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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[OCTOBER, 1903.
whether the Qorán be essentially authentic, A question which I believe must be answered in the affirmative, nor yet the form of its text which has been preserved and transmitted to us from Muhammad's down to our own times without important variants, but the sequence and the elucidation of its chapters. For any one who would examine into the life and teachings of Muhammad it is imperative to construct a new order of the Súras, the best works on the subject like Nöldeke's Geschichte des Corans not claiming to have arrived at definite, or conclusive results. In treating the Meccan Súras the critical scholar has to weigh with the minute accuracy of a goldsmith the use of certain words and turns of expression with a view to ascertaining the gradual development of the dogma of Islam. But as regards the Medina Stras, whose text is accompanied with commentaries apparently replete with correct explanations, be must beware of placing too implicit a reliance in these ready-made glosses. The text calls for research, and that in passages where the Moslem exegete appears fully sanguine. It will be universally conceded, therefore, that it is time we overleaped the fence of scholia raised by the Moslems round their sacred book.
A word touching the works consulted in the preparation of this life of Muhammad. Of the several prominent authors, who are, as a rule, quoted from their editions published in the West, I have at my disposal only Oriental impressions, and I refer to them only. I have drawn, inter alia, upon : Bukhari, Sahib, Kahira 1299 A.H.; Baidhawi with the Jelalain on the margin, Constantinople 1303 A. H.; Ibn Athir, Kamil, Kahira 1303 A. H.; Masudi, Muraj-ud-Dhalab, on margin of Ibn-el-Athir, Vols. I.-X.; Ibn-Kotaiba, Kitab-el-Maarif, Kahira 1300. A. H. Wakidi I have used in the abridged translation of Wellhaugen. - THE AUTHOR.
CHAPTER L. Political Condition of Arabia at the end of the sixth Century. From the political point of view the palmy days of Arabia were over with the expiry of the sixth Christian century. The independence of yore yielded to the mighty forces at work from withont. In a few parts of the peninsula the old order almost completely changed, giving place to the new. The ancient civilization of the Sabeans or Southern Arabs survived, but their dominions passed into the hands of the Abyssinians as a prize of war in 525 A. D. The national strength was not adequate to get rid of these hereditary foes, and Persia found a tempting opportunity to interfere in the struggle for freedom. The country was doobtless evacuated by the Axumites, but was converted into a Persian satrapy. From all sides almost, Central Arabia fell within the sphere of Persian influence. The north-eastern marches, with the pastore fields of the Lower Euphrates and the territory of the kings of Bira, had long since sunk into a state of vassalage to the Persians. The east coast, from Bahrein to Oman, was a tributary of the same power. Kinda, which bade fair to be a national kingdom, was soon subverted. And the possession of South Arabia, with its important commercial emporia, completed the circuit. Meanwhile in the north-west the great rival of the Sarsapian Empire, East Rome, strained every nerve to plant its foot farthest into the interior of Arabia. Tho greatest portion of the ancient Nabatean monarchy, that extraordinary product of Arab mercantile spirit and Græco-Aramaic culture, which had extended from the gräberstadt of Hijr to Petra and Damascus, was under the secure supremacy of Byzantium, and constituted its province of Arabia with Bastra for its capital. A House of Arab princes, the Ghassanides, were the wardens of the marches. They at once kept back the marauding bands of the autocrats of Hira and the Sassanides, and overawed the Bedouins of the desert.
Thus only the tribes of Hijaz, Nejd, and Yemama had contrived to continue their independence from remote antiquity. But there was nothing to act as a common lodestone of national interests or prejudices on them all alike,-a deficiency which, in the case of Hijaz, even the trading city of Mecca, carrying on commerce between Yemen and Syria and the Kaphrates, could ill-supply.
