28 



OMAR— THE KORAN. 



[Ch. in. 



in wliose 



gement 



is considerable 



merit. 



The 



second chapter, ' On the Cause of Mountains/ is remarkable • 

 for mountains, lie says, are formed, some by essential, others 

 by accidental causes. In illustration of the essential, he in- 

 stances ' a violent earthquake, by which land is elevated and 



becomes 



mountain 



;' of the accidental, the principal, he 

 says, is excavation by water, whereby cavities are produced 



Omar 



made 

 rf the Ko 



same 



Omar, 

 work 



on 



named ' El Aalem/ or ' The Learned/ wrote a 

 • The Retreat of the Sea/ It appears that on 



comparing the charts of his own time with those made by 

 the Indian and Persian astronomers two thousand years 

 before, he had satisfied himself that important chai 

 taken place since the times of history in the form 

 coasts of Asia, and that the extension of the sea had been 



riods. He was confirmed in this 

 salt springs and marshes in the 



some former 



numerous 



interior of Asia, 



from 



same 



Hoff 



changes in the level of the Caspian (some of which there is 

 reason to believe have happened within the historical era), 

 and the geological appearances in that district, indicating 

 the desertion by that sea of its ancient bed, had probably led 

 Omar to his theory of a general subsidence. But whatever 

 may have been the proofs relied on, his system was declared 

 contradictory to certain passages in the Koran, and he was 

 called upon publicly to recant his errors ; to avoid which per- 

 secution he went into voluntary 

 kand.f 



banishment 



* 'Monies quandoque fiunt ex causa chichte l ter theil, s. 234.— The Arabian 



essentiali, quandoque ex causa ac- 

 cidentali. Ex essentiali causa, ut ex 

 vehement! motu terrse elevatur terra, 

 et fit mons. Accidental!, &c.' — De Con- 

 gelatione Lapidum, ed. Gedani, 1682. 

 f Von Hoff, Gesehichte der Veran- 



persecutions for heretical dogmas in 

 theology were often very sanguinary. 

 In the same ages wherein learning was 

 most in esteem, the Mahometans were 

 divided into two sects, one of whom 

 maintained that the Koran was increate 



derungen der Erdoberflache, vol. i. p. and had subsisted in the very essence 

 406, who cites Delisle, bey Hismann of God from all eternity ; and the other, 

 Welt-und Volkergeschichte. Alte Ges- the Motazalites, who, admitting that the 



