Mr. Lane’s Introduction was abridged from Sale’s Preliminary Discourse, with but little addition from his own knowledge. Sale’s Discourse abounds in information, but it is too detailed and lengthy for the purpose of this volume. I have, then, substituted a short sketch of the beginnings of Islám. I have tried to bring home to the reader the little we know of the early Arabs; then to draw the picture of the great Arab prophet and his work; to show what are the salient points of Islám; and finally to explain something of the history of the Ḳur-án and its contents. I am conscious of having drawn the picture with a weak hand, but I hope the sketch may serve as a not quite useless introduction to a volume of typical selections from a book which, in the peculiar character of its contents and the extraordinary power of its influence, has not its parallel in the world. S. L. P. _June 1878._ CONTENTS. _INTRODUCTION._ PAGE I. THE ARABS BEFORE MOḤAMMAD xi II. MOḤAMMAD xxxvii III. ISLÁM lxxvii IV. THE ḲUR-ÁN c _PART THE FIRST._ I. THE OPENING PRAYER 3 II. PREMONITION 4 III. GOD 5 IV. MOḤAMMAD AND THE ḲUR-ÁN 13 V. THE RESURRECTION, PARADISE, AND HELL 21 VI. PREDESTINATION 32 VII. ANGELS AND JINN 33 VIII. TRUE RELIGION AND FALSE 34 IX. BELIEVERS AND UNBELIEVERS 38 _PART THE SECOND._ I. PROPHETS, APOSTLES, AND DIVINE BOOKS 47 II. ADAM AND EVE 49 III. ABEL AND CAIN 53 IV. NOAH AND THE FLOOD 55 V. ´ÁD AND THAMOOD 60 VI. DHU-L-ḲARNEYN 63 VII. ABRAHAM, ISHMAEL, ISAAC 66 VIII. JACOB, JOSEPH AND HIS BRETHREN 77 IX. JOB 93 X. SHO´EYB 95 XI. MOSES AND HIS PEOPLE 97 XII. SAUL, DAVID, SOLOMON 132 XIII. JONAH 146 XIV. EZRA 148 XV. THE MESSIAH 149 INDEXES 167 INTRODUCTION. I.—_THE ARABS BEFORE MOḤAMMAD._