Note [original edition] : A certain man teacheth him, &c.] This was a great objection made by the
Meccans to the authority of
the
Korân; for when
Mohammed insisted, as a proof of its divine original, that
it was impossible a man so utterly unacquainted with learning as himself could
compose such a book, they replied, that he had one or more assistants in the
forgery; but as to the particular person or persons suspected of this
confederacy, the traditions differ. One says it was
Jabar, a
Greek, servant
to
Amer Ebn al Hadrami, who could read and write well
3;
another, that they
were
Jabar and
Yesâr, two slaves who followed the trade of sword-cutlers at
Mecca, and used to read the pentateuch and gospel, and had often
Mohammed for
their auditor, when he passed that way
4.
Another tells us, it was one
Aïsh,
or
Yâïsh, a domestic of al
Haweiteb Ebn Abd al Uzza, who was a man of some
learning, and had embraced
Mohammedism
5.
Another supposes it was one
Kais, a
Christian, whose house
Mohammed frequented
6;
another, that it was
Addâs, a
servant of
Otba Ebn Rabîa
7;
and another, that it was
Salmân the
Persian
8.
According to some
Christian writers
9,
Abdallah Ebn Salâm, the
Jew who
was so intimate with
Mohammed (named by one, according to the
Hebrew dialect,
Abdias Ben Salon and by another,
Abdala Celen), was assisting to him in the
compiling his pretended revelations. This
Jew Dr.
Prideaux confounds with
Salmân the
Persian, who was a very different man, as a late author
10
has
observed before me; wherefore, and for that we may have occasion to speak of
Salmân hereafter, it may be proper to add a brief extract of his story as told
by himself. He was of a good family of
Ispahan, and, in his younger years,
left the religion of his country to embrace Christianity; and travelling into
Syria, was advised by a certain monk of
Amuria to go into
Arabia, where a
prophet was expected to arise about that time, who should establish the
religion of
Abraham; and whom he should know, among other things, by the seal
of prophecy between his shoulders.
Salmân performed the journey, and meeting
with
Mohammed at Koba, where he rested in his flight to
Medina, soon found him
to be the person he sought, and professed
Islâm
11.
The general opinion of the
Christians, however is, that the chief help
Mohammed had in the contriving his
Korân, was from a
Nestorian monk named
Sergius, supposed to be the same person with the monk
Boheira, with whom
Mohammed in his younger years had some conference, at
Bosra, a city of
Syria
Damascena, where that monk resided
1.
To confirm which supposition, a passage has been produced from an
Arab writer
2,
who says
that
Boheira’s name in the books of the
Christians, is
Sergius; but this is
only a conjecture; and another
3
tells us, his true name was
Saïd, or
Felix,
and his surname
Boheira. But be that as it will, if
Boheira and
Sergius were
the same man, I find not the least intimation in the
Mohammedan writers that
he ever quitted his monastery to go into
Arabia (as is supposed by the
Christians); and his acquaintance with
Mohammed at
Bosra was too early to
favour the surmise of his assisting him in the
Korân, which was composed long
after; tho’
Mohammed might, from his discourse, gain some knowledge of
Christianity and of the scriptures, which might be of use to him therein.
From the answer given in this passage of the
Korân to the objection of
the infidels,
viz. that the person suspected by them to have a hand in the
Korân spoke a foreign language, and therefore could not, with any face of
probability, be supposed to assist in a composition written in the
Arabic
tongue, and with so great elegance, it is plain this person was no
Arabian.
The word
Ajami, which is here used, signifies any
foreign or
barbarous
language in general; but the
Arabs applying it more particularly to the
Persian, it has been thence concluded by some that
Salmân was the person;
however, if it be true that he came not to
Mohammed till after the
Hejra,
either he could not be the man here intended, or else this verse must have
been revealed at
Medina, contrary to the common opinion.
-
3
Al Zamakhshari, Al Beidawi, Yahya.
-
4
Al Zamakh. Al Beidawi. See Prid. Life of Mah. p. 32.
-
5
Iidem.
-
6
Jallalo’ddin.
-
7
Al Zamakh. Yahya.
-
8
Al Zamakh. Al Beidawi.
-
9
Ricardi Confut. Legis Saracenicæ, c. 13. Joh. Andreas, de Confus. Sectæ Mahometanæ, c. 2. See Prid. Life of Mah.
p. 33, 34.
-
10
Gagnier not. in Abulf. vit. Moh. p. 74.
-
11
Ex Ebn Ishak. V. Gagnier, ibid.
-
1
See Prid. ubi sup. p. 35, &c.
Gagnier, ubi sup. p. 10, 11. Marrac. de Alcor. p. 37.
-
2
Al Masudi.
-
3
Abu’l Hasan al Becri in Koran.