Al Hotama.] Is one of the names of hell, or the name of one of its apartments (1); which is so called because it will break in pieces what

ever shall be thrown into it.

It is the kindled fire of God.] And therefore shall not be extinguished by any (2).

(2) Al BEIDAWI.

"How thy LORD dealt with the masters of the elephant.] This chapter relates to the following piece of history, which is famous among the Arabs. Abraha Ebn al Sabâh, surnamed al Ashram, i. e. The Slit-nosed king or viceroy of Yaman, who was an Ethiopian (1), and of the Christian religion, having built a magnificent church at Sanáa, with a design to draw the Arabs to go in pilgrimage thither, instead of visiting the temple of Mecca, the Koreish, observing the devotion and concourse of the pilgrims at the Caaba began considerably to diminish, sent one Nofail, as he is named by some, of the tribe of Kenânah, who getting into the aforesaid church by night, defiled the altar and walls thereof with his excrements. At this profanation Abraha being highly incensed, vowed the destruction of the Caaba; and accordingly set

out against Mecca at the head of a considerable army, wherein were several elephants, which he had obtained of the king of Ethiopia, their number being, as some say, thirteen, though others mention but one. The Meccans, at the approach of so considerable a host, retired to the neighbouring mountains, being unable to defend their city or temple: but GoD himself undertook the protection of both. For when Abraha drew near to Mecca, and would have entered it, the elephant on which he rode, which was a very large one, and named Mahmûd, refused to advance any nigher to the town, but knelt down whenever they endeavoured to force him that way, though he would rise and march briskly enough if they turned him towards any other quarter: and while matters were in this posture, on a sudden a large flock of birds, like

swallows, came flying from the sea coast, every one of which carried three stones, one in each foot, and one in its bill; and these stones they threw down upon the heads of Abraha's men, certainly killing every one they struck. Then Gop sent a flood, which swept the dead bodies, and some of those who had not been struck by the stones, into the sea; the rest fled towards Yaman, but perished by the way; none of them reaching Sanaa, except only Abraha himself, who died soon after his arrival there, being struck with a sort of plague or putrefaction,so that his body opened, and his limbs rotted off by piecemeal. It is said that one of Abraha's army, named Abu Yascûm, escaped over the RedSea into Ethiopia,and going directly to the king, told him the tragical story; and upon that prince's asking him what sort of birds they were, that had occasioned such a destruction, the man pointed to one of them, which had followed him all the way, and was at that time hovering directly over his head, when immediately the bird let fall the stone, and struck him dead at the king's feet (1)

This remarkable defeat of Abraha happened the very year Mohammed was born: and as this chapter was revealed before the Hejra, and within fifty-four years, at least, after it came to pass, when several persons, who could have detected the lie, had Mohammed forged this story out of his own head, were alive, it seems as if there was really something extraordinary in the matter, which might, by adding some circumstances, have been worked up into a miracle to his hands. Marracci (2) judges the whole to be either a fable, or else a feat of some evil spirits, of which he gives a parallel instance, as he thinks, in the strange defeat of Brennus, when he was marching to attack the temple of Apollo atDelphi. Dr. Prideaux (3) directly charges Mohammed with coining this miracle,

notwithstanding he might have been so easily disproved, and supposes,without any foundation, that this chapter might not have been published till Othman's edition of the Korân (4), which was many years after, when all might be dead who could remember any thing of the above-mentioned war (5). But Mohammed had no occasion to coin such a miracle himself, to gain the temple of Mecca any greater veneration: the Meccans were but too superstitiously fond of it, and obliged him, against his inclination, and original design, to make it the chief place of his new invented worship. I cannot, however, but observe Dr. Prideaux's partiality on this occasion, compared with the favourable reception he gives to the story of the miraculous overthrow of Brennus and his army, which he concludes in the following words: "Thus was GOD pleased in a very extraordinary manner to execute his vengeance upon those sacrilegious wretches for the sake of religion in general, how false and idolatrous soever that particular religion was, for "which that temple at Delphos was "erected (6)." If it be answered, that the Gauls believed the religion to the devotions of which that temple was consecrated to be true, (though that be not certain,) and therefore it was an impiety in them to offer violence to it; whereas Abraha acknowledged not the holiness of the Caaba, or the worship there practised; I reply, That the doctor, on occasion of Cambyses being killed by a wound he accidentally received in the same part of the body where he had before mortally wounded the Apis, or bull, worshipped by the Egyptians, whose religion and worship that prince most certainly believed to be false and superstitious, makes the same reflection; "The Egyptians (says "he) reckoned this as an especial judg"ment from heaven upon him for that "fact, and perchance they were not

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p. 25. and the authors there quoted. (5) PRID. Life of Mah. p. 63, 64. above cited.