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by rhapsodists of "mere fantasies," is a theory which will not
account for the uniformity, both as to subject and expression, which we find
in the different versions of the same episode. The story, he says, was
repeated over and over, till at last it assumed a form suitable to the
spiritual requirements of the age, and so became fixed in the same as its
permanent form. But the efforts of mere fancy would not of themselves
crystallise into any such uniform shape; rather, repetition in different
lands, and by various rhapsodists, would produce an infinity of form and
colour. To account for the sameness of the episodes, therefore, we must assume
something common in their origin.
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The common material was no doubt that which it professed to be, namely, the
statement of some one of the Companions. Indeed, as respects the Heavenly
journey, the most extravagant of all the episodes, Sprenger has satisfied
himself (as we have seen) that it can be traced back to the very narrative of
Mahomet's own servant; and he deduces the conclusion, that early origin
affords no criterion of a story being founded on fact.1 On the
contrary, we hold that early origin does afford a strong presumption that
there was at bottom an element of fact, a kernel of realitysmall it might
be, but still realwhich devotion has seized on as a centre around which to
cast its halo of the marvellous and supernatural. That there is such a nucleus
even for the Heavenly journey, i.e. for Mahomet's having told a story of the
kind, is proved by the mention of it in the XVII. Sura, and by the scandal
occasioned thereby at the first, even among his own followers. And so with the
tales of the miracles of Mahomet,puerile fabrications as they evidently
are,we can generally trace in tradition some real incident on which they
were engrafted, which prompted the idea, and gave to fancy a starting-point
for its fairy creations and illusive colouring.
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The early date at which episodes took fixed shape must afford a certain
measure of security that the tales they tell are not altogether legendary.
They proceeded from witnesses more or less acquainted with the real facts, and
were promulgated in a manner which challenged contradiction from other
competent
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