can afford to give up one thing which is generally brought forward as specially proving our point. This is the fact that in certain passages Muhammad calls himself an "ummiyun'"[1] a word which is usually translated "unlearned" "ignorant." Wahl takes it so, and mentions it as a proof of Muhammad's ignorance. But this word has here the same meaning that is expressed by it in other passages, viz., belonging to the Arabs. It is used, like the word " jahiliyat,"[2] of the Arabs in their former ignorance of Islam, and Muhammad, having risen from among them, thus designates himself[3] without reference to his own individual knowledge.[4] But, as already stated, even without this proof our conclusion holds good, viz., that because of his own ignorance especially, but also on account of that of the Jews around him, Muhammad could
- ↑ Súra XII, 156.
- ↑ (
Arabic characters) S{{subst:u'}}ra III. 148, III. 69.
- ↑ (Arabic characters) mina'l-ummíyína or (Arabic characters) mmniytra.
- ↑ The derivation of the word seems to me to support this view, Many
different derivations have been suggested, but all are unsatisfactory. Some
commentators, quoted by Elpherar, derive it from (Arabic characters) ummat, and give
as examples of a similar formation (Arabic characters) makiyun, and (Arabic characters) madaniyun
from (Arabic characters) makka and (Arabic characters) madína (see Ewald's Critical Grammar
of the Arabic language, I. 261. 2); but then they do not explain the
connection between the meanings of two words. This becomes clear,
however, when we consider the development in the meaning of the
similar Rabbinical word (Arabic characters) goi. This word, meaning in the Hebrew
"people," later on came to mean a " non-Jew; " because the Jews became
conscious that they themselves were a little community among the other
inhabitants of the land, who were the "people" proper (compare the
expression (Arabic characters)) so at first Muslims also must have looked
upon themselves as a small community in the midst of the populace,
the (Arabic characters), each man who was not counted among themselves, being
to them one of the (Arabic characters), or an (Arabic characters), and so the word came to be used of
all those who did not believe in repealed religion past and present,
