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)

The Preliminary Discourse.

These things were observed by the old Arabs in honour of their false gods 1, and as part of the worship which they paid them, and were ascribed to the divine institution; but are all condemned in the Korân, and declared to be impious superstitions 2.

The custom of their burying their daughters alive, abolished.
The law of Mohammed also put a stop to the inhuman custom, which had been long practised by the pagan Arabs, of burying their daughters alive, lest they should be reduced to poverty by providing for them, or else to avoid the displeasure and disgrace which would follow, if they should happen to be made captives, or to become scandalous by their behaviour 3; the birth of a daughter being, for these reasons, reckoned a great misfortune 4, and the death of one as great a happiness 5. The manner of their doing this is differently related: some say that when an Arab had a daughter born, if he intended to bring her up, he sent her, cloathed in a garment of wool or hair, to keep camels or sheep in the desart; but if he designed to put her to death, he let her live till the became six years old, and then said to her mother, Perfume her, and adorn her, that I may carry her to her mothers; which being done, the father led her to a well or pit dug for that purpose, and having bid her to look down into it, pushed her in headlong, as he stood behind her, and then filling up the pit, levelled it with the rest of the ground: but others say, that when a woman was ready to fall in labour, they dug a pit, on the brink whereof she was to be delivered, and if the child happened to be a daughter, they threw it into the pit, but if a son, they saved it alive 6. This custom, though not observed by all the Arabs in general, was yet very common among several of their tribes, and particularly those of Koreish and Kendah; the former using to bury their daughters alive in mount Abu Dalâma, near Mecca 7. In the time of ignorance, while they used this method to get rid of their daughters, Sásaá, grandfather to the celebrated poet al Farazdak, frequently redeemed female children from death, giving for every one two she-camels big with young, and a he-camel; and hereto al Farazdak alluded when, vaunting himself before one of the Khalîfs of the family of Omeyya, he said, I am the son of the giver of life to the dead; for which expression being censured, he excused himself by alledging the following words of the Korân 8, He who saveth a soul alive, shall be as if he had saved the lives of all

1 Jallal. in Kor.

2 Kor. chap. 5. p. 96, and chap. 6. p. 113, 114. V. Poc. Specim. p. 330, —— 334.

3 Al Beidâwi, al Zamakh. al Mostatraf.

4 See Korân, chap. 16. p. 218.

5 Al Meidàni.

6 Al Zamakh.

7 Al Mostatraf.

8 Chap. 5. p. 87.

s 2

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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, C. Ackers in St. John’s-Street, for J. Wilcon at Virgil’s Head overagainst the New Church in the Strand., Consulted online at “Quran Archive - Texts and Studies on the Quran” on 29 Mar. 2024: http://quran-archive.org/explorer/george-sale/1734?page=151