148 THE REV. W. ST. CLAIR TISDALL, M.A., ON JSLAM: 
tions of the “ Prophet,” and a comparison of it with those 
other religious systems with which Muhammad was brought 
more especially in contact, will enable us to learn the measure 
of ofiginality which may be ascribed to it. Muhammad 
himself claimed for it none; for, though asserting that the 
Qur’an contained Gon’s last and most perfect revelation to 
man, and was revealed to himself word by word by the Angel 
Gabriel, he yet affirmed that the religion which he promul- 
gated was that of Abraham, and in fact of all the prophets,* 
declaring of the Father of the Faithful, the “Friendt of Gop,” 
that he himself also was neither a Jew nor a Christian, but an 
orthodox Muslim.t 
_ 2. When Muhammad appeared, although he found religion 
in a very corrupt state among his fellow-countrymen, yet they 
had by no means entirely lost all belief in the One True Gop. 
It has been well pointed out$ that the ancient and primeval 
religion of the Semites was monotheistic. Many Semitic 
tribes, it is true, as for instance the Assyrians, the Phoenicians, 
and even the Hebrews themselves at more than one period of 
their history, fell into polytheism and idolatry. Yet this 
process was a very gradual one, and in many cases the names 
of the deities worshipped are sufficient to prove that they 
had their origin in Monotheistic conceptions.|| The Northern 
Arabs, especially, seem to have preserved their pristine faith 
without very much corruption up to a comparatively late 
eriod. We find among them no such deities as the Baal, 
Ashtoreth, Moloch, Ammon, worshipped in Canaan. Hero- 
dotus{ informs us that the Arabs of his own day worshipped 
two principal deities, Orotal and Alilat. The former of these 
names is doubtless a corruption of ** Alldh Ta‘dla (GoD 
* F.g., Sirah X, 20 (vide Muhammadan commentators on the verse) 
Sdrah I], 118-129 ; Sarah III, 89; Sfrah IV, 124, ete. 
+ So called by Muslims also. Cf Sfirah IV, 124; Mishkat, p. 505, ete. 
Sfrah ITI, 58-60; and Sarah VI, 162. 
f Eg., by Ernest Renan, “ Histoire Générale et systéme comparé des 
Langues Sémitiques,” vol. i. 
|| Renan, op. cit. 
§] Herod., Lib. III, cap. viii :—Acévucoy dé Oedv podtvoy Kai rv Ovpaviny 
Hyeovra civau . . . dvopatovor b€ Toy prev Avovucoy ‘Oporad, tiv Se Ovpaviny 
“AMAdT. 
‘ 
** This (jd les ast) is one of the commonest titles of Gop among the 
Arabs, the oy bss of Gen. xiv, 18, 19, 22. 
