Page:Judaism and Islam, a prize essay - Geiger - 1898.pdf/163

 DAVID. 145

incidentally in the history of Saul. Again, the story of David and Bathsheba is only distantly alluded to, in that (setting aside the passage 1 in which he is called <f Penitent " probably with reference to her) the parable of the case in law devise.d by the Prophet Nathan 2 is narrated, 3 and to it is added 4 that David perceived that this was a sign ; and after he had repented, he was received back into favour by Grod. According to the Quran the case in dispute is not related by the prophet, but the two disputants themselves come before David. In another pas- sage 5 mention is made of David's and Solomon's excellent judgment on the occasion of some quarrel unknown to us about shepherds tending flocks on strange fields at night. A remarkable circumstance is given in several passages, 6 where it is stated that David compelled the mountains and the birds to praise Grod with him, which, as Wahl rightly remarks, owes its origin to David's poetical address to all creatures, in which address he imagines them endowed with life and reason, and calls on them to join with him in extolling the Almighty. According to the Qura"n 7 mankind is indebted to David for the invention of armour. This legend probably arose from David's warlike fame, although there is much said in the Bible about Goliath's armour. In another passage 8 we find a general mention of David. In one of the Sunnas 9 it is mentioned that David did with very little sleep j and Elpherar 10 in a long chain of tradition beginning with Ibn ' Abbas and ending

1 Sura XXXVIII. 16. v>V * Samu el, xii. 1 ff.

3 Sura XXXVIII. 20-3. 4 Sura XXXVIII. 236.

5 Sura XXI. 78.

6 Suras XXI. 79, XXXIV. 10, XXXVIII. 16-20.

? Sura XXI. 80. 8 Sura XXVII. IB.

9 Sauna 143. l0 On Sura XXXVIII, 16,