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BIOGRAPHIES OF MOHAMMED
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Of the three works thus chiefly relied upon, we have no knowledge of the
first. But the second and third do not possess any pretensions whatever to
critical accuracy, being simple digests, popularly constructed from the
current histories on the subject. From such sources a treatise adapted for the
uncritical portion of the European public might, perhaps, have been well
compiled, but it was a wrong step to lean upon such authorities, in the
preparation of a biography intended for the natives of India.
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The Biography of their Prophet, it is true, is not a favourite study with the
Mohammedans of the present day; it forms no part of the usual course of
scholastic study or theological reading; and is only taken up by those whose
religious or antiquarian tastes attract them to the subject. Still the main
facts of Mohammed's life are generally known; and the natives of India can, at
any rate, readily ascertain them by reference to the historical works
scattered about the country. Lives of the Prophet by Christians will challenge
the closest examination. If errors be detected in them, their effect will not
simply be neutralised : their tendency will be positively injurious. The
natives will be impressed with the idea that our sources of information are
imperfect and erroneous, and will conclude that our judgment of Mohammed and
of his religion, founded upon these, is imperfect and erroneous. They will
thus be fortified in their scornful rejection of Christian evidence, and in
their self-complacent reliance on the dogmas of Islam.
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This is, therefore, not a mere speculative criticism, in which the Reviewer
may be accused of searching for faults merely for fault-finding's sake. The
most apparently trifling misrepresentation has a real and important bearing on
the controversy with the Mohammedans. It is a subject in which every Christian
man has a deep interest at stake. And as such we take it up. Let us therefore
look for a moment at the two authorities from which the Life of Mohammed,
published by the Tract and Book Society of Bombay, is mainly constructed.
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The Life of Mohammed, by
Washington Irving, does not aim at being more than a popular treatise.
"The author lays no claim to novelty of fact, nor profundity of
research." His
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