tageunto you, and the earth became too ftrait for you notwithftanding it
was fpacious •, then did ye retreat and turn your backs. Afterwards G od
fent down his fecurity b upon his apoftle and upon the faithful, and fentdown
troops of angelsc which ye faw not; and he punifhed thofe who difbelieved;
and this was the reward of the unbelievers. Neverthelefs G o d will hereafter
be turned unto whom he pleafethd; for G od is gracious and merciful. Otrue
believers, verily the idolaters are unclean 5 let them not therefore come near
unto the holy temple after this yeare. And if ye fear want, by the cutting off
■ trade and communication with them, G od will enrich you of his abundancef,
if he pleafeth ; for G od is knowing and wife. Fight againft them who believe
not in G o d , nor in the laft day and forbid not that which G od and his
apoftle have forbidden, and profefs not the true religion, of thofe unto whom
the feript'ures have been delivered, until they pay tribute by right of fub-
jedtion1’, and they be reduced low. The Jews fay, E z r a is the fon
of
a And the earth became teo fir ait for you ;]
For the valley being very deep, and encompafled
.by craggy mountains, the enemy placed them-
felves in ambufli on every fide, attacking them
in the ftraits and narrow paflages,and frombehmd
the rocks, with great advantage 1 *.
b His fecurity.] The original word is Sakinat,
which the commentators interpret in this fenfe;
but it feems rather to fignify the divine prefence
or Shechinah, appearing to aid the Moflems a.
c' Troops of angels;] As to the number of thefe
celeftial auxiliaries, the commentators differ:
fome fay they were five thoufand j fome, eight
-thoufand; and others, fixteen thoufand 3.
d Neverthelefs G od will hereafter turn unto
whom he pleafes ;] Befides a great number of
profelytes, who were gained by this battle, Mohammed,
on their requeft, was fo generous as
-to reftore the captives (which were no lefs than
■ >fix thoufand) to their friends, and offered to
«lake amends himfelf to any of his men who
ihould not be willing to part with his prifoners ;
-but they all confented to it 4\
e After this year;] Which was the ninth
year of the Hejra. In confequence of this pro-
•hibition, neither Jews, nor Chriftians, nor thofe
o f any other religion, are fuffered to come near
.Mecca to this day.
f God will enrich you of his abundance;]
This promife, fays al Beidawi, was fulfilled by
G od’s fending plenty of rain, and difpofing the
inhabitants of Tebala and Jorafh, two towns in
Taman, to embrace IJldm, who thereupon
.brought Jufficient .provifions to Mohammed's
men ; and alfo by the fubfequent coming in of
the Arabs, from all quarters, to him.
£ Who believe tust in ‘G od, nor in the laß
1 E bn I shak. * See chap. 2. p. 29. not.
.chap. 2. p. 1 1. and chap. 3. p. 37. £ V. AIB.
day j] That is, who have not a juft and true
faith in thefe matters; but either believe a plurality
of gods, or deny the eternity of hell torments
% or the delights of paradife as defcribed
in the Koran. For, as it appears by the following
words, the Jews and Chriftians are the per-
fons here chiefly meant.
h By right of J'ubjeftion ;] This I think the
true meaning of the words an yadin, which literally
fignify by or out of hand, and are varioufly
interpreted j fome fuppofing they mean that the
tribute is to be paid readily, or by their own hands
and not by another; or that tribute is to be exacted
Of the rich only, or thofe who are able to
pay it, and not of the poor; or elfe that it is to
be taken as a favour that the Mohammedans are
fatisfied with fo fmall an impofition, £5V 6.
That the Jews and Chriftians are, according to
this law, to be admitted to protection, on payment
of tribute, there is no doubt; tho’ the
Mohammedan doCtors differ as to thofe of other
religions. It is faid that Omar at firft refufed to
accept tribute from a Magian, till Abd'alrahmdn
Ebn Awf allured him that Mohammed himfelf had
granted protection to a Magian, and ordered that
the profeflors of that religion Ihould be included
among the people of the book, or thofe who
found , their religion on fome book which they
fuppofe to be of divine original. And it is the
more received opinion that thefe three religions
only ought to be tolerated on the condition of
paying tribute: others, however, admit the Sa-
bians alfo. Abu Hdnifa fuppofed people of any
religion might be fuffered, except the idolatrous
Arabs 4 and Make excepted only apoftates from
Mohammedifm.
- | The
IIDAWI .
A Idem.
of God“ : and the Chriftians fay, Christ is the fon of God. This is their
favin0’ in their mouths: they imitate the faying of thofe who were unbelievers
in former times. May G od refill them. How are they infatuated ? They
take their prieftsand their monks for their lords, befides G od b, and C hrist
'the fon of M ary ; although they are commanded to worfhip one G od only:
there is no God but he; far be that from him, which they affociate with
him! They feek to extinguilh the light of God with their mouths-, but G od
willeth no other than to perfedl his light, although the infidels be a-
verfe thereto. It is he who hath fent his apoftle with the direftion, and
true religion : that he may caufe it to appear fuperior to every other religion
; although the idolaters be averfe thereto. O true believers, verily
many of the priefts and monks devour the fubftance of men in-vanityc,
and obftrudt the way of God. But unto thofe who treafure up gold and
fiber, and employ it not for the advancement of G od’s true religion, denounce
a grievous punilhment. On the day of judgment their treafures fh all
X be
The leaft tribute that can be taken from every
fuch perfon, is generally agreed to be a dinar,
or about ten /hillings, a year j nor can he' be
obliged to pay .more, unlefs he confent to i t :
and this, they fay, ought to be laid as well on
the poor as. on the rich 1. But Abu Hanifa decided
that the rich Ihould pay forty eight dirhems
(twenty, and fometimes twenty five, of which
made a dinar)' a year ; one in middling circum-
ftances half that fum; and a poor man, who
was able to get his living, a quarter of i t : but
that he who was not able to fupport himfelf Ihould
pay nothing 4.
a The Jews fay, Ezra is the fon of G od ;]
This grievous charge againft the Jews the commentators
endeavour to fupport by telling us, that
it is meant of fome ancient heterodox Jews, or
elfe of fome Jews of Medina ; who faid fo for
no other reafon, than for that the law being utterly
loft and forgotten during the Babylonifh
captivity, Ezra, having been raifed to life after
he had been dead one hundred years 3, dictated
the whole anew to the feribes, out o f his own
memory j at which they greatly marvelled, and
declared that he could not have done it, unlefs
he were the fon of G od 4‘. A l Beidawi adds,
that the imputation muft be true, becaufe this
verfe was read to the Jews, and they did not
contradict it j which they were ready enough to
do in other inftances.-
That Ezra did thus reftore not only the Pentateuch,
but alfo the other books of the Old Teflament,
by divine revelation, was the opinion o f
feveral of the Chrijlian fathers, who are quoted
by Dr. Prideaux 5, and of fome other writers 6 i
which they feem to have firft borrowed from a
paflage in that very ancient apocryphal book,
called (in our Englijh bible) the fecond book of Ef*
dras 7. Dr. Prideaux 8 tells us, that herein the
fathers attributed more to Ezra, than the Jews
themfelves, who fuppofe that he only collected
and fet forth a correct edition of the feriptures,
which he laboured much in, and went a great
way in the perfecting of it. It is not improbable,
however, that the fiction came originally
from the Jews, tho’ they be now o f another
opinion, and I cannot fix it upon them by any
direCt proof. For, not to infill on the teftimony
of the Mohammedans, (which yet I cannot but
think of fome little weight in a point of this
nature,) it is allowed by the molt fagacious critics,
that the fecond book o f Ezra was written
by a Chrijlian indeed 9, but yet one who had
been bred a Jew, and was intimately acquainted
with the fables of the Rabbins 16 ; and the ftory
it fell is perfectly in the tafte and way of thinking
of thofe men.
b See chap. 3. p. 44. not. e.
c The priefts and monks devour the fubftance of
men vainly ;] By taking of bribes., fays al Bei-
dawi i meaning, probably, the money they
took for difpenfing with the commands of G od,
and by-way of commutation.
^ 1 P. R eland. de jure militari Mohammeâanor. p. i j ,& 50. 3 A l Beidawi. 3 See
thap. z. p. 3 1 . 4. ^ B eid aw i, Al Z amakhshari, CsV. 3 Conneft. part 1. I. 5. p. 3 29.
, Athanasius junior, in Synopft S. Script. T. 2. p. 86. L eontîus Byzantin, de feftis, p. 428,
Chap, xiv. 2o, £sV. 8 Loco citât. 9 See 2 Efdras ii. 43—47. and vii. 28, CsV. îo V. Dod-
welli Dijfert. Cyprian. Dijfert. 4. §. 2. W histon’j EJfay on the Apoftolical Conflit, p. 34, 76, m i
304» £3’c. Csf F a b r ic ii Coàic. Apocryph. Novi ‘teft. part. 2. p. 936, C2V.