Page:Judaism and Islam, a prize essay - Geiger - 1898.pdf/45

 ARAB COMPLAINT AGAINST MUHAMMAD. 27

of the same date which treats of the matter in question. Still there are plenty of passages there preserved to us, which, in a general way sufficiently prove our point ; and indeed they all contain either the blame expressed by Muhammad's contemporaries at his borrowing from Judaism, or else an appeal from him to the Jews, as witnesses of the truth of his assertions, He complains bitterly in many passages that the Arabs said his words were not original, 1 and even called them antiquated lies. 2 Sometimes they said still more definitely that a certain man taught him, 3 and the addition of the words : 4 " The tongue of the person unto whom they incline is a foreign tongue, but this is the perspicuous Arabic tongue," shows plainly that this man was a Jew. Commentators take this view, and indeed think that it was ' Abdullah Ibn Salam, a learned Rabbi, with whom Muhammad was in constant and close intercourse, and who is frequently mentioned in the commentaries. 5 Another rather more general statement is as follows : 6 " Other people have assisted him therein; 3 ' on which Elpherar remarks 7 : " Mujahid says, by this he means the Jews." Could any one desire a clearer historical witness than this accusation, which was so often brought against Muhammad,

Comp. Suras YIII. 31, XVI. 26, XXIII. 85, XXV. 6, XXVII.'W, XL VI. 16, LXVIII. 15,LXXXIII. 13.

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\ Sura XVI. 105.

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6 Abulfeda annales Moslemitioi I. 283.

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