* Id certum, naturalibus egregiè dotibus instructum Muhammedera, forma præstanti, ingenio calido, moribus facetis, ac præ se ferentem liberalitatem in egenos. comitatem in singulos, fortitudinem in hostes, ac præ cæteris reverentiam divini nominis.-Severus fuit in perjuros, adulteros, homicidas, obtrectatores, prodigos, avaros, falsos testes, &c. Magnus idem patientiæ, charitatis, misericordiæ, beneficentiæ, gratitudinis, honoris in parentes ac superiores præco, ut et divinarum laudum. Hist. Eccles. Sec. VII. c. 7, lem. 5 and 7. ? His words are: Questo libro, che già havevo à commune utilità di molti fatto dal proprio testo Arabo tradurre nella nostra volgar lingua Italiana, &c. And afterwards; Questo è l'Alcorano di Macometto, il quale, come ho gia detto, ho fatto dal suo idioma tradurre, &c. ? Vide Jos. Scalig. Epist. 361 et 362; et Selden. de Success. ad Leges Ebræor. p. 9. § J. Andreas, in Præf. ad Tractat. suum de Confusione Sectæ Mahometanæ. Mohammedan religion and learning; though his refutation of that religion, which has had several editions, gives no great idea of his abilities. Some years within the last century, Andrew du Ryer, who had been consul of the French nation in Egypt, and was tolerably skilled in the Turkish and Arabic languages, took the pains to translate the Korân into his own tongue: but his performance, though it be beyond comparison preferable to that of Retenensis, is far from being a just translation; there being mistakes in every page, besides frequent transpositions, omissions, and additions,* faults unpardonable in a work of this nature. And what renders it still more incomplete is, the want of Notes to explain a vast number of passages, some of which are difficult, and others impossible to be understood, without proper explications, were they translated ever so exactly; which the author is so sensible of that he often refers his reader to the Arabic commentators. The English version is no other than a translation of Du Ryer's, and that a very bad one; for Alexander Ross, who did it, being utterly unacquainted with the Arabic, and no great master of the French, has added a number of fresh mistakes of his own to those of Du Ryer; not to mention the meanness of his language, which would make a better book ridiculous. In 1698, a Latin translation of the Korân, made by Father Lewis Marracci, who had been confessor to Pope Innocent XI., was published at Padua, together with the original text, accompanied by explanatory notes and a refutation. This translation of Marracci's, generally speaking, is very exact; but adheres to the Arabic idiom too literally to be easily understood, unless I am much deceived, by those who are not versed in the Mohammedan learning. The notes he has added are indeed of great use; but his refutations, which swell the work to a large volume, are of little or none at all, being often unsatisfactory, and sometimes impertinent. The work,