Footnote 198: The penalties for uncleanness in men were far more severe upon woman; after giving birth to a child she was forbidden to taste of water, as her touch would defile the element, and at times her food was handed to her upon a long-handled spoon. Woman was made a creature of contract, and disposed of by a bill of sale; like land or cattle, she was classed under “the fifth contract,” being considered more valuable than cattle, but far cheaper than real estate. They were sometimes sold in the cradle and often when only two or three years of age.—_See Dosabhoy Framjee’s work on The Parsis, p. 77._ Footnote 199: Every one has a noose cast around his neck; when a man dies, if he is righteous, the noose falls from his neck; but if wicked, they drag him with that noose down to hell.—(_Farg., V, 8._) Footnote 200: Fargard, xix, 27-32. Footnote 201: Visparad, II, V, XVI, XXII. Footnote 202: Isaiah xlv, 6. Footnote 203: Sir M. Monier-Williams, Trans. Vic. Ins., Vol. XXV, p. 10. DIVISION III. THE TIME OF THE MOHAMMEDAN CONQUEST AND THE KORĀN. CHAPTER VIII. THE KORĀN. SUCCESSOR OF THE ZEND-AVESTA—AUTHOR OF THE KORĀN—FIRST REVELATIONS—THE HIGRAH—CONTINUED WARFARE—DEATH OF MOHAMMED—RECENSION OF THE TEXT— TEACHING OF THE KORĀN—HEAVEN—HELL—PREDESTINATION—POLYGAMY—LITERARY STYLE OF THE KORĀN. The Korān or Qur’ān[204] was the immediate successor of the Zend-Avesta upon Persian soil. When the star and crescent of the Arabian banners floated in triumph over the land of Īrān, and the altars of the Pārsīs were stricken down, when the people themselves were either driven from their native land or humiliated by their conquerors, then the new creed supplanted the old, and the war-cry of Islām became the watchword of the new faith.[205] By methods peculiarly their own, the invaders set up the standard of their prophet, and his law became the law of the land. The Arabian peninsula extends southward from Babylonia and Syria down to the Indian Ocean; its eastern coast is washed by the waves of the Persian Gulf, while the western boundary forms the shore of the Red Sea. The low lands on these shores lie at the feet of barren ranges of hills, which lead upward from the coast of the Red Sea to the highlands beyond them. This rugged frontier was the barrier from whence the desert tribes had effectually resisted the attacks of the nations who fought around them for the dominion of the Orient. Persia, Egypt and Rome had each unsuccessfully tried to penetrate this rocky fortress of Arabia and conquer its hardy defenders. Although the Arabs were mostly a nomadic race, whose wealth consisted largely of camels and horses, still their country contained cities and towns, and of these the most important were Mecca and Medīna, where the creed of Islām found its early home.