possible
to judge fairly from a translation. It is said to be the oldest prose
composition among the Arabs, by whom Mohammed's boast of the
unapproachable excellence of his work is almost universally sustained;
but it must not be concealed that there have been among them very
learned men who have held it in light esteem. Its most celebrated
passages, as those on the nature of God, in Chapters II., XXIV., will
bear no comparison with parallel ones in the Psalms and Book of Job. In
the narrative style, the story of Joseph, in Chapter XII., compared with
the same incidents related in Genesis, shows a like inferiority.
Mohammed also adulterates his work with many Christian legends, derived
probably from the apocryphal gospel of St. Barnabas; he mixes with many
of his own inventions the scripture account of the temptation of Adam,
the Deluge, Jonah and the whale, enriching the whole with stories like
the later Night Entertainments of his country, the seven sleepers, Gog
and Magog, and all the wonders of genii, sorcery, and charms.

[Sidenote: Causes of its surprising influence.]

An impartial reader of the Koran may doubtless be surprised that so
feeble a production should serve its purpose so well. But the theory of
religion is one thing, the practice another. The Koran abounds in
excellent moral suggestions and precepts; its composition is so
fragmentary that we cannot turn to a single page without finding maxims
of which all men must approve. This fragmentary construction yields
texts, and mottoes, and rules complete in themselves, suitable for
common men in any of the incidents of life. There is a perpetual
insisting on the necessity of prayer, an inculcation of mercy,
almsgiving, justice, fasting, pilgrimage, and other good works;
institutions respecting conduct, both social and domestic, debts,
witnesses, marriage, children, wine, and the like; above all, a constant
stimulation to do battle with the infidel and blasphemer. For life as it
passes in Asia, there is hardly a condition in which passages from the
Koran cannot be recalled suitable for instruction, admonition,
consolation, encouragement. To the Asiatic and to the African, such
devotional fragments are of far more use than any sustained theological
doctrine. The mental constitution of Mohammed did not enable him to
handle important philosophical questions with the well-balanced ability
of the great Greek and Indian writers, but he has never been surpassed
in