ITS ORIGIN, ITS STRENGTH, AND ITS WEAKNESS. 155 
pointed* out a number of Aramaic words in the Qu1’An which 
have much puzzled Arabic commentators, and which form 
another unmistakable proof of Muhammad’s indebtedness to 
Talmudic lore. Among other minor matters in which the 
Qur’ain borrows from the same source may be mentioned the 
existence of seven heayensf and seven hells, the fact that at 
the Creation Gop’s thronet moved in the air over the waters, 
the existence of a “ Prince§ of Hell,” of Al A‘ratl) or the 
partition between heaven and hell, the prophecy that the 
Resurrection{] will be ushered in and helped forward by a 
great rain, the assertion that hell is never** full, the informa- 
tion that evil spirits hearken behind a curtainft to Gop’s 
counsels, and many other similar absurdities. What 
Muhammad relates of Hariti{ and Marit, two angels that 
‘sinned, is precisely what the Midrash Yalkit tells us of the 
angels Shamhazai and ‘Azaél. His assertion§§ that at the 
Deluge “the oven boiled up,’ is an echo of the Rabbinical 
saying that “the generation that lived at the time of the 
Flood were punished with hot water.” 
It was not merely such traditions as these that Muhammad 
borrowed from the Jews of his own time. He learnt from 
them to assert his belief in the Prophets of the Old Testa- 
SG - SEE are F IBr 7 
* £g,— I 43 == i 1g onl = RMD) mar; mer = 
Oy, 
ST: GC = NE oo = my Wade: O63 = 
° ais 0 ey ER . 5 Po 
We horde, tidsa: Jol = pe: od. = mode: 
(Geiger, pp. 41-60). For the Syriac words I am myself responsible. 
+ Sarah XVII, 46, 88; Chagigah IX, 2. 
t Sirah XI, 9; Rashi on Gen. i, 2. 
§ Called Malik by the Muslims (Mishkat : Bab Sifatwn Nari wa Ahlihd, 
section il), and by the the Rabbins merely 59379753 bys Ww, 
|| Sirah VIT, 44; ef. Midrash to Ece. vii, 14. 
| Tract Taanith, initio; Beréshith Rabbah; Pocock, “ Not, in Port 
Mosis,” pp. 117, 255. 
** Sdrah L, 29; ef. Othidth de Rabbi Aqibé, VIII, 1. 
tf Sarah LVII,5; XXXVII,7; XV, 17, 34,etc.; cf Geiger, pp. 83, 
84. 
tt Sfrah IT, 96 and Yahya’s comment. zn loc., quoted by Sale ; Midrash 
Yalkat, cap. XLIV; Geiger, p. 107. Jonathan’s Targum calls them 
Samhasai and ‘Uzziél. 
§§ Strah XI, 42, and XXIII, 27; Rosh Hashanah, XVI, 2; Sanhedrin, 
IP Va vr vv 
. 
108 :— ata prima Sra ss | Os 
