Page:Judaism and Islam, a prize essay - Geiger - 1898.pdf/22

 4 JUDAISM AND ISLAM. Was it compatible with the rest of his plan so to borrow? Was it permissible for him, and if so on what grounds?

These three enquiries form the different Sections of the first division.

FIRST SECTION. Did Muhammad wish to borrow from Judaism?
Although we may by no means ascribe to Muhammad a special liking for the Jews and for Judaism and indeed in his life, as well as in the writings which he left behind him as laws for posterity, there are traces of hatred against both; - still it is evident that, on the one hand, the power which the Jews had obtained in Arabia was important enough for him to wish to have them as adherents and, on the other, that they were, though themselves ignorant, far in advance of other religious bodies in that knowledge which Muhammad professed to have received by Divine revelation, as indeed he liked to assert of all his knowledge. The Jews, moreover, gave him so much trouble with witty and perplexing remarks that the wish to propitiate them must certainly have arisen in him.

That the Jews in Arabia at the time of Muhammad possessed considerable power is shown by the free life of many quite independent tribes, which sometimes met him in open battle. This fact is known especially of the Banu Qainuqa' in the second or third year of the Hijra, also of the Banu Nadhir in the 4th year. The latter are spoken of by