ITS ORIGIN, ITS STRENGTH, AND ITS WEAKNESS. 159 
and the “Arabic Gospel* of the Infancy,” that Jesus spoke 
when an infantf in the cradle, and that as a boy he gave life 
to a birdt made of clay. Following in the footsteps of the 
Valentinians, Basilides,§ and the Manicheans, Muhammad 
denied our Lord’s crucifixion, asserting that someone else 
had died in His stead. He rejected, however, the Docetism 
upon which this idea was based,—another example of the 
strangely composite nature of his doctrines and of his 
blunders. He evidently believed the Virgin Mary to be, in 
the opinion of Christians, the Third Person{ in the Trinity, 
and identified her with Miriam, the sister of** Aaron! This 
is almost paralleled by his statement that the Hebrews in the 
Wilderness were persuaded by a Samaritantt to make the 
Golden Calf!. 
5. The religion of Zoroaster again has left its mark upon 
Islam, gwing to the not inconsiderable number of ideas which 
Muhammad borrowed from it. In his early manhood the 
Persians exercised sovereign sway over many partstt of 
Arabia. Their tales were very popular among the Arabs, 
and are referred to in the Qur’an.§§ Along with the heroic 
legends of iran it was natural that some of its religious tenets 
* This work in its present form, however, is in a late style of Arabic ; 
it is probably a translation of a Syriac work, which may itself have been 
of Coptic origin. Vide the text in Giles’ “ Cod. Apoe. N. T.,” Vol.i, pp. 12, 
8qq- 
a “Ar. Evang. Infantiae,” cap. i; ef Sirah XIX, 30, 31, sqgq.; also 
Sfirah V, 109; Sfrah ITI, 40, 41, ete. 
f “ Pseudo-Thomas,” cap. ii (Giles, op. cit., Vol. I, pp. 48, 49): “ Ar. 
Evang. Inf.,” cap xxxvi; Sdrah III, 43; Sfrah V, 110. 
§ Irenaeus, “ Adv. Haeres.,” Lib. I, 23; August., ‘‘ Haeres,” IV, etc., 
ete. 
|| Sérah IV, 156. 
“| Cf. Sarah IV, 169 (wide also Al Beidhawi, Yahya, and Jaldlu’ddin’s 
commentaries iz loco). Vide also Sirah V, 76-79, 116, and Jalalu’ddin’s 
commentary. 
** Both Miriam and Mary are in Arabic (as in Hebrew) the same word— 
a ld 
in Arabic it is . Hence the confusion. The mother of Jesus is 
ea 
called “Sister of Aaron” in Sfirah XIX, 29. 
tt Stirah XX, 87, sqq. 
{{ Especially over the kingdom of Hirah in the north-east, also over 
the Arabs of ‘Iraqn’] ‘Arabi (Abd’l Fida, ‘‘ Hist. Ante-Islamica,” ed. 
Fleischer, p. 126). The Persians had also in Muhammad’s time succeeded 
the Abyssinians in the sovereignty of Yaman (Ibn Ishaq). 
§§ Sarah XX VII, 70; vide also Ibn Hisham, Part I, p. 124 
