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)

temporal and eternal: and to bring them all to the obedience of Mohammed, as the prophet and ambassador of God, who after the repeated admonitions, promises, and threats of former ages, was at last to establish and propagate God’s religion on earth by force of arms, and to be acknowledged chief pontif in spiritual matters, as well as supream prince in temporal ¹.”

The great doctrine then of the Korân is the unity of God; to restore which point Mohammed pretended was the chief end of his mission; it being laid down by him as a fundamental truth, that there never was nor ever can be more than one true orthodox religion. For tho’ the particular laws or ceremonies are only temporary, and subject to alteration according to the divine direction, yet the substance of it being eternal truth, is not liable to change, but continues immutably the same. And he taught that whenever this religion became neglected, or corrupted in essentials, God had the goodness to reinform and readmonish mankind thereof, by several prophets, of whom Moses and Jesus were the most distinguished, till the appearance of Mohammed, who is their seal, no other being to be expected after him. And the more effectually to engage people to hearken to him, great part of the Korân is employed in relating examples of dreadful punishments formerly inflicted by God on those who rejected and abused his messengers; several of which stories or some circumstances of them are taken from the Old and New Testament, but many more from the apocryphal books and traditions of the Jews and Christians of those ages, set up in the Korân as truths in opposition to the scriptures, which the Jews and Christians are charged with having altered; and I am apt to believe that few or none of the relations or circumstances in the Korân were invented by Mohammed, as is generally supposed, it being easy to trace the greatest part of them much higher, as the rest might be, were more of those books extant, and it was worth while to make the inquiry.

The other part of the Korân is taken up in giving necessary laws and directions, in frequent admonitions to moral and divine vertues, and above all to the worshipping and reverencing of the only true God, and resignation to his will; among which are many excellent things intermixed not unworthy even a Christian’s perusal.

But besides these, there are a great number of passages which are occasional, and relate to particular emergencies. For whenever any thing happened which perplexed and gravelled Mohammed, and which he could not otherwise get over, he had constant recourse to a new