Sabaeans seem to have had some apocryphal¹ writings which have not come down to us; but Arabia contained many varieties of religious belief, and Muhammad, when he began his work, could not appeal to any volume the authority of which was universally recognized. There were other "book-religions" besides the Sabaean well represented in the country. The Jews were then a great power ² in Arabia, being very numerous and constituting many distinct and powerful tribes, as the Bani Quraidhah, the Bani Qainuqa'a, the Bani Nadhir, and many others. Their political union enabled them in after years to oppose Muhammad by force of arms when he endeavoured to compel them to submit to his claims. Although they do not seem to have been distinguished for learning,³ yet they doubtless preserved their ancestral veneration for the books of the Old Testament, and there 

can be no doubt that many Talmudic legends and tales lived in the mouths of the people. Muhammad found that their possession of inspired books gave the Jews a position of great religious importance in the eyes of his countrymen, especially as they were undoubtedly descended from Abraham the Friend ¹ of GOD, and possessed far more authentic information about the honoured patriarchs, so dear to all true Semites, than did the Arabs, who nevertheless prided themselves on preserving to some extent the Religion of Abraham. If he could succeed in gaining the Jews over to his side, therefore, and could persuade them to acknowledge that the Qur'an was in accord with the teaching of their own Holy Books, Muhammad felt that his cause would be won. He therefore made every effort to induce them to favour his prophetic claims, even going so far at one time as to make ² Jerusalem instead of Mecca the Qiblah or point to which one's face should be turned when worshipping GOD. Again and again does he profess that his³ religion is the same as that which "the People of the Book" had received by Divine revelation. It was only when