The Koran or Alcoran of Mohammed: With Explanatory Notes and Preliminary Discourse (Classic Reprint)

They must have a mean opinion of the Christian religion, or be but ill grounded therein, wlio can apprehend any danger from so manifest a forgery :and if the religious and civil institutions of foreign nations are worth our knowledge, those of Mohammed, the lawgiver of the A rabians, and founder of an empire which, in less tlian a century, spread itself over a greater part of the world than the Romans were ever masters of, must needs be so; whether we consider their extensive obtaining, or our frequent intercourse with those who are governed thereby. I shall not here inquire into the reasons why the law of Mohammed has met with so unexampled a reception in the world (for they are greatly deceived who imagine it to have been propagated by the sword alone), or by what means it came to be embraced by nations which never felt the force of theM ohammedan arms, and even by those which stripped the Arabians of their conquests, and put an end to the sovereignty and very being of their Khalifs :yet it seems as if there was something more than what is vulgarly imagined, in a religion which has made so surprising a pi ogress. But whatever use an impartial version of the Koran may be of in other respects, it is absolutely necessary to undeceive those who, from the ignorant or unfair translations which have appeared, have entertained too favourable an opinion of the original, and also to enable us effectually to expose the imp()stui e: none of those who have hitherto undertaken that province, not excepting Dr. Prideaux himself, having succeeded to the satisfaction of the judicious, for want of being complete masters of the controversy. The writers of the Romish communion, in particular, are so far from having done any service in their refutations of Mohammedism, that by endeavouring to defend their idolatry and other superstitions, they have rather contributed to the inc
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