THE BIBLE, THE KORAN, AND THE TALMUD
OR
BIBLICAL LEGENDS OF THE MUSSULMANS
BY DR. G. WEIL
[NEW YORK, 1863]
MOSES AND AARON
WHEN the time had come in which Allah again designed to send a prophet on the
earth, Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had three dreams in one night. In his first
dream he heard a voice which called, "Pharaoh, repent! The end of thy dominion
is at hand, for a youth of a foreign tribe shall humble thee and thy people before
the whole world." The king awoke, disturbed by his dream, but after a short time
he fell asleep again, and there appeared to him a lion, which threatened to tear
a man in pieces. The man was only armed with a rod, but stood still calmly until
the lion rushed on him, when he struck it a single blow with his rod, and flung
it dead into the Nile. The king awoke, more disturbed than before, and was only
able to sleep again toward morning; but scarcely had he closed his eyes, when
he saw Asia, his virtuous wife, riding through the air on a winged horse.
The horse flew toward heaven; but she cried to him a last farewell, whereupon
the earth split open under his feet, and swallowed him up. Pharaoh sprung up from
his couch as soon as he awoke, and summoned Haman, his vizier, commanding him
to call together immediately all the magicians, the soothsayers, and astrologers
of his capital. When they, many thousands in number, were assembled in the largest
hall of the royal palace, Pharaoh ascended the throne, and told his dreams with
a tremulous voice; but, although their interpretation was clear to every one in
the whole assembly, no one ventured to avow the truth unto the king. Yet the latter
divining from their ghastly looks what was passing within them, commanded the
chief of the astrologers not to conceal any thing, and assured him beforehand
of his grace, though he should predict the worst.
"Most mighty king!" said the chief of the astrologers, a man of nine-and-ninety
years of age, whose silvery beard reached down to his breast, "it never was so
difficult to thy servant to obey thy commands as at the present moment, when I
am forced to predict to thee the greatest calamity. One of thy slaves of the daughters
of Israel will bear a son, or has perhaps already borne him, who shall hurl thee
and thy people into the lowest abyss."
At these words Pharaoh began to weep aloud: he tore his crown from his head,
rent his robes, and struck his breast and face with clinched fists. All who were
present wept with him; yet no one presumed to speak a word of consolation. At
last Haman, the vizier, stepped forward and said, "Great king, my fidelity and
attachment are known to thee. Pardon, therefore, thy slave, if he has the boldness
to blame thy dejection, and to suggest a plan which will frustrate the fulfillment
of thy visions.
As yet the power is in thy hand, and, if thou wilt but use it unsparingly,
so shalt thou put to shame all the interpreters of thy dream. Let all the children
that are born this year, and all women that are with child, be immediately put
to death, and thou mayest defy the apprehended peril." 1 Pharaoh
followed this cruel counsel. Seven thousand children of one year and under were
strangled forthwith, and as many women with child thrown into the Nile.
2
One night, when Amram, an Israelite, who was one of Pharoah's viziers, was
as usual in attendance on the king, the angel Gabriel appeared to him bearing
on one of his wings Johabed, Amram's wife, the daughter of Jaser. He laid her
down near Pharaoh, who was sunk in a deep sleep, and snored like a slaughtered
bull; and Gabriel said to Amram, "The hour is come when the messenger of Allah
shall appear!" He vanished after having spoken these words, and left Johabed with
Amram until the rising of the morning star. Then he carried her back on his wings
to her dwelling before Pharaoh awoke.
That night the king had the same dreams again which had so much disturbed him
before.
As soon as he awoke he summoned Amram, and again commanded him to convene the
interpreters of dreams. But he had scarcely uttered the word, when the chief of
the astrologers begged for admittance. Pharaoh wecomed him, and inquired what
had led him so early to the palace.
"Regard for thy throne and for thy life," answered the astrologer. "I read
last night in the stars that the lad who shall one day deprive thee of life and
empire has been conceived. I could therefore scarcely await the morning star to
inform thee of this sad occurrence. Possibly thou mayest succeed in discovering
the man who, notwithstanding thy prohitition and thy sage precautions, has found
means of frustrating thy design."
Pharaoh was the rather disposed to credit the astrologer, since the repetition
of his dream indicated the same. He therefore reproached Amram for not having
adopted better measures, which might have rendered impossible the transgression
of his commands.
But Amram said, "Pardon thy servant if he venture to doubt the infallibility
of this master's interpretation, but the measures which I have adopted, and executed
under my own inspection, are of that sort, that on this occasion it is quite incomprehensible
to me. Yesterday, as soon as I had left the royal palace, I betook myself to the
other side of the river, and, summoning all the men of Israel, threatened with
death him who should under any pretext whatever remain behind. Nevertheless, to
make sure that, if any one had remained concealed in his dwelling, he should still
be separated from his wife, I commanded all women to be shut up in another quarter
of the city, which, like the camp of the men, I surrounded with troops, so that
no one was able to go in or out.
Meanwhile, I will so act as if I were persuaded of this astrologer's statement.
If thou desire it, I will strangle the women, or subject them to severer regulations;
we shall discover the guilty one, and destroy her." But Allah infused compassion
toward the women of Israel into Pharaoh's heart, and he contented himself with
having them more rigidly guarded. But these measures, according to the decision
of Allah, proved abortive; for, as Amram was not permitted to move out of the
royal palace, Haman did not in the least suspect Johabed, and made her an exception
from the common rule, as she was the vizier's wife. Within a twelvemonth from
that time Johabed gave birth to a man child, whom she called Musa (Moses). She
was delivered without a pain. 3
But the sorrow of her heart was the greater when she cast her eyes on the little
child, whose face beamed like the moon in her splendor, and thought of his death,
which was drawing nigh. Yet Moses rose, and said, "Fear nothing, my mother; the
God of Abraham is with us."
In the night when Moses was born the idols in all the temples of Egypt were
dashed down. Pharaoh heard a voice in his dream, which called to him, "Turn to
the only God, the Creator of heaven and earth, or thy destruction is inevitable."
In the morning the astrologer appeared again, and announced to Pharaoh the birth
of the lad who would one day be his destruction. Haman now commanded all the dwellings
of the Israelitish Women to be searched afresh, and made no exception even with
Johabed's, fearing lest some other woman might have concealed her child therein.
Johabed had gone out when Haman entered her house, but had previously hid her
child in the oven, and laid much wood before it.
Finding nothing in the whole house, Haman commanded the wood in the oven to
be lighted, and went away, saying, "If there be a child concealed there, it will
be consumed." When Johabed returned, and saw the blazing fire, she uttered a frightful
cry of woe; but Moses called to her, "Be calm, my mother; Allah has given the
fire no power over me." But as the vizier frequently repeated his visits, and
Johabed feared lest he might one day have the wood removed instead of lighting
the oven, she resolved to intrust her child to the Nile rather than to expose
it to the danger of being discovered by Haman. She obtained, therefore, a little
ark from Amram, laid Moses in it, and carried it to the river at midnight; but,
passing a sentinel, she was stopped, and asked what the ark contained which she
carried under her arm. At that instant the earth opened under the sentinel's feet,
and ingulfed him up to his neck; and there came a voice out of the earth, which
said, "Let this woman depart unharmed; nor let thy tongue betray what thy eyes
have seen, or thou art a child of death."
The soldier shut his eyes in token of obedience, for his neck was already so
compressed that he could not speak, and as soon as Johabed had passed on, the
earth vomited him forth again. When she arrived at the place on the shore where
she designed to conceal the ark among the rushes, she beheld a huge black serpent:
it was Iblis, who placed himself in her way in this form, with the intention of
staggering her resolve. Affrighted, she started back from the vile reptile; but
Moses called to her from the ark, "Be without fear, my mother; pass on: my presence
shall chase away this serpent." At these words Iblis vanished. Johabed, then opening
the ark once more, pressed Moses to her heart, closed it, and, weeping and sobbing,
laid it among the reeds, in hopes that some compassionate Egyptian woman would
come and take it up. But as she departed, she heard a voice from heaven exclaim,
"Be not cast down, O wife of Amram! we will bring back thy son to thee; he is
the elected messenger of Allah."
To manifest the weakness of human machinations against that which the Kalam
has written on the heavenly tablets of Fate, Allah had ordained that the child
now at the mercy of the floods should be saved by Pharaoh's own family. He commanded,
therefore, as soon as Johabed had left the Nile, that the angel who was set over
the waters should float the ark in which Moses lay into the canal which united
Pharaoh's palace with the river; for, on account of his leprous daughters, to
whom his physicians had prescribed bathing in the Nile, he had constructed a canal,
by which the water of the river was guided into a large basin in the midst of
the palace gardens.
The eldest of the seven princesses first discovered the little ark, and carried
it to the bank to open it. On her removing the lid, there beamed a light upon
her which her eyes were not able to endure. She cast a veil over Moses, but at
that instant her own face, which hitherto had been covered with scars and sores
of all the most hideous colors imaginable, shone like the moon in its brightness
and purity, and her sisters exclaimed in amazement, "By what means hast thou been
so suddenly freed from leprosy?" 4
"By the miraculous power of this child," replied the eldest. "The glance which
beamed upon me when I beheld it unveiled has chased away the impurity of my body,
as the rising sun scatters the gloom of night."
The six sisters, one after the other, now lifted the veil from Moses's face,
and they too became fair as if they had been formed of the finest silver. The
eldest then took the ark on her head, and carried it to her mother Asia, relating
to her in how miraculous a manner both she and her sisters had been healed.
Asia took Moses from the ark, and brought him to Pharaoh, followed by the seven
princesses. Pharaoh started involuntarily when Asia entered his chamber, and his
heart was filled with dark presentiments; besides, it was not customary for his
women to come to him uninvited. But his face regained its cheerfulness when he
beheld the seven princesses, whose beauty now surpassed all their contemporaries.
"Who are these maidens?" he inquired of Asia. "Are they slaves whom some tributary
prince has sent to me?"
"They are thy daughters, and here upon my arm is the physician who has cured
them of their leprosy."
She then narrated to the king how the princesses had found Moses, and how they
had recovered from their distemper on beholding him.
Pharaoh was transported with joy, and for the first time in his life embraced
his beloved daughters. But after a little while his features were overcast again,
and he said to Asia, "This child must not live: who knows whether his mother be
not an Israelite, and he the child of whom both my dreams, as well as my astrologers,
have foreboded me so much evil?"
"Dost thou still believe in idle dreams, the mere whispers of Satan, and in
the still more idle interpretations given by men who boast of reading the future
in the stars? Hast thou not slain the young mothers of Israel and their children;
and even searched their houses? Besides, will it not always be in thy power to
destroy this fragile being? Meanwhile, take it to the palace, in gratitude for
the miraculous cure of thy daughters."
The seven princesses seconded the prayers of Asia, until Pharaoh relented,
permitting the child to be brought up in the royal palace. Scarcely had he pronounced
the words of grace when Asia hastened back to her apartments with the child, and
sent for an Egyptian nurse; but Moses thrust her away, for it was not the will
of the Highest that he should receive nourishment from a worshiper of idols.
5 Asia commanded another nurse to be brought; but her also, as
well as a third one, Moses would not embrace.
On the following morning the queen made known that any woman, who would engage
to nurse a strange child for a handsome remuneration, should repair to the royal
palace. After this the entire court of the castle was filled with women and maidens,
many of whom had come from curiosity only. Among the latter was Kolthum (Miriam),
the sister of Moses. When she heard that the child had been found in an ark floating
on the water, and that it still refused to take nourishment, she ran quickly and
told her mother. Johabed hastened to the palace, and was announced to Asia as
a nurse, for the severe regulations against the Israelitish women were now removed.
Moses scarcely beheld his mother, when he stretched out his arms toward her, and
as he embraced her immediately, she was engaged as a nurse for the space of two
years.
After the expiration of that time, Asia sent her away with many rich presents,
but kept Moses with her, intending to adopt him as her son, since she had no male
descendants. Pharaoh himself became daily more attached to the child, and often
spent whole hours together in playing with him. One dayMoses was then in his
fourth yearwhile Pharaoh was playing with him, he took the crown from the king's
head, and throwing it on the ground, thrust it away with his foot. The king's
suspicion was roused afresh: enraged, he ran to Asia, reproaching her for having
persuaded him to let Moses live, and manifested once more a desire to put him
to death; 6 but Asia laughed at him for permitting the naughtiness
of a child to excite in him such gloomy thoughts.
"Well, then," said Pharaoh, "let us see whether the child has acted thoughtlessly
or with reflection? Let a bowl with burning coals and one with coin be brought.
If he seize the former, he shall live; but if he stretch out his hand to the latter,
he has betrayed himself."
Asia was forced to obey, and her eyes hung in painful suspense on Moses's hand,
as if her own life had been at stake. Endowed with manly understanding, Moses
was on the point of taking a handful of the shining coin, when Allah, watching
over his life, sent an angel, who, against the child's will, directed his hand
into the burning coals, and even put one to his mouth. Pharaoh was again reassured,
and entreated Asia for forgiveness; but Moses had burned his tongue, and was a
stammerer from that day. 7
When Moses was six years old, Pharaoh one day teased him so much, that in his
anger he pushed with his foot so violently against the throne on which Pharaoh
sat, that it was overthrown. Pharaoh fell on the earth, and bled profusely from
his mouth and nose. He sprang to his feet, and drew his sword against Moses to
thrust him through. Asia and the seven princesses were present, yet all their
endeavors to calm him were in vain. Then there flew a white cock toward the king,
and cried, "Pharaoh, if thou spill the blood of this child, thy daughters shall
be more leprous than before." Pharaoh cast a glance on the princesses; and as
from dread and fright their faces were already suffused with a ghastly yellow,
he desisted again from his bloody design.
Thus Moses grew up in Pharaoh's house, amid every variety of danger, which
GOD
, however, warded off in a miraculous manner. One morninghe was then already
in his eighteenth yearhe was performing his ablutions in the Nile, and prayed
to Allah. An Egyptian priest saw him, and observed that he prayed unlike the other
Egyptians, who always turn their faces toward Pharaoh's palace, while the eyes
of Moses were directed on high.
"Whom worshipest thou?" inquired the priest, in great astonishment.
Moses, having finished his prayer, replied, "My Lord!"
"Thy father Pharaoh?"
"May Allah curse thee, and all those who worship the king as God!"
"Thou shalt atone with thy life for this imprecation. I will forthwith go to
thy father, and accuse thee before him."
Then Moses prayed, "Lord of the waters! who hast destroyed by the floods the
whole human race, save Noah and Audj, let them even now overflow their banks,
to ingulf this blasphemous priest."
He had scarcely pronounced these words, when there arose such waves in the
Nile as only the fiercest tempest excites in the mighty ocean. One of them rolled
over the shore, and swept away the priest into the stream.
When he saw his life in danger, he cried out, "Mercy! O Moses, have mercy!
I swear that I will conceal what I have heard from thee."
"But if thou break thine oath?"
"Let my tongue be cut out of my mouth."
Moses saved the priest, and went his way; but when he came to the royal palace
he was summoned before Pharaoh, beside whom sat the priest, who had evidently
betrayed him.
"Whom worshipest thou?" inquired Pharaoh.
"My Lord," replied Moses, "who gives me meat and drink, who clothes me, and
supplies all my wants." Moses thereby intended the only God, the Creator and Preserver
of the world, unto whom we are indebted for all things.
But Pharaoh, according to the will of Allah, referred this reply to himself,
and commanded that the priest, as a calumniator, should have his tongue cut out,
and be hanged before the palace.
Having attained the age of manhood, Moses frequently conversed with the Israelites
during his excursions, and listened eagerly to their accounts of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, but especially of Joseph, for his mother had long ere this revealed
to him the secret of his birth. One day be beheld how a Kopt was most cruelly
treating an Israelite, by name Samiri. The latter implored his protection, and
Moses struck the Egyptian a blow which stretched him lifeless on the earth.
On the following morning Samiri was again striving with an Egyptian, and prayed
Moses again to help him; but the latter reproached him for his quarrelsome disposition,
and raised his hand threateningly against him. When Samiri saw this, he said,
"Wilt thou kill me as thou didst the Kopt yesterday?" The Egyptian who was present
heard it, and accused Moses of murder before Pharaoh. The king directed that he
should be delivered to the relations of the slain; but one of the royal household,
a friend of Moses, informed him immediately of Pharaoh's sentence, and he succeeded
in making his escape in time.
Moses wandered many days through the wilderness, until Allah sent him an angel
in the form of a Bedouin, who guided him into Midian, where the faithful priest
Shuib (Jethro) dwelt, in the midst of idolaters. The sun was declining when he
arrived before a well at the outskirts of the little town, and there stood Lija
and Safurja, the two daughters of Shuib, with their flocks. 8
"Why do you not water your cattle," inquired Moses, "since the night will soon
overtake you?"
"We do not venture to do so," replied Lija, "until the other shepherds, who
hate us and our father, have first watered theirs."
Then Moses himself led their cattle to the well, and said, "If any of the shepherds
has aught against you, I myself wilt see to the matter." The maidens yielded;
nor did any of the shepherds, who assembled around, dare to oppose Moses, for
his holy appearance filled them with awe.
When Shuib, astonished at the unusually early return of his daughters, heard
from them that a stranger had watered their cattle, he sent Safurja to the well
to invite him to his house. But Moses, although suffering with hunger, did not
touch the refreshments that were set before him, and when Shuib inquired why be
rejected his hospitality, he replied, "I am not of those who accept a reward for
any good deed that they have done."
"In like manner, I," replied Shuib, "am not of those who show hospitality only
to their benefactors. My house is open to every stranger; and as such, not as
the protector of my daughters, thou mayest accept my invitation."
"Moses then ate till he was satisfied, and related during his repast what had
befallen him in Egypt.
"As thou mayest not return to thy home, said Shuib, when he had come to the
conclusion of his narrative, "remain with me as my shepherd, and, after serving
me eight or ten years faithfully, I will give thee my daughter Safurja to wife."
Moses accepted this offer, and pledged himself to eight years' service, but
added that he should cheerfully remain two years longer, if he had nothing to
complain of; and he abode ten years with him. On the morning following his arrival,
he accompanied the daughters of Shuib to the pasture; but as he had fled from
Egypt without a staff, Safurja brought to him the miraculous rod of her father,
which had served for the support and defense of the prophets before him.
9 Adam had brought it with him from Paradise: after his death
it passed into the hands of Sheth; after that it went to Idris, then to Noah,
Salih, and Abraham.
Moses was thirty years old when he entered the service of Shuib, and thirty-eight
on his marriage with Safurja. In his fortieth year he determined to return to
Egypt in order to inquire after his relatives and brethren in the faith. It was
a cold and stormy day when he drew near to Mount Thur, on which a bright fire
was blazing; and he said to his wife, "Rest here in the valley; I will see what
this flame signifies, and bring thee a few brands on my return." But when Moses
came near the fire, he heard a voice out of the midst of the burning and yet unconsumed
bush exclaim, "Take off thy shoes, for thou art in the presence of thy Lord, who
manifests himself to thee as The Light, to sanctify thee as his prophet, and to
send thee to Pharaoh, whose unbelief and cruelty are so great, that long ere this
the mountains would have crushed him, the seas have swallowed him up, or the flames
of heaven consumed his soul, if I had not determined to give in his person a proof
of my omnipotence unto the whole world."
Moses fell down and said, "Lord, I have slain an Egyptian, and Pharaoh will
put me to death if I appear before him; besides, my tongue has been paralyzed
since my infancy, so that I am not able to speak before kings."
"Fear not, son of Amram!" replied the voice from the fire. "If thy Lord had
not watched over thee, thou wouldst have been changed into dust even before thy
birth; but as regards thy imperfect speech, it shall not prevent the exercise
of thy calling, for I give to thee thy brother Aaron as vizier, who shall communicate
my will to Pharaoh.
"Go fearlessly to Pharaoh; the staff which is in thy hand shall protect thee
from violence. Thou canst persuade thyself of it if thou wilt but lay it down
on the earth."
Moses threw away his staff, and behold! it was changed into a large living
serpent. He would have fled from it, but the angel Gabriel held him back, and
said, "Lay hold of it; it can do thee no harm." Moses stretched out his hand toward
it, and it once more was changed into a staff. Strengthened by this miracle, he
was about to return to Safurja to pursue with her his way to Egypt; but the angel
Gabriel said to him, "Thou hast now higher duties than those of a husband. By
command of Allah, I have already taken back thy wife to her father, but thou shalt
fulfill thy mission alone."
On the night that Moses was treading Egyptian ground, there appeared unto Aaron,
who had succeeded his father Amram as vizier to Pharaoh, an angel with a crystal
cup filled with the rarest old wine; and said, as he handed him the cup, "Drink,
Aaron, of the wine which the Lord has sent thee in token of glad tidings. Thy
brother Moses has returned to Egypt: God has chosen him to be his prophet, and
thee to be his vizier. Arise, and go to meet him."
Aaron instantly left Pharaoh's chamber, in which he, as once his father before
him, was obliged to watch, and went beyond the city toward the Nile. But when
he reached the bank of the stream. there was not a single boat at hand to ferry
him over. Suddenly he beheld a light at a distance; and on its nearer approach
he discovered a horseman, who flew toward him with the speed of the wind. It was
Gabriel mounted on the steed Hizam, which shone like the purest diamond, and whose
neighings were celestial songs of praise.
Aaron's first thought was that he was pursued by one of Pharaoh's men, and
he was on the brink of casting himself into the Nile; but Gabriel made himself
known in time to prevent him, and lifted him on his winged horse, which carried
them both to the opposite bank of the Nile. Here Moses was standing; and as soon
as he beheld his brother, he cried aloud, "Truth has come, and falsehood has fled!"
Gabriel then placed Moses also beside him, and set him down before the house of
his mother; but Aaron he carried back into the royal palace, and when Pharaoh
awoke, his vizier was again at his post. Moses spent the remainder of that night
and the whole of the next day with his mother, to whom he was obliged to relate
all that had befallen him in a foreign land since the day of his flight from Egypt.
The second night he spent with Aaron in Pharaoh's chamber. All the doors of
the palace, however fast they were closed, opened of their own accord as soon
as he touched them with his rod, and the guards standing before them became as
if petrified. But when they reported in the morning what they had seen, and the
porter who came in with his keys to open the doors of the palace found them wide
open, while neither door nor lock exhibited any mark of violence, and nothing
of the costly things scattered through the various saloons were missing, Haman
said to Pharaoh, "Aaron, who has watched by thee, must explain this matter; for,
as thy chamber has likewise been opened, the intruder can have had no other object
than to converse with him." 10
Pharaoh immediately summoned Aaron before him, and threatening him with the
rack, demanded who his nightly visitor had been. Aaron, in the conviction that
Allah would not leave his prophet in the power of an infidel king, avowed that
it was his brother Moses who had been with him. Pharaoh immediately sent Haman
with a detachment of the royal body-guard into Moses's dwelling, in order to bring
him to judgment in the presence of all the viziers and high officers of state,
who were forthwith ordered to assemble in the grand hall. He himself presided
on his throne, which was entirely of gold, and adorned with the most costly pearls
and diamonds.
When Moses stepped into the judgment hall, Pharaoh swooned away, for he recognized
in him the child that had been saved by his daughters, and now feared him the
more, inasmuch as he knew that he was Aaron's brother, and consequently an Israelite.
But he soon recovered, on their sprinkling him with rose-water, and with his consciousness
also returned his former stubbornness of heart. Pretending never to have seen
him before, he inquired, "Who art thou?"
"I am the servant of Allah, and his messenger."
"Art thou not Pharaoh's slave?"
"I acknowledge no other lord than the only Allah."
"To whom art thou sent?"
"To thee, in order to admonish thee to faith in Allah and in me his messenger,
and to lead forth the Israelites out of thy country."
"Who is the Allah in whose name thou speakest to me?"
"The only One, the Invisible, who hath created heaven and earth, and all that
in them is."
Pharaoh then turned to Aaron, and inquired of him, "What thinkest thou of the
words of this foolhardy man?"
"I believe in the only God, whom he proclaims, and in him as his messenger."
On hearing this, Pharaoh said to Haman, "This man has ceased to be my vizier:
take off forthwith his robe of honor!"
Haman then took his purple robe from him, and he stood ashamed, for the upper
part of his body was uncovered. Moses cast over him his woolen garment; but, as
he was not accustomed to such coarse raiment, he trembled in all his limbs. At
that moment the ceiling of the hall was opened, and Gabriel flung a robe round
Aaron glittering with so many diamonds that all who were present were dazzled,
as if the lightning had flashed through the darkest night. Pharaoh admired this
robe, which had not a single seam, and inquired of his treasurer what might be
its value.
"Such a garment," replied the troubled treasurer, "is priceless, for the meanest
of the jewels is worth ten whole years' revenue of Egypt. Such diamonds I have
never beheld in any bazar, nor are the like to be found among all the treasures
that have been amassed in this palace from the earliest times. None but sorcerers
can obtain possession of such jewels by Satanic arts."
"Ye are then sorcerers!" said Pharaoh to Moses and Aaron. "Be it so. I esteem
sorcerers highly, and will make you the heads of this fraternity, if ye will swear
not to use your art to my prejudice."
"The Lord of the distant east and west," rejoined Moses, "has sent me as a
prophet unto thee, in order to convert thee. We are no sorcerers."
"And wherewithal wilt thou prove thy mission?"
Moses flung his staff on the ground, and instantly it was changed into a serpent
as huge as the largest camel. He glanced at Pharaoh with fire-darting eyes, and
raised Pharaoh's throne aloft to the ceiling, and opening his jaws, cried, "If
it pleased Allah, I could not only swallow up thy throne, with thee and all that
are here present, but even thy palace and all that it contains, without any one
perceiving the slightest change in me."
Pharaoh leaped from his throne, and adjured Moses, by Asia his wife, to whom
he was indebted for life and education, to protect him against this monster. At
the mention of Asia's name, Moses felt compassion toward Pharaoh, and called the
serpent to him. The serpent placed the throne in its proper position, and stepped
like a tender lamb before Moses. He put his hand into his jaws, and seized him
by his tongue, whereupon he once more became a staff. But scarcely was this peril
warded off from Pharaoh, when his heart again opened to the whispers of Satan,
and instead of lending his ear to Moses, he demanded of the viziers to counsel
him what he should do.
"Let the heads of these two rebels be cut off," said Haman, "and fear nothing
from them; for all that they represent as divine wonders is nothing but idle delusion."
"Do not follow this counsel, mighty king!" cried Hiskil, the treasurer: "think
of the contemporaries of Noah, and the nations of Aad and Thamud. They also believed
Noah, Hud, and Salih, the prophets whom Allah had sent to be demons and deceivers,
until the wrath of Allah fell on them, destroying them and their possessions by
fire and water."
But now uprose Haman's predecessor, a hoary man of a hundred and twenty years
of age, and said, "Permit me also, O king of kings! before I descend to the grave,
to impart to thee my opinion. What king can boast of having so many magicians
in his kingdom as thou? I therefore hold it to be the wisest plan that thou fix
on a day in which they all may assemble together, and have a meeting with Moses
and Aaron. If these are nothing but sorcerers, the Egyptian masters of this art
will not be a whit inferior to them; and then thou art still at liberty to do
with them according to thy high will. But if they put thy sorcerers to shame,
then are they indeed the servants of a mightier God, to whom we shall be forced
to submit."
Pharaoh approved of the counsel of his aged vizier, and commanded all the sorcerers
of Egypt, seventy thousand in number, to repair to the capital at the expiration
of a month. When they were assembled, the king commanded them to choose seventy
chiefs from their body, and these seventy were again to be represented by the
two most renowned among them, in order to contend in magic arts with Moses and
Aaron in the face of the whole people. Pharaoh's command was punctually obeyed,
and the choice of the magicians fell on Risam and Rejam, two men of Upper Egypt,
who were no less esteemed and feared throughout the whole country than Pharaoh
himself.
On an appointed day, Pharaoh, for whom a large silken tent, embroidered with
pearls and supported on silver pillars, had been erected, proceeded to a large
plain beyond the city, accompanied by his viziers and the nobles of his kingdom:
Risam and Rejam on the one side of the tent, and Moses and Aaron on the other,
awaited his commands; and the whole population of Egypt was on the field of contest
from early dawn, anxious to see which party would obtain the victory. Pharaoh
demanded of the two Egyptians to change their rods into serpents: this was done,
and Haman said to Pharaoh, "Did not I tell thee that Moses and Aaron were no more
than other sorcerers, who deserve chastisement for having abused their art?"
"Thou art too hasty in thy judgment," said Hiskil. "Let us see first whether
Moses will not be able to do still greater things than these."
At a sign from the king, Moses stepped forward and prayed to Allah that he
would glorify his name in the face of all Egypt. Allah then brought to naught
the charm of the Egyptians, which was mere illusion, and it was unto all present
as if a dark veil was removed from their eyes; and they recognized again as staffs
what had appeared before as serpents. Moses threw his staff upon the earth, and
it became a serpent with seven heads, which did not remain motionless like those
of the magicians, but pursued the two sorcerers with open jaws. They threw themselves
to the earth, and exclaimed, "We believe in the Lord of the World, the God of
Moses and Aaron."
Pharaoh cried to them wrathfully, "How dare you confess yourselves to another
faith without my permission, simply because these sorcerers are more dexterous
than you? Unless you recall your words, I shall cause your hands and feet to be
cut off, and shall hang you on the gallows."
"Wilt thou punish us," replied the sorcerers, "because we can not deny the
signs of Allah! Behold, we are prepared to yield up our lives in support of our
faith."
Pharaoh, in order to set a terrible example, caused the threatened punishment
to be executed on them, and they died the first martyrs to the faith of Moses.
The king now waxed daily more cruel; every believer was put to death with the
most excruciating tortures. He did not even spare his own daughter, Masheta, the
wife of Hiskil, on learning that she no longer honored him as God. She endured
with admirable fortitude the death by fire, after seeing all her children slaughtered
before her eyes at Pharaoh's command.
Asia herself was now accused before him of of apostasy, and even she was condemned
to death; but the angel Gabriel comforted her with the annunciation that she should
hereafter be united with Mohammed in Paradise, and gave her a potion by which
she died without pain.
Pharaoh now conceived, like Nimrod before him, the iniquitous design to war
against the God of Moses. He therefore caused a tower to be built, at which fifty
thousand men, mostly Israelites, were compelled to labor day and night, he himself
riding up and down among them to urge on the indolent. But Moses prayed to Allah,
and the tower fell in, crushing under its ruins all those Egyptians who had committed
violence against the Israelites. But even this judgment made only a passing impression
on the heart of Pharaoh, for Allah desired to perform still greater wonders before
he condemned the soul of the king to eternal hell.
First he visited him with a flood. The Nile overflowed its banks, and the waters
rose so high that they reached to the neck of the tallest man. After that, a host
of locusts invaded the land, which not only consumed all provisions, but even
copper and iron. Then followed all kinds of disgusting vermin, which defiled all
meats and drinks, and filled all garments and beds, so that Pharaoh, however often
he might change his raiment, had not a moment's rest. When this plague disappeared,
and Pharaoh still resisted the wishes of Moses, all the waters were changed to
blood as soon as an Egyptian took them in his hand, but remained unchanged for
the Israelites. 11
Finally, many of the Egyptians, especially the more eminent, who had strengthened
Pharaoh in his unbelief were turned into stone, together with all their goods.
Here, one might see a petrified man, sitting in the bazar, with a balance in his
hand; there, another, marking something with the Kalam, or counting gold; and
even the gate-keeper of the palace stood there turned to stone, holding a sword
in his right hand. Omar Ibn Abd Alasis 12 had in his possession
all kinds of petrified fruits of those times, and frequently showed them to his
guests as a warning against unbelief.
At Moses's prayer, Allah revived the petrified men; but when Pharaoh refused
afresh to permit the Israelites to depart, there burst out upon the land so thick
a darkness, that whoever happened to be standing could not sit down, and whoever
happened to be sitting had no power to rise. Thereupon the Nile was dried up,
so that man and beast died of thirst. On this occasion, Pharaoh himself ran to
Moses, and adjured him to pray for him once more, that the water might flow back
into the Nile. For the last time Moses prayed for him, and the Nile was not only
filled to its banks, but there also streamed from it a little brook, which followed
Pharaoh whithersoever he went, so that at any moment he was able to supply with
water both man and beast. But instead of turning to Allah, the king made use of
this special favor also as a means of inducing the people to reverence him still
as God.
The long-suffering of the Lord was now exhausted, and the king was himself
to pronounce his sentence, and to choose the manner of death which his wickedness
had deserved. Gabriel assumed the appearance of a noble Egyptian, and accused
before Pharaoh one of his slaves, who, in his absence, had proclaimed himself
the lord of the house, and constrained the other domestics to serve him. "This
impostor," said Pharaoh, "deserves to die."
"How shall I put him to death?"
"Let him be thrown into the water."
"Give me a written warrant."
Pharaoh commanded an instrument to be drawn up, according to which any slave
who usurped the honors of his master was to be drowned.
Gabriel left Pharaoh, and gave Moses the command to quit Egypt with his people.
Pharaoh pursued them with his host, and enclosed them on all sides, so that there
remained no other way of escape to Israel than toward the Red Sea. Hemmed in between
the Egyptians and the sea, they fell with reproaches upon Moses, who had brought
them into this dangerous position; but he raised his staff toward the waters,
and instantly there were twelve paths opened through the sea for the twelve tribes
of Israel, each of which was separated from the rest by a lofty, yet quite transparent
wall.
When Pharaoh reached the sea-shore, and beheld the dry paths in the midst of
the sea, he said to Haman, "Now Israel is lost to us, for even the waters seem
to favor their flight."
But Haman replied, "Are not those paths opened likewise for us? We shall soon
overtake them with our horse."
Pharaoh took the path in which Moses marched with the tribe of Levi; but his
steed grew restiff, and was unwilling to go forward. Then mounted Gabriel, in
human form, on the horse Ramka, and rode in before Pharaoh. This horse was so
beautiful, that as soon as the king's steed saw him, he plunged in behind.
But when Pharaoh and his whole host were in the sea, the angel Gabriel turned
to the king, and showed him the warrant of the previous day, bearing the royal
seal, and said, "Frail mortal, who didst desire to be worshiped as God! behold,
thou hast condemned thyself to die by water." At these words, the twelve walls
tumbled in, the floods burst forth, and Pharaoh and all that followed him perished
in the waters. But in order to convince both the Egyptians who had remained behind,
as well as the Israelites, of Pharaoh's death, Allah commanded the waves to cast
his body, first on the western and then on the eastern shore of the Red Sea.
But now Moses had no less to contend against the Israelites than formerly against
Pharaoh; for they seemed unable to tear themselves from the service of idols,
notwithstanding all the wonders of the only Lord, which he had performed.
Yet as long as he tarried with them they presumed not to demand an idol; but
when Allah called him to himself on Mount Sinai, they threatened Aaron, whom he
had left behind as his representative, with death, if he would not give them an
idol.
Samiri now admonished them to bring all their gold, including even the ornaments
of their women, and cast it into a copper caldron, under which a strong fire was
lighted. As soon as the gold was melted, he flung into it a handful of sand, which
he had taken up from under the hoof of Gabriel's horse, and lo! there was formed
out of it a calf, which ran up and down like a natural one.
"Here is your Lord, and the Lord of Moses!" then cried Samiri; "this God we
will worship!" 13
While the Israelites, notwithstanding the admonition of Aaron, had abandoned
Allah, the angel Gabriel uplifted Moses so high into the heavens that he heard
the scribbling of the Kalam which had just received the command to engrave the
Decalogue for him and for his people on the eternal tablets of Fate.
But the higher Moses rose, the stronger grew his desire to behold Allah himself
in his glory.
Then commanded Allah all the angels to surround Moses, and to commence a song
of praise. Moses swooned away, for he was wanting in strength both to behold these
hosts of shining forms as well as to hear their thrilling voices.
But when he came to himself again, be confessed that he had asked a sinful
thing, and repented. He then prayed to Allah that he would make his people the
most excellent of the earth. But Allah replied, "The Kalam has already marked
down as such the people of Mohammed, because they shall fight for the true faith
until it cover the whole earth."
"Lord," continued Moses, "reward tenfold the good deeds of my people, and visit
sin but once; let also each good intention, though not carried into effect, obtain
a recompense, but pass by each evil thought unpunished."
"These are privileges," replied Allah, "accorded to those only who believe
in Mohammed, in whose name even Adam prayed to me. Admonish, therefore, thy people
to faith in him, for he shall rise first on the day of the resurrection from his
grave, and enter into Paradise at the head of all the prophets. He also shall
obtain the grace of revealing to his people the commandment of the five daily
prayers and the fast of Ramadhan." 14
When Moses returned again to his own people, and found them worshiping before
the golden calf, he fell upon Aaron, caught him by the beard, and was on the point
of strangling him, when Aaron swore that he was innocent, and pointed out Samiri
as the prime mover of this idolatry.
Moses then summoned Samiri, and would have put him to death instantly, but
Allah directed that he should be sent into banishment.
Ever since that time he roams like a wild beast throughout the world; every
one shuns him, and purifies the ground on which his feet have stood, and he himself,
whenever he approaches men, exclaims, "Touch me not!"
Yet, before Moses expelled him from the camp of the Israelites at Allah's command,
he caused the calf to be broken into pieces, and having ground it to dust, forced
Samiri to defile it. It was then put into water, and given the Israelites to drink.
After Samiri's removal, Moses prayed Allah to have mercy on his people; but
Allah replied, "I can not pardon them, for sin yet dwells in their inward parts,
and will only be washed away by the potion which thou hast given them."
On returning to the camp, Moses heard woeful shriekings. Many of the Israelites,
with ghastly faces and with bodies frightfully swollen, cast themselves down before
him, and cried, "Moses, help us! the golden calf is tearing our vitals; we will
repent, and die cheerfully, if Allah will but pardon our sin." Many repented really
of their sins; but from others only pain and the fear of death had extorted these
expressions of repentance.
Moses commanded them, therefore in the name of Allah, to slay each other.
Then there rose a darkness, like unto that which Allah had sent upon Pharaoh.
The innocent and reclaimed hewed with the sword to the right and to the left,
so that many slew their nearest kinsmen; but Allah gave their swords power over
the guilty only. Seventy thousand worshipers of idols had already fallen, when
Moses, moved by the cries of women and children, implored God once more for mercy.
Instantly the heavens grew clear, the sword rested, and all the remaining sick
were healed.
On the following day Moses read unto them the Law, and admonished them to obey
scrupulously its prescriptions. But many of the people exclaimed, "We shall not
submit to such a code." The laws especially obnoxious to them were those which
regulated the revenge of blood and punished the pettiest theft with the loss of
the hand. At that instant, Mount Sinai became vaulted over their heads, excluding
the very light of heaven from them, and there cried a voice from the rocks, "Sons
of Israel, Allah has redeemed you from Egypt merely to be the bearers of his laws:
if you refuse this burden, we shall fall in upon you, and thus you shall be compelled
to support a weightier mass until the day of the resurrection."
With one voice they then exclaimed, "We are ready to submit to the Law, and
to accept it as the rule of our life."
When Moses had instructed them fully in the Law, and expounded what was pure
and what impure, what lawful and what unlawful, he gave the signal to march for
the conquest of the promised land of Palestine.
But, notwithstanding all the wonders of Allah, who fed them with manna and
quails in the wilderness, and caused twelve fresh fountains to spring out of the
rocky ground wherever they encamped, they were still faint-hearted, and would
not depart until they had obtained better information respecting the country and
its inhabitants through spies.
Moses was obliged to yield, and sent a man out of every tribe into Palestine.
The spies, on their return, related, "We have seen the land which we are to
subdue by the sword: it is good and fruitful.
"The strongest camel is scarcely able to carry one single bunch of grapes;
a single ear yields sufficient corn to satisfy a whole family, and the shell of
a pomegranate can easily contain five armed men.
"But the inhabitants of that country and their cities are of a size proportionate
to the products of their soil. We have seen men the smallest of whom was six hundred
cubits high. They stared at our dwarfish appearance, and derided us. Their houses
naturally correspond with their size, and the walls which surround their cities
are so high that an eagle is scarcely able to soar to the summit thereof."
When the spies had finished their report, they dropped down dead; only two
of them, Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, who had kept silence, remained alive.
But the Israelites murmured against Moses, and said, "We shall never fight against
such a gigantic people. If thou hast a mind to do so, march alone with thy God
against them."
Thereupon Moses announced to them, in the name of Allah, that by reason of
their distrust in the help of Him who had divided the sea for their safety, they
were doomed to wander forty years through the wilderness. He then took leave of
them, and journeyed, preaching the true faith through the whole earth from east
to west, and from north to south.
When Moses was one day boasting of his wisdom to his servant Joshua, who accompanied
him, Allah said, "Go to the Persian Gulf, where the seas of the Greeks and the
Persians commingle, and thou shalt there find one of my pious servants who surpasses
thee in wisdom."
"How shall I recognize this wise man?"
"Take with thee a fish in a basket: it will show thee where my servant lives."
Moses now departed with Joshua toward the country which Allah had pointed out,
and constantly carried with him a fish in a basket. On one occasion he laid himself
down, quite exhausted, on the sea-shore, and fell asleep. It was late when he
awoke, and he hurried on to reach the desired inn; but Joshua had, in his haste,
neglected to take the fish with him, and Moses forgot to remind him of it. It
was not until the next morning that they missed their fish, and were on the point
of returning to the spot where they had rested on the preceding day; but, on reaching
the sea-shore, they beheld a fish gliding quite erect on the surface of the water,
instead of swimming therein, as fish are wont to do: they soon recognized it as
theirs, and therefore went after it along the shore.
After having, for a few hours, followed their guide, it suddenly dived below:
they stood still, and thought, "Here the God-fearing man whom we are seeking must
dwell;" and soon they descried a cave, over whose entrance was written, "In the
name of Allah, the All-merciful and All-gracious." On stepping in, they found
a man who appeared in all the bloom and vigor of a youth of seventeen, but with
a snow-white beard flowing even to his feet. It was the prophet Chidhr, who, though
gifted with eternal youth, was withal endowed with the finest ornament of hoary
age.
After mutual salutation, Moses said, "Accept me as thy disciple, and permit
me to accompany thee in thy wanderings through the world, that I may admire the
wisdom which Allah has bestowed on thee."
"Thou canst not comprehend it, and wilt therefore not remain long with me."
"If Allah pleases, thou shalt find me both obedient and patient. Reject me
not!"
"Thou mayest follow me, yet must thou ask me no question until I shall, of
my own accord, explain my actions."
When Moses had submitted to this condition, Al Chidhr took him to the shore
of the sea, where a vessel was lying at anchor. He took an axe and struck out
two planks of the vessel, so that it sank immediately.
"What dost thou?" cried Moses: "the men that are in it will now perish."
"Did I not say," replied Al Chidhr, "thou wilt not long continue patiently
with me?"
"Pardon me," said Moses; "I had forgotten my promise."
Al Chidhr then journeyed farther with him, until they met a beautiful boy,
who was playing with shells on the sea-shore. Al Chidhr drew his knife, and cut
the throat of the child.
Moses cried, "Why murderest thou an innocent child, who can in no wise have
deserved death? Thou hast committed a great crime!"
"Did I not tell thee," replied Al Chidhr, "thou canst not travel long in my
company?"
"Pardon me yet this once," replied Moses; "and if I inquire again, then mayest
thou reject me!"
They now traveled long to and fro, until they arrived, weary and hungry, in
a large city. Yet no one would lodge them, nor give them meat or drink without
money. Suddenly Al Chidhr beheld how the walls of a beautiful inn, out of which
they had just been driven, threatened to fall in; he then stepped before them,
and supported them until they stood upright again; and when he had strengthened
them, he went his way.
Then said Moses to him, "Thou hast now performed a work which would have occupied
many masons during several days; why hast thou not at least demanded a reward,
that we might have bought some provisions?"
"Now we must separate," said Al Chidhr; "yet, ere we part, I will explain to
thee the motives of my conduct. The vessel which I have damaged, but which may
be easily repaired, belonged to poor men, and formed their only source of maintenance.
At the time I struck it, many ships of a certain tyrant were cruising in those
seas, capturing every serviceable craft. By me, therefore, these poor sailors
have saved their only property.
"The child whom I have slain is the son of pious parents; but he himself (I
perceived it in his face) was of a depraved nature, and would in the end, have
led his parents into evil. I have therefore preferred to slay him: Allah will
give them pious children in his stead.
"As for the wall of the inn which I have raised up and strengthened, it belongs
to two orphans whose father was a pious man. Beneath the wall there is a treasure
hid, which the present owner would have claimed if it had fallen: I have therefore
repaired it, that the treasure may be left secure until the children shall have
grown up.
"Thou seest, then," continued Al Chidhr, "that in all this I have not followed
blind passion, but have acted according to the will of my Lord."
15
Moses prayed Al Chidhr once more to pardon him, but did not venture to ask
permission to remain with him.
During the last thirty years Moses had passed through the southern, eastern,
and western parts of the earth, and there were yet left to him ten years for wandering
in the north, which, notwithstanding the ferocity of the nations of that region,
and the rigidity of its climate, he visited in every direction until he came to
the great iron wall which Alexander had erected to protect the inhabitants against
the predatory incursions of the nations of Jadjudj and Madjudj. After he had admired
this wall, which is cast in one piece, he praised the omnipotence of Allah, and
retraced his steps toward the Arabian desert.
Nine-and-thirty years had already elapsed since he had separated from his brethren.
Most of the Israelites whom he had left in their prime had mean while died, and
another generation had risen in their stead.
Among the few aged men who yet remained was his kinsman Karun (Korah), Ibn
Jachar, Ibn Fahitz. He had learned from Moses's sister, Kolthum (Miriam), who
was his wife, the science of alchemy, so that he was able to convert the meanest
metal into gold. He was so rich that he built lofty walls of gold round his gardens,
and required forty mules to carry the keys of his treasures when he traveled.
16 By means of his wealth he had succeeded in acquiring a truly
regal influence during Moses's absence. But when, at Moses's return, his importance
diminshed, he resolved on his destruction. He therefore visited a maiden whom
Moses had banished from the camp on account of her abandoned courses, and promised
to marry her if she would declare before the elders of the congregation that Moses
had expelled her only because she had refused to listen to his proposals.
She promised Korah to act entirely after his will. But when she arrived before
the elders with the intention of calumniating Moses, she was not able to prefer
her charge. Allah put different words into her mouth: she acknowledged her guilt,
and confessed that Korah had induced her, by innumerabIe promises, to bring a
false accusation against Moses. Moses prayed to Allah for protection against the
malignity of his kinsman; and lo! the earth opened under the feet of Korah, and
devoured him, with all his associates and goods.
As the fortieth year was hastening to its close, Moses marched with the Iraelites
toward the frontier of Palestine.
But when Jalub Ifn Safum, the king of Balka, received intelligence of the approach
of the Israelites, who had already, in their march, conquered many cities, he
called to him Beliam the sorcerer, the son of Baur, in hopes to be enabled, by
his counsel and aid, to withstand the Israelites. But an angel appeared to Beliam
in the night, and forbade him to accept the invitation of Jalub. When, therefore,
the messengers of the king returned to Balka without Beliam, Jalub purchased the
most costly jewels, and sent them secretly by other messengers to Beliam's wife,
to whom the sorcerer was so much attached as to be quite under her control. Beliam's
wife accepted the presents, and persuaded her husband to undertake the journey.
The king, accompanied by his viziers, rode out some distance to meet him, and
appointed one of the most beautiful houses of the city for his abode. According
to the custom of the country, the guest was provided three days from the royal
tables, and the viziers visited him from time to time, without speaking, however,
of the object for which he had been called to Balka. It was not until the fourth
day that he was summoned to the king, and entreated to curse the people of Israel.
But Allah paralyzed the tongue of Beliam, so that, notwithstanding his hatred
toward the people, he was not able to utter a word of imprecation.
When the king saw this, he prayed him at least to assist with his counsel against
the invading nation.
"The best means against the Israelites," said Beliam, "who are so terrible
only through the assistance of Allah, is to lead them into sin. Their GOD
then forsakes them, and they are unable to resist any foe. Send, therefore,
the most beautiful women and maidens of the capital to meet them with provisions,
that they may yield to sin, and then thou shalt easily overcome them."
The king adopted this counsel; but Moses was apprised thereof by the angel
Gabriel, and caused the first Israelite who was led into sin to be put to death,
and as a warning, commanded his head to be carried on a spear throughout the camp.
He then instantly led on the attack: Balka was taken, and the king, with Beliam
and his sons, were the first to perish in the fight. Soon after the conquest of
Balka, Gabriel appeared, and commanded Moses, together with Aaron and his sons,
to follow him to a lofty mountain which lay near the city. On reaching the pinnacle
of the mountain they beheld a finely-wrought cave, in the midst of which there
stood a coffin, with the inscription, "I am destined for him whom I fit." Moses
desired to lay himself first into it, but his feet protruded; then Aaron placed
himself in it, and behold, it fitted him as if his measure had been taken.
Gabriel then led Moses and Aaron's sons beyond the cave, but he himself returned
to wash and to bless Aaron, whose soul had mean while been taken by the Angel
of Death. When Moses returned to the camp without Aaron, and announced his death
to the Israelites who inquired for his brother, he was suspected of having murdered
him; many, even, were not afraid to proclaim their suspicions in public. Moses
prayed to Allah to manifest his innocence in the presence of all the people, and
behold, four angels brought Aaron's coffin from the cave, and raised it above
the camp of the Israelites, so that every one could see him, and one of the angels
exclaimed, "Allah has taken Aaron's soul to himself." 17 Moses,
who now anticipated his approaching end pronounced a long discourse before the
Israelites, in which he enforced on them the most important laws. At the close,
he warned them against falsifying the Law, which had been revealed to them, and
in which the future appearance of Mohammed, in whom they were all to believe,
was quite clearly announced.
A few days after, while he was reading in the Law, the Angel of Death visited
him. Moses said, "If thou be commanded to receive my soul, take it from my mouth,
for it was constantly occupied with the word of Allah, and has not been touched
by any unclean thing." He then put on his most beautiful robes, appointed Joshua
his successor, and died at an age of one hundred and twenty, or, as some of the
learned maintain, of one hundred and eighty years. The mercy of Allah be with
him!
Others relate the particulars of Moses's death as follows: When Gabriel announced
to him his approaching dissolution, he ran hurriedly to his dwelling, and knocked
hastily at the door. His wife Safurija opened it, and beholding him quite pale,
and with ruffled countenance, inquired, "Who pursueth thee, that thou runnest
hither in terror and lookest dismayed! Who is it that pursueth thee for debt?"
Then Moses answered, "Is there a mightier creditor than the Lord of heaven
and earth, or a more dangerous pursuer than the Angel of Death?"
"Shall, then, a man who has spoken with Allah die?"
"Assuredly, even the angel Gabriel shall be delivered to death, and Michael
and Israfil, with all other angels. Allah alone is eternal, and never dies."
Safurija wept until she swooned away; but when she came to herself, Moses inquired,
"Where are my children?"
"They are asleep."
"Awake them, that I may bid them a last farewell."
Safurija went before the couch of her children, and cried, "Rise, ye poor orphans;
rise, and take leave of your father, for this day is his last in this world and
his first in the next."
The children started from their sleep in affright, and cried, "Woe unto us!
who will have compassion upon us when we shall be fatherless? Who will with solicitude
and affection step over our threshold?"
Moses was so moved that he wept bitterly.
Then said Allah to him, "Moses, what signify these tears? Art thou afraid of
death, or departest thou reluctantly from this world?" "I fear not death, and
leave this world with gladness; but I have compassion on these children, from
whom their father is about to be torn."
"In whom trusted thy mother when she confided thy life to the waters?"
"In Thee, O Lord."
"Who protected thee against Pharaoh, and gave thee a staff with which thou
dividedst the sea?"
"Thou, O Lord."
"Go, then, once more to the sea-shore, lift up thy staff over the waters, and
thou shalt see another sign of my omnipotence."
Moses followed this command, and instantly the sea was divided, and he beheld
in the midst thereof a huge black rock. When he came near it, Allah cried to him,
"Smite it with thy staff." He smote it; the rock was cleft in twain, and he saw
beneath it, in a sort of cave, a worm with a green leaf in his mouth, which cried
three times, "Praised be Allah, who doth not forget me in my solitude! Praised
be Allah, who hath nourished and raised me up!" The worm was silent; and Allah
said to Moses, "Thou seest that I do not forsake the worm under the hidden rock
in the sea, and how should I forsake thy children, who do even now confess that
God is one, and that Moses is his prophet?"
Moses then returned, reproved, to his house, comforted his wife and children,
and went alone to the mountain. There he found four men, who were digging a grave,
and he inquired of them, "For whom is this grave?" They replied, "For a man whom
Allah desires to have with him in heaven." Moses begged permission to assist at
the grave of so pious a man. When the work was done, he inquired, "Have you taken
the measure of the dead?" "No," they said, "we have forgotten it; but he was precisely
of thy form and stature: lay thyself in it, that we may see whether it will fit
thee: Allah will reward thy kindness." But when Moses had laid himself down within
it, the Angel of Death stepped before him, and said, "Peace be upon thee, Moses!"
"Allah bless thee, and have pity upon thee! Who art thou?"
"I am the Angel of Death! Prophet of Allah, and come to receive thy soul."
"How wilt thou take it?"
"Out of thy mouth."
"Thou canst not, for my mouth hath spoken with God."
"I will draw it out of thine eyes."
"Thou mayest not do so, for they have seen the light of the Lord."
"Well, then, I will take it out of thine ears."
"This also thou mayest not do, for they have heard the word of Allah."
"I will take it from thy hands."
"How darest thou? Have they not borne the diamond tablets on which the Law
was engraved?"
Allah then commanded the Angel of Death to ask of Ridwhan, the guardian of
Paradise, an apple of Eden, and to present it to Moses.
Moses took the apple from the hand of the Angel of Death to inhale its fragrance,
and at that instant his noble soul rose thrdugh his nostrils to heaven. But his
body remained in this grave, which no one knew save Gabriel, Michael, Israfil,
and Azrail, who had dug it, and whom Moses had taken for men.
Footnotes
1 "Here the Mussulman legend differs from the Talmud,
according to which Bileam gave this counsel. Job was silent; and Jethro, the king's
third counselor, endeavored to dissuade the king from violence. Bileam was therefore
destroyed by the Israelites. Job was led into temptation, and suffered greatly
for his silence; but Jethro, who, on account of his clemency, was forced to flee
into Midian, was rewarded by becoming the father-in-law of Moses."Midrash, p.
52.
2 "In the year 130 after the settlement of the Israelites
in Egypt, Pharaoh dreamed of an aged man who was holding a balance in his right
hand. In one of its scales he placed all the sages and nobles of Egypt, and a
little lamb in the other; and it outweighed them all.
"Pharaoh was amazed at the weight of the lamb, and told his dream on the following
morning to his attendants. They were terrified; and one of them said, 'This dream
forepodes a great affliction which one of the children of Israel will bring upon
Egypt. If it please the king, let us issue a royal edict, commanding every male
child of Hebrew parents to be slain at its birth.' The king did as he was advised."Miarash,
p. 51.
3 On these words, "And she saw that the child was fair,"
the Midrash offers the following reflection: "The learned maintain that at the
birth of Moses there appeared a light which shone over the whole world, for in
the account of the creation we have the same phrase: 'The Lord saw the light that
it was good.'"
It is somewhat difiicult to apprehend the precise point of the Rabbis. At the
creation of the light it is said GOD
saw the light that it was good. The subject of which it was predicated that
it was good, then shone over the whole world. Hence it is argued, that, as the
same predicate is applied to Moses's face, it must follow that it shone with similar
brightness. This is no bad specimen of Rabbinical logic.E. T.
4 The daughter of Pharaoh went to the river for she
was a leper, and not permitted to use warm baths; but she was healed as soon as
she stretched out her hand to the crying infant, whose life she preserved. She
said within herself, "He will live to be a man; and whoever preserves a life is
like the savior of a world." For this cause also she obtained the blessings of
the life to come.Midrash, p. 51.
5 From these words, his sister said to the daughters
of Pharaoh, "Shall I call a Hebrew nurse?" We may conclude that they had taken
him (Moses) to all the Egyptian women, but that he refused to receive food from
them, for he thought, "Shall the lips which are destined to speak with the Shekinah
touch that which is unclean?"Midrash, p. 51.
6 In the third year after the birth of Moses, Pharaoh
was sitting on his throne, the queen was at his right hand, his daughter holding
Moses at his left, and the princes of Egypt were round a table before him. Moses
stretched out his hand, took the king's crown, and placed it on his own head.
The courtiers were terrified; and Bileam the magician said, "Remember, O king!
thy dreams, and their interpretations: this child is doubtless of the Hebrews,
who worship GOD in their hearts; and he has, by a movement of his precocious wisdom,
laid hold on the government of Egypt. (Here follow examples from Abraham to Joseph,
showing the ambition of the Hebrews to usurp the Egyptian throne.) If it please
the king, let us shed this child's blood before he be strong enough to destroy
thy kingdom." But the Lord sent an angel in the form of an Egyptian prince, who
said, "If it please the king, let two bowls, the one filled with Shoham stones
the other with burning coals, be presented to the child," Midrash, p. 52.
7 The Jewish legend accounts from this occurrence for
the words of Moses in Exodus, chap. iv., ver. 10: "O my Lord! I am not eloquent,
neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken to thy servant; but I am slow of
speech, and of a slow tongue."E. T.
8 According to the Jewish legend, there intervened many
years between the flight of Moses from Egypt and his arrival in Midian: these
years, they say, he spent in Ethiopia, where Bilaam had gone before him; and while
the king of that country made war against Syria and other nations, he (Bilaam)
treacherously seized on the capital, fortifying it with ditches and walls on three
sides, and guarding the fourth by venomous serpents. The king returned, and had
laid siege to this city during nine years without succeeding in capturing it,
when Moses arrived in his camp. He advised him to take all the storks' eggs from
the neighboring forests, to rear the young, and having withheld their food from
them for some days, to send them against the serpents. The king did so; the storks
destroyed the serpents, and the city was taken; but Bilaam escaped through an
opposite gate, and again excited Pharaoh against the people of Israel. The Ethiopians
made Moses their first vizier, and afterward their king, giving to him the deceased
king's widow in marriage. But as she was an idolater, he refused to treat her
as his wife, nor did he participate in the religious observances of the people:
the queen therefore accused him publicly, and proposed her own son to reign in
his stead; but Moses fled to Midian; and Jethro, fearing the Ethiopians, imprisoned
him during ten years without giving him any food; but Zipora secretly supplied
him with bread and water,
9 The rod of Moses was created on the sixth day, and
given to Adam while yet in Paradise: he left it to Enoch, and he gave it to Shem;
from him it descended to Isaac and Jacob. The latter took it with him into Egypt,
and before his death presented it to Joseph. When he died it was taken, with the
rest of his goods, to Pharaoh's house, where Jethro, being one of the king's magicians,
saw it; and taking it with him to Midian, he planted it in his garden, where no
one was able to approach it until the arrival of Moses. He read the mysterious
words written upon the staff, and took it without difficulty from the ground.
Jethro, who saw this, exclaimed, "This is the man who shall deliver Israel!" and
gave him his daughter Zipora. With this staff Moses kept Jethro's flock during
forty years, without being attacked by wild beasts and without losing any from
his fold.Midrash, p. 53.
10 Rabbi Meier gays, "Pharaoh's palace had 400 gates,
100 on each side; and before each gate stood 60,000 tried warriors." It was therefore
necessary for Gabriel to introduce Moses and Aaron by another way. On seeing them,
Pharaoh said, "Who has admitted them?" He summoned the guards, and commanded some
of them to be beaten, and others to be slain. But as Moses and Aaron returned
the next day again, the guards, when called in, said, "These men are sorcerers,
for they certainly have not come in through the gates." On the same page it is
said, "Before the gate of the royal palace were two lionesses, which did not suffer
any one to pass through without the express command of Pharaoh, and they would
have rushed upon Moses; but he raised his staff, their chains fell off, and they
followed him joyfully into the palace, as a dog follows his master after a long
separation," And again, "The 400 gates of the palace were guarded by bears, lions,
and other ferocious beasts, who suffered no one to pass unless they fed them with
flesh. But when Moses and Aaron came, they gathered about them, and licked the
feet of the prophets, accompanying them to Pharaoh."Midrash, p. 44, 45.
11 "All the water kept in vessels was changed into
blood; even the spittle in the mouth of the Egyptians; for it is written, 'there
was blood, throughout the land of Egypt.' Rabbi Levi informs us that this plague
enriched the Jews; for if a Jew and an Egyptian lived together in the same house,
and the Egyptian went to draw water, it was changed into blood; but if the Jew
went it remained pure. Drinking out of the same vessel, the Jew obtained water,
and the other blood; but if the latter bought it of a Jew, it remained pure."Midrash,
p. 66.
12 This Omar was the eighth caliph of the house of
Omarides. He ascended the throne in the 99th year of the Hegira, and was previously
governor of Egypt.
13 According to the Rabbinical legends, Samael (Satan)
rushed into the calf, and groaned so loudly that the Israelites believed it living.
The Rabbis also maintained that it was not Aaron, but some other person (some
say Micah), who made the calf.Vide Seiger, p. 167.
14 It is well known that the Mussulmans keep a yearly
fast, which lasts from sunrise to sunset for a whole month. And they even exceed
the Jews in strictness, for they not only take neither meat nor drink, but also
abstain from smoking during the fast. As their year is lunar, the month of Ramadhan
falls at every season of the year.
15 This legend is evidently of Jewish origin. It is
related respecting Moses, that while on Mount Sinai, the Lord instructed him in
the mysteries of his providence. Moses having complained of the impunity of vice
and its success in this world, and the frequent sufferings of the innocent, the
Lord took him to a rock which projected from the mountain, and where he could
overlook the vast plain of the desert stretching at his feet.
On one of its oases he beheld a young Arab asleep. He awoke, and, leaving behind
him a bag of pearls, he sprung into his saddle, and rapidly disappeared from the
horizon. Another Arab came to the oasis: he discovered the pearls, took them,
and vanished in the opposite direction.
Now an aged wanderer, leaning on his staff, bent his weary steps toward the
shady spot: he laid himself down, and fell asleep. But scarcely had he closed
his eyes, when he was rudely roused from his slumber; the young Arab had returned,
and demanded his pearls. The hoary man replied, he had not taken them. The other
grew enraged, and accused him of theft. He swore that he had not seen his treasure;
but the other seized him; a scuffle ensued; the young Arab drew his sword, and
plunged it into the breast of the aged man, who fell lifeless on the earth.
"O Lord, is this justice?" exclaimed Moses, with terror. "Be silent! Behold,
this man, whose blood is now mingling with the waters of the desert, many years
ago, secretly, on the same spot, murdered the father of the youth who has now
slain him. His crime remained concealed from men, but vengeance is mine: I will
repay!"
The reader must be struck with the similarity of these fictions and the beautiful
poem on the same subject by Barnell, who, if unacquainted with the Arabic legend,
may have read the one have related in Schiller's "Sendung Moses."E. T.
16 The Midrash says, "Korah had 300 white mules, which
carried the keys of his treasuries. His wealth was his ruin!"
17 In perfect accordance with the Midrash. p. 255.
