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 344 THE DECLINE AND FALL fixed and consecrated by the labours of Al Bochari, who dis- criminated seven thousand two hundred and seventy-five genuine traditions, from a mass of three hundred thousand reports of a more doubtful or spurious character. Each day the pious author prayed in the temple of Mecca, and performed his ablutions with the water of Zemzem ; the pages were successively deposited on the pulpit and the sepulchre of the apostle ; and the work has been approved by the four orthodox sects of the Sonnites.^^^ The mission of the ancient prophets, of Moses and of Jesus, had been confirmed by many splendid prodigies ; and Mahomet was repeatedly urged, by the inhabitants of Mecca and Medina, to produce a similar evidence of his divine legation : to call down from heaven the angel or the volume of his revelation, to create a garden in the desert, or to kindle a conflagration in the unbe- lieving city. As often as he is pressed by the demands of the Koreish, he involves himself in the obscure boast of vision and prophecy, appeals to the internal proofs of his doctrine, and shields himself behind the providence of God, who refuses those signs and wonders that would depreciate the merit of faith and aggravate the guilt of infidelity. But the modest or angry tone of his apologies betrays his weakness and vexation ; and these passages of scandal establish, beyond suspicion, the integrity of the Koran. I'J- The votaries of Mahomet are more assured than himself of his miraculous gifts, and their confidence and credu- lity increase as they are farther removed from the time and place of his spiritual exploits. They believe or affirm that trees -went forth to meet him ; that he was saluted by stones ; that water gushed from his fingers ; that he fed the hungry, cured the sick, and raised the dead ; that a beam groaned to him ; that a camel complained to him ; that a shoulder of mutton informed him of its being poisoned ; and that both animate and inanimate nature were equally subject to the apostle of God.^^^ His dream of a "1 Al Bochari died A.H. 224. See D'Herbelot, p. 208, 416, 827. Gagnier, Not. ad Abulfed. c. 19, p. 33. [He discriminated 4000 out of 600,000 traditions. His book, the Sahih Bokhari, is still of the highest authority in the world of Islam.] 102 See more remarkably, Koran, c. 2, 6, 12, 13, 17. Prideaux (Life of Ma- homet, p. 18, 19) has confounded the impostor. Maracci, with a more learned apparatus, has shewn that the passages which deny his miracles are clear and positive (.Alcoran, tom. i. part ii. p. 7-12), and those which seem to assert them are ambiguous and insufficient (p. 12-22). [This contradiction between the Koran and the Tradition on the matter of miracles is remarkable and instructive.] lO-^See the Specimen Hist. Arabum, the text of Abulpharagius, p. 17 ; the notes of Pocock, p. 187-190 ; D'Herbelot, Biblioth^que Orientale, p. 76, 77 ; Voyages