[215] The occasion of this request of Abraham is said to have been a doubt proposed to him by the devil in human form, how it was possible for the several parts of a corpse of a man which lay on the sea-shore and had been partly devoured by the wild beasts, the birds, and the fish, to be brought together at the resurrection.—S. [216] In the original, ‘Imám,’ which answers to the Latin _Antistes_. This title the Moḥammadans give to their priests [if such a title may be used, for want of one more correct] who begin the prayers in their mosques, and whom all the congregation follow.—S. [217] The term ‘rek´ah’ signifies the repetition of a set form of words, chiefly from the Ḳur-án, and ejaculations of ‘God is most Great!’ etc., accompanied by particular postures; part of the words being repeated in an erect posture, part sitting, and part in other postures: an inclination of the head and body, followed by two prostrations, distinguishing each rek´ah. Each of the five daily prayers of the Muslims consist of a certain number of rek´ahs. [218] The city of Eṭ-Ṭáïf was so called, according to Abu-l-Fida and several other Arab authors, because it, with the adjacent fields, was separated from Syria during the Deluge, and after floating round about upon the water at length rested in its present situation, where its soil has continued to produce the fruits of Syria. [219] Namely, the Kaạbeh. [220] In the original, ‘Muslims,’ which is the peculiar and very appropriate title of the believers in the religion taught by Moḥammad; and as he professed not to teach a religion essentially _new_, this title is given to all true believers before him. [221] ‘El-Islam’ signifies the _resigning_ oneself to God and to His service, and is the name given by Moḥammad to that religion which, he asserted, all the prophets before him had taught, and he restored; the foundation of which was the unity of God. [222] This well, say some, was a certain well near Jerusalem, or not far from the river Jordan; but others call it the well of Egypt, or Midian. The commentators tell us that when the sons of Jacob had gotten Joseph with them in the field, they began to abuse and to beat him so unmercifully that they had killed him had not Judah on his crying out for help insisted on the promise they had made not to kill him but to cast him into the well. Whereupon they let him down a little way; but as he held by the sides of the well, they bound him, and took off his inner garment, designing to stain it with blood to deceive their father. Joseph begged hard to have his garment returned to him, but to no purpose, his brothers telling him, with a sneer, that the eleven stars and the sun and the moon might clothe him and keep him company.—S. (B., Z.)