very noteworthy fact that, although the Muslims boast of the style of the Qur'an and the purity of its Arabic as a miracle and as an evidence of the Divine origin of the book, yet there are to be found in it certain words which are not properly Arabic at all, but are borrowed from the Aramaic or the Hebrew. Among these may be mentioned: ـ تَابوُت ـ جنة عَدْن ـ جَهَنّمُ ـ حِبْر ـ سَكِينَة ـ طَاغُوتْ ـ فُرْقَان ـ مَاعُون ـ مَلَكُوت ـ تَوْرَاة. derived from roots common to all three languages, but they are not formed in accordance with the rules of Arabic Grammar, whereas they are of frequent occurrence in Hebrew and Aramaic and properly belong to those languages. The word فِرْدوَسْ ,"Paradise," is taken from late Hebrew, but has come from old Persian, and belongs to that language and to Sanskrit. It is as foreign to Arabic as the same word Παράδεισος is to Greek. Muhammadan commentators have often found it impossible to give the exact meaning of such words, through their ignorance of the languages from which Muhammad borrowed them. When we know their meaning in this way, we find that it suits the context. For example, it is a common mistake to imagine that مَلَكُوت  (malakut) denotes the nature or the abode of the angels, since it is not derived from مَلَك  (malak) "an angel," but is the Arabic way of writing the Hebrew מַלְכוּח (malkuth) , "kingdom."

Not less noteworthy is the influence which the Jewish form of worship has had upon that of the Muhammadans. It would be a mistake doubtless to suppose that the Muhammadans borrowed from the Jews their practice of worshipping with covered heads, that of separating the men from the women in the mosque (when the latter are allowed to take part in public worship at all), and of removing their shoes. All these were probably the customs of the Arabs as well as of other Semitic nations from the earliest times. It is much more probable that the ceremonial ablutions of the Muslims were imitated from those of the Jews, though here there is room for doubt. The practice of worshipping towards Jerusalem was, as we have seen, for a short time adopted by the Muhammadans in imitation of the Jews, though ultimately Mecca was substituted as the Qiblah. We have also learnt ¹ that the observance of a fast-month was derived not from the Jews but from the Sabians. Yet in connexion with that fast there is a rule enjoined which is undoubtedly of Jewish origin. In Surah II., Al Baqarah, 183, where a command is given in reference to the permission to feast at night during that month, the Qur'an says: "Eat ye and drink until the white thread is distinguishable to you from the black thread by the dawn: then make your fasting perfect till night." The meaning of the mention