128 Notice of a copy of the fourth volume [No. 2. 



vain opinion and what the hearts desire, — yet there has come unto 

 them, the true direction from God. Shall man have what he wishes ? 

 The present life and the life to come are God's, and how many angels 

 soever there be in the heavens, their intercession shall be of no avail 

 until after God shall have granted permission unto whom he shall 

 please and shall accept." And therefore, if the intermission of the an- 

 gels is not accepted by God, how shall that of your idols be acceptable to 

 him ? When God had expunged the words which Satan had prompted 

 to the prophet from the Qoran, the Qorayshites said, Mohammad has 

 repented his having attributed to our gods, so high a position in the sight 

 of Allah, he changed what he said and put another passage in its place. 

 The two sentences which the devil had prompted to Mohammad, had 

 fallen into the mouth of the unbelievers, and they became more malici- 

 ous against the Moslims than they had been before, and increased the 

 persecution. Meanwhile those who on hearing the news that the Qoray- 

 shites had embraced the Islam had left Abessynia, arrived in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Makkah ; there they learned that what they had heard of 

 the conversion of the Makkians was premature, and therefore those few of 

 them who entered Makkah did so secretly, or under the protection of 

 some friend. The following men did, on this occasion, come to Makkah, 

 and remained there until the flight to Madynah took place. Of the 

 family of 'Abd Shams remained 'Othman b. 'Affan with his wife 

 Royayyah who was a daughter of the prophet, and Abu Hodzayfah b. 

 'Otbah b. Raby'ah b. 'Abd Shams, and with him was his wife Sahlah 

 a daughter of Sohayl and some others, there were in all thirty men.'* 



Tabary has a second tradition on the same subject. It rests ulti- 

 mately like the preceding on the authority of Mohammad b. Ka'b 

 Qoratzy backed by the authority of Mohammad b. Qays, and it seems 

 that it was first taken to paper by Abu Ma'shar, one of their pupils. 

 This Abu Ma'shar is probably not identical with the astronomer of 

 that name, for the latter was born in A. H. 190 and died in A. H. 272 ; 

 and the former is occasionally mentioned as an authority of Waqidy 

 who died in A. H. 207- 



The tradition runs : " The prophet was sitting in the society of some 

 Qorayshite chiefs (Waqidy adds, round the Ka'bah,) and he wished very 

 much that God might not send him such revelations as were calculated 

 to turn his people away from him. God revealed to him * By the star 



