The Improvement of Human Reason | Page 8

inflame your Desire, and put you upon entring this way,
by telling you the Story of Hai Ebn Yokdhan and _Asâl_, and
_Salâman_ (as Avicenna calls them); in which, those that understand
themselves right will find matter of Improvement, and worthy their
Imitation.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: In the Name, &c--This is the usual Form with which the
Mahometans _begin all their Writings, Books and Epistles. Every
Chapter in the_ Alcoran _begins so, and all their Authors have

followed this way ever price. The Eastern Christians, to distinguish
themselves from the_ Mahometans, begin their Writings with
Bismi'labi Wa'libni, _&c_. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost, One God:and so do the Æthiopians. We here in
England _observe something like this in Wills, where the usual Form
is_, In the Name of God, Amen.]
[Footnote 2: These words,--Who hath taught us the Use of the Pen; who
hath taught Man what he did not know, are taken out of the XCVI.
Chapter of the Alcoran, _according to those Editions of it which are
now in use_: but Joannes Andreas Maurus, _(who was_ Alfaqui, or
chief Doctor of the Moors in Sciatinia, in the kingdom of Valentia in
Spain, and afterwards converted to the Christian Religion in the Year
of our Lord 1487) _says, that it is the first Chapter that was written of
all the_ Alcoran. _But be that how it will, we may from hence, and
infinite other places, observe the strange way which these Eastern
Writers have of Quoting the_ Alcoran; _for they intermix those
Expressions which they take out of it with their own words, without
giving the Reader the least Notice or Hint whence they had them, or
where to find them_.]
[Footnote 3: And I testify, &c.--_After be testified the Unity of the
Godhead, be immediately adds_ La Sharica Leho, That he has no
Partner. These words frequently occur in the Alcoran, _and are
particularly levell'd against the Christians, which_ Mahomet frequently
will Mushricoun, _i.e._. Associantes, Joyning Partners with God,
because they acknowledge the Divinity of our Blessed Saviour.]
[Footnote 4: The whole Mahometan _Creed consists only of these two
Articles,_ 1. There is no God but God, [i.e. _There is but One God]
and_ 2. Mahomet is his Apostle. _A very short Creed, but their
Explications of it, make amends for its shortness. The Reader may see a
Paraphrase of it out of_ Algazâli, in Dr. Pocock's Specimen Historiæ
Arabum, p. 174.]
[Footnote 5: The Learned _Avicenna--This great Man was born in_
Bochara, _a City famous for the Birth of a great many very Learned
Men; it lyes in 96 Degrees, and 50 Minutes of Longitude reckoning

from the Fortunate-Islands, and 39 Degrees and 50 Minutes of Northern
Latitude. A pleasant place, and full of good Buildings, having without
the City a great many Fields and Gardens, round about which there is a
great Wall of XII Parasangæ, or 36 Miles long, which encompasses
both the Fields and the City_ Abulphed. Golius _'s Notes upon_
Alferganus. _Thus much concerning the Place of his Nativity; he was
born in the Year of the_ Hegira 370, _which is about the 980 Year of
Christ. He was indeed a prodigious Scholar; he had learn'd the_
Alcoran, _and was well initiated into Human Learning before he was
Ten years old; then he studied Logick and Arithmetick, and read over
Euclid without any help, only his Master show'd him how to
demonstrate the first five or six Propositions; Then he read_ Ptolemy's
Almagest, _and afterwards a great many Medicinal Books; and all this
before be was sixteen years old. He was not only a great Philosopher
and Physician, but an excellent Philologer and Poet. Amongst other of
his Learned Works, he wrote an Arabick Lexicon; but it is lost. Besides
all this, he was a Vizier, and met with a great many Troubles, which
nevertheless did not abate his indefatigable Industry. The Soldiers once
mutiny'd, and broke open his House, and carry'd him to Prison, and
would fain have persuaded the Sultan_ Shemfoddaulah _to have put
him to Death, which he refusing, was forc'd to Banish him. After a Life
spent in Study and Troubles, having written more Learned Books than
he liv'd Years, he died, Aged 58 Years_.]
[Footnote 6: _Subhhéni_--Praise be to me. _Which is an expression
never us'd but when they speak of God_.]
[Footnote 7: I am Truth--or, I am the True God. For the Arabick word
Albákko _signifies both, and is very often us'd for one of the Names or
Attributes of God_. Kamus. _Dr._ Pocock, Specimen pag. 168.]
[Footnote 8: Abu Hamed Algazâli--What Abu Hamed Algazâli
_thought concerning those Men who were so wild and Enthusiastick as
to use such extravagant expressions, appears plainly from those words
of his