Jians have a proverb, that coffee without tobacco; is meat without fa it \
Opium and beng, (which latter is the leaves of hemp in pills or
conferve) are alfo by the rigid Mohammedans efteemed unlawful,
though not mentioned in the Koran, becaufe they intoxicate and
difturb the underftanding as wine does, and in a more extraordinary
manner: yet thefe drugs are now commonly taken in the eaft; but
they who are addicted to them are generally looked upon as debauchees
2.
Whforine Several ftories have been told as the occafion of Mohammed’s pro-
bidden. hibiting the drinking of wine3: but the true reafons are given in
the Koran, v iz. becaufe the ill qualities of that liquor furpafs its
good ones, the common effects thereof being quarrels and difturban-
- ces in company, and negledt, or at leaft indecencies, in the performance
of religious duties +. For thefe reafons it was, that the
priefts were, by the Levitical law, forbidden to drink wine or ftrong
drink when they entred the tabernacle 5, and that the Nazarites 6 and
Rechabites ?, and many pious perfons among the Jews and primitive
Chriftians, wholly abftained therefrom; nay, feme of the latter went
fa far, as to condemn the ufe of wine as finful8. But Mohammed
is laid to have had a nearer example than any of thefe, in the more
devout perfons of his own tribe 9.
Of tfe Gaming is prohibited by the Kordn IO in the fame paffages, and for
prohibi- tpe fatne reafons, as wine.. The word al Meifar, which is there
gamiBg. ufed, lignifies a particular manner of calling lots by arrows, much
pradtifed by the pagan Arabs, and performed in the following manner.
A young camel being bought and killed, and divided into ten,
or twenty eight parts, the perfons. who call lots for them, to the
number o f feven, met for that purpofe; and eleven arrows were
provided, without heads or feathers, feven of which were marked,
the firft with one notch, the fecond with two-, and fo on, and the
other four had no mark at a ll11: thefe arrows were put promifcuoufly
into a bag, and then drawn by an indifferent perfon, who had another
near him to receive them; and to fee he added fairly ; thofe
to whom the marked arrows fell, won lhares in proportion to their
1 Reland. Diflert. Mifc$U. T . 2. p. 280. V. Chardin, Voy. de Perfe, T . 2. p. 14, & 66. 2 V. Chardin, ibid. p. 68, &c. & D’Herbel. p. 200. 3 V. Prid. Life of Mah. p. 82, &c.
Bufbeq. Epift. 3. p. 255, and Maiindeville’s Travels, p. 170. 4 Kor. chap. 2. p. 25, chap. 5.
p. 04, & chap. 4. p. 66. See Prov. xxiii. 29, See. 1 Levit. x. 9. 6 Numb, vi." 2. 7 Jerem.
xxxv. 5, See. 8 This was the herefy of thofe called Encratitee, and Aqiiarij. Kbwaf, a Magiaix
heretic, alfo declared wine unlawful; but this was after Mohammed's time. Hyde, de rel. vet. Perf.
p. 300. 9; V. Reland, de rel. Moh. p. 271. 10 Chap. 2. p. 25. chap. £. p. 94. 11 Some
writers, as al Zamakh. and al Shirdzi, mention but three, blank arrows.
lot, and thofe to whom the blanks .fell, were entitled to no part of
the camel at all, but were obliged to pay the full price o f it. The
winners, however, tailed not of the flefh, any more than the lofers,
but the whole was diftributed among the poor; and this they did
out of pride and oftentation, it being reckoned a lhame for a mart
to Hand out, and not venture his money on fuch an occafion I.. This
cuftom, therefore, though it was of fome ufe to the poor, and di-
verfion to the rich, was forbidden by Mohammed % as the fource of
greater inconveniences, by occafioning quarrels and heart-burnings,
which arofe from the winners infulting of thofe who loll.
Under the name of lots the commentators agree that all other
games whatfoever, which are fubjedt to hazard or chance, are comprehended
and forbidden, as dice, cards, tables, &c. And they are
reckoned fo ill in themfelves, that the tellimony of him who plays
at them, is by the more rigid judged to be of no validity in- a court
of juftice. Chefs is almoft the only game which the Mohammedan
dodtors allow to be lawful, (though it has been a doubt with fome 3,)
becaufe it depends wholly on fkill and management, and not at alt
on chance: but then it is allowed under certain reftridtions, viz..
that it be no hindrance to the regular performance of their devotions,
and that no money or other thing be played for or betted;,
which laft the Turks and Somites religioufly obferve, but the Per fans
and Mog.bls do not •*■. But what Mohammed is- fuppofed chiefly to
have difliked in the game of chefs, was the carved pieces, or men,
with which the pagan Arabs played, being little figures of men,
elephants, horfes, and dromedaries 5; and thefe are thought, by
feme commentators, to be truly meant by the images prohibited in
one of the paffages of the Kordn 6 quoted above. That the Arabs
in Mohammed’s time actually ufed fuch images for~chefs-men appears
from what is related, in the Sonna, of Ali, who palling accidentally
by -feme who were playing at chefs, alked, What images they were
which they were fo intent upon 7 ? for they were perfectly new to him,,
that game having been but very lately introduced into Arabia, and
not long before into P e rf a, whither it was firft brought from India
in the reign of Khofru N u jh irw d n Hence the Mohammedan doctors
infer that the game was difapproved only for the fake of the-
1 Auftores Nodhm al dorr, & Nothr al dorr, al Zamakh. al Firauzabadi, al. Shi^azi in Orat.
al Hariri, al Beidawi, &c. V. Poc. Spec. p. 324, See.. 2 Koran, chap. 5. p. 82; 3 V -
Hyde, de Ludis oriental, in Proleg. ad Shahiludium. 4 V. Eund. ibid. f V. Eundem,.
ibid, & in Hift. Shahiliadij, p.'135, &c. 6 Chap. 5. p. 94-. 7 Sokeiker al Dimilhkij &.
Audor libri al Moftatraf, apud Hyde, ubi (up. p. 8. 8 Khondemir, apud eund. ib. p. 41-.
images^