Page:Islam, Turkey, and Armenia, and How They Happened.djvu/27

Rh ], Which they all have done except Azazil, one of the four distinguished archangels, who refused, saying, "Why should I, whom Thou hast created of fire, bow down to one whom Thou hast formed of clay?" For this offense and rebellion he was accursed and cast out of Paradise, and his name changed to Iblis, which signifies "despair." In revenge for his abasement he works all kinds of mischief against the posterity of Adam.

After eating the forbidden fruit, and being expelled from Paradise, which was in heaven, Adam was cast down to India and Eve to Jiddeh in Arabia, where they wandered alone 200 years without being able to find each other. On Adam's lamenting, God forgave his sin and led him to the districts of Mecca, where he found his wife, no more to separate. Eve gave twenty births, two children each time, one male and the other female. And God commanded each male to marry his next younger sister. Cain (they call Cabil) being disobedient to this divine order, wanted to marry the girl who was born with him. So God being displeased with him, did not accept his offering as He did that of Abel. Adam lived a thousand years and saw 40,000 of his descendants, after which he died on a Friday (the sacred day of the Mohametans) and was buried in the island of Serendib, Ceylon.

Seth, the son of Adam, being the most beautiful among mankind and a favorite of his father, received fifty pieces of revelation from God, and also built the Kabeh with stone and lime.