Calcutta Review Volume 19

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1898-01-01 edition. Excerpt: ... THE CALCUTTA REVIEW. Art. I.--1. The Coran. ";-' 2. Sirat Hishami: the Biography of Mahomet, by Ibn Hisham. ' 3. Sirat Wachidi. 4. Sirat Tabari. The light in which we view the stories of former times, varies with the medium through which they have been handed down to us. The exploits of Hercules carry less conviction than the feats of the heroes of Troy; while the wanderings of Ulysses and the adventures of the early founders of Rome, again, are regarded with incomparably more distrust than the history of the Peloponnesian war, or the fortunes of Julius Caesar. Thus there are three great divisions of ancient narrative. Legendary tales are based upon the most evanescent materials, and it is often doubtful whether they shadow forth abstract principles or real facts. Tradition and the rhapsodies of bards, have, for their object, actual or supposed events; but the impression of these events is liable to become distorted, from the imperfection of the vehicle which conveys them to posterity. It is to the contemporary historian alone, or to history deriving its facts from contemporary records, that the mind accords a reliance, which, proportioned to the means and the fidelity of the writer, may rise even to certainty. The narrative which we now possess, of the origin of Islam, does not belong exclusively to any one of these three classes. It is legendary, for it contains multitudes of wild myths, such as the " Light of Mahomet," and the cleansing of his heart. It is traditional, since the main material of the story is oral tradition, not recorded until Islam had attained to its full growth. But it possesses also some of the elements of history, because there are contemporary records, of undoubted authority, to which we can still refer....