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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[APRIL, 1878.
16 and xv. 26, they change mapakintos into me pokAvròs and apply it to Muhammad, as they make him also the last' who'shall be first' in Matt. xx. 9, 10, 16. The other tests referred to him are Isaiah xlii, 1, 7, 17, &c.; lsiii. 1, 6, &c.; Dan. vi. 13, 14; John xxi. 7, 13, &c.; and Rer. vi. 4.
The teaching and duties are presented in a series of quotations from the Korån, classified under various heads, such as God, Angels, In- spired Books, The Gospel, the Koran, Jesus Christ, Muhammad, The worship of one God, Social Duties, Infidels, Unbelievers, Purgatory, Hell, Paradise, Prayers, &c. &c. It is evident that in such an arbitrary arrangement there is a danger of representing the religion under an aspect which is not strictly a correct one; it is apt to bring into strong prominence, for example, the ethical teaching of scattered and incidental precepts, while, unless the classification were far more comprehensive than M. de Tassy has attempted to make it, many ethically important features, such as the position of woman, slavery, the discipline of the heart and will, private virtues, &c., may be left out. Yet this treatment has its uses, as it brings together all that is said in the Korân on each of a number of important topics, from which we can at once judge of the character of its teaching respecting each individually, and, as the arrangement is pretty exhaustive of the contents of the book, we see at once the areas that it leaves entirely blank.
The second treatise is a translation of the Turkish Ripals-i Berkevi, a religious catechism written in the sixteenth century, treating chiefly of dogma and morality, but mixed with minute details on ablutions and rules respecting prayers. The third section is a Sunni Euchology, translated from the Hidayat-ul Islam, which is known in India both in an Arabic and a Persian version, and contains most of the prayers in use, the Suras from the Korân employed in prayer, the Fatihas, and special prayers used in the pilgrim- ages to Makka and Medinah. The fourth and last division of the volume is a memoir on the special features of the Muhammadan religion in India, drawn from Hindustani works, and gives a pretty full account of the feasts and principal saints of the Indian Musulmans. M. de Tassy has given us an interesting, instructive, and valuable addition to the literature of the subject, though, like most books written by those who know Muhammadanism only from its literature, the author, by dwelling principally on its better features, gives a more favourable view of it than it really deserves.
The small volume by Mr. Ştobart is an excellent handbook, at once popular in its style and ac-
curate in its condensed details of facts. It opens with a brief but clear outline of the Geography, Early History, Ethnology, and Religion of the Arabian Peninsula ; then the bulk of the book is devoted to the life and teaching of the "Prophet;" and this is followed by a chapter on Islâm, and another on its spread, after which the author sums up briefly and honestly on some of those features which more forcibly strike a Western observer. It is not intended as a work of original research, but the author has selected and employed the most trustworthy European authors on the subject, and by confining himself chiefly to a narrative of facts, has produced a volume full of information, and the best introduction to a knowledge of Islâm and its founder that we know of.
" However much, under the then degraded condition of Arabia," he remarks, "the code of Mahomet was a gift of value, and however much it may have succeeded in banishing those fiercer vices which naturally accompany ignorance and barbarism, still can it be forgotten at how dear a price the boon was acquired ? In the place of temporary and remediable evils . . . . the nation was delivered captive to the guidance of an unchangeable law, which, whatever the excellence of some of its precepts, poisons domestic life, stifles honest inquiry, crushes the right of private judgment, has hitherto been found, and is essentially, incompatible with constitutional freedom. and has been followed by that train of national degradation and evil which the story of the past and the example of the present show to be the constant, and it would seem the inevitable. attendants wherever Islam holds sway. History, indeed, but too truly records that the faith of Mahomet is altogether powerless to ennoble or to regenerate a nation. The partial and specious reforms which it may effect are vitiated by the fact that they serve to exclude the highest; and as the inner life of families, the whole tone of society, and the intellectual and moral standard of a people depend on the principles diffused by the ruling religion, it seems, from past experience, hopeless to expect that Islam will ever cease to be what it has hitherto proved, the most formidable obstacle to the dawn of a progressive and enlightened civilization."
The book is one of a series published by the Christian Knowledge Society on "Non-Christian Religious Systems," is illustrated by a mapshowing the limits of the Muhammadan empire at its greatest extent under the early Khalifs in the 8th century, the present limits of the empire, and the spread of the religion, and has an excellent index, fitting it for easy reference.
