1850.] of the original text of Tabary. 1 1 1 



little pains to illustrate it, I extract here the information contained in 

 Tabary. 



The account followed by most biographers of Mohammad is, that 

 contained in a tradition of 'Ayishah which runs as follows in Bokhary, 

 edition of Dehli, p. 1. "I have been informed by Yahya b. Bokayr 

 that he has been informed by al Layth from 'Oqayl from Ibn Shahab 

 (i. e. Zohry,) from 'Orwah b. al Zobayr from 'Ayishah the mother of 

 the faithful that she said, the first kind of inspiration which the prophet 

 received were visions of a pious character in his sleep, whenever he had 

 a dream it was as true and clear as the dawn of morning ; after this 

 God filled him with a love for solitude ; he used to spend his time in 

 seclusion in a cave in mount Hira and there he used to perform 

 tahannoth, this means devotional exercises for several nights, and then 

 he returned to his family. He used to take provisions with him 

 for the time of the tahannoth, and when they were exhausted he used to 

 return to Khadyjah, and he fetched new supplies for the same purpose. 

 At length the truth came to him whilst he was in the cave of Hira. 

 The angel came to him and said, Read. I answered, I wont read.* 

 The angel seized me and squeezed me, as much as I could bear, then 

 he let me go and said again, Read ! I answered, I wont read. Then 

 he seized me a third time and said, Read, in the name of thy Lord the 

 Creator, who has created man of congealed blood, Read, for thy Lord 

 is the most gracious. The prophet much alarmed by this apparition 

 returned to his wife Khadyjah, and said, Wrap me up ; and they did 

 wrap him up until he was relieved from his fear. Then he told 

 Khadyjah what had happened, and said, I fear for myself (i. e. I fear 

 I am mad or possessed by evil spirits), and she said, God beware ! 

 He will never inflict such punishment upon thee, thou art kind to thy 

 relations, helpest the distressed, assistest the needy, art hospitable to 

 strangers and thou contributest towards the liquidation of the debts of 

 others. Then Khadyjah went with him to her cousin Waraqah b. 

 Nawfal. He was a man who had embraced the Christian religion 

 during the time of paganism and he knew writing Hebrew, and he 

 wrote as much of the gospel in Hebrew as God pleased that he should 

 write. He was an old man and had become blind. Khadyjah said to 



* Literally I am not reading. On the import of this idiom, see my Life of 

 Mohammad, page 95, note. 



