The whole energy of a religious Indian Pārsī is concentrated on the endeavor to make himself—so to speak—demon-proof, and this can only be accomplished by absolute purity (in thought, word and deed), symbolized by whiteness. He is ever on his guard against bodily defilement, and never goes out to his daily occupation, without first putting on a sacred white shirt and a sacred white girdle. Even the most highly educated and Anglicized Pārsīs are most rigorous observers of this custom, though it is probable that their real creed has little in common with the old and superstitious belief in demons and evil spirits, but rather consists in a kind of cold and monotheistic pantheism.

How far Zoroastrian dualism had affected the religion of the Babylonians at the time of the Jewish captivity is doubtful, but that the Hebrew prophets of those days had to contend with dualistic ideas seems probable from these words: ‘I am the Lord, and there is none else. I form the light and create darkness; I make peace and create evil. I the Lord do all these things.’[[202]] The New Testament, on the other hand, might be thought by a superficial reader to lend some support to dualistic doctrines.... I need scarcely point out, however, that the Bible account of the origin, nature, and destiny of Satan and his angels differs, toto cælo from the Zoroastrian description of Ahriman and his host. Nor need I add that the various monistic, pantheistic, and dualistic theories, briefly alluded to in this paper, are utterly at variance with the Christian doctrine of a Personal, Eternal and Infinite Being, existing and working outside man, and outside the material universe, which He has Himself created, and controlling both, and in the case of human beings, working not only outside man, but in and through him.”[[203]]

DIVISION III.
The Time of the Mohammedan Conquest
and the Korān.

CHAPTER VIII.
THE KORĀN.

SUCCESSOR OF THE ZEND-AVESTA—AUTHOR OF THE KORĀN—FIRST REVELATIONS—THE HIGRAH—CONTINUED WARFARE—DEATH OF MOHAMMED—RECENSION OF THE TEXT—TEACHING OF THE KORĀN—HEAVEN—HELL—PREDESTINATION—POLYGAMY—LITERARY STYLE OF THE KORĀN.

The Korān or Qur’ān[[204]] was the immediate successor of the Zend-Avesta upon Persian soil. When the star and crescent of the Arabian banners floated in triumph over the land of Īrān, and the altars of the Pārsīs were stricken down, when the people themselves were either driven from their native land or humiliated by their conquerors, then the new creed supplanted the old, and the war-cry of Islām became the watchword of the new faith.[[205]] By methods peculiarly their own, the invaders set up the standard of their prophet, and his law became the law of the land.

The Arabian peninsula extends southward from Babylonia and Syria down to the Indian Ocean; its eastern coast is washed by the waves of the Persian Gulf, while the western boundary forms the shore of the Red Sea. The low lands on these shores lie at the feet of barren ranges of hills, which lead upward from the coast of the Red Sea to the highlands beyond them. This rugged frontier was the barrier from whence the desert tribes had effectually resisted the attacks of the nations who fought around them for the dominion of the Orient. Persia, Egypt and Rome had each unsuccessfully tried to penetrate this rocky fortress of Arabia and conquer its hardy defenders. Although the Arabs were mostly a nomadic race, whose wealth consisted largely of camels and horses, still their country contained cities and towns, and of these the most important were Mecca and Medīna, where the creed of Islām found its early home.

The religion of the Arabs was Sabænism, or the worship of the host of heaven, but in the time of Mohammed the comparatively simple star-worship had been greatly corrupted, and countless superstitious rites and practices had been introduced. The wandering Arabs had peopled the desert wastes with imaginary beings, and they fancied that every rock and cavern—every stream in the oasis—and every palm tree had its presiding genius.

The vast solitudes, with their terrible stillness—the simoon and the sand column—the breaking of a storm on a distant mountain, and the change of a dry ravine into a rushing torrent—these and other surroundings produced a strong effect upon the vivid imaginations of the children of the desert; and at last their pantheon contained three hundred and sixty-five idols.

When, therefore, the voice of Mohammed rang out upon the startled air, with the cry “There is one God, and Mohammed is his prophet,” it came as an omen of strife and bloodshed. Devotion to his tribe and to his gods being one of the strongest characteristics of the Arab, innovations were fought against, with all the fierceness of a vindictive race. A few followers gathered around the new prophet, and then began that series of conflicts, which, after years of fraternal strife, resulted in the triumphant rule of the new creed.