A Comprehensive Commentary on the Quran

Comprising Sale's Translation and Preliminary Discourse: Volume I

E.M. Wherry

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781136392047
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Ethnic Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

This comprehensive set includes thorough examinations of the Qurán in Wherry's essential four volume commentary. There is also an excellent overview of Islam by the well known scholar Edward Sell, The Faith of Islam which examines the history of Islam, the different forms of Islam and religious practice. This set will prove to be an excellent historical resource for anyone interested in western scholarship of Islamic doctrine, and the writings in the Qurán

SALE’S PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE.

SECTION I.

OF THE ARABS BEFORE MUHAMMAD; OR, AS THEY EXPRESS IT, IN THE TIME OF IGNORANCE; THEIR HISTORY,^* RELIGION, LEARNING, AND CUSTOMS.

The name Arabia.

THE Arabs, and the country they inhabit, which themselves call Jazírat al Arab, or the Peninsula of the Arabians, but we Arabia, were so named from Araba, a small territory in the province of Taháma;¹ to which Yarab the son of Qahtán, the father of the ancient Arabs, gave his name, and where, some ages after, dwelt Ismaíl the son of Abraham by Hagar. The Christian writers for several centuries speak of them under the appellation of Saracens, the most certain derivation of which word is from shark, the east, where the descendants of Joctan, the Qahtán of the Arabs, are placed by Moses,¹ and in which quarter they dwelt in respect to the Jews.².

Limits of Arabia.

The name of Arabia (used in a more extensive sense) sometimes comprehends all that large tract of land bounded by the river Euphrates, the Persian Gulf, the Sindian, Indian, and Red Seas, and part of the Mediterranean: above two-thirds of which country, that is, Arabia properly so called, the Arabs have possessed almost from the Flood; and have made themselves masters of the rest, either by settlements or continual incursions; for which reason the Turks and Persians at this day call the whole Arabistán, or the country of the Arabs.

But the limits of Arabia, in its more usual and proper sense, are much narrower, as reaching no farther northward than the Isthmus, which runs from Aila to the head of the Persian Gulf, and the borders of the territory of Kúfa; which tract of land the Greeks nearly comprehended under the name of Arabia the Happy. The Eastern geographers make Arabia Petræa to belong partly to Egypt, and partly to Shám or Syria, and the Desert Arabia they call the Deserts of Syria.³

Proper Arabia is by the Oriental writers generally divided into five provinces,⁴ viz., Yaman, Hijáz, Taháma, Najd, and Yamáma; to which some add Bahrain, as a sixth, but this province the more exact make part of Irák;⁵ others reduce them all to two, Yaman and Hijáz, the last including the three other provinces of Taháma, Najd, and Yamáma.

The province of Yaman.

The province of Yaman, so called either from its situation to the right hand, or south of the temple of Makkah, or else from the happiness and verdure of its soil, extends itself along the Indian Ocean from Aden to Cape Rasalgat; part of the Red Sea bounds it on the west and south sides, and the province of Hijáz on the north.¹ It is subdivided into several lesser provinces, as Hadramaut, Shihr, Omán, Najrán, &c., of which Shihr alone produces the frankincense.² The metropolis of Yaman is Sanaa, a very ancient city, in former times called Ozal,* and much celebrated for its delightful situation; but the prince at present resides about five leagues northward from thence, at a place no less pleasant, called Hisn al Mawáhib, or the Castle of Delights.³

This country has been famous from all antiquity for the happiness of its climate, its fertility and riches,⁴ which induced Alexander the Great, after his return from his Indian expedition, to form a design of conquering it, and fixing there his royal seat; but his death, which happened soon after, prevented the execution of this project.⁵ Yet, in reality, great part of the riches which the ancients imagined were the produce of Arabia, came really from the Indies and the coasts of Africa; for the Egyptians, who had engrossed that trade, which was then carried on by way of the Red Sea, to themselves, industriously concealed the truth of the matter, and kept their ports shut to prevent foreigners penetrating into those countries, or receiving any information thence; and this precaution of theirs on the one side, and the deserts, unpassable to strangers, on the other, were the reason why Arabia was so little known to the Greeks and Romans. The delightfulness and plenty of Yaman are owing to its mountains; for all that part which lies along the Red Sea is a dry, barren desert, in some places ten or twelve leagues over, but in return bounded by those mountains, which being well watered, enjoy an almost continual spring, and, besides coffee, the peculiar produce of this country, yield great plenty and variety of fruits, and in particular excellent corn, grapes, and spices. There are no rivers of note in this country, for the streams which at certain times of the year descend from the mountains, seldom reach the sea, being for the most part drunk up and lost in the burning sands of that coast.¹

So-called Arabian produce brought from India.

Produce of Yaman.

The soil of the other provinces is much more barren than that of Yaman; the greater part of their territories being covered with dry sands, or rising into rocks, interspersed here and there, with some fruitful spots, which receive their greatest advantages from their water and palm-trees.

The Hijáz–its boundaries.

The province of Hijáz, so named because it divides Najd from Taháma, is bounded on the south by Yaman and Taháma, on the west by the Red Sea, on the north by the deserts of Syria, and on the east by the province of Najd.² This province is famous for its two chief cities, Makkah and Madína, one of which is celebrated for its temple, and for having given birth to Muhammad; and the other for being the place of his residence for the last ten years of his life, and of his interment.

Makkah described.

Makkah, sometimes also called Bakkah, which words are synonymous, and signify a place of great concourse, is certainly one of the most ancient cities of the world: it is by some³ thpught to be the Mesa of the Scripture,⁴ a name not unknown to the Arabians, and supposed to be taken from one of Ismaíl’s sons.⁵ It is seated in a stony and barren valley, surrounded on all sides with mountains.⁶ The length of Makkah from south to north is about two miles, and its breadth from the foot of the mountain Ajyad, to the top of another called Koaikaán, about a mile.¹ In the midst of this space stands the city, built of stone cut from the neighbouring mountains.² There being no springs at Makkah,³ at least none but what are bitter and unfit to drink,⁴ except only the well Zamzam, the water of which, though far the best, yet cannot be drank of any continuance, being brackish,* and causing eruptions in those who drink plentifully of it,⁵ the inhabitants are obliged to use rain-water, which they catch in cisterns.⁶ But this not being sufficient, several attempts were made to bring water thither from other places by aqueducts; and particularly about Muhammad’s time, Zubair, one of the principal men of the tribe of Quraish, endeavoured, at a great expense, to supply the city with water from Mount Arafat, but without success; yet this was effected not many years ago, being begun at the charge of a wife of Sulaimán the Turkish emperor.⁷ But long before this another aqueduct had been made from a spring at a considerable distance, which was, after several years’ labour, finished by the Khalífah al Muktadir.⁸

The soil about Makkah is so very barren as to produce no fruits but what are common in the deserts, though the prince or Sharíf has a garden well planted at his castle of Marbaa, about three miles westward from the city, where he usually resides. Having therefore no corn or grain of their own growth, they are obliged to fetch it from other places;¹ and Hásham, Muhammad’s great-grandfather, then prince of his tribe, the more effectually to supply them with provisions, appointed two caravans to set out yearly for that purpose, the one in summer, and the other in winter:² these caravans of purveyors are mentioned in the Qurán. The provisions brought by them were distributed also twice a year, viz., in the month of Rajab, and at the arrival of the pilgrims. They are supplied with dates in great plenty from the adjacent country, and with grapes from Táyif, about sixty miles* distant, very few growing at Makkah. The inhabitants of this city are generally very rich, being considerable gainers by the prodigious concourse of people of almost all nations at the yearly pilgrimage, at which time there is a great fair or mart for all kinds of merchandise. They have also great numbers of cattle, and particularly of camels: however, the poorer sort cannot but live very indifferently in a ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Preface
• Contents
• Sale’s Preface
• Sale’s Preliminary Discourse
• The Qurán.