having taken their places, the ten came forward one after the other, and questioned al Bokhari regarding the Traditions which had been given to them. He listened while he recited them, making no other answer to each but "I am not acquainted with it." But when the whole hundred had been repeated, he took up his parable, and affixing to each Tradition the correct isnad belonging to it, repeated the whole hundred in succession.* The assembly were filled

* Muhammadan history abounds with examples of the enormous value attached by Moslem divines to an exact and tenacious memory. The reason of this is explained at the close of the present chapter. Meanwhile, the following anecdote is a curious illustration of the fact, and serves also to exhibit the degree and kind of knowledge demanded of a good Traditionist. Abou Sulaiman Dawûd, an eminent jurisconsult, relates as follows:- .“There came one day to my public conferences a native of Basra, whose name was Abou Yakub as Shariti. He was dressed in two ragged cloaks, and having advanced of his own accord to the place of honour, without being invited to take it, he sat down by my side and said, ' Question me about what you please.' As I was almost provoked by his conduct, I told him sneeringly to treat of cupping. He immediately invoked the benediction of God, and related the mode in which this Tradition had been handed down: He who cups and he who is cupped in the month of Ramadan have broken the fast. He then gave the names of the Traditionists who traced it up as far as the Tabis; of those who traced it up through an uninterrupted succession of narrators to Muhammad himself; of those who explained it; and of the jurisconsults who cited it as an authority for their doctrines. He then stated the various channels through which the following Tradition has passed down: The blessed Prophet was cupped, and he gave the cupper his pay; and were cupping a thing forbidden, he had not given it to him. He next related the different modes of transmission by which this other Tradition was received: The Prophet was cupped with a horn. He mentioned also other genuine Traditions respecting cupping, and some of middling authenticity, such as these: I passed not by any band of the angels without their saying, Order thy people to use cupping.—The healing of my people is by three means: cupping,

with admiration; and from that day his reputation and influence were secure. He became the great Imam of the science of Traditions, and ninety thousand persons are said to have attended his lectures and studied under him.

Al Bokhari was of Persian extraction, and his grandfather was the first member of his family who became a convert to Islam. Al Bokhari was born A.H. 194 (A.D. 810), and died A.H. 256 (A.D. 870). The collection of Traditions made by al Bokhari is known as the "authentic collection," and it is regarded as the highest in point of authority of the six books of Traditions which are accepted by Muhammadan orthodoxy. Out of a mass of six hundred thousand Traditions, he made selection of seven thousand two hundred as valid. But defects of method in the arrangement of his book rendered it so bewildering and difficult for purposes of consultation, that a fresh collection, on an improved and simpler plan, was undertaken and effected by his friend and fellow-pupil, Muslim. The learned among the Muhammadans, for all practical purposes, give the preference to this collection. They do so because the author has been careful to excise all "weak" Traditions, several of

drinking honey, and cauterizing with fire, and others of a like import. He then gave the Traditions of feeble authenticity, as, for instance: Be not cupped on such and such a day; at such and such an hour. After which he mentioned the opinions expressed by physicians of every age on the subject; and he concluded his discourse with the remark that cupping originated at Ispahan. I then said to him, 'By Allah! I shall never scorn any person again.""-Ibn Khall., vol. i., pp. 501, 502.

which al Bokhari had allowed inadvertently to remain in his work; and also because the headings of the chapters indicate more clearly the character of the Traditions grouped under each than was the case in the collection of al Bokhari.

All the men above mentioned were the friends and contemporaries of the fourth Imam. They are only a few out of many who might be named, as engaging in this laborious work of collecting and sifting Traditions. But they will suffice to prove what I said some pages back, that the system of Ahmad ibn Hanbal was the result of accidental circumstances. He himself was a diligent collector of Traditions, and composed a Masnad of authenticated Traditions more copious than any which had been made up to that time. He is said to have known by heart one million of Traditions; and how largely his system of jurisprudence was based upon traditional authority, a single fact will suffice to show. While Abou Hanifa admitted as authentic only eighteen Traditions, and Malek ibn Anas made use of three hundred, Ahmad ibn Hanbal incorporated into his system no less than thirty thousand. That system, as I have said, is now almost wholly obsolete; but the Traditions, on which it is based, have maintained their authority unimpaired. They are accepted by all orthodox Moslems, Hanifites included, as authentic revelations of the Divine will; and the work of collecting, sifting, and learning them by heart was eagerly carried on long after Ahmad ibn Hanbal had been laid in the grave.

There are, at present, six collections of Traditions

which are regarded as "authentic;"* but these huge collections represent only an infinitesimal portion of the time and labour which have been expended on this portion of Moslem theology. The Traditions themselves have been made the subject of countless commentaries. Thus, upwards of a century after the death of Ibn Hanbal, we read of an eminent Shafite doctor, al Baihaki by name, who travelled to Irak, the Hejaz, and Khorasan, in order to learn Traditions, and produced no less than one thousand volumes of expositions and commentaries upon them. Of another Shafite doctor, contemporary with al Baihaki, we are told that the alphabetical list of persons from whom he learned Traditions contains two thousand names; and that he filled fifteen hundred quires of paper with dissertations on the sciences connected with the Traditions. And there was not a single generation, up to the time of the destruction of Baghdad, in which numerous divines did not devote themselves to getting Traditions by heart, and the writing of voluminous works on their grammar, on their metaphors, on the obscure expressions which are to be found in them, on the motives which inspired them, on the isnads which supported them, on their classification according to the weight of authority they possess, and so forth. Only one thing they never thought of doing. It never occurred to any of these commentators to question a

* These are, the Muwatta of Malek ibn Anas; the Sahih of al Bokhari; the Sahih of Muslim; the Sunan of Abou Daoud; the Jami of al Tirmidi; and the Kitab as Sunan of Muhammad ibn Yazid al Kasimir.

Tradition on the ground of its intrinsic incredibility. Provided the isnad was sound and strong, any other criterion of truth was rejected as superfluous. And when one remembers that these Traditions, thus implicitly believed in for many centuries, are a gigantic collection of false morality, ridiculous legends about angels, demons, the origin of the world and of all created beings, absurd and often contradictory rules respecting ceremonial observances, the wonder is, not that Moslems should be steeped in ignorance, vice, and superstition, but that their moral and intellectual capacities have not been more completely crushed beneath this weight of rubbish.

Out of the whole number of "authentic Traditions," about three thousand refer directly to the Prophet, recording incidents in his life, or decisions which proceeded personally from him. They are of a mixed character. The greater part of them are undoubtedly authentic, and constitute a most instructive commentary on the Koran. They bring before us, in clear outline, the rude and simple surroundings of the Prophet, and enable us to see Muhammad himself, stripped of his prophetic garb, and moving as a man among fellow-men. Here are a few examples:

"Anas said: The Prophet of God was of the best disposition; and one day he sent me on business, and I said, "I swear by God I will not go," whilst it was in my heart to go. Then I came out, and passed some boys playing in the bazaar; and all on a sudden, behold the Prophet laying hold of me by the neck; and I saw him laughing, and he said, "O young Anas! have you been where I ordered you ?" " I said, "Yes, O Messenger of God, I will go now." He was the handsomest of men, and the most liberal,

and the most brave.''