JEWS, JUDAISM. The Jews are mentioned in the Qurʾān and Traditions under the names of Yahūdī (يهودى‎), pl. Yahūd, and Banū Isrāʾīl (بنو اسرائيل‎), “Children of Israel.” No distinction is made between Jews and Israelites. They are acknowledged to be a people in possession of a divine book, and are called Ahlu ʾl-Kitāb, or “people of the book.” Moses is their special law-giver (Abraham not having been a Jew, but a “Ḥanīf Muslim”); they are a people highly-favoured of God, but are said to have perverted the meaning of Scripture, and to have called Ezra “the Son of God.” They have an intense hatred of all true Muslims; and, as a punishment for their sins, some of them in times past had been changed into apes and swine, and others will have their hands tied to their necks and be cast into the Fire at the Day of Judgment.

The following are the selections from the Qurʾān relating to the Jews:—

Sūrah ii. 116: “O children of Israel! remember my favour wherewith I have favoured you, and that high above all mankind have I raised you.”

Sūrah v. 48, 49: “Verily, we have sent down the law (Taurāt) wherein are guidance and light. By it did the prophets who professed Islām judge the Jews; and the doctors and the teachers judged by that portion of the Book of God, of which they were the keepers and the witnesses. Therefore, O Jews! fear not men but fear Me; and barter not away my signs for a mean price! And whoso will not judge by what God hath sent down—such are the Infidels. And therein have we enacted for them, ‘Life for life, an eye for eye, and nose for nose, and ear for ear, and tooth for tooth, and for wounds retaliation’:—Whoso shall compromise it as alms shall have therein the expiation of his sin; and whoso will not judge by what God hath sent down—such are the transgressors.”

Sūrah iii. 60: “Abraham was not a Jew, nor yet a Christian. He was a Ḥanīf Muslim, and not an idolater.”

Sūrah ix. 30: “The Jews say, ‘Ezra (ʿUzair) is a son of God’; and the Christians say, ‘The Messiah is a son of God.’ Such the saying in their mouths! They resemble the saying of the Infidels of old! God do battle with them! How are they misguided!”

Sūrah vi. 147: “To the Jews did we forbid every beast having an entire hoof, and of both bullocks and sheep we forbade them the fat, save what might be on their backs, or their entrails, and the fat attached to the bone. With this have we recompensed them, because of their transgression: and verily, we are indeed equitable.”

Sūrah iv. 48, 49: “Among the Jews are those who displace the words of their Scriptures, and say, ‘We have heard, and we have not obeyed. Hear thou, but as one that heareth not; and LOOK AT US’; perplexing with their tongues, and wounding the Faith by their revilings. But if they would say, ‘We have heard, and we obey; hear thou, and REGARD US’; it were better for them, and more right. But God hath cursed them for their unbelief. Few only of them are believers!”

Sūrah ii. 70–73: “Desire ye then that for your sakes the Jews should believe? Yet a part of them heard the word of God, and then, after they had understood it, perverted it, and knew that they did so. And when they fall in with the faithful, they say, ‘We believe’; but when they are apart one with another, they say, ‘Will ye acquaint them with what God hath revealed to you, that they may dispute with you about it in the presence of your Lord?’ Understand ye their aim? Know they not that God knoweth what they hide, as well as what they bring to light? But there are illiterates among them who are not acquainted with the Book, but with lies only, and have but vague fancies. Woe to those who with their own hands transcribe the Book corruptly, and then say, ‘This is from God,’ that they may sell it for some mean price! Woe then to them for that which their hands have written! and, Woe to them for the gains which they have made!”

Sūrah v. 64–69: “Say: O people of the Book! do ye not disavow us only because we believe in God, and in what He hath sent down to us, and in what He hath sent down aforetime, and because most of you are doers of ill? Say: Can I announce to you any retribution worse than that which awaiteth them with God? They whom God hath cursed and with whom He hath been angry—some of them hath He changed into apes and swine; and they who worship T̤āg͟hūt are in evil plight, and have gone far astray from the right path! When they presented themselves to you they said, ‘We believe’; but Infidels they came in unto you, and Infidels they went forth! God well knew what they concealed. Many of them shalt thou see hastening together to wickedness and malice, and to eat unlawful things. Shame on them for what they have done! Had not their doctors and teachers forbidden their uttering wickedness, and their eating unlawful food, bad indeed would have been their doings! ‘The hand of God,’ say the Jews, ‘is chained up.’ Their own hands shall be chained up—and for that which they have said shall they be cursed. Nay! outstretched are both His hands! At His own pleasure does He bestow gifts. That which hath been sent down to thee from thy Lord will surely increase the rebellion and unbelief of many of them; and we have put enmity and hatred between them that shall last till the day of the Resurrection. Oft as they kindle a beacon fire for war shall God quench it! and their aim will be to abet disorder on the earth: but God loveth not the abettors of disorder.”

Nearly all the leading scripture characters connected with Old Testament history are either mentioned by name in the Qurʾān or are referred to in the Traditions and commentaries:—

(a) In the Qurʾān we have Adam (Ādam), Abel (Hābīl), Cain (Qābīl), Enoch (Idrīs), Noah (Nūḥ), Abraham (Ibrāhīm), Lot (Lūt̤), Isaac (Isḥāq), Ishmael (Ismāʿīl), Jacob (Yaʿqūb), Joseph (Yūsuf), Job (Aiyūb), Moses (Mūsā), Aaron (Hārūn), Korah (Qārūn), Pharaoh (Firʿaun), Haman (Hāmān), David (Dāʾūd), Goliath (Jālūt), Solomon (Sulaimān), Saul (T̤ālūt), Jonah (Yūnus), Elisha (Alyasaʿ).

(b) In the Traditions and in the earliest commentaries on the Qurʾān, are mentioned: Eve (Ḥawwāʾ), Hagar (Hājar), Nebuchadnezzar (Buk͟htnaṣṣar), Joshua (Yūshaʿ), Jeremiah (Armiyā), Isaiah (Shaʿyāʾ), Benjamin (Binyāmīn), Ezekiel (Ḥizqīl), Balaam (Balʿam), Daniel (Dāniyāl), Sarah (Sārah), and many others. But it is remarkable that after Solomon, there is no mention of the Kings of Israel and Judah.

(c) The chief incidents of Jewish history are recorded in the Qurʾān with a strange and curious admixture of Rabbinical fable. The creation of the world, the formation of Adam and Eve, the fall, the expulsion from Eden, Cain’s and Abel’s sacrifices, the death of Abel; Noah’s preaching, the Ark built, the deluge, the tower of Babel; Abraham, the friend of God, his call from idolatry, Isaac the son of promise, Sarah’s incredulity, Hagar and Ishmael, the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son, Lot and the cities of the plain; Jacob and the tribes, Joseph sold into Egypt, Potiphar’s wife, Joseph tempted, the dreams of the baker and butler, and of the king; Moses, his preservation in infancy, kills an Egyptian, flies to Midian, works miracles in the presence of Pharaoh, manna from heaven, the giving of the law, Aaron’s rod, the golden calf, the passage of the Red Sea; Job’s patience; Balaam cursing the Israelites; David’s psalms, his sin and repentance; Solomon’s wisdom, the Queen of Sheba, the building of the temple; Jonah’s preaching, his escape from the fish: these and many other incidents, evidently taken from the Old Testament, and worked up into a narrative with the assistance of Talmudic interpretations, form the chief historical portion of the Qurʾān.

(d) Many of the doctrines and social precepts of the Qurʾān are also from Judaism. The Unity of God, the ministry of angels, the inspired law, the law of marriage and divorce, domestic slavery, the day of Sacrifice, prayer and ablution, the lex talionis, the degrees of affinity, the stoning of the adulterer, and many other injunctions, are precisely those of the Mosaic code, with some modifications to meet the requirements of Arabian social life.

Whilst, therefore, Muḥammad took little of his religious system from Christianity, he was vastly indebted to Judaism both for his historical narratives and his doctrines and precepts. Islām is nothing more nor less than Judaism plus the Apostleship of Muḥammad. The teachings of Jesus form no part of his religious system. [CHRISTIANITY.]

(e) The Quraish charged Muḥammad with want of originality in his revelations. For even at the end of his career, and when he was uttering his latest Sūrahs, “they said, as our verses were rehearsed to them—‘This is nothing but tales of yore.’ ” (Sūrah viii. 31.) “And when it was said to them, What is it your Lord sent down? They said, ‘Old folk’s tales.’ ” (Sūrah xvi. 25.) The Quraish even charged him with having obtained assistance, “They said it is only some mortal who teaches him.” And Muḥammad admits there was someone who might be suspected of helping him, for he replies, “The tongue of him whom they lean towards is barbarous and this (Qurʾān) is plain Arabic.” (Sūrah xvi. 105.) Ḥusain, the commentator, in remarking upon this verse, says, “It is related that there was a slave belonging to ʿAmr ibn ʿAbdi ʾllāh al-Ḥaẓramī, named Jabr (and according to some a second slave named Yasār), who used to read the Law and the Gospel, and Muḥammad used, when he passed, to stand and listen.”

And the whole construction of the Qurʾān bears out the supposition that its subject matter was received orally and worked into poetical Arabic by a man of genius. Whatever he may have heard from the readings of Jabr and Yasār of the text of the Old and New Testament scriptures, it is very evident that he obtained his explanations from one well versed in Talmudic lore. A Jewish Rabbi, Abraham Geiger, in A.D. 1833, wrote a prize essay in answer to the question put by the university: “Inquiratur in fontes Alcorani seu legis Muhammedicæ eos, qui ex Judæismo derivandi sunt.” His essay in reply is entitled, “Was hat Mohammed aus dem Judenthume aufgenommen?” In this treatise it is clearly demonstrated how much the whole system of Islām is indebted to Talmudic Judaism for its teachings. Its narratives, its doctrines, and its theological terms, are chiefly derived from those of the Talmud.

The works of Geiger, J. M. Arnold, Hershom, McCaul, Bishop Barclay, Deutsch, Lightfoot, Schottgen, Ugolini, Meuschen (which pending a complete translation of the Talmud, can be consulted), will, upon comparison with the teachings of the Qurʾān, reveal how entirely Muḥammad constructed his religious system on the lines of Talmudic Judaism. We are indebted to the late Dr. J. M. Arnold’s Islam and Christianity, for the following review of the subject, he having largely availed himself of the facts given in Geiger’s celebrated essay, already referred to.

The seven heavens and the seven earths which are held in the Talmud, have found their way into the Qurʾān.2 During the creation, God’s glorious throne was placed in the air upon the water.3 According to the Talmud, “the world is the sixtieth part of the garden, the garden is the sixtieth part of Eden”; and Muḥammad states that the breadth of the garden is that of heaven and earth.4 Both in the Qurʾān and Talmud we find seven hells as the appointed abode for the damned, and each hell has seven gates in both documents.5 The entrance of Jahannam is marked, according to the Sukkah, by two date-trees, between which smoke issues; and the Qurʾān speaks of a tree in hell [ZAQQUM] of which the damned are to eat, and of which many terrible things are related.6 In the Talmud the prince of hell demands supply for his domain, and a similar request is made in the Qurʾān.7 Between the seven heavens and the seven hells is an intermediate place [AʿRAF], for those who are too good to be cast into hell and too imperfect to be admitted into heaven.8 This intermediate abode is, however, so narrow, that the conversations of the blessed and the damned on either side may be overheard. Again, the happiness of Paradise [PARADISE] is similarly described in both Talmud and Qurʾān;9 also the difficulty of attaining it. The Talmud declares that it is as easy for an elephant to enter through the eye of a needle; the Qurʾān substituting a camel for an elephant.10 That the dead live in the sight of God is stated in both documents in the same terms, and that there is no admission to the actual presence of the Almighty before the Day of Judgment and the resurrection of the dead.11 The signs of the last day as given in the Qurʾān are borrowed equally from the Scriptures and the Talmud.12 [RESURRECTION.]

The lengthened descriptions in the Qurʾān of the future resurrection and judgment are also tinged with a Talmudical colouring. That the several members of the human body shall bear witness against the damned, and that idols shall share in the punishment of their worshippers, is stated in both the Talmud and Qurʾān.13 The time of the last judgment Muḥammad declined to fix, resting upon the Jewish or Scriptural sentence, that “one day with God is like a thousand.”14 The Jews, in speaking of the resurrection of the dead, allude to the sending down of rain; the Qurʾān also affirms that this means of quickening the dead will be employed.15 Further still, the Talmudical idea that the dead will rise in the garments in which they were buried, likewise has been adopted by Islām.16 The Jewish opinion was that “all the prophets saw in a dark, but Moses in a clear mirror.”17 In the Qurʾān, God sends down His angelic messenger, Gabriel, as “the Holy Ghost,” with revelations; and this very notion of Gabriel being considered the Spirit of God seems to be borrowed from the Jews.18

Again, the demonology of the Qurʾān is chiefly taken from the Talmud. Three properties the demons have in common with angels, and three with men—they have wings like angels, they can fly from one end of the world to the other, and know things to come. But do they know future events? No, but they listen behind the veil. The three properties in common with men are: they eat and drink, indulge in physical love, and die.19 This Jewish idea was adopted in the Qurʾān, and spun out ad libitum; for instance, whilst listening once to the angelic conversations, they were hunted away with stones. Their presence in places of worship is admitted both in the Talmud and the Qurʾān; thus it happened that “when the servant of God stood up to invoke Him, the Jinns all but pressed on him in the crowd.”20 [GENII.]

Amongst the moral precepts which are borrowed from the Talmud, we may mention that children are not to obey their parents when the latter demand that which is evil.21 Prayer may be performed standing, walking, or even riding;22 devotions may be shortened in urgent cases, without committing sin;23 drunken persons are not to engage in acts of worship;24 ablutions before prayer are in special cases enforced, but generally required both in the Talmud and the Qurʾān;25 each permit the use of sand instead of water [TAYAMMUM], when the latter is not to be procured.26 The Talmud prohibits loud and noisy prayers, and Muḥammad gives this short injunction:—“Cry not in your prayers”;27 in addition to this secret prayer, public worship is equally commended. The Shema prayer of the Jews is to be performed “when one is able to distinguish a blue from a white thread,” and this is precisely the criterion of the commencement of the fast in the Qurʾān.28 [RAMAZAN.]

The following social precepts are likewise copied from Judaism: a divorced woman must wait three months before marrying again29 [DIVORCE]; mothers are to nurse their children two full years; and the degrees of affinity within which marriages are lawful.30 [MARRIAGE.] The historical incidents which Muḥammad borrowed from Judaism are embodied, regardless of the sources from which he gleaned them, and indifferent to all order or system. Ignorant of Jewish history, Muḥammad appropriates none of the historical way-marks which determine the great epochs recorded in the Old Testament, but confines himself to certain occurrences in the lives of single individuals. At the head of the antediluvian patriarchs stands the primogenitor of the human race. In Sūrah ii. 28–33 we read, “When thy Lord said to the angels, Verily I am going to place a substitute on earth, they said, Wilt thou place there one who will do evil therein and shed blood? but we celebrate Thy praise and sanctify Thee. God answered, Verily I know that which ye know not; and He taught Adam the names of all things, and then proposed them to the angels, and said, Declare unto me the names of these things if ye say truth. They answered, Praise be unto Thee, we have no knowledge but what Thou teachest us, for Thou art knowing and wise. God said, O, Adam, tell them their names. And when he had told them their names, God said, Did I not tell you that I know the secrets of heaven and earth, and know that which ye discover, and that which ye conceal?” Let us examine whence the Qurʾān obtained this information. “When God intended to create man, He advised with the angels and said unto them, We will make man in our own image (Gen. i. 26). Then said they, What is man, that Thou rememberest him (Psalm viii. 5), what shall be his peculiarity? He answered, His wisdom is superior to yours. Then brought He before them cattle, animals, and birds, and asked for their names, but they know it not. After man was created, He caused them to pass before Him, and asked for their names and he answered, This is an ox, that an ass, this a horse, and that a camel. But what is thy name? To me it becomes to be called ‘earthly,’ for from ‘earth’ I am created.”31 To this may be added the fable that God commanded the angels to worship Adam,32 which is likewise appropriated from Talmudic writings. Some Jewish fables record that the angels contemplated worshipping man, but were prevented by God; others precisely agree with the Qurʾān,33 that God commanded the angels to worship man, and that they obeyed with the exception of Satan.

The Sunnah informs us that Adam was sixty yards high, and Rabbinical fables make him extend from one end of the world to the other; but upon the angels esteeming him a second deity, God put His hand upon him and reduced him to a thousand yards!34 [ADAM.]

The account given in the Qurʾān of Cain’s murder is borrowed from the Bible, and his conversation with Abel, before he slew him,35 is the same as that in the Targum of Jerusalem, generally called pseudo-Jonathan. After the murder, Cain sees a raven burying another, and from this sight gains the idea of interring Abel. The Jewish fable differs only in ascribing the interment to the parents: “Adam and his wife sat weeping and lamenting him, not knowing what to do with the body, as they were unacquainted with burying. Then came a raven, whose fellow was dead: he took and buried it in the earth, hiding it before their eyes. Then said Adam, I shall do like this raven, and, taking Abel’s corpse, he dug in the earth and hid it.”36 The sentence following in the Qurʾān—“Wherefore we commanded the children of Israel, that he who slayeth a soul, not by way of retaliation, or because he doeth corruptly in the earth, shall be as if he had slain all mankind; but he who saveth a soul alive shall be as if he saved all souls alive,” would have no connection with what precedes or follows, were it not for the Targum of Onkelos, in the paraphrase of Gen. iv. 10, where it is said that the blood of Cain’s brother cried to God from the earth, thus implying that Abel’s posterity were also cut off. And in the Mishnah Sanhedrin, we find the very words which the Qurʾān attaches to the murder, apparently with sense or connection.37 [ABEL, CAIN.]

Noah stands forth as the preacher of righteousness, builds the ark, and is saved, with his family;38 his character is, however, drawn more from Rabbinical than Biblical sources. The conversations of Noah with the people, and the words with which they mocked him whilst building the ark,39 are the same in Talmudical writings as in the Qurʾān; and both declare that the generation of the flood was punished with boiling water.40 [NOAH.]

The next patriarch after the flood is Hūd, who is none other than Eber; another sample of the ignorance of Muḥammad. In the days of Hūd the tower is constructed; the “obstinate hero,” probably Nimrod, takes the lead; the sin of idolatry is abounding; an idol is contemplated as the crowning of the tower; but the building is overthrown, the tribes are dispersed, and punished in this world and in the world to come.41 These particulars are evidently borrowed from scripture and Rabbinical writings. In the Qurʾān, however, the dispersion is caused by a poisonous wind, and not by the confusion of tongues. The significance which the Qurʾān gives to Hūd is again in perfect accordance with Rabbinical Judaism: “Eber was a great prophet, for he prophetically called his son Peleg (dispersion), by the help of the Holy Ghost, because the earth was to be dispersed.”42 Among all the patriarchs, Abraham was most esteemed by Muḥammad, as being neither Jew nor Christian, but a Muslim. That he wrote books is also the belief of the Jewish doctors.43 His attaining the knowledge of the true faith, his zeal to convert his generation; his destruction of the idols; the fury of the people; their insisting on his being burned, and his marvellous deliverance: all these particulars in the life of Abraham, as given by the Qurʾān, are minutely copied from Jewish fictions.44 [HUD, ABRAHAM.]

The Qurʾān states that the angels whom Abraham received appeared as ordinary Arabs, and he was astonished when they declined to eat. According to the Talmud, they also “appeared to him no more than Arabs;”45 but another passage adds: “The angels descended and did eat. Are they, then, said to have really eaten? No! but they appeared as if they did eat and drink.” As a proof of Muḥammad’s uncertainty respecting the history of Abraham, we add, that the doubt regarding their having a son in their old age is expressed in the Qurʾān by Abraham instead of Sarah, and she is made to laugh at the promise of a son, before it was given. Again, the command to offer his son is given to Abraham before Isaac is born or promised, so that the son who was to be offered up could be none other than Ishmael, who was spoken of immediately before as the “meek youth!” Muḥammadan divines are, however, not agreed whether Ishmael was to be offered up, although it is reported by some that the horns of the ram, which was sacrificed in his stead, were preserved at Makkah, his dwelling-place! [ISHMAEL.] We may account for Muḥammad’s reckoning Ishmael among the prophets and patriarchs, from his being considered the patriarch of the Arabs and the founder of the Kaʿbah.

Among the sons of Jacob, Joseph occupies the pre-eminence. His history is mainly the same as in the Bible, embellished with the fabulous tradition of the Jews. Among these is the assumption that Joseph “would have sinned had he not seen the evident demonstration of his Lord.” That this is borrowed is clear from the following fable: Rabbi Jochanan saith, “Both intended to commit sin: seizing him by the garment, she said, Lie with me.… Then appeared to him the form of his father at the window, who called to him, Joseph! Joseph! the names of thy brothers shall be engraven upon the stones of the Ephod, also thine own: wilt thou that it shall be erased?”46 This is almost literally repeated by a Muslim commentary to the Sūrah xii. 24. The fable of Potiphar’s wife inviting the Egyptian ladies to a feast, to see Joseph, because they had laughed at her, and of their being so overcome with admiration of Joseph,47 that they accidentally cut their hands in eating fruit, is exactly so related in a very ancient Hebrew book, from which Muḥammad doubtless derived it. The story about the garment being rent, and the setting up of an evidence of guilt or innocence respecting it, is also borrowed, to the very letter from the same source.48 In this Sūrah it is also stated, that “the devil made him (Joseph) forget the remembrance of his Lord,” in perfect harmony with the Jewish tradition, “Vain speech tendeth to destruction; though Joseph twice urged the chief butler to remember him, yet he had to remain two years longer in prison.”49 The seeking protection from man is here represented as the instigation of Satan. [JOSEPH.]

The Qurʾān causes Jacob to tell his sons to enter at different gates, and the same injunction is given by the Patriarch in the Jewish writings: “Jacob said to them, Enter not through one and the same gate.”50 The exclamation of the sons of Israel, when they found the cup in Benjamin’s sack—“Has he stolen? so has his brother also”—are clearly a perversion of the words which the Jewish traditions put into their mouths: “Behold a thief, son of a female thief!” referring to the stealing of the Seraphim by Rachel.51 Muḥammad, again, acquaints us that Jacob knew by divine revelation that his son Joseph was still alive, and Jewish tradition enables us to point out whence he obtained the information. We read in the Midrash Jalkut, “An unbeliever asked our master, Do the dead continue to live? your parents do not believe it, and will ye receive it? Of Jacob, it is said, he refused to be comforted; had he believed that the dead still lived, would he not have been comforted? But he answered, Fool, he knew by the Holy Ghost that he still really lived, and about a living person people need no comfort.”52

Muḥammad made but scanty allusions to the early patriarchs, Joseph only excepted; but concerning Moses, it was his interest to be more profuse in his communications, possibly from the desire to be considered like him, as he is generally thought to have taken that prophet as his model. Among the oppressions which Pharaoh exercised towards the Jews, are named his ordering their children to be cast into the water. Moses, the son of ʿImrān was put into an ark by his mother; Pharaoh’s wife, observing the child, rescues him from death, and gives him back to his mother to nurse. When Moses was grown up, he sought to assist his oppressed brethren, and kills an Egyptian; being the next day reminded of this deed by an Hebrew, he flees to Midian, and marries the daughter of an inhabitant of that country.53 When about to leave Midian, he sees a burning bush, and, approaching it, receives a call to go to Egypt to exhort Pharaoh, and perform miracles; he accepts the mission, but requests the aid of his brother Aaron.54 Pharaoh, however remains an infidel, and gathers his sorcerers together, who perform only inferior miracles; and, in spite of Pharaoh’s threats, they become believers.55 Judgment falls upon the Egyptians; they are drowned, whilst the Israelites are saved.56 A rock yields water. Moses receives the law,57 and desires to see the glory of God.58 During Moses’ absence, the Israelites make a golden calf, which he destroys, and reducing it to powder, makes them drink it.59 After this, Moses chooses seventy men as assistants.60 The spies sent to Canaan are all wicked with the exception of two: the people being deceived by them, must wander forty years in the desert.61 Korah, on quarrelling with Moses, is swallowed up by the earth.62 [KORAH.] The marvellous journey of Moses with his servant is not to be omitted in this summary of events.63 Among the details deserve to be mentioned, that Hāmān and Korah were counsellors of Pharaoh.64 It is not surprising that Muḥammad should associate Hāmān with Pharaoh as an enemy of the Jews, since he cared little when individuals lived, provided they could be introduced with advantage. Korah, according to Jewish tradition, was chief agent or treasurer to Pharaoh.65 The ante-exodus persecution of the Jews is ascribed to a dream of Pharaoh.66 This is in exact accordance with Jewish tradition, which, as Canon Churton remarks, has in part the sanction of Acts vii. and Hebrews xi., though not found in Exodus: “The sorcerers said to Pharaoh, A boy shall be born who will lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Then thought he, Cast all male children into the river, and he will be cast in among them.”67 The words (Exod. xi. 7), “I will call one of the Hebrew women,” produced the Rabbinical fiction, “Why just a Hebrew woman? This shows that he was handed to all the Egyptian women; but he would not drink, for God said, The mouth which shall once speak with me, should it drink what is unclean?”68 This was too valuable for Muḥammad to omit from the Qurʾān.69 Although it is nowhere said in the Bible that the sign of the leprous hand was wrought in the presence of Pharaoh, yet the Qurʾān relates it as having there taken place.70 And in this also it was preceded by Jewish tradition—“He put his hand into his bosom, and withdrew it leprous, white as snow; they also put their hands into their bosoms and withdrew them leprous, white as snow.”71 Again, among Moses’ own people, none but his own tribe believed him.72 This Muḥammad doubtless inferred from the statement of the Rabbis: “The tribe of Levi was exempted from hard labour.”73 Among the sorcerers of Egypt, who first asked for their wages, and then became believers, when their serpents were swallowed by that of Moses,74 Pharaoh himself was chief.75 Here, again, Muḥammad is indebted to Judaism: “Pharaoh, who lived in the days of Moses, was a great sorcerer.”76 In other places of the Qurʾān, Pharaoh claims divinity,77 and Jewish tradition makes him declare, “Already from the beginning ye speak falsehood, for I am Lord of the world, I have made myself as well as the Nile”; as it is said of him (Ezek. xxix. 3), “Mine is the river, and I have made it.”78 The Arab prophet was much confused with regard to the plagues; in some places he enumerates nine,79 in others only five, the first of which is said to be the Flood!80 As the drowning in the Red Sea happened after the plagues, he can only allude to the Deluge.

The following somewhat dark and uncertain passage81 concerning Pharaoh has caused commentators great perplexity. It is stated that Pharaoh pursued the Israelites until actually drowning, when, confessing himself a Muslim, he was saved alive from the bottom of the sea, to be a “witness for ages to come.”82 But we find that it is merely a version of a Jewish fable: “Perceive the great power of repentance! Pharaoh, King of Egypt, uttered very wicked words—Who is the God whose voice I shall obey? (Exod. v. 2.) Yet as he repented, saying, ‘Who is like unto thee among the gods?’ (xv. 11) God saved him from death; for it saith, Almost had I stretched out my hands and destroyed; but God let him live, that he might declare his power and strength.”83

As Jewish commentators add to Exod. xv. 27, where we read of twelve fountains being found near Elim, that each of the tribes had a well,84 so Muḥammad transposes the statement, and declares that twelve fountains sprang from the rock which had been smitten by Moses at Rephidim.85 The Rabbinical fable, that God covered the Israelites with Mount Sinai, on the occasion of the law-giving,86 is thus amplified in the Qurʾān: “We shook the mountain over them, as though it had been a covering, and they imagined that it was falling upon them; and we said, ‘Receive the law which we have brought unto you with reverence.’”87 The Qurʾān adds that the Israelites, now demanding to see God, die, and are raised again.88 It will not be difficult to trace the origin of this figment. When the Israelites demanded two things from God—that they might see his glory and hear his voice—both were granted to them. Then it is added, “These things, however, they had no power to resist; as they came to Mount Sinai, and He appeared unto them, their souls escaped by His speaking, as it is said, ‘My soul escaped as He spake.’ The Torah, however, interceded for them, saying, ‘Does a king give his daughter to marriage and kill his household? The whole world rejoices (at my appearance), and thy children (the Israelites) shall they die?’ At once their souls returned; therefore it is said, The doctrine of God is perfect, and brings back the soul.”89 In the matter of the golden calf, the Qurʾān follows as usual the fabulous account of the Rabbinical traditions. Both represent Aaron as having been nearly killed when at first resisting the entreaty of the people. The Sanhedrin relates: “Aaron saw Chur slaughtered before his eyes (who opposed them), and he thought, If I do not yield to them they will deal with me as they dealt with Chur.”90 According to another passage in the Qurʾān, an Israelite named as-Sāmirī enticed them, and made the calf.91 Like the wandering Jew in Christian fable, as-Sāmirī is punished by Moses with endless wandering, and he is compelled to repeat the words, “Touch me not.”92 Jewish traditions make Mikah assist in manufacturing the idol calf;93 but Muḥammad either derived as-Sāmirī from Samael, or, as the Samaritans are stated by the Arab writers to have said, “Touch me not,” he may have considered as-Sāmirī as the author of the sect of the Samaritans. That the calf thus produced by as-Sāmirī from the ornaments of the people, lowed on being finished,94 is evidently a repetition of the following Jewish tradition: “The calf came forth (Exod. xxxii. 24) roaring, and the Israelites saw it. Rabbi Jehuda says, Samael entered the calf and roared to deceive the Israelites.” The addition, that the tribe of Levi remained faithful to God, is both Scriptural and Rabbinical.95 The matter of Korah is honoured with singular embellishments; for instance, Korah had such riches, that from ten to forty strong men were required to carry the keys of his treasures.96 Abū ʾl-Fidāʾ says forty mules were required to convey the keys. Jewish tradition is still more extravagant: “Joseph buried three treasures in Egypt, one of which became known to Korah. Riches are turned to destruction to him that possesses them (Eccles. v. 12), and this may well be applied to Korah. The keys to the treasures of Korah made a burden for 300 white mules.”97

The accusation from which God cleared his servant Moses, of which the Qurʾān makes mention, was occasioned by Korah. “Abu Aliah says it refers to Korah hiring a harlot to reproach Moses before all the people, upon which God struck her dumb, and destroyed Korah, which cleared Moses from the charge.”98 This is unquestionably an amplification of the following passage: “Moses heard, and fell on his face. What was it he heard? That they accused him of having to do with another man’s wife.”99 Others conceive the unjust charge from which Moses was cleared, to have been that of murdering Aaron on Mount Hor, because he and Eleazar only were present when Aaron died! That they had recourse to Jewish tradition, will appear from the subjoined extract: “The whole congregation saw that Aaron was dead; and when Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain, the whole congregation gathered together, asking, Where is Aaron? But they said, He is dead. How can the Angel of Death touch a man, by whom he was resisted and restrained, as it is said, He stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stayed? If ye bring him, it is well; if not, we will stone you. Moses prayed, Lord of the World, remove from me this suspicion! Then God opened and showed them Aaron’s body.” And to this the passage applies: “The whole congregation saw,” &c. (Numb. xx. 29, 75.) [MOSES.]

The time of the Judges is passed over unnoticed, and from the manner in which the election of a king is introduced,100 it would appear that Muḥammad was ignorant of the long interval between Moses and Saul.101 [SAUL.] Of David’s history, only his victory over Goliath and his fall through Bathsheba are recorded. [DAVID.] The Traditions make mention of the brevity of his slumbers, and commentators of the Qurʾān affirm the same: “The Apostle of God said David slept half the night; he then rose for a third part, and slept again a sixth part.” This is derived from the Rabbis, who assert that the king slept only for the term of “sixty breathings.”102 Of the wisdom of Solomon, the Qurʾān makes particular mention; and to support the statement, adds, that he understood the language of birds; this was also the opinion of the Jewish doctors. The winds, or, more probable, spirits, obeyed him; and demons, birds, and beasts, formed part of his standing army.103 Jewish commentators record that “demons of various kinds, and evil spirits were subject to him.”104 The story of the Queen of Sheba, and the adventures of the lapwing,105 are only abridgments from Jewish traditions. With regard to the fable, that demons assisted Solomon in the building of the Temple, and, being deceived, continued it after his death, we may here add that Muḥammad borrowed it directly from the Jews.106 When Solomon became haughty, one of his many demons ruled in his stead, till he repented. The Sanhedrin also refers to this degradation: “In the beginning Solomon reigned also over the upper worlds”; as it is said, “Solomon sat on the throne of God”; after that only over his staff, as it is said, “What profit hath a man of all his labour?” and still later, “This is my portion of all my labour.”107 On repenting, he maimed his horses, considering them a useless luxury. In the Talmud and the Scriptures, we find allusion to his obtaining them as well as to their being prohibited.108 [SOLOMON.]

Elijah is among the few characters which Muḥammad notices after Solomon; nothing, indeed, is mentioned of his rapture to heaven, yet he is considered a great prophet.109 Among the Jews, Elijah appears in human form to the pious on earth, he visits them in their places of worship, and communicates revelations from God to eminent Rabbis. In this character Elijah also appears in Muslim divinity. [ELIJAH.] Jonah is the “man of the fish”;110 Muḥammad relates his history in his usual style, not omitting his journey to Nineveh, or the gourd which afforded him shade. [JONAH.] Job, too, with his suffering and cure is noticed111 [JOB]; also the three men who were cast into a burning fiery furnace112 (Dan. iii. 8); the turning back of the shadow of degrees on the occasion of Hezekiah’s recovery.113

(See Arnold’s Islam and Christianity, Longmans, London, 1874, p. 116 seqq. Dr. J. M. Arnold gives in many instances the original Hebrew of his quotations from the Talmud.)

In the Qurʾān there are several Hebrew and Talmudic terms which seem to indicate that its author had become familiar with Talmudic teaching. The following are the most noticeable:—

(1) The Qurʾān, قران‎, from qaraʾ, “to read,” Heb. ‏קָרָא‎, and equivalent to ‏מִקְרָא‎, “reading.” See Neh. viii. 8: “And caused them to understand the reading.”

(2) The Mas̤ānī, مثانى‎, “repetitions,” Sūrah xv. 86, which is the Talmudic ‏מִשְׁנֶה‎.

(3) The Taurāt, توراة‎, used for the Books of Moses, the Heb. ‏תּוֹרָה‎ of the Old Testament.

(4) The Shechinah, or Sakīnah, سكينة‎, Sūrah ii. 249: “The sign of his kingdom is that there shall come to you the ARK (Tābūt), and SHECHINA (Sakīnah) in it from the Lord.” Heb. ‏שְׁכִינָה‎. A term not used in the Bible, but used by the Rabbinical writers to express the visible presence of God between the Cherubim on the Mercy seat of the Tabernacle.

(5) The Ark, Tābūt, تابوت‎. In Sūrah ii. 249, for the Ark of the Covenant, and in Sūrah xx. 39, for Noah’s Ark. The Heb. ‏תֵּבָה‎ (which is used in the Bible for Noah’s Ark and the ark of bulrushes), and not the Heb. ‏אֲרוֹן‎; the former being Rabbinical.

(6) Angel, Malak, ملك‎, Heb. ‏מַלְאָךְ‎, an angel or messenger of God.

(7) Spirit, Ruḥ, روح‎, Heb. ‏רוּחַ‎. A term used both for the angel Gabriel and for Jesus Christ.

(8) The Sabbath, Sabt, سبت‎. Sūrah vii. 164; ii. 62. Heb. ‏שַׁבָּת‎.

(9) Jahannam, γέεννα, hell, جهنم‎. The Rabbinical ‏גֵּיהִנֹּם‎, and not the ‏שְׁאוֹל‎, of the Old Testament. The final letter م‎ proves that it was adopted from the Talmudic Hebrew and not from the Greek.