B. Stories and Legends: (According to Rabbi Geiger.) Adam, Cain, Enoch; the fabulous things in Koran are _identical_ with Talmud. Noah—the flood—Eber (Hud)—Isaac,—Ishmael—_Joseph_. Cf. Koran with Talmud. Abraham—His idolatry—Nimrod’s oven—Pharao—the calf—(taken from Talmud.) Moses—The fables related of him and Aaron are old Jewish tales. Jethro (Shuaib); Saul (Taloot); Goliath (Jiloot), and _Solomon_ especially. Cf. Talmud. III. From CHRISTIANITY (Corrupt form, as found in the apocryphal gospels.) “_Gospel of Barnabas._” 1. Reverence for New Testament—Injil—(Zacharias, John, Gabriel). 2. Respect for religious teachers; the Koran references to priests and monks. 3. Jesus Christ—His names—Word of God, Spirit of God, etc.—Puerile miracles—_Denial of crucifixion_. (Basilidians, etc.) 4. The Virgin—Her sinlessness—and the apostles—“hawari” an _Abyssinian_ word meaning “pure ones.” 5. Wrong ideas of the Trinity. As held by Arabian heretical sects. 6. Christian legends as of “Seven Sleepers,” “Alexander of the horns,” “Lokman” (=Æsop.) 7. A fast month. Ramadhan to imitate lent. 8. Alms-giving as an essential part of true worship. “The Koran could not have been composed by any except God.... Will they say he forged it? Answer bring therefore a chapter like unto it.”—THE KORAN. (Surah Yunas.) XVIII THE PROPHET AND HIS BOOK In 570 A. D. Abdullah the son of Abd el Muttalib a Mecca merchant went on a trading trip from Mecca to Medina and died there; the same year his wife, Amina, gave birth to a boy, named _Mohammed_, at Mecca. One hundred years later the name of this Arab lad, joined to that of the Almighty, was called out from ten thousand mosques five times daily, from Muscat to Morocco, and his new religion was sweeping everything before it in three continents. What is the explanation of this marvel of history? Many theories have been laid down and the true explanation is probably the sum of all of them. The weakness of Oriental Christianity and the corrupt state of the church; the condition of the Roman and Persian empires; the character of the new religion; the power of the sword and fanaticism; the genius of Mohammed; the partial truth of his teaching; the genius of Mohammed’s successors; the hope of plunder and love of conquest;—such are some of the causes given for the early and rapid success of Islam.