subterfuges and inventions, but doing justice to him on those points on which the pretended prophet is really worthy of praise The rules which, in his address to the reader, he lays down for the conversion. of Mohammedans, are dictated by sound sense and amiable feelings. They are, however, not calculated to satisfy those who think the sword and the faggot to be the only proper instruments for the extirpation of heresy. That he places Islamism on an equality with Christianity is a gross falsehood. "As Mohammed," says he, " gave his Arabs the best religion he could, preferable, at least, to those of the ancient pagan law. givers, I confess I cannot see why he deserves not equal respect, though not with Moses or Jesus Christ, whose laws came really from heaven, yet with Minos or Numa, notwithstanding the distinction of a learned writer, who seems to think it a greater crime to make use of an imposture to set up a new religion, founded on the acknowledgment of one true God, and to destroy idolatry than to use the same means to gain reception to rules and regulations for the more orderly practice of heathenism already estab lished." This, and no more, is "the very head and front of his offending;" and from this it would, I think, be difficult to extract any proof of his belief in the divine mission of Mohammed. If the charge brought against him be not groundless, he must have added to his other sins that of being a consummate hypocrite, and that, too, without any obvious necessity; he having been, till the period of his decease, a member of the Society for the Promoting of Christian Knowledge. In 1736 a society was established for the encouragement of learning. It comprehended many noblemen, and some of the most eminent literary men of that day. Sale was one of the founders of it, and was appointed on the first committee. The meetings were held weekly, and the committee decided upon what works should be printed at the expense of the society, or with its assistance, and what should be the price of them. When the cost of printing was repaid, the property of the work reverted to the author. This establishment did not, I imagine, exist for any length of time. The attention of the public has been recently called to a plan of a similar kind. Sale did not long survive the carrying of this scheme into effect. He died of a fever, on the 13th of November, 1736, at his house in Surrey street, Strand, after an illness of only eight days, and was buried at St. Clement Danes. He was under the age of forty when he was thus suddenly snatched from his family, which consisted of a wife and five children. Of his sons, one was educated at New College, Oxford, of hich he became Fellow, and he was subsequently elected to a Fellowship in Winchester College. Sale is described as having had "a healthy constitution, and a communicative mind in a comely person." His library was valuable, and contained many rare and beautiful manuscripts in the Persian, Turkish, Arabic, and other languages; a circumstance which seems to show, that poverty, so often the lot of men whose lives are devoted to literary pursuits, was not one of the evils with which he was compelled to encounter. R. A. DAVENPORT, ADVERTISEMENT. THE present Edition of Sale's Translation of the Korân will, it is hoped, be found to possess some advantages over every other. Many useful notes, and several hundred various readings, are added from the French version by Savary. Of the various readings, the major part give a different meaning from that which is adopted by the English translator; while the others, though agreeing with his idea of the text, are more poetically expressed. Great care has been taken to prevent the work from being disfigured by typographical errors, which are peculiarly objectionable in a work of this kind, because they render it unsafe to be consulted. A Sketch of the Life of Sale is also prefixed, which, though brief, contains several particulars not hitherto stated by any of his biographers, and vindicates, and it is believed satisfactorily, his memory from some aspersions that have been illiberally cast upon it by the prejudiced or the ignorant. (xvi) CONTENTS. A TABLE OF THE SECTIONS OF THE PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. Bect. 1. Of the Arabs before Mohammed; or, as they express it, in the Time of Ignorance; ....... Pago. 1 2. Of the State of Christianity, particularly of the Eastern Churches, and Judaism, 4. Of the Doctrines and positive Precepts of the Korân which relate to Faith and 5. Of certain negative Precepts in the Korân....... 6. Of the Institutions of the Korân in Civil Affairs .... 40 50 87 .... 94 Of the Months commanded by the Korân to be kept sacred; and of the setting 105 8. Of the principal Sects among the Mohammedans; and of those who have pretended ... 107 (xvii) A TABLE OF THE CHAPTERS ОР THE KORAN.* Chap Page. 1. Intitled, The Preface, or Introduction; containing 7 verses.. 1 2. Intitled, The Cow; containing 286 verses ...... 2 3. Intitled, The Family of Imrân; containing 200 (199) verses 35 9. Intitled, The Declaration of Immunity (Conversion); containing 139 (130) verses.... 148 10. Intitled, Jonas; containing 109 verses.... 16. Intitled, The Bee (The Bees); containing 128 verses .... 17. Intitled, The Night Journey; containing 110 (111) verses. 166 175 187 200 204 209 214 226 237 248 255 264 273 281 287 296 301 309 28. Intitled, The Story (The History); containing 87 (88 verses 33. Intitled, The Confederates (The Conspirators); containing 73 verses....... 341 351 * The titles and figures within parentheses are those which are given in the translation by SAVARY. |