The Qu'Ran

books of the world. Though the youngest of the epoch-making works belonging to

this class of literature, it yields to hardly any in the wonderful effect which it has

produced on large masses of men. It has created an all but new phase of human

thought and a fresh type of character. It first transformed a number of

heterogeneous desert tribes of the Arabian peninsula into a nation of heroes, and

then proceeded to create the vast politico-religious organisations of the

Muhammedan world which are one of the great forces with which Europe and the

East have to reckon to-day.

The secret of the power exercised by the book, of course, lay in the mind which

produced it. It was, in fact, at first not a book, but a strong living voice, a kind of

wild authoritative proclamation, a series of admonitions, promises, threats, and

instructions addressed to turbulent and largely hostile assemblies of untutored

Arabs. As a book it was published after the prophet's death. In Muhammed's life-

time there were only disjointed notes, speeches, and the retentive memories of

those who listened to them. To speak of the Koran is, therefore, practically the

same as speaking of Muhammed, and in trying to appraise the religious value of

the book one is at the same time attempting to form an opinion of the prophet

himself. It would indeed be difficult to find another case in which there is such a

complete identity between the literary work and the mind of the man who

produced it.