L’auteur

Gustav Weil fit ses études à l’Ecole Talmudique de Metz et étudia l’histoire et l’arabe à Paris et Heidelberg. Il travailla pendant plusieurs années en Égypte en tant que traducteur, et où il perfectionna son arabe, et appris le persan et le turc. Il a finalement terminé sa carrière en tant que professeur à l’Université de Heidelberg.

Préface du traducteur

DR. WEIL has stated, in hisIntroduction to these Legends, that he chiefly extracted them from original Arabic records, which are still re- ceived by Mohammedans as the inspired biog- raphies of the ancient patriarchs and prophets.

It must still farther be added that the leading ideas of these Mohammedan legends, i. e., their prominent historical narratives, and the doc- trines and precepts which they either state ex pressly or imply, are contained in the Koran. In some instances it gives their minutest particulars. Indeed, it would seem as if these legends formed part, at least, of what the founder of the Mohammedan faith terms " the mother of the book," indicating that they preceded his Koran in order of time, and embodied the germ of that faith which he subsequently developed.

This idea is suggested by the learned German compiler, and is corroborated by the fact that the legends were unknown to the Arabs before Mohammed began to preach, while in the Ko- ran he refers to them as already familiar to his hearers.

But, be this as it may, it is certain that the fact of their leading ideas being found in the Koran invests them with divine authority to the faithful Moslem, for it is a primary article of his creed that every thing contained in the Koran is of Allah. On first reading these legends, it "therefore occurred to the writer that they might be a valuable acquisition, as an epitome of Mo- hammedan theology and morals. And their peculiar character, their constant allusion to scriptural facts, with which most Bible readers strongly identify themselves, their novel, and gorgeous, and often sublime inventions, invest- ing them at once with the fidelity of historical detail, and the freshness and fascination of Ori- ental fiction, seem to fit them especially for pop- ular instruction. If it be asked what benefit may be derived from promulgating the tenets of a professedly erroneous system, it is replied that a distinction ought to be observed between the false systems that have ceased to be believed, and those which are still maintained as divine truths by any portion of mankind.

It may be questioned whether the former ought at all to be taught, although there are reasons why even the exploded mythology of the ancients should be known ; but respecting the second class, to which the religion of Mo- hammed belongs, there should be but one opin- ion.

Our Redeemer has committed to us, in part, the propagation of his holy faith, by which alone he declares that mankind shall attain to that ho- liness, peace, and glory for which they have been created. The exhibition, therefore, in the stewards of the Gospel, of a false religion, in which, as in the case before us, one hundred and twenty millions of our immortal race are at this" moment staking their all, can not but be impor- tant, at once to awaken within us feelings of deep and active charity for these benighted mul- titudes, and to furnish us with the requisite in- telligence for effectually combating their griev- ous errors with the weapons of truth.

Should the public feel any interest in this work, the translator proposes, in a future volume, to discuss the legendary principle at some length, and to show the analogy of its practical working in the Jewish, the Mohammedan, and Roman Catholic systems of religion.

Table des matières

• ADAM (A MOHAMMEDAN LEGEND) 19
• IDRIS, OR ENOCH 43
• NOAH, HUD, AND SALIH ……… 53
• ABRAHAM 68
• JOSEPH 97
• MOSES AND AARON 114
• SAMUEL, SAUL, AND DAVID 171
• SOLOMON AND THE QUEEN OF SABA 200
• JOHN, MARY, AWD CHRIST 249