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)
My Lord hath forbidden me, and the third was blank. If the first was drawn, they looked on it as an approbation of the enterprize in question; if the second, they made a contrary conclusion; buc if the third happened to be drawn, they mixed them and drew over again, till a decisive answer was given by one of the others. These divining arrows were generally consulted before any thing of moment was undertaken; as when a man was about to marry, or about to go a journey, or the like 1. This superstitious practice of divining by arrows was used by the ancient Greeks 2, and other nations; and is particularly mentioned in scripture 3, where it is said, that the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination; he made his arrows bright, (or, according to the version of the vulgate, which seems preferable in this place, be mixed together, or shook the arrows,) he consulted with images, &c. the commentary of St. Jerom on which passage wonderfully agrees with what we are told of the aforesaid custom of the old Arabs: He shall stand, says he, in the highway, and consult the oracle after the manner of his nation, that he may cast arrows into a quiver, and mix them together, being written upon or marked with the names of each people, that he may see whose arrow will come forth, and which city be ought first to attack 4.
Of forbidden food.
A distinction of meats was so generally used by the eastern nations, that it is no wonder that Mohammed made some regulations in that matter. The Korân, therefore, prohibits the eating of blood, and swines flesh, and whatever dies of itself, or is slain in the name or in honour of any idol, or is strangled, or killed by a blow, or a fall, or by any other beast 5. In which particulars Mohammed seems chiefly to have imitated the Jews, by whose law, as is well known, all those things are forbidden; but he allowed some things to be eaten which Moses did not 6, as camels flesh 7 in particular. In cases of necessity, however, where a man may be in danger of starving, he is allowed by the Mohammedan law to eat any of the said prohibited kinds of food 8; and the Jewish doctors grant the same liberty in the like case 9. Though the aversion to blood and what dies of itself may seem natural, yet some of the pagan Arabs
1 Ebn al Athîr, al Zamakh. & al Beid. in Kor. c. 5. Al Mostatraf, &c. V. Poc. Spec. p. 327, &c. & D’Herbel. Bibl. Orient. Art. Acdâh.
2 V. Potter, Antiq. of Greece, Vol. 1. p. 334.
3 Ezek. xxi. 21.
4 V. Poc. Spec. p. 329, &c.
5 Chap. 2. p. 20. ch. 5. p. 82. chap. 6. p. 111, & 114, & chap. 16. p. 225.
6 Lev. xi. 4.
7 See Kor. chap. 3. p. 42, & 47, & chap. 6. p. 114.
8 Kor. chap. 5. p. 83. and in the other passages Iast quoted.
9 V, Mainon. in Halachoth Mehchim. chap. 8. §. I, &c.
