Religion of the Crescent

152	THE RELIGION OF THE CRESCENT.

became of the number of the penitent. On that account We have written for the Children of Israel that whoever killeth a person except for murder or evildoing in the land, then it shall be as if he had slain all mankind; and whoever saveth a life, then it shall be as if he had preserved all men alive." Jewish traditions¹ give us various accounts of this imaginary conversation between Cain and Abel, some of them not very unlike the one recorded in these verses. But with reference to the fable of the raven that taught Cain how to bury his brother's body, it agrees with the Jewish account given in the "Pirke Rabbi Eliezar," except that the Jews believed that the body was buried under similar instruction by Adam instead of by Cain. "Adam² and his helpmeet were sitting, weeping and lamenting over him (Abel), and they knew not what to do with Abel, for they were not acquainted with burial. A raven, one of whose comrades had died, came. He took him and dug in the ground and hid it (the body) before their eyes. Adam said, 'I shall do as the raven has

¹ Vide, e.g., Jonathan ben Uzziel's Targum on Gen. iv. 8.
² Pirke R. Eliezar, cap. xxi.:

היו אדם ועןרו ישבים ובוכים ומתאבלים עליו ולא היו ידעים מה לעשות להבלשלא היו נהוגים בקבורה. בא עורב אחד שמת לו אחד מחבריו לקח אותו וחפר בארץ וטמנה לעיניהם. אמר אדם כעורב אני עשה מיד לקח נבלתו של הבל וחפר בארץ וטמנה‫:

(Quoted by R. Geiger, op. cit., p. 103.)

THE ORIGIN OF ISLAM.

153

done.' Immediately he took Abel's dead body, and dug in the ground and concealed it." But although the fact that Muhammad, though making this blunder¹ in details, borrowed this fable from the Jews is sufficiently clear, yet if anything can make this plainer it is a comparison of the concluding verse of the above extract from the Qur'an with the following passage from the Mishnah:—"We² have found, in (the verses which refer to)

¹ Muhammad's blunders with regard to Scriptural personages are very remarkable, and seem to prove that his information was gained at second hand, and from some not very learned source. E.g., he tells us that Haman was Pharaoh's wazir! (Surah xl. 38, xxviii. 5[6]) in Joseph's time, instead of being Ahasuerus' favourite. Again, 'Imran (i.e., Amram) is called (Surah iii. 31[35,36]) the father of the Virgin Mary; and, to make this clearer, Mary is termed (Surah xix. 29[28]) the sister of Aaron! (Of course, Muhammadan commentators make various efforts to escape from confessing this blunder, for which vide Sale's notes sub loco.) Vide also the story of Moses and Al Khidhr, and that of Dhu'l Qarnain in Surah xviii. The latter personage is generally supposed to be Alexander the Great. The maker of the Golden Calf in Surah xx. (vv. 87, 90, 96[85,87,88]) is called "the Samaritan," السَّامِرِىّ &c.
² Mishnah Sanhedrin, iv. 5:

מעינו בקין שהרג את אחיו נאמר בו קול דמי אחיך צעקים. אינו אומר דם-אחיך אלא דמי אחיך דמו ודם זרעיותיו לפיכך נברא אדם יחידי ללמדך שכל-המאבד נםש אחת מישראל מעלה עליו הכתוב כאלו אבד עולם מלא וכל-המקים נפש אחת מישראל מעלה עליו הכתוב כאלו קים עולם מלא

(Quoted by R. Geiger, op. cit., p. 104.)

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