346 THE DECLINE AND FALL ng, alms but the gravest of the Musulman doctors imitate the modesty of their master, and indulge a latitude of faith or interpretation.^'^ They might speciously allege that, in preaching the religion, it was needless to violate the harmony of nature ; that a creed un- clouded with mystery may be excused from miracles ; and that the sword of Mahomet was not less potent than the rod of Moses. The polytheist is oppressed and distracted by the variety of superstition : a thousand rites of Egyptian oi-igin were interwoven with the essence of the Mosaic law ; and the spirit of the Gospel had evaporated in the pageantry of the church. The prophet of Mecca was tempted by prejudice, or policy, or patriotism, to sanctify the rites of the Arabians and the custom of visiting the holy stone of the Caaba. But the precepts of Mahomet himself inculcate a more simple and rational piety : prayer, fasting, and alms are the religious duties of a Musulman; ^^ and he is encour- aged to hope that prayer will carry him. half way to God, fasting will bring him to the door of his palace, and alms will gain him admittance. 1^'^ I. According to the tradition of the nocturnal journey, the apostle, in his personal conference with the Deity, was commanded to impose on his disciples the daily obligation of fifty prayers. By the advice of Moses, he applied for an alle- viation of this intolerable burthen ; the number was gradually reduced to five; without any dispensation of business or pleasure, or time or place : the devotion of the faithful is repeated at day- break, at noon, in the afternoon, in the evening, and at the first watch of the night; and, in the present decay of religious fervour, our travellers are edified by the profound humility and attention of the Turks and Persians. Cleanliness is the key of prayer : the frequent lustration of the hands, the face, and the body, which was practised of old by the Arabs, is solemnly enjoined by the Koran ; and a permission is formally granted to supply with sand the scarcity of water. The words and attitudes of suppli- ^"6 Abulpharagius, in Specimen Hist. Arab. p. 17 ; and his scepticism is justified in the notes of Pocock, p. 190-194, from the purest authorities. 107 [Add the precept of pilgrimage to Mecca ; cp. Sura 2.] 108 The most authentic account of these precepts, pilgrimage, prayer, fasting, alms, and ablutions, is extracted from the Persian and Arabian theologians by Maracci (Prodrom. part iv. p. 9-24) ; Reland (in his excellent treatise de Religione Mohammedici, Utrecht, 1717, p. 67-123) ; and Chardin (Voyages en Perse, tom. iv, p. 47-195). Maracci is a partial accuser; but the jeweller, Chardin, had the eyes of a philosopher ; and Reland, a judicious student, had travelled over the East in his closet at Utrecht. The xivth letter of Tournefort (Voyage du Levant, tom. ii. p. 325-360, in octavo) describes what he had seen of the religion of the Turks.
