new religion. Of these several subjects, the first two occupy a predominant place in the earliest revelations. Legends of prophets, of whom Mahomet recognized a considerable number, form one of the standing dishes set before the faithful during all but the very beginning of his career. He was also fond of speaking of the contrast between the position of believers and skeptics in a future state; but he seems at first to have expected a temporal judgment on his Meccan opponents, and afterwards to have been contented with awaiting the divine vengeance in another world. Legislation, of course, belongs only to that portion of the Koran which was revealed after the Hegira.
A few specimens will be quite sufficient to give a notion both of the earlier and later style of this sacred volume. Here is a Sura revealed at Mecca during the first struggles of the prophet's mind, when it was completely possessed with the awfulness of the new truth:—
"O thou enfolded in thy mantle, stand up all night, except a small
portion of it, for prayer. Half; or curtail the half a little,—or add to it:
and with measured tone intone the Koran, for we shall devolve on thee
weighty words. Verily, at the coming of night are devout (Italics, here
and elsewhere, in Rodwell) impressions strongest, and words are most
collected; but in the daytime thou hast continual employ—and commemorate
the name of thy Lord, and devote thyself to him with entire
devotion. . . . Of a truth, thy Lord knoweth that thou prayest
almost two-thirds, or half, or a third of the night, as do a part of thy
followers" (K., p. 7.—Sura, 73).
This is the opening Sura of the Koran:—
"Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds! the compassionate! the
merciful! King on the day of reckoning! Thee only do we worship, and
to thee do we cry for help. Guide thou us on the straight path, the
path of those to whom thou hast been gracious; with whom thou art not
angry, and who go not astray" (K., p. 11.—Sura, 1).
In the Sura now to be quoted we find an allusion to one of
the prophets whom Mahomet regarded as precursors—the
prophet Saleh, who had sent them to a people called Themoud
to bid them worship God. The legend associated with his name
