revelation, as an infallible expedient in all nice cafes; and he found the
.fuccefs of this method anfwer his expectation. It was certainly an
admirable and politic contrivance of his to bring down the whole
.Koran at once to the lowed; heaven only, and not to the earth, as a
• bungling prophet would ^probably have done; for if the whole had
been publiffied at once, innumerable objections might have been
made, which it would have been very hard, if not impoffible, for
him to folve: but as he pretended to have received it by parcels, as
G od faw proper that they fhould be publilhed for the converfion
and inftruCtion of the people, he had a fure way to anfwer all emer-
- Agencies, and to extricate himfelf with honour from any difficulty
which might occur. If any objection be hence made to that eternity
of the Koran, which the Mohammedans are taught to believe,
..they eafily ' anfwer it by their doCtrine of abfolute predeftination; according
to which all the accidents, for the fake of which thefe occa-
fional paffages were revealed, were predetermined by G o d from all
eternity.
•Its author That Mohammed was really the author and chief contriver of the
and man- Xordn, is beyond difpute; tho’ it be highly probable that he had no
puMifli. fmall affiftance in his defign from' others, as his countrymen failed
not to objed: to him 1 ; however they differed fo much in their conjectures
as to the particular perfons who gave him fuch affiftance-2,
that they were not able, it feems, to prove the charge; Mohammed, it
.is to be prefumed, having taken his meafures too well to be difcover-
ed. Dr. Prideaux | has given the moft probable account of this matter
tho’ chiefly from Chrijlian writers, who generally mix fuch ridiculous
fables with what they deliver, that they deferve not much
•credit.
However it be, the Mohammedans abfolutely deny the Koran was
compofed by their prophet himfelf, or. any other for him; it being
their general and orthodox belief that it is o f divine original, nay that
i t is eternal and uncreated, remaining, as fome exprefs it, in the very
effence of G o p ; that the firft tranfcript has been from everlafting by
G o d’s throne, written on a table of vaft bignefs, called the preferved
Jjahk, in which are alfo recorded the divine decrees paft and future;
that’ a copy from this table, in one volume on paper, was by the
.miniftry of the angel Gabriel fent down to the lowed: heaven, in the
.month of Ramadan, on the night of power *: from whence Gabriel
1 V. Kor. c. 16. and c. 25. * See the notes on thofe paffages. 3 Life of Mahomet, p. 31»
* V. Kór. c. 37, and not. ibid.
terevealed
it to Mohammed by parcels, fome at Mecca, and fome at Medina,
at different times, during the fpace o f twenty three years, as
the exigency of affairs required; giving him however the confolation to
ffiew him the whole (which they tell us was bound in iilk, and adorned
with gold and precious ftones of paradife) once a year; but in the
laft year of his life he had the favour to fee it twice. They fay
that few chapters were delivered entire, the moft part being revealed
peace-meal, and written down from time to time by the prophet’s
amanuenfes in fuch or fuch a part of fuch or fuch a chapter till they
were compleated, according to the directions o f the angel'. The
firft parcel that was revealed, is generally agreed to have been the
firft five verfes of the ninety fixth chaprer %
After the new revealed paffages had been from the prophet’s mouth
taken down in writing by his fcribe, they were publiffied to his followers,
feveral of whom took copies for their private ufe, but the
far greater number got them by heart. The originals when returned,
were put promifcuoufly into a cheft, obferving no order of time, for
which reafon it is uncertain when many paffages were revealed.
When Mohammed died, he left his revelations in the fame diforder when and
I have mentioned, and not digefted into the method, fuch as it is,
which we now find them in. This was the work of his fucceffor into the
Abu Beer, who confidering that a great number of paffages werePrefent
committed to the memory of Mohammed's followers, many of whomform'
were flain in their wars, ordered the whole to be colledted, not only
from the palm leaves and Ikins on which they had been written,and which
were kept between two boards or covers, but alfo from the mouths of
fuch as had gotten them by heart. And this tranfcript when compleated
he committed to the cuftody of Haffa the daughter o f Omar, one
of the prophet’s widows 3.
From this relation it is generally imagined that Abu Beer was really
the compiler of the Koran; tho’ for ought appears to the contrary
Mohammed left the chapters compleat as we now have them, excepting
fuch paffages as his fucceffor might add or corredt from thofe who
had gotten them by heart; what Abu Beer did elfe being perhaps no
more than to range the chapters in their prefent order, which he
feems to have done without any regard to time, having generally
placed the longeft firft.
1 Therefore it is a miftake of Dr. Prideaux to fay it was brought him chapter by chapter. Life of
Mahomet, p. 6. The Jews aifo fay the Law was given to Mofes by parcels, V. Millium,-de Mo-
hammedifmo ante Moham. p. 365. 2 Not the whole chapter, as Golius fays. Append, ad Gr. Erp.
P* 180. 3 Elraacin. in Vita Abu Beer. Abulfeda.
k How