George Sale, The Koran, commonly called the Alcoran of Mohammed, translated into English immediately from the original Arabic; with Explanatory Notes, taken from the most approved Commentators. To which is prefixed A Preliminary Discource (1734)
have been particularly set down and described, tho’ with some few mistakes, by other writers 1, and ought not to be abridged, unless in some special cases; as on a journey, on preparing for battle, &c.
For the regular performance of the duty of prayer among the Mohammedans, besides the particulars above-mentioned, it is also requisite that they turn their faces, while they pray, towards the temple of Mecca 2; the quarter where the same is situate being, for that reason, pointed out within their Mosques by a nich, which they call al Mehrâb, and without, by the situation of the doors opening into the galleries of the steeples: there are also tables calculated for the ready finding out their Keblah, or part towards which they ought to pray, in places where they have no other direction 3.
But what is principally to be regarded in the discharge of this duty, say the Moslem doctors, is the inward disposition of the heart, which is the life and spirit of prayer 4; the most punctual observance: of the external rites and ceremonies before-mentioned being of little or no avail, if performed without due attention, reverence, devotion, and hope 5: so that we must not think the Mohammedans, or the considerate part of them at least, content themselves with the mere opus operatum, or imagine their whole religion to be placed therein 6.
I had like to have omitted two things which in my mind deserve mention on this head, and may, perhaps, be better defended than our contrary practice. One is, that the Mohammedans never address themselves to God in sumptuous apparel, tho’ they are obliged to be decently cloathed; but lay aside their costly habits and pompous ornaments, if they wear any, when they approach the divine presence, left they should seem proud and arrogant 7. The other is, that they admit not their women to pray with them in public; that sex being obliged to perform their devotions at home, or if they visit the mosques, it must be at a time when the men are not there: for the Moslems are of opinion that their presence inspires a different kind of devotion from that which is requisite in a place dedicated to the worship of God 8.
1 V. Hotting. Hist. Ecclef. Tom. 8. p. 470.—529. Bobov. in Liturg. Turcic. p. 1, &c. Grelot, Voyage de Constant. p. 253.—264. Chardin, Voy. de Perse. Tom. II. p. 388, &c. & Smith, de moribus ac instit. Turcar. Ep. 1. p. 33, &c.
2 Korân, chap. 2. p. 17. See the notes there.
3 V. Hyde, de Rel. vet. Pers. p. 8, 9, &. 126.
4 Al Ghazâli.
5 V. Poc. Spec. p. 305.
6 V. Smith, ubi sup. p. 40.
7 Reland. de Rel. Moh. p. 96. See Kor. chap. 7. p. 119.
8 A Moor, named Ahmed Ebn Abdalla, in a Latin epistle by him written to Maurice prince of Orange, and Emanuel prince of Portugal, containing a censure of the Christian religion, (a copy of which, once belonging to Mr. Selden, who has thence transcribed a considerable passage in his treatise De →
