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Остовив, 1903.)
MUHAMMAD. HIS LIFE, &c.
No. 11 is from Khalatee, No. 14 from Skyin-gling, 7 miles distant from Khalatse. Nos. 3, 4, 5, are still in the store-rooms of Skyin-gling. Nos. 6, 7, 9, are from Nubra. Though out of daily use, these articles are still kept in store.
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The Boulder-mortar of Ladakh.
In Plate II, is shown one boulder out of many in Leh, used by the people as a mortar for their daily wants. That in the illustration contained one small and five large mortar holes, the largest being 15 inches deep and shaped like the small end of an egg. The smallest is only two or three inches deep and hemispherical. The others vary from 8 to 12 inches in depth and in sphericity.
These boulder-mortars are called 'og-stun, and the pestle for using them gong-stun. In the illustration a man is shown in the act of using a boulder-mortar.
MUHAMMAD. HIS LIFE. BASED ON THE ARABIC SOURCES.
BY DR. HUBERT GRIMME, PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF FREIBURG.
(Translated by G. K. Nariman.)
Prefatory Notes.
THE following relation of Muhammad's life, which forms a necessary complement to the exposition of his doctrines, is based throughout on original sources published either in the Orient or the Occident, and in which, so far as I know, all information worth having has been exhaustively set forth. In utilizing these sources, I have partly followed lines other than those along which most of my predecessors had proceeded, and, in consequence, I have been more often than not unable to share their views.
In respect of the traditional literature I consider an attitude of caution absolutely requisite. No one can question that the earlier collections of the traditions offer much that is genuine and indispensable to an historical outline of the life of the Prophet. Yet it is equally indubitable that into no province, of literature is deliberate falsehood worked up with so much unblushing effrontery as here. But we are still far from possessing a method or test which should differentiate the spurious from the true with infallible certainty: a number of independent investigations on the compilations, authorities, contents and forms of the traditions is necessary to this end. Nevertheless individual explorers must still fall back each upon his own subjective judgment. And one cannot penetrate too far back to the fons et origo in order to clear the ground of the prevailing perversions. Besides, alongside of distorted versions of events the Ahadith embody much, too much, trivial matter, which, be it authentic or imaginary, is at all events immaterial to history. What, for instance, avails it to us, who do not participate in the Moslem's ever retrospective and imitative instinct, to know how the Prophet made his toilet, to what dishes he was particularly partial, or what pet-names he bestowed upon his favourite horses, asses, and camels? Finally all the traditions suffer from the besetting and inherent evil that they reflect only the spirit of the Medina, and never the earlier Mecca, epoch of Islam. This would still remain the greatest abiding defect, should we be even able to trace with tolerable precision the falsification and mutilation of facts to the latter-day court theologians or to the garrulous loquacity of the original biographers.
If, therefore, we had to depend solely on the Ahadith for an account of the life of Muhammad, we should be in a predicament similar to that of the thirsty wanderer in the desert, who catches sight, not of water, but of the delusive mirage. Happily, however, a strong spring of veracity bubbles up for us in the Qoran, and I have endeavoured to turn it to the best account. Not, however, that even here there is no need of circumspection. The difficulty is not the question
