through the medium of later Jewish legends, which were deeply coloured through the influence of
Persian myths.
Thus nearly every leading doctrine of Islam can be traced with perfect certainty to some
Pre-Islamic creed. Even in Muhammad's lifetime accusations were brought against him of deriving the
doctrines which he inculcated from various human teachers, as for instance Waraqah and Abdu'llah ibn
Sallam. This he strenuously denied, asserting that all his teaching was given him by GOD Himself
through the Angel Gabriel, and that his knowledge of the histories of the Prophets in particular was
a manifest proof of his Divine mission and of the truth of his lofty claims.
§ 11. This brings us to deal very briefly with Muhammad's life and character. His biography has
Life and
Character
of Muhammad.
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been so well treated by Sir William Muir, Weil, Sprenger, and others in recent times that it will
not be necessary for me to say much on the subject here. The earliest Arabic biographer of Muhammad
was Zuhri, who died in A.H. 124. He derived his information in large measure from a relative of 'Ayishah
named Urwa, but also from traditions handed down by the Companions of the "Prophet."
Although Zuhri's work is no longer extant, we possess large portions, if not the whole of another
life of Muhammad written by a disciple of his, Ibn Ishaq (died A.H. 151), and edited with
amplifications by Ibn Hisham (died, A.H. 213) under the title "Siratu'r Rasul." These
early
) daena, which is used1 quite as technically in the early Zoroastrian
Scriptures as its Arabicised form is in the Qur'an. In fact, nearly all that Islam teaches about the
angels, the work and nature of evil spirits, and kindred subjects, is derived either directly from a
Zoroastrian 2 or Magian source, or indirectly so
occurs in this sense. But in
the meaning religion the word din is clearly derived from the Avesta, since in no Semitic
tongue does the root bear any such sense.