ui, imposed a penance of a month's extra fast on Abdurrahman
II. (822-852) for violating the Prophet's ordinance, that wives should
be abstained from during the fasting month.[7] Alvar, being a layman,
may perhaps be supposed not to have studied Mohammedanism critically,
and that his zeal was not according to knowledge is perhaps the best
explanation of the matter. In one place[8] he informs us of his
intention of writing a book on the Cobar,[9] but the work, if ever
written, has not survived. Nor is this much to be regretted, if we may
judge by the wild remarks he indulges in elsewhere[10] on this theme. In
that passage he seems to apply the obscure prophecy of Daniel[11] to
Mohammed, forgetting that verse 37 speaks of one who "shall regard not
the desire of women," a description hardly characteristic of Mohammed.
He identifies the God Maozim (Hebr. Mauzim), which our revised version
(v. 38) translates the "God of fortresses" with the Mohammedan
Cobar;[12] and the strange god, whom he shall acknowledge, Alvar
identifies with the devil which inspired the Prophet in the guise of the
angel Gabriel. All this, as the writer himself allows, is very
enigmatical.

[1] See Dozy, ii. 107.

[2] See Koran, cc. iii. 47; iv. 157; and Sale's notes.

[3] See Sale's note on Koran, c. lxii. 9.

[4] Cf. also Matt. xi. 19--"The Son of Man came eating and
drinking, and they say, Behold a gluttonous man and a
wine-bibber."

[5] Chapter ii. 180.

[6] Chapter ii. 185. The Mohammedan fast is confined to the day
time.

[7] From Ibn Khallekan, apud Dozy, ii. 108.

[8] "Ind. Lum.," sec. 25.

[9] _I.e._, the Caaba apparently.

[10] "Ind. Lum.," sec. 25, ff.

[11] C. xi. vv. 21, ff.

[12] ? Caaba.

Alvar does not scruple even to accuse the Moslems of idolatry, asserting
that the Arabian tribes worship their idol (the Caaba black stone[1]) as
they used to do of yore, and that they set apart a holy month, Al Mozem,
in honour of this idol.[2]

Finally, Mohammed is spoken of variously as the precursor of
Antichrist,[3] or as Antichrist himself.[4]

Let us now see how far we can gather the opinions of educated Moslems
with regard to Christian doctrine and worship. If we find these to be no
less one-sided and erroneous than the opinions of Christians as to
Mohammedanism, yet can we the more easily excuse the Moslems, for the
Koran itself, the very foundation and guide of all