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upon the absurd scruples and questions of Muhammadan theology.

Some of the works attributed to Jalál-Addín must, judging from their titles alone, be curious and interesting:-A Confutation of the Millenarians,' or those who asserted that the world was to be at an end in the 1000th year of the Hijra, shows that the Millenarian delusion was borrowed by the Musalmán divines from the Christians. 'A Dissertation upon Muhammad's Parents,' in which they are said to have been raised up from the dead, converted to the Muhammadan faith, and received into heaven, being contradictory to several passages of the Korán, was perhaps a fable derived from the corrupt notions promulgated by the Latins respecting the parents of the Virgin Mary. A work entitled The Tortures of the Tomb,' and said by Casiri to be 'De Purgatorii Pœnis,' is probably not correctly so designated, for the Muhammadans do not seem to hold the Romish opinions on that subject. The work in question, in all probability, treats of the famous and long-disputed point-the eternity, or non-eternity, of the future punishment of true believers. Ten Dissertations upon the duty of

not avoiding the plague' would seem to imply that the author held the extreme opinions of the Jabarians, or Absolute Predestinarians. A small Collection of Traditions,' and a Critical History of Traditions,' as well as A Life of Muhammad,' would probably throw some interesting light upon Muhammadan superstitions and metaphysics. A Manual of Prayers for the morning and evening

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The above is all that the Translator can find upon the subject of the author. His public life indeed consists in his published works, and to deductions from these but little can be added. He lived at a period when the Ottoman power had attained the zenith of prosperity; and the latter part of his life was contemporary with the early part of that of Peter Bembo, one of the great revivers of European learning. The work upon the Masjidu-l-Aksá appears to be made up

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الاصابة

The above title is appropriate and becoming; but a work mentioned by Casiri, upon Muhammad's wives, is strangely entitled 'Columbæ;' a name which these ladies scarcely deserved. Aísha, at least, was a very wrathful dove.

of selections from various authors and authorities, sometimes minutely and tediously enumerated. The Moslem writers are mostly faithful and sincere narrators; breach of faith in any way is generally avoided. But the exact mention of various authorities would scarcely appear to guaranty perfect correctness, (which Ockley thinks,) since the authorities themselves may often possess little or no value; and when the authority alleged, ascending step by step, terminates at last in "a Shaikh of the noble house of Shaddad," "a certain man of the province of Khorasan," it is plain that the chain of testimony, if not broken, is materially weakened. We know also that many of the Muhammadan traditions are, as the doctors themselves acknowledge, entirely forged; and although this fact does not discredit assertions unconnected with their religious belief, yet it shows that we must guard against the error of confounding particularity, in tracing up authorities to their source, with the purity of the source when found. AlSíútí appears to have made his selection with much judgment. Even his legendary matter,

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although absurd, is amusing, and his historical and geographical notices display much information and erudition.

The book contains seventeen chapters. After an Introduction, in which the author describes the motives that induced him not only to visit Mecca, but also to remain there, and subsequently to proceed to Medína, and (after some interval) to Jerusalem,--concluding by a very intelligible appeal to the liberality of Musalmáns, to reward his zeal in accomplishing such excellent pilgrimages,— the first chapter relates the various names given to the Holy City at different eras, and a slight sketch of its history. Although the whole work is inscribed A History of the Masjidu-l-Aksá,' yet the contents of this first chapter would justify us in entitling it A History of Jerusalem' generally; nor do the subsequent chapters so exclusively relate to this mosque as to lead us to a different conclusion, although it be certainly a very prominent object of the author's regard. In the following chapters he proceeds to describe the Glorious Rock, the Temple of Solomon, the Mosque of Omar founded upon its site, the various saints and martyrs who have consecrated

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Jerusalem by their presence, the different sacred spots now objects of veneration, the conquest of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, (which in another place seems to be confounded with the sacking of the city by the Persians in the beginning of the seventh century, as well as with its demolition by Titus,) the surrender of the Holy Abode by the Patriarch Sophronius to the victorious Abu-Ubaidah, lieutenant of the second Khalíf Omar-Ibn-Al-Khattáb, its capture by the Crusaders under Godfrey, its recovery by Al Salah-Addín, its partial restoration to the Christians under the Emperor Frederic Barbarossa, and its final subjection to Muhammadan sway: the different spots of peculiar sanctity to be found in Palestine and Syria are described; the traditionary sayings of Muhammad, miracles, legends, visions, are troduced; the sacred cities of Damascus, Acre, Tyre, Antioch, &c. are mentioned; many traditions relating to the Patriarchs are brought forward; the peculiar privileges of the Holy City, (especially the Masjidu-l-Aksá and Al Sakhra,) and of Syria and Palestine generally, are very earnestly urged; and in the concluding chapter

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