command sabbih, "give glory", which occurs in the early portions of the Qur'an is uncertain. The derivation of the word suggests Christian influence. It may have been an imitation of the Gloria of Christian liturgy.

The qibla or fixed direction in prayer was probably Jewish in suggestion. There is a tradition that in Mecca the prophet so placed himself that he faced both the Ka'ba and Jerusalem, but that is a harmonising account. There is really no trace of a qibla until he comes into contact with the Jews at Medina. Then he adopted the direction of Jerusalem apparently under the impression. that that was the qibla of all the people of the Book. He discovered that the fact was otherwise (ii. v. 140). Then, relations with the Jews becoming strained, and having determined to establish Islam on an independent basis, he changed the qibla to the direction of the Ka'ba, thus making his community a "middle people" (ii. v. 137), i.e. one which avoided following either Jews or Christians in points in which they differed. The same idea may appear in the adoption of Friday as the day of special service instead of either the Jewish or the Christian Sabbath; as also in the adoption of the call to prayer by means of the human voice. Tradition indeed asserts that the use of the wooden clapper by which Christians were summoned to service in the East was suggested to the Prophet, but rejected by him. So also he rejected the trumpet because it was Jewish.

The Zakat shows a similar history to that of the Salat. In Mecca, as we have seen, the word

simply meant almsgiving, and the practice was quite unregulated. In Medina, probably in imitation of the Jewish law of tithes, it became a prescribed tax for the support of the poor of the community.

The Fast of Ramadan was, as we have seen, instituted in recognition of the victory of Badr. The introduction of a prescribed fast of any kind may have been suggested by Jewish practice, for there does not appear to have been any prescribed fast in Meccan days. The manner of fasting — abstinence during the day, with permission to partake of food and drink after sunset — seems to have been the Jewish method of keeping their fast days.¹ In prescribing a month as the length of the fast, he may have chosen a convenient period intermediate between the Jewish ten days of special observance ending in the Day of Atonement, and the six weeks of the Christian season of Lent.

It is unlikely that the influence of Christianity had anything to do with the prohibition of wine. There were indeed Oriental sects, as for instance the Manicheans and the Severians, who forbade its use. But it is unlikely that Muhammad was in contact with them. We should note also that what he forbade was not the native nabidh made from dates, but khamr, which was an importation in Arabia, and not a native product at all. Experience in the direction of his own community may have impressed upon him the necessity of laying some restriction upon its use. Thus after