore thee to Paradise at the appointed time." Adam prayed:

"Defend me against the future artifices of Iblis my foe!"

Allah replied:

"Say continually there is no God but one, and thou shalt wound him as with a poisoned arrow."

"Will not the meats and drinks of the earth, and its dwellings, ensnare me?"

"Drink water, eat clean animals slain in the name of Allah, and build mosques for thy abode; so shall Iblis have no power over thee."

"But if he pursue me with evil thoughts and dreams in the night?"

"Then rise from thy couch and pray."

"O Allah! how shall I always distinguish between good and evil?"

"I will grant thee my guidance: two angels shall dwell in thy heart; one to warn thee against sin, the other to lead thee to the practice of good."

"Lord, assure me of thy pardon also for my future sins."

"This thou canst only gain by works of righteousness! I shall punish sin but once, and reward sevenfold the good which thou shalt do."

At the same time the angel Michael was sent to Eve, announcing to her also the mercy of Allah.

"With what weapons," inquired she, "shall I, who am weak in heart and mind, fight against sin?"

"Allah has endued thee with the feeling of shame, and through its power thou shalt subdue thy passions, even as man conquers his own by faith."

"Who shall protect me against the power of man, who is not only stronger in body and mind, but whom also the law prefers as heir and witness?"

"His love and compassion toward thee, which I have put into his heart."

"Will Allah grant me no other token of his favor?"

"Thou shalt be rewarded for all the pains of motherhood, and the death of a woman in childbed shall be accounted as martyrdom."

Iblis, emboldened by the pardon of the human pair, ventured also to pray for a mitigation of his sentence, and obtained its deferment until the resurrection, as well as an unlimited power over sinners who do not accept the word of Allah.

"Where shall I dwell in the mean time?" said he.

"In ruins, in tombs, and all other unclean places shunned by man!"

"What shall be my food?"

"All things slain in the name of idols."

"How shall I quench my thirst?"

"With wine and intoxicating liquors!"

"What shall occupy my leisure hours?"

"Music, song, love-poetry, and dancing."

"What is my watchword?"

"The curse of Allah until the day of judgment."

"But how shall I contend with man, to whom thou hast granted two guardian angels, and who has received thy revelation?"

"Thy progeny shall be more numerous than his; for every man that is born, there shall come into the world seven evil spirits; but they shall be powerless against the faithful."

Allah then inade a covenant with the descendants of Adam. He touched Adam's back, and lo! the whole human family which shall be born to the end of time issued forth from it, as small as ants, and ranged themselves right and left.

At the head of the former stood Mohammed, with the prophets and the rest of the faithful, whose radiant whiteness distinguished them from the sinners, who were standing on Adam's left, headed by Kabil [Cain], the murderer of his brother.

Allah then acquainted the progenitor of man with the names and destinies of each individual; and when it came to King David the prophet's turn, to whom was originally assigned a lifetime of only thirty years, Adam inquired, "How many years are appointed to me?"

"One thousand," was the answer. 8

"I will renounce seventy if thou wilt add them to the life of David!"

Allah consented; but, aware of Adam's forgetfulness, directed this grant to be recorded on a parchment, which Gabriel and Michael signed as witnesses. 9

Allah then cried to the assembled human family, "Confess that I am the only God, and that Mohammed is my messenger." The hosts to the right made their confession immediately; but those to the left hesitated, some repeating but one half of Allah's words, and others remaining entirely silent. And Allah continued: "The disobedient and impenitent shall suffer the pains of eternal fire, but the faithful shall be blessed in Paradise!"

"So be it!" responded Adam; who shall call every man by name in the day of the resurrection, and pronounce his sentence according as the balance of justice shall decide.

When the covenant was concluded, Allah once more touched Adam's back, and the whole human race returned to him.

And when Allah was now about to withdraw his presence for the whole of this life from Adam, the latter uttered so loud a cry, that the whole earth shook to its foundations: the All-merciful thereupon extended his clemency, and said, "Follow yonder cloud; it shall lead thee to the place which lies directly opposite my heavenly throne; build me a temple there, and when thou walkest around it, I shall be as near to thee as to the angels which encompass my throne!"

Adam, who still retained his original stature, in a few hours made the journey from India to Mecca, where the cloud which had conducted him stood still. On Mount Arafa, near Mecca, he found, to his great joy, Eve his wife, whence also this mountain (from Arafa, to know, to recognize) derives its name. They immediately began to build a temple with four gates, and they called the first gate the Gate of Adam; the second, the Gate of Abraham; the third, the Gate of Ismael; and the fourth, the Gate of Mohammed. The plan of the building they had received from the angel Gabriel, who had, at the same time, brought them a large diamond of exquisite brightness, which was afterward sullied by the sins of men, and at last became entirely black.

This black stone, the most sacred treasure of the blessed Kaaba, was originally the angel who guarded the forbidden tree, and was charged to warn Adam if he should approach it, but, having neglected his trust, he was changed into a jewel, and at the day of judgment he shall resume his pristine form and return to the holy angels.

Gabriel then instructed Adam in all the ceremonies of pilgrimage, precisely as they were instituted by Mohammed at a later period; nor was he permitted to behold Eve his wife until the evening of Thursday, when the holy days were ended.

On the following morning Adam returned with his wife to India, and abode there during the remainder of his life. But he went every year on a pilgrimage to Mecca, until he at last lost his original size, retaining a height of only sixty yards. This diminution of his stature, according to the tradition of the learned, was caused by the excessive terror and grief which he experienced in consequence of the murder of Abel.

For Eve had born him two sons; whom he named Kabil and Habil [Cain and Abel], and several daughters, whom he gave in marriage to their brothers. The fairest of them he intended for Abel, but Cain was displeased, and desired to obtain her, though he had a wife already. Adam referred the decision to Allah, and said to his sons, "Let each of you offer a sacrifice, and he to whom Allah vouchsafes a sign of acceptance shall marry her." Abel offered a fatted ram, and fire came down from heaven and consumed it; but Cain brought some fruits, which remained untouched upon the altar. He was thereupon filled with envy and hatred toward his brother, but knew not how he might destroy his life. 10

One day Iblis placed himself in Cain's way as he walked with Abel in the field, and seizing a stone, shattered therewith the head of an approaching wolf; Cain followed his example, and with a large stone struck his brother's forehead till he fell lifeless to the ground. Iblis then assumed the shape of a raven, and having killed another raven, dug a hole in the earth with his bill, and laying the dead one into it, covered it with the earth which he had dug up. Cain did the same with his brother, 11 so that Adam was long in ignorance of the fate of his son, and shrunk together through care and sorrow. It was not until he had fully learned what had befallen Abel that he resigned himself to the will of Allah, and was comforted.

Now the discovery of Abel's corpse took place in this wise: Since his expulsion from Eden, Adam had lived on wild herbs, fruits, and meat, when, at Allah's command, the angel Gabriel brought him the remaining grains of wheat which Eve had plucked, a yoke of oxen, the various implements of husbandry, and instructed him in ploughing, sowing, and reaping.

While he was one day working in the field, his plough suddenly stopped, nor were all the exertions of his cattle able to move it. Adam struck the oxen, and the eldest of them said to him,

"Why dost thou strike me? Did Allah strike thee when thou wast disobedient?"

Adam prayed. "O Allah! after thou hast forgiven my sin, shall every beast of the field be permitted to reprove me?"

Allah heard him, and from that moment the brute creation lost the power of speech. Meanwhile, as the plough still remained immovable, Adam opened the ground, and found the still distinguishable remains of his son Abel.

At the time of harvest, Gabriel came again and instructed Eve in making bread. Adam then built an oven, and Gabriel brought fire from hell, but, first washed it seventy times in the sea, otherwise it would have consumed the earth with all that it contained. When the bread was baked, he said to Adam,

"This shall be thy and thy children's chief nourishment."

Although Adam had shed so many tears over the labor of the plough that they served instead of rain to moisten and to fructify the seed, yet were his descendants doomed to still greater toil by reason of their iniquities. Even in the days of (Enoch) Idris, the grain of wheat was no larger than a goose's egg: in those of Elias it shrunk to the size of a hen's egg: when the Jews attempted to kill Christ, it became like a pigeon's egg; and, finally, under Uzier's (Esdras's) rule it took its present bulk.

When Adam and Eve were fully instructed in agricultural cookery, the angel Gabriel brought a lamb, and taught Adam to kill it in the name of Allah, to shear its wool, to strip its hide, and to tan it. Eve spun and wove under the angel's direction, making a veil for herself and a garment for Adam, and both Adam and Eve imparted the information which they had received from Gabriel to their grand-children and great-grand-children, in number forty, or, according to others, seventy thousand.

After the death of Abel and Cain, the latter of whom was slain by the blood-avenging angel, Eve gave birth to a third son, whom she called Sheth: he became the father of many sons and daughters, and is the ancestor of all prophets.

The 930th year of Adam's life came at last to its close, and the Angel of Death appeared to him in the shape of an unsightly he-goat, and demanded his soul, while the earth opened under his feet, and demanded his body. Adam trembled with fear, and said to the Angel of Death, "Allah has promised me a lifetime of a thousand years: thou hast come too soon." "Hast thou not granted seventy years of thy life David?" replied the angel. Adam denied for he had indeed forgotten the circumstance; but the Angel of Death drew forth from his beard the parchment in which the grant was written, and spread it out before Adam, who, on seeing it, willingly gave up his soul.

His son Sheth washed and buried him, after that Gabriel, or, according to others, Allah himself, had pronounced a blessing. The same was done with Eve, who died in the following year.

In regard to the places of their burial, the learned differ. Some have named India; other traditions fix on Mount Kubeis, and even on Jerusalem. Allah alone is omniscient.

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Footnotes

1 The hour of Assr is between noon and evening, and is set apart by the Mussulman for the performance of his third daily prayer.
2 Mohammed, the founder of Islam, was born in 571 A.D., at Mecca, where the Kaaba, then an ancient temple, was held in great veneration. In 622 the idolaters of Mecca compelled him to emigrate to Medina, where he died in June, 632. Vide Gustavus Weill. Mohamed der Prophet, sein Leben und seine Lehre, Stuttgart, 1843, 8vo.
3 The Midrash Jalkut (Frankfort on the O., 5469), says Rabbi Juda, teaches that the world was created on account of the merits of Israel. R. Hosia says it was created on account of the Thora (the Law); and R. Barachia, on account of the merits of Moses.
4 The much-praised One.
5 When the Lord intended to create man, he consulted with the angels, and said to them, "We will create man after our image." But they replied, "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? What are his excellences?" He said, "His wisdom exceeds your own." He then took all kinds of wild beasts and birds, and when he asked the angels to give their names, they were not able to do so. After the creation, he brought these animals to Adam, who, on being asked their names, replied immediately, "This is an ox, this is an ass, that a horse, a camel," (Compare Geiger, Was hat Mohamed aus dem Judenthum aufgenommen, p. 99, )
6 The idea that many things existed before the creation of the world is purely Jewish. The Mussulmans adopted it. Some of them maintained that the Koran had existed before the world, which assertion excited many bloody contests among them. The Midrash Jalkut, p. 7, says, Seven things were in existence before the creation of the world: the Thora, Repentance, Paradise, Hell, the Throne of God, the name of the Messiah, and the holy Temple. Some maintain that the throne and the Thora really existed, while the Lord only thought of the other five before he created the world.
7 One of the rivers of Paradise.
8 Nine hundred and thirty years was the lifetime of Adam, according to Gen., v., 3.
9 The Lord showed to Adam every future generation, with their heads, sages, and scribes. He saw that David was destined to live only three hours, and said, "Lord and Creator of the world, is this unalterably fixed?" The Lord answered,

"It was my original design!"

"How many years shall I live?"

"One thousand,"

"Are grants known in Heaven?"

"Certainly!"

"I grant, then, seventy years of my life to David!"

What did Adam therefore do? He gave a written grant, set his seal to it, and the same was done by the Lord and Metatron.Midrash Jalkut, p. 12.
10 Cain and Abel divided the world between them, the one taking possession of the movable, and the other of the immovable property. Cain said to his brother, "The earth on which thou standest is mine; then betake thyself to the air;" but Abel replied, "The garments which thou wearest are mine; take them off!" There arose a conflict between them, which ended in Abel's death. R. Huna teaches, They contended for a twin sister of Abel's: the latter claimed her because she was born with him; but Cain pleaded his right of primogeniture.Midrash, p. 11.
11 The dog which had watched Abel's flocks guarded also his corpse, protecting it against the beasts and birds of prey. Adam and Eve sat beside it, and wept, not knowing what to do. But a raven, whose friend had died, said, "I will go and teach Adam what he must do with his son." It dug a grave and laid the dead raven in it. When Adam saw this, he said to Eve, "Let us do the same with our child." The Lord rewarded the raven, and no one is allowed, therefore, to harm their young; they have food in abundance, and their cry for rain is always heard. R. Johanan teaches, Cain was not aware of the Lord's knowledge of hidden things; he therefore buried Abel, and replied to the Lord's inquiry, "Where is Abel, thy brother?" "Am I my brother's keeper?"Midrash, p. 11.

THE BIBLE, THE KORAN, AND THE TALMUD

OR

BIBLICAL LEGENDS OF THE MUSSULMANS

BY DR. G. WEIL

[NEW YORK, 1863]

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IDRIS, OR ENOCH

IDRIS, or Enoch, was the son of Jarid, the son of Mahlalel, but was called Idris, from darasa (to study), for he was constantly occupied with the study of the holy books, both those which Allah had revealed to Adam, and those which Gabriel brought to him from heaven. He was so virtuous and pious, that Allah anointed him to be his prophet, and sent him as a preacher to the descendants of Cain, who only employed in deeds of sin the gigantic frames and surpassing strength with which Allah had endowed them.

Enoch exhorted them unceasingly to purity of conduct, and was often compelled to draw his sword in defense of his life. He was the first who fought for Allah, the first who invented the balance to prevent deception in traffic, and the first also to sew garments, and to write with the Kalam. Idris longed ardently for Paradise; still he was not desirous of death, for he was anxious to do good on the earth; and but for his preaching and his sword, 1 the sons of Cain would have flooded the earth with iniquity. Allah sent him the Angel of Death in the form of a beautiful virgin, in order to see whether he would approve himself worthy of the peculiar favor which no man before him had ever received.

"Come with me," said the disguised angel to Idris, "and thou shalt do an acceptable work to Allah. My younger sister has been carried off by an ungodly descendant of Cain, who has confined her in the farthest regions of the West! Gird on thy sword, and help me to deliver her!"

Enoch girded on his sword, and took up his bow and the club, with which he had laid low at a single stroke whole ranks of the enemy, and followed the virgin from morn till eve, through desolate and arid deserts, but he said not a word and looked not upon her. At nightfall she erected a tent, but Idris laid himself down at its entrance to sleep on the stony ground. On her inviting him to share her tent with her, he answered, "If thou hast any thing to eat, give it to me." She pointed to a sheep which was roving through the desert without a keeper, but he said, "I prefer hunger to theft; the sheep belongs to another."

Next day they continued their journey as before, Idris still following the virgin and uttering no complaint, though he was nearly overcome with hunger and thirst. Toward evening they found a bottle of water on the ground. The virgin took it up, and opening it, would have forced Enoch to drink, but he refused, and said, "Some luckless traveler has lost it, and will return to seek for it."

During the night, Idris having once more baffled all the wiles of the virgin, who had again endeavored to draw him into her tent, Allah caused a spring of clear fresh water to gush forth at his feet, and a date-tree to rise up laden with the choicest fruit. Idris invited the virgin to eat and to drink, and concealed himself behind the tree, waiting her return to the tent; but when, after a long interval, she came not, he stepped to the door and said, "Who art thou, singular maiden? These two days thou hast been without nourishment, and art even now unwilling to break thy fast, though Allah himself has miraculously supplied us with meat and drink; and yet thou art fresh and blooming like the dewy rose in spring, and thy form is full and rounded like the moon in her fifteenth night."

"I am the Angel of Death," she replied, "sent by Allah to prove thee. Thou hast conquered; ask now, and he will assuredly fulfill all thy wishes."

"If thou art the Angel of Death, take my soul."

"Death is bitter: wherefore desirest thou to die?"

"I will pray to Allah to animate me once more, that after the terrors of the grave, I may serve him with greater zeal."

"Wilt thou, then, die twice? Thy time has not yet come: but pray thou to Allah, and I shall execute his will."

Enoch prayed:

"Lord, permit the Angel of Death to let me taste death, but recall me soon to life! Art thou not almighty and merciful?"

The Angels of Death was commanded to take the soul of Idris, but at the same moment to restore it to him. On his return to life, Idris requested the angel to show him Hell, that he might be in a position to describe it to sinners with all its terrors. The angel led him to Malik, its keeper, who seized him, and was in the act of flinging him into the abyss, when a voice from heaven exclaimed,

"Malik, beware! Harm not my prophet Idris, but show him the terrors of thy kingdom."

He then placed him on the wall which separates hell from the place appointed as the abode of those who have merited neither hell nor heaven. Thence he saw every variety of scorpions and other venomous reptiles, and vast flames of fire, monstrous caldrons of boiling water, trees with prickly fruits, rivers of blood and putrefaction, red-hot chains, garments of pitch, and so many other objects prepared for the torture of sinners, that he besought Malik to spare him their farther inspection, and to consign him once more to the Angel of Death.

Idris now prayed the latter to show him Paradise also. The angel conducted him to the gate before which Ridwhan kept his watch. But the guardian would not suffer him to enter: then Allah commanded the tree Tuba, which is planted in the midst of the garden, and is known to be, after Sirdrat Almuntaha, the most beautiful and tallest tree of Paradise, to bend its branches over the wall. Idris seized hold of them, and was drawn in unobserved by Ridwhan. The Angel of Death attempted to prevent it, but Allah said, "Wilt thou slay him twice?" Thus it came to pass that Idris was taken alive into Paradise, and was permitted by the most gracious One to remain there in spite of the Angel of Death and of Ridwhan. 2

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Footnotes

1 See the E. Translator's Preface.
2 In the Bible it is said the Lord took Enoch; but the Midrash adds, nine human beings entered Paradise alive: Enoch, Messiah, Elias, Eliezer the servant of Abraham, the servant of the King of Kush, Chiram the King of Tyre, Jaabez, the son of the Prince and Rabbi Juda, Serach the daughter of Asher, and Bitja the daughter of Pharaoh.

THE BIBLE, THE KORAN, AND THE TALMUD

OR

BIBLICAL LEGENDS OF THE MUSSULMANS

BY DR. G. WEIL

[NEW YORK, 1863]

---

INTRODUCTION

MOHAMMED has been frequently reproached with having altered and added most arbitrarily to the religious history of the Jews and Christians, two important considerations not being sufficiently borne in mind. In the first place, it is probable that Mohammed learned only late in life to write, or even to read the Arabic, and he was unquestionably ignorant of every other apoken or written language, as is sufficiently apparent from historical testimony: hence he was unable to draw from the Old and New Testaments for himself, and was entirely restricted to oral instruction from Jews and Christians.

Sccondly, Mohammed himself declared both the Old and New Testaments, as possessed by the Jews and Christians of his time, to have been falsified; and, consequently, his own divine mission could be expected to agree with those writings only in part. But the turning-point on which the greater portion of the Koran hingesthe doctrine of the unity of God, a doctrine which he embraced with the utmost consistency, and armed with which he appeared as a prophet before the pagan Arabs, who were addicted to the most diversified Polytheismappeared to him much obscured in the Gospels, and he was therefore forced to protest against their genuineness.

But with regard to the writings of the Jews of the Old Testament, which he had received from the mouth of his Jewish contemporaries, he was induced to believe, or, at least, pretended to believe, that they too had undergone many changes, inasmuch as Ismael, from whom he was sprung, was evidently treated therein as a step-child, or as the son of a discarded slave; whereas Abraham's paternal love and solicitude, as well as the special favor of the Lord, were the exclusive portion of Isaac and his descendants. The predictions respecting the Messiah, too, as declared in the writings of the Prophets, appeared to him incompatible with the faith in himself as the seal of the Prophets. Moreover, Mohammed was probably indebted for his religious education to a man who, abandoning the religion of Arabia, his native country, had sought refuge first in Judaism, and then in Christianity, though even in the latter he does not seem to have found perfect satisfaction. This man, a cousin of his wife Kadidja, urged forward by an irresistible desire after the knowledge of truth, but, as his repeated apostasies would serve to show, being of a sceptical nature, may have discovered the errors that had crept into all the religious system of his time; and having extracted from them that which was purely Divine, and freed it from the inventions of men, may have propounded it to his disciple, who, deeply affected by its repeated inculcation, at length felt within himself a call to become the restorer of the old and pure religion. A Judaism without the many ritual and ceremonial laws, which, according to Mohammed's declaration, even Christ had been called to abolish, or a Christianity without the Trinity, crucifixion, and salvation connected therewiththis was the creed which, in the early period of his mission, Mohammed preached with unfeigned enthusiasm.

It would be out of place here to exhibit in detail the rapidly-changing character both of Mohammed and his doctrines; but what has been said appeared indispensable by way of introduction to the legends in this work. With the exception of a few later additions, these legends are derived from Mohammed himself. Their essential features are found even in the Koran, and what is merely alluded to there is carried out and completed by oral traditions. Hence these legends occupy a twofold place in Arabic literature. The whole circle of the traditions, from Adam to Christ, containing, as they do in the view of Mussulmans, real and undisputed matters of fact, which are connected with the fate of all nations, for this the foundation of the universal history of mankind; while, on the other hand, they are especially made use of as the biography of the Prophets who lived before Mohammed. It is therefore highly important to ascertain the ground from which the source of these legends has sprung, and to show the transformation which they underwent in order to serve as the fulcrum for the propagation of the faith in Mohammed.

Respecting the origin of these legends, it will appear, from what has been said, that, with the exception of that of Christ, it is to be found in Jewish traditions, where, as will appear by the numerous citations from the Midrash, they are yet to be seen. Many traditions respecting the Prophets of the Old Testament are found in the Talmud, which was then already closed, so that there can be no doubt that Mohammed heard them from Jews, to whom they were known, either by Scripture or tradition. For that these legends were the common property both of Jews and Arabs can not be presumed, inasmuch as Mohammed communicated them to the Arabs as something new, and specially revealed to himself; and inasmuch as the latter actually accused him of having received instruction from foreigners. Besides Warraka, who died soon after Mohammed's first appearance as a prophet, we know of two other individuals, who were well versed in the Jewish writings, and with whom he lived on intimate terms, viz., Abd Allah Ibn Salam, a learned Jew, and Salman the Persian, who had long lived among Jews and Christians, and who, before he became a Mussulman, was successively a Magian, Jew, and Christian. The monk Bahira, too, whom, however, according to Arabic sources, he only met once, on his journey to Bozra, was a baptized Jew. All these legends must have made a deep impression on a religious disposition like that of Mohammed, and have roused within him the conviction that at various times, when the depravity of the human race required it, GOD selected some pious individuals to restore them once more to the path of truth and goodness. And thus it might come to pass that, having no other object than to instruct his contemporaries in the nature of the Deity, and to promote their moral and spiritual improvement, he might desire to close the line of the Prophets with himself.

But these legends the more especially furthered his object, inasmuch as in all of them the Prophets are more or less misunderstood and persecuted by the infidels, but, with the aid of God, are made to triumph in the end. They were therefore intended by him to serve as a warning to his opponents, and to edify and comfort his adherents. But the legend of Abraham he must have seized and appropriated with peculiar avidity, on account of its special use as a weapon both against Jews and Christians, while, at the same time, it imparted a certain luster to all the nations of Arabia descending through Ismael from Abraham.

It is difficult to find out with precision how much of this last legend was known in Arabia before Mohammed; but it is probable, that as soon as the Arabs became acquainted with the Scriptures and traditions of the Jews, they employed them in tracing down to Mohammed the origin both of their race and of their temple. But that they possessed no historical information respecting it will appear from the fact that, notwithstanding their genealogical skill, they confess themselves unable to trace Mohammed's ancestry beyond the twentieth generation. It is, however, quite evident, not only that the legends of Abraham and Ismael, which related much that was favourable to the latter, concerning which the Bible was silent, but that all the others in like manner were more or less changed and amplified by Mohammed, and adapted to his own purposes. We are, however, inclined to ascribe these modifications to the men by whom he was surrounded rather than to himself; for we consider him, at least during the period of his mission, as the mere tool of certain Arabian reformers rather than an independent prophet, or, at all events, more as a dupe than a deceiver. Yet to him unquestionably belongs the highly poetical garb in which we find these legends, and which was calculated to attract and captivate the imaginative minds of the Arabs much more than the dull Persian fables narrated by his opponents.

In the legend of Christ, it is not difficult to discover the views of a baptized Jew. He acknowledges in Christ the living Word, and the Spirit of GOD, in contradistinction to the dead letter and the empty ceremonial into which Judaism had then fallen. In the miraculous birth of Christ there is nothing incredible to him, for was not Adam, too, created by the word of the Lord? He admits all the miracles of the Gospel, for had not the earlier prophets also worked miracles? Even in the Ascension he finds nothing strange, for Enoch and Elias were also translated to heaven. But that a true prophet should place himself and his mother on a level with the Most High God is repugnant to his views, and he therefore rejects this doctrine as the blasphemous invention of the priests. He refuses also, in like manner, to believe the Crucifixion, because it appears to him to reflect upon the justice of GOD, and to conflict with the history of former prophets, whom He had delivered out of every danger. 1 "No man shall suffer for the sins of his neighbour," says the Koran: hence, though Christ might have followed out his designs without the fear of death, it seemed to him impossible that the Lord should have permitted Christ, the innocent, to die in so shameful a manner for the sins of other men. But he regards as a Savior every prophet who by divine revelation, and an exemplary and pious life, restores man to the way of salvation which Adam had abandoned at his fall; and such a savior he believed himself to be.

Now, as the, legend of Abraham was valuable to Mohammed on account of the pure and simple lesson which it inculcated, as well as for its connection with the sacred things of Mecca, so he valued the legend of Christ especially for its promise of the Paraclete, which he believed, or at least proclaimed himself to be, and to which appellation the meaning of his own name at least furnished him with a better claim than some others who had arrogated it to themselves before him. Here, again, we perceive that Mohammed was probably misinformed both by Jews and Christians, though perhaps from no sordid motive. Some one, for instance, as Maccavia has already observed, may have told him that Christ had spoken of a perycletea word which is synonymous with Ahmed (the much-praised one). At all events, in all the legends of the Mussulmans, Mohammed is declared even by the oldest prophets to be the greatest of all that were to come (although there are fewer traces of this found in the Koran); and wherever, in the Jewish legends, Moses, Israel, and the Thora are prominently brought forward, there the Mussulmans place Mohammed, the Arabs, and the Koran. The name to which they most frequently appeal as their voucher is Kaab Alahbar, a Jew, who embraced Islamism during the caliphate of Omar. As translations of the Koran abound in the German language, it can not be difficult for the reader to separate those portions of these legends composed by Mohammed from those which were afterward interpolated, but which were ascribed to him, and descended to posterity as sacred traditions.

The oral traditions respecting the ancient prophets, which are put into Mohammed's mouth, are so numerous, and some of them so contradictory, that no historian or biographer has been able to admit them all. It was therefore necessary to select; and in order to make them in some degree complete, we were obliged to draw from various sources, as it was only in this way that the unity and roundness could be obtained in which they are here presented to the reader.

Besides the Koran and the commentaries upon it, the following MSS. have been made use of for this little work:

1. The book Chamis, by Husein Ibn Mohammed, Ibn Ahasur Addiarbekri (No. 279 of the Arabian MSS. in the library of the Duke of Gotha), which, as the introduction to the biography of Mohammed, contains many legends respecting the ancient prophets, especially Adam, Abraham, and Solomon.

2. The book Dsachirat Alulum wanatidjal Alfuhum (storehouse of wisdom and fruits of knowledge), by Ahmed Ibn Zein Alabidin Al-bekri (No. 285 of the above-mentioned MSS.) in which also the ancient legends from Adam to Christ are prefixed to the History of Islam and more especially the lives of Moses and Aaron minutely narrated.

3. A collection of legends by anonymous authors. (No. 909 of the same collection.)

4. The Legends of the Prophets (Kissat Alan-bija), by Muhammed Ibn Ahmed Alkissai. (No. 764 of the Arabic MSS. of the Royal Library at Paris.)

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Footnotes

1 The reader is reminded of what our Savior says of all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, the son of Barachias, who perished between the temple and the altar.