A PAGE FROM ORIENTAL HISTORY

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1746, 23 August 1905, Page 69

A PAGE FROM ORIENTAL HISTORY

(From Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON, May 26.

From Mr John Murray comes a. volume which deserves a widespread welcome. “The Sword of Islam,” by Mr Arthur N. Wollaston, is a popular history of the great religion which Muhammed founded, and which at the present day numbers millions upon millions of adherents. Nor is its scope confined to an historical review of the rise of Islam, for the author devotes many chapters to a description of the teachings of the Koran, the quaint ceremonies of the Muhammedan religion, its fatiguing devotions, and its trying hardships. The volume, as the author says in his preface, is intended for the general reader rather than the scholar. “At a time when tne Fast with its bright imagery and ever-varying romance is gradually arousing the attention of the less emotional West,” says Mr Wollaston, “it has been thought advisable to enter the lists with an endeavour to awaken interest in the history of a religion and its followers, no inconsiderable number of whom bow the knee of submission to the Emperor of India.” It was a happy thought, and Mr Wollaston, writing with fifty years’ experience of Eastern life and thought, ha® produced a singularly interesting book. The story of Islam, as written here, teems wiith striking incidents, and strange and curious tales of mighty men long since passed away. Mr Wollaston’s graphic pages supply what the general reader has long wanted—an impartial, lucid, .and concise account, written in popular form, of the Muhammedan religion and its history. Few people are aware, perhaps, that Muhammedans acknowledge Jesus as one of the Prophets sent by God to reveal His will to men, and permitted to intercede in the V ay of Judgment for His followers. Muhammeci (the messenger of G-od) is revered as chief of all the Prophets, and next to him are placed Jesus (the spirit of God), Moses (the speaker of God), Abraham, (the friend of God), and JNoah (the prophet of God). It is, not a little curious to find that the one sinless prophet of Islam, he who alone of all is mentioned in the Koran as free from guilt, is the founder of the Christian Faith. In regard to the Day of Judgment Muslims hold the interesting belief that either a Jew or a Christian “will be assigned to each faithful Musuhnan as a substitute to be cast into the everlasting pit in case the accident of an adverse sentence on the part of the Ford of Heaven should overtake the hapless follower of the Prochet!” Of the scores of anecdotes which Mr Wollaston has interwoven with h;s narrative there is only space to mention one. The Muslims hold that the. Koran is of divine origin, and MuJiammed himself appealed to this miracle (for such they’'consider ro) for the confirmation of his mission, publicly challenging the most learned and gifted men of the day to produce a single chapter to compare with the book which he alleged God had whispered in his ear : “The story runs that a body of religious ‘Nihilists,’ seeing t-iie enormous power which the Quran exercised over the hearts of the faithful, commissioned a certain Ibn ai Muqalta a man or profound learning, unsurpassable -eloquence and vivid imagination, to produce a book to rival the Sacred Book of

Islam. Ibn al Muqaffa agreed, but stipulated that he should be allowed a period of twelve months wherein to accomplish his task, during which time all his bodily wants should be supplied, so that he might be enabled to concentrate his mind on the task which he had undertaken. At the expiration of half the allotted interval his friends, on coming to make inquiries as to his progress, found him sitting, pen in hand, deeply absorbed in stuay, while before him was a blank sneet of paper, and around his desk a wild confusion of closely-writ ten manuscripts ' torn to pieces, and scattered indiscriminately over the apartment. In good truth he had tried to write a single verse equalling the Quran in excellence, and failed ; and he confessed with confusion and shame that a solitary line had baffled all his efforts for six months; so he retired from the task hopeless and crestfallen.”