Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/773

 KORAN

693

KORAN

his adopted son, is sanctioned. There are various passages on the conjugal relations of Mohammed, the siege of Medina, and the fall of the Banu Qoreitza. Sura 57; injunctions to fight and contribute towards the expenses of war. The disaffected are warned. Christians are mentioned in kindly terms. Sura 61 : on war; speedy victory is promised. — The remaining sm-as belong exclusively to the last five years of the Prophet's life. Sura 48 refers to the truce of Hodei- bia, and the prospect of victory and spoil to be ob- tained elsewhere. Sura 60: on the treatment of the women who, after the truce, came over from Mecca; idolaters of Mecca to be shunned. Sura 66: on the affair of Mohammed and the Coptic maid. Sura 49: blaming the profession of the Bedouin Arabs as insin- cere, chiding the deputation which called out rudely at Mohammed's door, and exhorting believers against distrust and uncharitaljleness among themselves. Sura 9 treats of the campaign to Tebuk (a. h. 9). It opens with the "release" promulgated at the pilgrim- age of the same year and declares the antagonism of Islam to all other religions. All but Mohammedans are excluded from Mecca and the rites of pilgrimage. Idolaters are threatened with slaughter and slavery. War is declared against Jews and Christians until they are humbled and pay tribute. This sura is called "the crusade chapter", and in the early campaigns was often read on the field before battle.

Doctrine. — The doctrine of the Koran will be fully discussed in the article MoH.^.MMEDA^•ISM. It is sufficient to note here that the doctrine may be classi- fied under four categories: (1) faith, or what to be- lieve; (2) practice or worship; (3) ethics, or what to do and what to avoid; (4) moral, historical, and legen- dary lessons taken from the canonical, but mostly apocryphal. Christian and Jewish Scriptures, and from contemporary and ancient Arabian heathen- ism (see De Lacy Johnstone, "Muhammad and His Power", 1901, pp. 201 sqq.).

Chronological Order and Distinctive Features OF THE SUR.4.S. — Various efforts have been made by Mohammedan writers and European scholars to ar- range the suras chronologically, but Noldeke's ar- rangement is generally considered the most plausible. He divides the suras into Meccan and Medinian, namely those delivered at Mecca before the Flight or Hegira, and those delivered at Medina after the Flight. The Meccan suras are divided into three periods. To the first (from the first to the fifth year of Moham- med's mission) belong the following suras: 96, 74, 111, 106, 108, 104, 107, 102, 105, 92, 90, 94, 93, 97, 86, 91, 80, 68, 87, 95, 103, 85, 73, 101, 99, 82, 81, 53, 84, 100, 79, 77, 78, 88, 89, 75, 83, 69, 51, 52, 56, 70, 55, 1 12, 109, 113, 114, and 1. To the second period (the fifth and sixth year of his mission) are assigned suras 54, 37, 71, 76, 44, 50, 20, 26, 15, 19, 38, 36, 43, 72, 67, 23, 21, 25, 17, 27, and 18. "To the third period (from the seventh year to the Flight) belong the following suras: 32, 41, 45, 16, 30, 11, 14, 12, 40, 28, 39, 29, 31, 42, 10, 34, 35, 7, 46, 6, and 13. The Medina suras are those which remain, in the following order: 2, 98, 64, 62, 8, 47, 3, 61, 57, 4, 65, 59, 33, 63, 24, 58, 22, 48, 66, 60, 110, 9, and 5.

The characteristic features of the various suras and of the periods in which they were delivered is described by Mr. Palmer as follows: — "In the Meccan Suras Mohammed's one and steady purpose is to bring his hearers to a belief in the one only God; this he does by powerful rhetorical displays rather than logical argu- ments, by appealing to their feelings rather than their reason; by setting forth the manifestation of God in His works; by calling nature to witness to His presence; and by proclaiming His vengeance against those who associate other gods with Him, or attribute offsprings to Him. The appeal was strengthened by glowing

Eictures of the happiness in store for those who should elieve, and by frightful descriptions of the everlast-

ing torments prepared for the unbelievers. In the ear- lier chapters, too, the prophetic inspiration, the ear- nest conviction of the truth of his mission, and the violent emotion which his sense of responsibility caused him are plainly shown. The style is curt, grand, and often almost sublime; the expressions are full of poetical feeling, and the thoughts are earnest and passionate, though sometimes dim and confused, indicating the mental excitement and doubt through which they struggled to light.

" In the second period of the Meccan Suras, Moham- med appears to have conceived the idea of still fur- ther severing himself from the idolatry of his com- patriots, and of giving to the supreme deity Allah another title, Ar-Rahman, 'the merciful one'. The Meccans, however, seem to have taken these for the names of separate deities, and the name is abandoned in the later chapters.

" In the Suras of the second Meccan period we first find the long stories of the prophets of olden times, especial stress being laid upon the punishment which fell upon their contemporaries for disbelief; the moral is always the same, namely, that Mohammed came under precisely similar circumstances, and that a de- nial of the truth of his mission would bring on his fel- low-citizens the self-same retribution. They also show the transition stage between the intense and poetical enthusiasm of the early Meccan chapters and the calm teaching of the later Medinah ones. This change is gradual, and even in the later and most pro- saic we find occasionally passages in which the old prophetic fire flashes out once more. The three periods are again marked by the oaths which occur throughout the Kuran. In the first period they are all frequent and often long, the whole powers of nature being invoked to bear witness to the unity of God and the mission of His Apostle; in the second period they are shorter and of rarer occurrence; in the last period they are absent altogether.

""To understand the Medinah Suras we must bear in mind Mohammed's position with respect to the various parties in that city. In Mecca he had been a prophet with little honour in his own country, looked on by some as a madman, and by others as an im- postor, both equally grievous to him, while his follow- ing consisted of the poorest and meanest of his fellow- townsmen. His own clansmen, for the reason that they were his clansmen and for no other, resented the affronts against him. In Medinah he appears as a military leader and a prince, though as yet possessing far from absolute authority. Around in the city were, first, the true believers who had fled with him. El Muhagerin; next, the inhabitants of Yathrib, who had joined him and who were called El Ansar, 'the helpers'; and lastly, a large class who are spoken of by the uncomplimentary name of Munafiqun or ' hyp- ocrites', consisting of those who went over to his side from fear or compulsion, and lastly tho.se 'in whose heart is sickness ', who, though believing in him, were prevented by tribal or family ties from going over to him openly. Abdallah ibn Ubai was a chief whose in- fluence operated strongly against Mohammed, and the latter was obliged to treat him for a long time almost as an equal, even after he had lost his pohtical power. The other party at Medinah was composed of the Jewish tribes settled in and around the city of Yath- rib. The Jews were at first looked to as the most natural and likely supporters of the new religion, which was to confirm their own. These various par- ties together with the pagan Arabs of Mecca and the Christians are the persons with whom the Medinah Suras chiefly deal. The style of the Medinah Suras resembles that of the third period of the Meccan reve- lations, the more matter-of-fact nature of the inci- dents related or the precepts given accounting in a great measure for the more prosaic language in which they are expressed. In the Medinali Suras the