The Improvement of Human Reason | Page 8

_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 ?thiopians. 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_ Algazali, in Dr. Pocock's Specimen Histori? 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 Parasang?, 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 Algazali--What Abu Hamed Algazali _thought concerning those Men who were so wild and Enthusiastick as to use such extravagant expressions, appears plainly from those words of his quoted by_ Dr. Pocock in his Specimen. p. 167, where he says, "People ran on to such a degree, (_of madness you may be sure_) as to pretend to an Union with God, and a fight of him without the interposition of any Veil, and familiarly discourse with him. And a little after, which sort of Speeches have occasion'd great mischiefs among the common People; so that some Country Fellows laying aside their Husbandry, have