Oriental Literature. 71 



o-reat honour to their nation, and may stand in the 

 place of an host of minor orientalists. 



In the eighteenth century, the Koran, or sacred 

 book of the Mahometans," was, for the first time, 

 translated into English, from the original Arabic. 

 In the seventeenth century that work was first 

 translated into the French language, by M. Du 

 Ryer, Consul of the French nation in Egypt, but 

 in a very imperfect manner. Soon afterwards a 

 translation from this version, with all its inaccura- 

 cies and imperfections, was made into English, by 

 Alexander Ross, who knew but little of the 

 French language, and nothing of the Arabic; and 

 w 7 ho, of course, as might have been expected, 

 added a great mass of mistakes to those of Du 

 Ryer. But in the century under consideration, 

 this ancient record of the Mahometan faith was 

 ably translated into English, from the original 

 Arabic, by Mr. George Sale, an English gentle- 

 man, profoundly versed in the literature of Arabia, 

 and who accompanied his work with instructive 

 and highly interesting annotations. The appear- 

 ance of this version may be considered as forming 

 an epoch in the progress of the sacred literature of 

 Arabia, among the learned of Europe. The trans- 

 lations of some other important works, both prose 



a " The book which the Mahometans call the Koran, or Alcoran, Is 

 ■composed of several papers and discourses of Mahomet, which were dis- 

 covered and collected after his death, and is by no means that same Lazo 

 "whose excellence Mahomet vaunted so highly. That some parts of the 

 true Koran may be copied in the modern one, is indeed very possible ; but 

 that the Koran, or Laiv, given by Mahomet to the Arabians, is entirety 

 distinct from the modern Alcoran, is manifest from this, that in the latter 

 Mahomet appeals to and extols the former, and therefore they must be 

 two different compositions. May it not be conjectured that the true Ko- 

 ran was an Arabic Poem, which Mahomet recited to his followers, witJt- 

 out giving it to them in writing, ordering them only to commit it to their 

 memories? Sueh were the laws of the Druids in Gaul, and such also those 

 of the Indians, which the Brahmins receive by oral tradition, and get hf 

 heart." Mosasm's £altt, Hist. vol. ii. p. Ij8. 



