In the _Introduction_, pp. xviii.-xxv. and xliv.-xlviii., appeared
before in my Introduction to Lane’s _Selections from the Kur-ān_,
2nd ed. (Trübner’s Oriental series, 1879), to which I must refer the
reader for further information on Mohammad and Islām, and especially
concerning the portions of the Korān dealing with the Jewish legends
purposely omitted from the present work. Pp. xxxv.-xxxviii. reproduce
a few paragraphs from the _Edinburgh Review_, No. 316, October 1881,
p. 371, ff. The Arab poetry quoted in the Introduction is from the
admirable versions contributed by Mr. C. J. Lyall to the Journal of the
Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1877 and 1881. The description of Mohammad’s
person and mode of life, pp. xxvii.-xxix., is from E. Deutsch,
_Literary Remains_, p. 70, ff; and R. Bosworth Smith, _Mohammed and
Mohammedanism_, 2d ed., p. 131; to which, and to the Rev. E. Sell’s
_Faith of Islam_, in many respects the best treatise on the Mohammadan
religion, as it now is, that has appeared in recent years, the reader
is referred for much concerning modern and historical Mohammadanism
which is beyond the design of the present volume.
In the text, I must acknowledge my general indebtedness to the
versions of George Sale and the Rev. J. M. Rodwell for many valuable
interpretations; but I wish especially to record my obligations to
Prof. E. H. Palmer, in respect of some fine renderings which he has
been the first to use in his translation of the Korān for the series of
_Sacred Books of the East_, and which I have not hesitated to adopt.