out of Heaven? 'He said: 'Fear God if ye be believers.' They said: 'We desire to eat therefrom and to have our hearts assured, and to know that thou hast indeed spoken truth to us, and to be witnesses thereof.' Jesus son of Mary said: 'O God our Lord, send down a table to us out of Heaven that it may become a recurring festival to us, to the first of us and to the last of us, and a sign from thee, and do thou nourish us, for thou art the best of nourishers.' God said : 'Verily I will cause it to descend to you, but whoever among you after that shall disbelieve, I will surely chastise him with a chastisement wherewith I will not chastise any other creature'."

Before leaving the subject of the receptive attitude of Muhammad towards previous Monotheism it may be convenient to indicate shortly the influence of Christianity upon the institutions of Islam. This matter, however, requires much more investigation before any reliable treatment of it can be given. It has already been pointed out that the name qur'an adopted for the revelation implies suggestion from the side of Christianity. The same applies to salat, the name for the common prayer or service of which probably the recitation of portions of the Qur'an formed part from the beginning. Observance of it is frequently insisted on in the Qur'an. But the five times of prayer which ultimately became the rule are nowhere mentioned. To begin with only two times of prayer are mentioned, probably morning and evening being meant. In Medina, a third is introduced, as-salat al-wusta (ii. v. 239), which would probably

fall in the middle of the day. It is certain that to begin with night-vigils and recitation of the Qur'an were practised. I have suggested that the beginning of Surah lxxiii. may have originally referred to the actual composition of the Qur'an. But it was made to refer to its nightly recitation. For at the close of the Surah there is a verse, which from its style is manifestly late, specifically introducing a lightening of the burden of these nightly prayers. For vigils of that kind there can, I think, be no doubt that the example of Christian monks and eremites gave the suggestion. This is admitted by Mittwoch¹ while maintaining the paramount influence of Judaism upon the final form of the salat, though he points out that in Jewish sources a special effectiveness is ascribed to nightly prayer and study of the Torah. This, however, is not likely to have been known to Muhammad at the beginning, if it ever was. A verse has already been quoted which shows that he did know and approve of persons who devoted themselves entirely to the service of God. The truth seems to be that the example of Christian monks was followed in the early days in Mecca; that as Muhammad came into closer relations with the Jews, their practice influenced some of the regulations for the salat, and that the night-vigils were ultimately dropped as definite requirements, being thereafter regarded as voluntary works of supererogation.

What concrete action was denoted by the