'Some years travels into divers parts of Africa, and Asia the great. Describing more particularly the empires of Persia and Industan: interwoven with such remarkable occurrences as hapned in those parts during these later times. As also, many other rich and famous kingdoms in the oriental India, with the isles adjacent. Severally relating their religion, language, customs and habit: as also proper observations concerning them.' [‎322] (345/448)

Alcoran,
nominate faisj affording alfo the number 666, the mark of Antichrift,) having ac-
compliihed his defrgn, was fummoned to appear before the Lord of all flefh, the God
Omnipotent, and Judge of all mens adions at whofe Tribunal (no doubt) he hath re
ceived a juft judgment for his impiety. He died in the year of his climaderic fixty three
of theHegyra 17. and of our Saviour (fay fome) 637. others 666. ordaining t J
fucceedhim, and his carcafs to be intombed in Jyfces grave i^i Jathrip, which per Anto-
nomajiam he new-named Medina Talmbi, it or Meccha, from which it is diltant one
hundred and feventy miles, being that Mmychiates mentioned in ftolomy \ albeit I rather
think it Meccha, becaufe I read that Medina (orjathrip) was built j4mo Domini 364. by
jiadhuddadade then King of Babylon: by Ofrian allegorically called El-haramain, and by
others De~A'falemy i.e. a holy place or Town of mercy, none daring in the garb of a
Souldier tread Eaft, Weft-, North, on South, nigher than fix one way, twelve, eighteen
and twenty four miles the other, upon pain of death.
His Alcoran or Simna, i. e. the Book of Truth or a Legend for the Fakhful, is fluffed
with Philofophy moral and natural, and mixed with fo many fantafies and inventions
as renders the whole full of abfurdities and contradidions j and farced with fuch trafh as
may powerfully provoke any lober Student to a height of laughter. The Preface is,
That the Book was. fent from God by Gabriel to Mortis-Ally, (fo fay the Terfians ; ) but
he, miftaking the right man, gave it Mahomet ^ whom when God faw replenifhed with
equal vertue, the Angel was not blamed, but the gift confirmed. They report withal,
That fo foon as he was born, an Angel brought him three Keys made of three great Ori
ent Pearls which he fnatched from the Angel, and thereby got a triplicite Dominion over
Law, Vidory, and Prophecy.
_ To begin then : The Alcoran or Bible by them called Karram, from Kara which fig-
nifies Scripture as Scaliger and Drufm note, and Alefalem, i. e. the Law of Peace, or
Alcacan, i. e. Judgment, as it was digefted by Oz.man fifteen years after the death of
Mahomet, is a Volume twice fo big as the Pfalms of David ; divided into a hundred and
fourteen Azoaraes or Chapters, put by Ozman into a kind of rythme, and writ original
ly in Arabic, a Language fo magnified by Mahometans as they believe the Angels in Hea
ven Ipeak it: albeit, 'tis well known that till Adahomet's time the Arabian tongue was
little different from the Chaldee ; I might objed, That the Hebrew has the preference,
it being the opinion of a great Dodor, That in Coelo Hehraa lingua ufuri fimus. NamNa-
tura ibi re dibit, qua primitm hanc linguam tenuity confufio enim liftguarum male diftior fnit, &c.
This Alcoran then is not fo much a continued Trad of Devotion or diredion to good
life, as a Chaos or Mafs of his own ads, having intermixed the Art of War and Peace,
Syfcems of Rhetoric, Mathematicks and Ethicks borrowed out of Aflis (as they call ArL
ftotle) and other Philofophers, but grofly and confufedly handled. His Mother inftru-
ded him in the Jewifh Rites, and Sergim in the Gofpel: whence it is, that in the feventy
one Azoara of Nohha, and in the tenth of Junys he records the Hiftory of Noah and Jo
nas ; and in other Chapters fpeaks of Enoeh,Abraham,Jofeph,Mofes,EliasjZnd David ^ whole
Songs called Zebur-Dahood or the Pfalms of David, and the Teurat Moijfah or Pentateuch
of Mofes he extols highly. The Jngil or Golpel of §. Luke he quotes at large in the fourth
Azoara of Anne^a, and in the fifth of Almeyda names Ghrift Rooth-noor Alloh and Hazret,
t. e. Meffias the Spirit or word and light of God, holy Jefus: not omitting his bodily af
cenfion into Heaven in the fight of his twelve Apoftles/eventy Difciples, and five hundred
others- Neyerthelefs,does not confefshim tobe the Son of God,but that the Virgin conceiv
ed by finelling to a Rofe prefented her by Gabriel •, and that he was born out of her breafts. .
Alfo,it was not he that was crucified, but Judas or fome other wicked thief 5 Chrift being
withdrawn from them by a cloud from Heaven that covered hinu Thence it is, the Crofs is
fo ridiculous amongft them. They lay alfo,That he was the molt holy,challe,and powerful
Saint that ever converfed upon Earth. And (in the fecond Azoara of Albacara in the Alco
ran) it is declared. That Mofes and Chrifl fhall fave the Jews and Chriftians at the day of
Uoom.; yet in the next Chapter ot Amram (forgetting it feems what he had faid) avers,
That no foul fhall be faved but by his Aleoran,he being lent into the World to moderate the
itndnefs of the Gofpel as Chrift the ieverity of the Law ceremonial; varying alfo from
what in the twelfth ^ Affuratto he commands, that they ihould be held in equal repute with
the Alcoran; running thus: The holy and merciful God firft fent the ceremonial Law, and
tjien the Gofpel to dired all men in the right path, and laftly the Alcoran, a faithful
r? v, 5, in ft r udion. Ho man therefore amongft them dares undervalue the old Law
and the Gofpel, but pradife it no lels than what is commanded in the Alco
ran. trom whence it is, they reverence the holy Sepulchre, vifit Saints Tombs,
nonour the memory of our Saviour •, and abhor the Jews. Saint John Baptifi
alio