“It seems as if Muḥammad had breathed from his childhood almost the air of contemporary Judaism, as is found by us crystallized in the Talmud, the Targum and the Midrash.
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“It is not merely parallelisms, reminiscences, allusions, technical terms, and the like of Judaism, its law and dogma and ceremony, its Halacha and its Haggadah (its law and legend), which we find in the Koran; but we think Islām neither more nor less than Judaism as adapted to Arabia—plus the Apostleship of Jesus and Muḥammad.” (Literary Remains, p. 64.)
How much Muḥammad was indebted to the Jewish Talmud for his doctrines, ethics, and ceremonial, is shown in an essay by the Jewish Rabbi, Abraham Geiger, in answer to the question put by the University at Bonn: “Inquiratur in fontes Alcorani seu legis Mohammedicæ eos, qui ex Judæismo derivandi sunt,” of which a German translation has appeared, Was hat Mohammed aus dem Judenthume aufgenommen? (Bonn, 1833), and is treated of in the present work in the article on [JUDAISM].
The Talmud consists of two parts: The Mishna, or the text (what is called in Arabic the Matn), and the Gemara, or Commentary (Arabic Sharḥ). These two form the Talmud.
The Mishna (from Shanah, to “repeat”) or the oral law of the Jews, was not committed to writing until about the year A.D. 190, by Rabbi Judah, although it is said it was first commenced by Rabbi Akibah, A.D. 130.
The Gemara (lit. “that which is perfect”) are two commentaries on the Mishna. The one compiled by Rabbi Jochonam at Jerusalem about the middle of the third century, and the other by Rabbi Ashe at Babylon, about the middle of the sixth.
Canon Farrar (Life of Christ, vol. ii. p. 348), says: “Anything more utterly unhistorical than the Talmud, cannot be conceived. It is probable that no human writings ever confounded names, dates, and facts, with more absolute indifference.”
And doubtless it is this unsatisfactory feature in the Talmud of the Jews which, to a great extent, accounts for the equally unhistorical character of the Qurʾān.
For information on the Talmud, the English reader can consult the following works: The Talmud, by Joseph Barklay, LL.D., Bishop of Jerusalem, 1878; A Talmudic Miscellany, by Paul Isaac Hershon, 1880; Selections from the Talmud, by H. Polono; The Talmud, an article in the Quarterly Review, October, 1867, by Emanuel Deutsch; The Talmud, a chapter in The Home and Synagogue of the Modern Jew (Religious Tract Society). A complete translation of the Talmud is being undertaken by Mr. P. I. Hershon. See Dr. Farrar’s Preface to the Talmudic Miscellany.