PREFACE
The work which is now offered to the student of Comparative
Religion is the result of many years' study of various
Oriental Religions ancient and modern. Except in Chapter
IV, where I have made much use of Rabbi Abraham Geiger's
"Was hat Mohammed aus dem Judenthume aufgenonmen?"
I am not to any great extent indebted to any others
who have laboured in the same field. Wherever I have
been conscious of any indebtedness, I have fully acknowledged
it in the text or notes.
An investigation of the sources from which Islam has
sprung would be valueless, unless based upon a thorough
personal study of the various ancient records quoted.
This I can honestly claim to have undertaken. All the
translations I give, from whatever language, are my
own, except one or two passages from the Chinese, which
language I have not carefully studied. The translations
which I have in every other case given are as literal
as possible, in some instances too literal to be elegant.
But it seemed to me necessary to be exact in
order to place the reader in a position to judge for
himself of the correctness or incorrectness of my arguments.
In each case I have given references to the |
