have borrowed from the Jews, who learned the names and offices of those beings from the Persians, as themselves confess.8 The ancient Persians firmly believed the ministry of angels, and their superintendence over the affairs of this world (as the Magians still do), and therefore assigned them distinct charges and provinces, giving their names to their months and the days of their months. Gabriel they called Sorûsh and Revân bakhsh, or the giver of souls, in opposition to the contrary office of the angel of death, to whom among other names they gave that of Mordâd, or the giver of death; Michael they called Beshter, who according to them provides sustenance for mankind.9 The Jews teach that the angels were created of fire;10 that they have several offices;11 that they intercede for men,12 and attend them.13 The angel of death they name Dûma, and say he calls dying persons by their respective names at their last hour.14 The devil, whom Mohammed names Eblîs from his despair, was once one of those angels who are nearest to GOD'S presence, called Azazîl,15 and fell, according to the doctrine of the Korân, for refusing to pay homage to Adam at the command of GOD.16 Besides angels and devils, the Mohammedans are taught by the
4 Kor. c. 2, p. 13. 5 Ibid. c. 7 and 38. 1 Ibid. c. 2, p. 12. 2 See the notes, Ibid, p. 13. 3 Vide Hyde, Hist. Rel. Vet. Pers. p. 262. 4 Vide Ibid. p. 271, and not. in Kor. p. 13. 5 Vide not. Ibid. p. 4. 6 Kor. c. 6, 13, and 86. The offices of these four angels are described almost in the same manner in the apocryphal gospel of Barnabas, where it is said that Gabriel reveals the secrets of GOD, Michael combats against his enemies, Raphael receives the souls of those who die, and Uriel is to call every one to judgment on the last day. See the Menagiana, tom. iv. p. 333. 7 Kor. c. 10. 8 Talmud Hieros. in Rosh hashan. 9 Vide Hyde, ubi sup. c. 19 and 20. 10 Gemar. in Hagig. and Bereshit rabbah, &c. Vide Psalm civ. 4. 11 Yalkut hadash. 12 Gemar. in Shebet, and Bava Bathra, &c. 13 Midrash, Yalkut Shemûni. 14 Gemar. Berachoth. 15 Vide Reland. de Rel. Moh. p. 189, &c. 16 Kor. c. 2. See also c.7, 38, &c.
Korân to believe an intermediate order of creatures, which they call Jin or Genii, created also of fire,17 but of a grosser fabric than angels; since they eat and drink, and propagate their species, and are subject to death.1 Some of these are supposed to be good, and others bad, and capable of future salvation or damnation, as men are; whence Mohammed pretended to be sent for the conversion of genii as well as men.2 The orientals pretend that these genii inhabited the world for many ages before Adam was created, under the government of several successive princes, who all bore the common name of Solomon; but falling at length into an almost general corruption, Eblîs was sent to drive them into a remote part of the earth, there to be confined: that some of that generation still remaining, were by Tahmûrath, one of the ancient kings of Persia, who waged war against them, forced to retreat into the famous mountains of Kâf. Of which successions and wars they have many fabulous and romantic stories. They also make different ranks and degrees among these beings (if they be not rather supposed to be of a different species), some being called absolutely Jin, some Peri or fairies, some Div or giants, others Tacwîns or fates.3 The Mohammedan notions concerning these genii agree almost exactly with what the Jews write of a sort of demons, called Shedîm, whom some fancy to have been begotten by two angels named Aza and Azaël, on Naamah the daughter of Lamech, before the Flood.4 However, the Shedîm, they tell us, agree in three things with the ministering angels; for that, like them, they have wings, and fly from one end of the world to the other, and have some knowledge of futurity; and in three things they agree with men, like whom they eat and drink, are propagated, and die.5 They also say that some of them believe in the law of Moses, and are consequently good, and that others of them are infidels and reprobates.6 As to the scriptures, the Mohammedans are taught by the Korân that GOD, in divers ages of the world, gave revelations of his will in writing to several prophets, the whole and every word of which it is absolutely necessary for a good Moslem to believe. The number of these sacred books were, according to them, 104. Of which ten were given to Adam, fifty to Seth, thirty to Edrîs or Enoch, ten to Abraham; and the other four, being the Pentateuch, the Psalms, the Gospel, and the Korân, were successively delivered to Moses, David, Jesus, and Mohammed; which last being the seal of the prophets, those revelations are now closed, and no more are to be expected. All these divine books, except the four last, they agree to be now entirely lost, and their contents unknown; though the Sabians have several books which they attribute to some of the antediluvian prophets. And of those four the Pentateuch, Psalms, and Gospel, they say, have undergone so many alterations and corruptions, that though there may possibly be some part of the true word of GOD therein, yet no credit is to be given to the present copies in the hands of the Jews and Christians. The Jews in particular are frequently reflected on in the Korân for falsifying and corrupting their copies of their law; and some instances of such pre-
17 Kor. c. 55. See the notes there. 1 Jallalo'ddin, in Kor. c. 2 and 18. 2 Vide Kor. c. 55, 72, and 74. 3 See D'Herbelot, Bibl. Orient. p. 369, 820, &c. 4 In libro Zohar. 5 Gemara, in Hagiga. 6 Igrat Baale hayyim. c. 15.
tended corruptions, both in that book and the two others, are produced by Mohammedan writers, wherein they merely follow their own prejudices, and the fabulous accounts of spurious legends. Whether they have any copy of the Pentateuch among them different from that of the Jews or not, I am not entirely satisfied, since a person who travelled into the east was told that they had the books of Moses, though very much corrupted;1 but I know nobody that has ever seen them. However, they certainly have and privately read a book which they call the Psalms of David, in Arabic and Persian, to which are added some prayers of Moses, Jonas, and others.2 This Mr. Reland supposes to be a translation from our copies (though no doubt falsified in more places than one); but M. D'Herbelot says it contains not the same Psalms which are in our Psalter, being no more than an extract from thence mixed with other very different pieces.3 The easiest way to reconcile these two learned gentlemen, is to presume that they speak of different copies. The Mohammedans have also a Gospel in Arabic, attributed to St. Barnabas, wherein the history of Jesus Christ is related in a manner very different from what we find in the true Gospels, and correspondent to those traditions which Mohammed has followed in his Korân. Of this Gospel the Moriscoes in Africa have a translation in Spanish;4 and there is in the library of Prince Eugene of Savoy, a manuscript of some antiquity, containing an Italian translation of the same Gospel,5 made, it is to be supposed, for the use of renegades. This book appears to be no original forgery of the Mohammedans, though they have no doubt interpolated and altered it since, the better to serve their purpose; and in particular, instead of the Paraclete or Comforter,6 they have in this apocryphal gospel inserted the word Periclyte, that is, the famous or illustrious, by which they pretend their prophet was foretold by name, that being the signification of Mohammed in Arabic:1 and this they say to justify that passage of the Korân,2 where Jesus Christ is formally asserted to have foretold his coming, under his other name of Ahmed; which is derived from the same root as Mohammed, and of the same import. From these or some other forgeries of the same stamp it is that the Mohammedans quote several passages, of which there are not the least footsteps in the New Testament. But after all we must not hence infer that the Mohammedans, much less all of them, hold these copies of theirs to be the ancient and genuine scriptures themselves. If any argue, from the corruption which they insist has happened to the Pentateuch and Gospel, that the Korân may possibly be corrupted also; they answer, that GOD has promised that he will take care of the latter, and preserve it from any addition or diminution;3 but that he left the two other to the care of men. However, they confess there are some various readings in the Korân,4 as has been observed. Besides the books above mentioned, the Mohammedans also take notice of the writings of Daniel and several other prophets, and even
1 Terry's Voyage to the East Indies, p. 277. 2 De Rel. Moham. p. 23. 3 A copy of this kind, he tells us, is in the library of the Duke of Tuscany, Bibl. Orient. p. 924. 4 Reland, ubi sup. 5 Menagian, tom. iv. p. 321, &c. 6 John xiv. 16, 26, xv. 26, and xvi. 7 , compared with Luke xxiv. 49. 1 See Toland's Nazarenus, the first eight chapters. 2 Cap. 61. 3 Kor. c. 15. 4 Reland, ubi sup. p. 24, 27.
make quotations thence; but these they do not believe to be divine scripture, or of any authority in matters of religion.5 The number of the prophets, which have been from time to time sent by GOD into the world, amounts to no less than 224,000, according to one Mohammedan tradition, or to 124,000, according to another; among whom 313 were apostles, sent with special commissions to reclaim mankind from infidelity and superstition; and six of them brought new laws or dispensations, which successively abrogated