Page:The Moslem World - Volume 02.djvu/40

34 Wellhausen, Reste Arabischen Heidentums.* (Second edition. Berlin, 1897.) Critical essays on the idols, the Haj, and the ancient cult of the Arabs, with reference to their literature and the origin of Islam. Muir's Introduction to his "Life of Mahomet," in four volumes, condenses mucli of the material found in these two standard works, as does also George Sale in the Preliminary Discourse to his Koran translation. As a handbook on the sources of Islam there is nothing better than W. St. Clair Tisdall's, The Original Sources of the Koran* (London: S.P.C.K., 1905). In addition to these the student should read Ignaz Goldziher's Mohammedanische Studien (2 vols. Halle, 1890), especially Volume I., which shows the relation between Arabian paganism and the rise of Islam.

There are over a score of biographies of Mohammed in the English language alone, and an equal number in other European languages, not to speak of the mass of literature on this subject found in Arabic, Persian and Turkish. Those who read German should secure A. Sprenger's Das Leben und die Lehre des Mohammed (3 vols. Berlin, 1865), and Gustav Weil's Das Leben Mohammed (2 vols. Stuttgart, 1864). For English readers a broad view of the whole subject will be obtained by comparing critically the following four books: Sir William Muir, Life of Mahomet (4 vols., Smith, Elder and Co., or in one volume, abridged 1894* London, 1858; S. W. Koelle, Mohammed and Mohammedanism Critically Considered (Rivington, London, 1888);* Ameer Ali, The Spirit of Islam; or, The Life and Teachings of Mohammed (S. K. Lahiri and Co., Calcutta, 1902); and D. S. Margoliouth, Mohammed and the Rise of Islam (G. P. Putnam's Sons, London, 1905). The first book named is exhaustive and probably the most authoritative. The second is from a missionary' standpoint and shows Mohammed not only in the daylight of history, but in the moonshine of tradition and in contrast with Jesus Christ our Saviour. The book is somewhat one-sided. Ameer Ali has written perhaps the most clever, though unhistorical apology possible, for the life of the Prophet. The work of Margoliouth is recent