Note [original edition] : Why holdest thou that to be prohibited which God hath allowed
thee, &
c.] There are some who suppose this passage to have been occasioned by
Mohammed’s protesting never to eat honey any more, because, having once eaten
some in the apartment of
Hafsa, or of
Zeinab, three other of his wives,
namely,
Ayesha, Sawda, and
Safia, all told him they smelt he had been eating
of the juice which distils from certain shrubs in those parts, and resembles
honey in taste and consistence, but is of a very strong flavour, and which the
prophet had a great aversion to
1. But the more received opinion is, that the
chapter was revealed on the following occasion.
Mohammed having lain with a
slave of his named
Mary, of
Coptic extract (who had been sent him as a present
by al
Mokawkas, governor of
Eygpt), on the day which was due to
Ayesha, or to
Hafsa, and, as some say, on
Hafsa’s own bed, while she was absent; and this
coming to
Hafsa’s knowledge, she took it extremely ill, and reproached her
husband so sharply that, to pacify her, he promised, with an oath, never to
touch the maid again
1:
and to free him from the obligation of this promise was
the design of the chapter.
I cannot here avoid observing, as a learned writer
2
has done before me,
that Dr.
Prideaux has strangely misrepresented this passage. For having given
the story of the prophet’s amour with his maid
Mary, a little embellished, he
proceeds to tell us that in this chapter
Mohammed brings in
God allowing him,
and all his
Moslems, to lye with their maids when they will, notwithstanding
their wives (whereas the words relate to the prophet only, who wanted not any
new permission for that purpose, because it was a privilege already granted
him
3,
tho’ to none else;) and then, to shew what ground he had for his
assertion, adds that the first words of the chapter are, O
prophet, why dost
thou forbid what God hath allowed thee, that thou mayest please thy wives?
God hath granted unto you to lye with your maid servants
4.
Which last words
are not to be found here, or elsewhere in the
Korân, and contain an allowance
of what is expressly forbidden therein
5;
tho’ the doctor has thence taken
occasion to make some reflections which might as well have been spared. I
shall say nothing to aggravate the matter, but leave the reader to imagine
what this reverend divine would have said of a
Mohammedan if he had caught him
tripping in the like manner.
Having digressed so far, I will venture to add a word or two in order to
account for one circumstance which Dr.
Prideaux relates concerning
Mohammed’s
concubine
Mary;
viz. that after her master’s death, no account was had of her
or the son which she had born him, but both were sent away into
Egypt, and no
mention made of either ever after among them; and then he supposes (for he
seldom is at a loss for a supposition) that
Ayesha, out of the hatred which
she bore her, procured of her father, who succeeded the impostor in the
government, to have her thus disposed of
6.
But it being certain, by the
general consent of all the eastern writers, that
Mary continued in
Arabia till
her death, which happened at
Medina about five years after that of her master,
and was buried in the usual burying-place there, called
al Bakí, and that her
son died before his father, it has been asked, whence the doctor had this
7?
I answer, that I guess he had it partly from
Abul’faragius, according to the
printed edition of whose work, the
Mary we are speaking of is said to have
been sent with her sister
Shirin (not with her son) to
Alexandria by al
Mokawkas
8;
tho’ I make no doubt but we ought in that passage to read
min,
from, instead of
ila, to (notwithstanding the manuscript copies of this author
used by Dr.
Pocock, the editor, and also a very fair one in my own possession,
agree in the latter reading;) and that the sentence ought to run thus,
quam
(viz. Mariam)
unà cum sorore Shirina
ab Alexandria
miserat al Mokawkas.
-
1
Al Zamakh. Al Beidawi.
-
1
Idem, Jallal. Yahya.
-
2
Gagnier, not. ad Abulf. vit. Moh. p. 150.
-
3
See chap. 33. p. 348, 349.
-
4
Prid. Life of Moh. p. 113.
-
5
See chap. 17. p. 230. chap. 4. p. 64. and chap 24. p. 287, &c.
-
6
Prid. Life of Moh. p. 114.
-
7
Gagnier, ubi supra.
-
8
Abul’Farag. Hist. Dynast. p. 165.