whose writings were read publicly in the Churches along with the Scriptures, for, as it is allowed substantially to be Mohammed's work, that is sufficient for the purpose of analytical investigation.
This extraordinary performance is a compilation from the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, apocryphal writings, the reveries of the Talmud, and traditional superstitions of his country: it was not communicated all at once, but by portions, or piece-meal, during a period of about twenty-three years, according as the angel Gabriel furnished matter:
rock, and there gushed out twelve fountains; and in chapter 12, a manifest similarity of style and sentiment in the History of Joseph; the account in chapter 2, of Mount Sinai haying been lift over the Israelites, and some remarkable agreements between the Koran and the works of Ephrem, in the description both give of Paradise, Adam's ejection and residence on earth: to this may be added the expulsion of Satan from Heaven, and a variety of particulars relating to the rhythmical style of Ephrem, together with the words and phrases peculiar to Mohammed and Ephrem, which have every appearance of being borrowed from the latter."—Persian Controversies, p. 124, &c.
