as the daughters of Allah. So also in Surah lxxxv. vv. 1-9:

By the heaven with its constellations,
By the day appointed,
By witness and what is witnessed,
Cursed be those of the Trench Of the Fire and its Fuel,
Think of them sitting by it
Witnesses of what they did with the Believers;

where in all probability the persecution of the Christians of Najran is referred to, he is not taking sides with the Christians and condemning the Jews, who are sometimes blamed for the persecution. He is using an Arab legend which has grown out of that event of nearly a century previous to point a moral and condemn the persecutors of his own followers at Mecca. Again, on the ground of a phrase which occurs several times in the Qur'an in connection with Jesus, that "two parties differed regarding him", knowledge of different sects of Christians is sometimes attributed to him. But that phrase when it is studied is found to grow out of Muhammad's conception of the origin of Polytheism, and when it comes to be associated with Jesus the reference is to the difference between Jews and Christians, the existence of which he does not seem to have realised until his prophetic career was almost half run. That of course implies that he had as little direct and intimate knowledge of Judaism as of Christianity. The key to a great deal both in the Qur'an and in the career of Muhammad lies, as I hope to show, just in his gradual acquisi-

tion of knowledge of what the Bible contained and of what Jews and Christians believed.

We have, in fact, to allow for considerable originality in Muhammad, not the originality which produces something absolutely new, but the originality of a strong mind, working upon very imperfect information of outside things, yet finding expression for ideas and aspirations which were dimly present in other minds. He claimed to be an Arab prophet and he was. We shall see him consciously borrowing—he is quite frank about it. But to begin with, the materials which he uses, though they may remind us ever and again of Jewish and Christian phrases and ideas, are in reality Arab materials. They may have been originally derived from outside Arabia, but they had by Muhammad's time become part of the Arab mind. To ask whether Judaism or Christianity had most to do with the formation of Muhammad's fundamental ideas is really to ask the question which of the two religions had most influence upon Arabia itself. As regards Christianity, his own direct knowledge of it was to begin with, I believe, just such knowledge as we might expect in a caravan trader who had been to Syria and seen Christian churches, and perhaps Christian services.

Nor, it seems to me, need we seek for any sect of believers in the near approach of the Day of Judgement, in some contact with whom might be found the impulse which caused Muhammad's appearance as a prophet. Too exclusive attention has of late been paid to his proclamation of the approaching judgement. The pre-