23 Jericho according to some commentators, Jerusalem according to others, but see verse 58.
24 See Sura [lxxxvii.] vii. 162.
25 Lit. all men. This incident is perhaps inadvertently borrowed from Ex. xv. 27.
26 This passage (comp. xxvi. 59) is one of the numerous anachronisms which abound in the Koran and prove the gross ignorance of the Arabian Prophet.
27 The Sabeites are identical with the Mendaites, or so-called Christians of S. John, residing in the marshy district at the mouth of the Euphrates, but are not the same with the star-worshipping Sabians of Harran in Mesopotamia. See D'Herbelot, Bibl. Or. under the word Sabi; Assemani, Bibl. Or. iii. 2, 609. For curious details as to the elements of the Sabeite religion, see Chwolson's SSabier and SSabaismus I.
28 See Sura [lxxxvii.] vii. 170.
29 See Sura [lxxxvii.] vii. 164.
30 Compare Numb. xix.; Deut. xxii. 1-9. The cow was to be sacrificed in order that a murderer might be discovered through the miracle to be wrought on the corpse by a piece of her flesh.
31 To please you, O Muslims.
32 This is one of the passages which shews great familiarity with the habits of the Jews, on the part of Muhammad. See Maracci's Prodr. i. 44. Wahl's Einleitung, xxx. xxxv.