50 THE INFLUENCE OF ANCIENT ARABIAN BELIEFS

this was the origin of the name but that is perhaps a matter of little importance In spite of the Eastern story which I have quoted, the balance of probability certainly inclines to the supposition that Muhammad was not 1 guilty of the daring plagiarism of which he has been accused 2.
عَلِّقُوها أتبتوها فى خزانتى فأما قول من قال عُلقت فى الكعبة فلا يعرفه أحد من الرُوّاه وأصّح ما قيل فى هذا أن حمّاداً الرّاوية لمّا رأى زُهد النّاس فى الشّعر جمع هذه السّبع وحضّهم عليها وقال لهم هذه هى المشهورات وسُمّيَت القصائد المشهورة لهذا
As-Suyuti says very much the same, though he also refers to the story that the verses were hung up in the Ka'bah as possible (Mudhkir, II., 240).
1 This is the opinion of Sir C.J. Lyall, than whom it would be difficult to find any one better qualified to speak on the subject of ancient Arabic poetry. In a letter which he has kindly sent me regarding the authorship of the lines in question attributed to Imrau'l Qais, he expresses his conviction that they are not his, giving reasons rounded principally upon the style and the metre. I have incorporated some of his observations into this Appendix, and I owe to him also the preceding note. His arguments have caused me to modify the opinion on the subject expressed in my Persian work, Yanabi'u'l Islam.
2 The Rev. Dr. Zwemer, of Bahrain, however, informs me that he has found the words Danati 'ssa'atu wa'nshaqqa 'lqamaru (cf. Surah LIV., 1, Iqtarabati 'ssa'atu wa'nshaqqa 'lqamaru) in the last section of the last poem of Imrau'l Qais in an edition which he possesses. He adds: "A Shaikh taught in Al Azhar tells me that this evident quotation perplexes learned Muslims."
 

CHAPTER III.

INFLUENCE OF SABIAN AND JEWISH IDEAS AND PRACTICES.

WHEN Muhammad appeared as a prophet, although the Arabs had many religious ideas and practices in which they were agreed, they possessed no volume which could pretend to contain a Divine revelation, and to which Muhammad could appeal when he claimed to be commissioned to lead them back to the purer faith of their fathers. Yet in Arabia there dwelt certain communities which possessed what they regarded as inspired books, and it was natural that Muhammad and his followers should therefore feel no little interest in and respect for the ideas and rites of these different religious sects. The title "People of the Book," given more especially perhaps to the Jews, but also to the Christians, in the Qur'an is an evidence of this. The four communities who then possessed book-religions in Arabia were the Jews, the Christians, the Magians or Zoroastrians, and the Sabians. These are all mentioned together in Surah XXII., Al Hajj, 17. We shall see that each of these exercised a considerable influence over nascent Islam, but that of the Sabians was by no