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)
judged too severe to be put in practice when that religion came to be sufficiently established, and past the danger of being subverted by its enemies 1. The same sentence was pronounced not only against the seven Canaanitish nations 2, whose possessions were given to the Israelites, and without whose destruction, in a manner, they could not have settled themselves in the country designed them, but against the Amalekites 3 and Midianites 4, who had done their utmost to cut them off in their passage thither. When the Mohammedans declare war against people of a different faith, they give them their choice of three offers, viz. either to embrace Mohammedism, in which case they become not only secure in their persons, families, and fortunes, but entitled to all the privileges of other Moslems; or to submit and pay tribute 5, by doing which they are allowed to profess their own religion, provided it be not gross idolatry, or against the moral law; or else to decide the quarrel by the sword, in which last case, if the Moslems prevail, the women and children which are made captives become absolute slaves, and the men taken in the battle may either be slain, unless they turn Mohammedans, or otherwise disposed of at the pleasure of the prince 6. Herewith agree the laws of war given to the Jews, which relate to the nations not devoted to destruction 7; and Joshua is said to have sent even to the inhabitants of Canaan, before he entered the land, three schedules, in one of which was written, Let him fly, who will; in the second, Let him surrender, who will; and in the third, Let him fight, who will 8; though none of those nations made peace with the Israelites (except only the Gibeonites, who obtained terms of security by stratagem, after they had refused those offered by Joshua) it being of the Lord to harden their hearts, that he might destroy them utterly 9.
On the first considerable success of Mohammed in war, the dispute which happened among his followers in relation to the dividing of
1 See Kor. chap. 47. p. 409, 410. and the notes there; and chap. 4. p. 72. chap. 5. p. 87.
2 Deut. xx. 16. — 18.
3 Ib. chap. xxv. 17. — 19.
4 Numb. xxxi. 17.
5 See chap. 9. p. 152, and the notes there.
6 See the notes to chap. 47. p. 410.
7 Deut. xx. 10 — 15
8 Talmud Hierosol. apud Maimonid. Halach. Melachim, c. 6. §. 5. R. Bechai, ex lib. Siphre. V. Selden. de Jure nat. & gent. sec. Hebr. l. 6. c. 13, & 14, & Schickardi Jus Regium Hebr. c. 5. Theor. 16.
9 Josh, xi. 20. The Jews. however, say that the Girgashites, believing they could not escape the destruction with which they were threatned by God, if they persisted to defend themselves, fled into Africa in great numbers; (V. Talm. Hierof. ubi sup.) And this is assigned as the reason why the Girgashites are not mentioned among the other Canaanitish nations who assembled to fight against Joshua, (Josh. ix. 1.) and who were doomed to utter extirpation (Deut. xx. 17.) But it is observable, that the Girgashites are not omitted by the Septuagint in either of those texts, and that their name appears in the latter of them in the Samaritan Pentateuch: they are also joined with the other Canaanites as having fought against Israel, in Josh. xxiv. 11.
