all
religions, the life of the founder supplies the silence of his written
revelation: the sayings of Mahomet were so many lessons of truth; his
actions so many examples of virtue; and the public and private memorials
were preserved by his wives and companions. At the end of two hundred
years, the Sonna, or oral law, was fixed and consecrated by the
labors of Al Bochari, who discriminated seven thousand two hundred and
seventy-five genuine traditions, from a mass of three hundred thousand
reports, of a more doubtful or spurious character. Each day the pious
author prayed in the temple of Mecca, and performed his ablutions with
the water of Zemzem: the pages were successively deposited on the pulpit
and the sepulchre of the apostle; and the work has been approved by the
four orthodox sects of the Sonnites. [95]

[Footnote 91: For the Koran, see D'Herbelot, p. 85-88. Maracci, tom. i.
in Vit. Mohammed. p. 32-45. Sale, Preliminary Discourse, p. 58-70.]

[Footnote 92: Koran, c. 17, v. 89. In Sale, p. 235, 236. In Maracci, p.
410. * Note: Compare Von Hammer Geschichte der Assassinen p. 11.-M.]

[Footnote 93: Yet a sect of Arabians was persuaded, that it might be
equalled or surpassed by a human pen, (Pocock, Specimen, p. 221, &c.;)
and Maracci (the polemic is too hard for the translator) derides the
rhyming affectation of the most applauded passage, (tom. i. part ii. p.
69-75.)]

[Footnote 94: Colloquia (whether real or fabulous) in media Arabia
atque ab Arabibus habita, (Lowth, de Poesi Hebraeorum. Praelect. xxxii.
xxxiii. xxxiv, with his German editor, Michaelis, Epimetron iv.)
Yet Michaelis (p. 671-673) has detected many Egyptian images, the
elephantiasis, papyrus, Nile, crocodile, &c. The language is ambiguously
styled Arabico-Hebraea. The resemblance of the sister dialects was much
more visible in their childhood, than in their mature age, (Michaelis,
p. 682. Schultens, in Praefat. Job.) * Note: The age of the book of Job
is still and probably will still be disputed. Rosenmuller thus states
his own opinion: "Certe serioribus reipublicae temporibus assignandum
esse librum, suadere videtur ad Chaldaismum vergens sermo." Yet the
observations of Kosegarten, which Rosenmuller has given in a note, and
common reason, suggest that this Chaldaism may be the native form of
a much earlier dialect; or the Chaldaic may have adopted the poetical
archaisms of a dialect, differing from, but not less ancient than, the
Hebrew. See Ros