BARTHOLOMEI OF EDESSA ELENCHUS AND CONFUTATION OF THE AGARENE.
A And these things I found written in your Alcoran. But as for what you say: Why do you confess Christ to be God, whom you have affixed to a cross and committed to a sepulcher? And again, how can you believe that God, the maker and creator of all things, could be contained in the womb of a woman, and be generated and born as other men are accustomed to be, and you call the earthly Mary Theotokos and Mother of God? How do you say that she is the Mother of God, and that the Son of God was generated from her? And if he is the Son of God, how can she who gave birth to him be the Mother of God? Furthermore, you Christians say: We recognize God to be substance without cause, the most powerful and most true cause of all things, superior to every other substance and nature, without beginning or end. For that which is without beginning is entirely uncreated. Since, therefore, he is the God of all things, how can he be a participant in being unbegotten and being begotten, as you Christians assert? He who has no begotten Father, how has he become a Father? Show us also how God generated the Son. If you say from eternity, since you are recent and born but the day before yesterday, whence do you know the things that are from eternity? Who revealed such a generation to you? Again, you Christians say that the Son who is generated has the same beginning as the Father; how, then, does he have a different generation, and an uncreated one indeed? But that which is generated is created and fashioned. And since the God of all things exists B before the ages, and is one in number, not three, it follows that he has a common name, not common names; and since you speak of common names, how can you again propose and assert a common name? For it follows that the three persons have a proper nature and substance. And again, how do you Christians teach that your God is united to man, and is called at once man and true and perfect God? The substance and essence of Divinity is not united to earthly and corruptible nature as fire is united to wood. Again, I hear you saying that there is given a Father, a Son, and a Spirit, and then you mention three persons and one; but by the same reasoning, you could just as well [add others, and could gather four, and five, and more. And again, why do you worship sculptured wood and icons in a god-befitting manner? Why do you mingle the bread and the wine, and distribute them to men for the remission of sins, and receive gifts from them? But you also baptize them in water, and in the same way do not receive gifts. Why did you hide the Gospel that was sent down, and write a new one—]
A and why, after the ascension of your Lord into heaven, did He send the Holy Spirit to the apostles? Why did He not grant this to them before the ascension, and why do you not wash in water, as Isaiah says? Why, when you sin, do you run to a creature of earth, confessing your sins and saying, "Have mercy on me, a sinner"? Why, in your final breaths, do you partake of bread and wine, saying that from that moment you are partakers of paradise? But also, [you say that] the name of our Muhammad was inscribed in your Gospel, and you erased it.
B To these points, I myself, Bartholomew the Edessené, the most ignorant of Christians and the very least of all, answer—not blushing at your folly, by which you dare to open your shameless and utterly profane mouth against us, asserting that Christians worship three gods; namely, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now I rebuke and refute to your face your erroneous words; you who claim that the Gospel was brought down from heaven by God, and yet you weave contradictions out of it, judging and condemning us, the Christians, falsely. But with God and by His grace, I will now speak out against those who are accustomed to babbling such things—saying that those who believe in Him blaspheme by worshipping three gods, and such things; [saying] that for those who believe in Him, their sins will not be forgiven either in this age or in the age to come. I, the Edessené, say to you: Whoever does not acknowledge the rational Son and immortal God, he is liable to the hell of fire. C For how do you name God "merciful and compassionate"? Truly, He Himself is the one whom you Arabs call the Morning Star, or Phosphorus, and who is called Zebo, Venus, Saturn, and Camar. You call them gods; for I refute you from your own writings. These gods of yours are created and have a created nature. They are corruptible, works of the hands of men, and idols. And the very name which is at the beginning of your Quran, which you call "merciful and compassionate," is the name that you designate with your tongue as Alah, Samet, Tsamet—which obviously denotes something rounded and hammered, just as you admit it and in the form and shape in which it is presented among you. Those who worship such a god are they who are liable to the punishments of hell there. But those who know and confess the name of the rational and living and immortal God, they are the heirs of the kingdom of God and of paradise. As for those things about which you questioned me, I will confess everything to you later.
D But now I ask you about your new god and about your faith. How and when did you know him, and in what manner were you taught such a theology? God, whom we Christians know, no one has ever seen
A nor has he been seen by any of the angels, nor by the prophets, nor by any human being; nor, again, has God revealed Himself to any mortal, as you foolishly assert—that God greeted Muhammad repeatedly and that He still commands him to be greeted every single day. And if you say that you know God through Muhammad, then he indeed is the guide of your life, and for this reason you call him a prophet and apostle of God. But it is known to all that Muhammad is neither a prophet nor an apostle of God, unless he be simply the ward of Abū Ṭālib and the hireling of Khadījah for the camels which used to be brought to Damascus and to other places, laden with merchandise, which he transported from place to place, managing business for that aforementioned mistress of his. And your Quran testifies about him, namely, that he lived for a space of thirty-two years without faith. For it records that he completed forty-seven years, having lived most religiously for a space of fifteen years, but that for the whole interval of the other thirty-two years he lived without God, without law; impiously, and prone to the worst doctrines. Furthermore, he himself took ten wives and sixteen captive concubines. Now, I ask you, declare when he had them—whether in the time of his impiety, or when he began to worship God and live religiously. If your memory serves, show some proof by which this can be confirmed. Moreover, Muhammad was formed from sin and human seed, and he himself sinned and gave his efforts to procreating children; B how then do you say he was the brother of Christ, since he was not only a sinner, but a most bitter enemy of God, as you yourself acknowledge and confess? For before he embraced a religious life, he was a thief, a robber, a nocturnal stalker of the ways who killed with violent death very many who had fallen into the snares he had laid. Furthermore, on account of his wives and his impotent and intemperate coitus, he was accustomed to buy herbs by which he might stir up venery and unbridled lust; to such a degree that he never withdrew satiated from these wicked desires, to which he was subjected through his whole career of life, using these habits as an exercise by which he might acquire profit and gain for himself.
Why, therefore, do you call him a prophet and apostle of God, who was most impure, contaminated by every stain of crime, a thief, unjust, a murderer, a ravisher? Tell me, I pray, what is the meaning of prophecy and apostleship. It is certain, and God knows, that you are utterly ignorant of this, unless you have first learned it from a Christian. O impudent and shameless one! You confess that for a space of thirty-two years Muhammad was neither a prophet, nor prophesying, nor an apostle, nor teaching, nor a worshipper of God, nor praying, nor knowing God, but that after the passing of that cycle of years he was imbued with divine knowledge. C But if you were to deny all these things, as if they did not happen in that space of thirty-two years, why by the same reasoning should I, a Christian, not deny those things which you assert happened to Muhammad in those fifteen years that elapsed after the thirty-two years? But first, I ask, teach me how he knew God, and in what manner? For if you say that God sent His angel to him, and taught him concerning the knowledge of God, then the angel is an apostle of God to him and to the people, D
and consequently Muhammed was a liar and a seducer. Since you call him a prophet, show me what he prophesied, and in what discourse he did so, and what he commands, or what sign and wonder he has performed. For I have read and learned all your books. If he was a prophet, as you say, why, when he was about to fall from the horse upon which he was riding, and his side was being split, and his upper and lower teeth were about to fall out and be crushed by such a mishap, did he not prophesy or foresee it? And again, since he was a prophet, when he was B about to join battle with Khaibar, and was to be defeated and routed by them, and all his camps were to be taken, why did he not foresee this? Indeed, he was defeated and, fleeing, took refuge in a cave, remaining for three days and three nights, and thus with difficulty escaped safely. And you, in your great shame, say that an angel covered the door of the cave with a spider's web, and those who searched saw it and said that no one was in the cave because of the spider's web. And how did he not prophesy, just as no one of his four sons was to enjoy the vital breath for long, and did he not inform his people and the horsemen what concerned his flight?
And how did he not say that the Quraysh would, after some interval of time, bind him to the tail of a camel inebriated with myrrh-wine, and that his life and sides would be miserably torn asunder and crushed? And I do not say these things from my own invention, but the Chaldeans themselves, who were present there, bear witness to this concerning him, and we ourselves have learned it. But you will assert that we are lying. If we are not speaking the truth, show me his prophecy, and tell me where his vaticinations are written. For I have read your Quran, and found in it no prophecy of Muhammed, but only some brief homilies and sermons C about Adam, and Eve, and Seth, and Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Noah, and Lot, and Jonah, and Moses, and Aaron, and Joshua the son of Nun, and Solomon, and Joseph, and Enoch, and Elijah, and Ezekiel, and Zechariah, and John the Precursor, and Jesus Christ, and the holy Mary, and the holy Anna her mother, and Joachim, and the holy apostles, especially Simon Peter, who in your language is called Simeon Sapha. I found, therefore, that your Quran says both true and false things. Truth originated from the teaching that Muhammed received from Bahira, while falsehood and untruth flowed from the writings of Uthman. From these things, therefore, we know that your book was not sent from heaven, because at one time it speaks the truth, and at another time lies. And from these signs we are fully convinced that he was neither a prophet nor an apostle. For an apostle is one thing, and a prophet is another. How, then, could your Muhammed be both a prophet and an apostle? When someone comes from Babylon to the Sultan with letters, do they call him a messenger or a prophet? But when someone stands in the midst of a great crowd of men, and prophesies, and shows D signs and wonders, what shall we say? Behold the prophet
A who narrates things to come and things past, and who makes himself conspicuous by signs and wonders. But we know of nothing similar to this in Muhammad, such that he should be distinguished by the name of prophet and apostle. If you yourself know, be willing to indicate this; for I, indeed, do not know. But if you do know, show me where and in what book this is written. For I have turned over and unfolded all your books, but I found nothing useful in them; rather, everything in them is altogether worthy of laughter and mockery. Especially that which is said in the Koran, that your Muhammad existed before the ages. But when you are asked by us where he existed, you answer that he was hidden between clay and water. Who, then, O Agarene, is the impious one—you or I? Where did you learn that there was water or clay before the ages? And again, how are you not ashamed, saying that B the name of Muhammad was written around the throne? And where was your Muhammad when God and His throne existed? The throne of God is heaven and earth, but the name of Muhammad contains only three syllables. How then could they be inscribed around the amplitude of this throne? You will say they were circumscribed by God, but you are deceived.
Again you say that Muhammad extended one of his profane feet as far as Jerusalem, and with the other, wearing his very sandals, he trod upon the heavens near to God, and sat as close at His side as one eyebrow is to the other, conversing freely with God, and knowing God as God knew him; for I read this in your Koran. Since such ineptitudes are contained in your Koran, how can you assert that he was sent and descended from heaven? But if you boast that Muhammad descended from heaven after he had conversed with God, and found his bed-sheet still hot and warm, and [if], when asked by me, a Christian, whom you can produce as a witness to this event, you say that only Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad, confirms this by her testimony—yet when among you a woman declared to be legally and justly joined in marriage [is concerned], twelve witnesses are usually employed, whereas here you produce no witness, but only the daughter of Muhammad alone. C Since, therefore, he was without witnesses in his ascension, how can you testify that he ascended into heaven? How do you confirm his ascension by the testimony of Fatima alone? The testimony of a woman is without force or power to generate faith. So he ascended into heaven by night and in secret, and descended without any witnesses having been brought forward. And his ascension is as true as his prophecy. But tell me, did he take and have a wife before or after the ascension? Why does shame not overcome you? And again, how do you assert, as if drawn from your Koran, that if Muhammad had not existed, and if God had not followed him with most intense love, God would never have created the throne, the angels, the heaven, the earth,
and the sun, the moon, the stars, nor would any human beings have ever existed. Most wicked one, who is the impious and atheistic one, I or you? Where was Muhammad when the throne of God existed, and God sat upon it, and when the angels, the heaven, the earth, the humans, and all terrestrial creatures were following the one sitting on the throne with praises and hymns? B
Thus you must deny the love of God toward Adam, whom He formed, and his children, and Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all our forefathers, Noah, Moses, Joshua the son of Nun, David, Solomon, Zachariah, and John the Forerunner, whom your Koran commemorates, and whom it even celebrates as the Word of God, Jesus Christ. But it is said of your Koran: "It issued from God and is His Word, existing like Him without beginning." But I will show that your Koran, which Othman handed down and taught, is false. Your Koran says, then, at the beginning of the "Table," that all things that happen to men, good or evil, proceed from God. If, therefore, you make God the author of all good and evil, then God has written down and determined that robbers, poisoners, murderers, and those dying a violent death should be such. Foolish, and slow in heart and spirit, if you think the Koran to be the Word of God, how can the Word of God pronounce falsehoods? And if good and evil are from God, how in the day of judgment are they granted as separate and distinct to the just and the unjust? But paradise awaits the just, while punishments await the sinners. C Since good and evil equally arise from God, why was Adam driven out and cast out of paradise? Why did the devil fall and collapse, saying: "I will establish my throne above the clouds of heaven, and I will be like the Most High"? If evil and good have God as their author, why were Sodom and Gomorrah devastated by their own works and perished in their sin? In the same way, in the time of the flood of Noah, why did the world perish? And why, among the seventy-two tribes and families of the Muslim generation, will only one, as you assert, attain paradise, while the others are adjudged to pains and punishments? You see how you lie, and that your Koran neither has its origins from God nor descended from heaven, as you deliriously assert. For you make God Himself unjust by saying that good and evil have their origin from God. But God judges good and evil, and fittingly renders to each according to his works. D
You say: "Whoever does not wash his anus, and thereafter his mouth, cannot enter paradise," as your Koran decrees and holds. And again it asserts that one who eats swine's flesh will not attain the blessedness of paradise, because then the paradise of God would be contaminated. And again you say that one who is about to take a wife must take her in the presence of ten witnesses so that this whole business may be held legitimate. Why, then, do you require ten testimonies for joining a wife to a lawful husband, but not one to assert the dignity of your prophet, who you claim spoke with God face to face? Furthermore, you neither know God, nor prophet, nor apostle, nor do you know signs, nor wonders. Neither is your Koran the Word of God, because you do not know God. Because...
in the Koran, I have not found the name of a creator, rational, and immortal God, but only the name of the God whom the Arabs worshipped before the coming of Muhammed—namely, Phosphorus, or the morning star. A You have no prophet; for you have shown me nothing that pertains to his prophecy, nor where it might be read as written, as we have the prophecies of the prophets, in which they spoke of things past and things to come before they had seen any cast or written work from which they could have drawn these things. But Muhammed was neither an apostle nor a prophet, for we have no proof that he ascended into the heavens or descended from them. You do indeed testify that an angel of the Lord came to Muhammed, and thus it would follow that the angel was the apostle, not Muhammed himself. Nor are you able to produce any signs or miracles performed by him from the Koran itself. And I have found nothing in it that would savor of or breathe the Word of God; but only fabrications and profane reasonings.
And, I ask, tell me how the Word of God could be united to a book, or your Koran, or a volume, and your Koran become the Word coeternal with God Himself? B In the square, I saw many boys carrying the Koran, and when one of them wished to withdraw in private for a necessity, he would place the Koran beside him and sit. Otherwise, the boys have the Koran with them throughout the day; and sometimes they trample upon it, and sometimes they play games with it, and at other times they strike and beat one another with it. How then could the Koran be the Word of God, and coeternal with God Himself? Why do you not agree with Him who says that Jesus Christ, who raised the dead, who takes away and abolishes sins, and who commends Himself by various signs and miracles, is the Word of God Himself and coeternal with Him? Instead, you harass Him as an atheist. How, then, do you dare to assert that Muhammed, Christ, Adam, and the prophets are of one order and of equal lot and dignity before God? And since your Koran says, from the mouth of Pachura himself, that Christ is the Word of God, why do you assert that He was created, like Muhammed and others? And if Christ is the Word of God, why do you call Him a prophet? Whom shall we find in your Koran designated by these two names—Jesus Christ, that is, God and man? What prophet is called both prophet and apostle? C
Christ is the Word of God and coeternal with God. How does the name of the sinless and immortal God befit the name of one who was born in sin, who knew sin, and who died in his sins? We have no knowledge that Muhammed was powerful in word and deed, as Christ once was; hence your Koran asserts that they did not affix Jesus Christ to the cross, nor kill Him, so that the miracle of His resurrection might not be established, but that He exists as God, immortal. But it is an error and a deception. For although you deny His cross and resurrection, you will never be able to deny the resurrection of those whom He raised from the dead. This sign suffices for you, that by raising the dead He themselves did not
succumb to death ever. But as God, He is immortal. A How then, if He is immortal, and Creator, and one who raises the dead, do you make Muhammed equal to Him? Did not Muhammed die in an outcry? Neither did the angels call anyone born, or created, except our Lord Jesus Christ. And over Christ they cried out: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. For today a new child is born, He who is God before the ages." B O you, who are subject to errors, hear the greeting of the Archangel Gabriel with which he saluted the most holy Virgin. Namely: "The Lord is with you, the power of the Most High shall overshadow you," just as that is heard and drawn from chapter eleven of the book or writing of Zacharias: "And the virgin was in the temple, and the angel of the Lord provided her with food." From the same writing of Zacharias, and again: "All heavenly things were moved at the birth of the new child who was God before the ages; for which reason the angels contributed the hymn, the shepherds their wonder, the earth the cave, the desert the manger, the heavens the star, the Magi the gifts." Such was the birth of the Word of God. And the Coran, adding to this, says thus: "When the Word of God was born, he happened upon soldiers, and taking clay, he made winged and creeping things which were granted full senses." C But why indeed in the whole Coran are there no encomiums for Muhammed or his mother Jemena, such as are found regarding our Lord Jesus Christ, and his holy mother the Virgin, the Mother of God? Whence does it come that you call him a brother of Christ? Or how will you equate another prophet to Christ, when they themselves are works of the Word of God? And since they are circumscribed, mortal, and corruptible, how shall they be equal to the Word of God, which is without beginning or end?
Why, indeed, when I assert that Christ is the Son of God and the Word of God, do you reply that Adam is the word of God? When I say Christ performed signs and miracles, and was born without seed, and is unstained by any sin, why do you say that the same occurs in Adam? Why do you assert that if no traces of sin appeared in Christ, the same can be said of John, D and that this is not to be counted among the wonders? And when I assert that Christ raised the dead, why do you say that Elias also accomplished the same? And if I say, "The Lord was taken up into the heavens," you say, "And what is miraculous in that? And Enoch likewise." I, the humble monk of Edessa, am prepared to refute you regarding all the things which you say while lying. O most foolish one, if Adam is to be compared with Christ because as Christ [was] the first man, he was formed without seed, it would follow that the first donkey, the first dog, the first serpent, according to your reasoning, could be compared with Adam and Christ, and that they would not be of a worse lot than he, for just as he, these animals were formed without seed. But again to you
B I said that Christ was born without seed and committed no sin. And you say: "John also did the same." But you lie. Even if he did not sow and did not sin, yet he was born from seed and came into being according to human nature. Now I ask you, how is he like Christ? I told you that Christ performed signs and wonders, and you said that Moses did the same. But you are mistaken. Moses could not perform miracles without the name of Christ. For he said first in the Hebrew tongue to Pharaoh: *Aia, Aser, Aia, Aspaot*, "He sent me to you," which means God, Lord, and Holy Spirit. And he demonstrated his own servitude toward his Master. He manifested the holy Trinity, saying, God, Lord, and Holy Spirit. And he performed miracles only for a time, and with prayers and tears. Because later, breaking the commandment of God, he did not see the land of promise, but died according to his pleasure. And regarding this, your Koran says, *Maptelmoukatem*, meaning the land of promise. Christ raised the dead without prayer and supplication, by a lordly voice, for he spoke to the four-day-old Lazarus: "Lazarus, come out." How then is he comparable to Adam, and to Moses, or to any other created nature? Speaking formerly C that Christ ascended into the heavens in glory, as I told you, and you said: "Enoch also did similarly, so what is new?" You fool, and stranger to the truth! If Enoch has the boldness and the glory of that lot and fate, you speak the truth. But from your own writings it is clear that this is false. For your Koran says that Enoch now resides in a very high place, and in that same Koran of yours I found that this place is paradise. It follows, therefore, that Enoch is only in paradise. But as for the Lord, it is read in the Alcoran that God called Jesus Christ to occupy a place above the most sublime heavens; and in our Gospel it is read: "Lord, at your ascension the Cherubim were astonished, seeing you ascending upon the clouds, you who sit above them." What comparison, then, can be made between him and Enoch? Again, carefully observe that no one except Christ ascended with jubilation and acclamations and with the blast of a trumpet; he who had descended from heaven returned again with glory to the heavens where he was before, just as it is written in the writings of our prophets; for as the Lord descended, so as Lord he ascended again. How then is Enoch equal to him? Therefore, the earthly, created, servant, mortal, and corruptible Muhammed did not ascend into the heavens; do not flatter yourself too much with this error, as if it were true that Muhammed ascended into the heavens, because his D daughter Fatima testifies to this. And again you say: "Christ prayed, and he who prays is a servant of God." But hear me, the Edessene. I have shown you many
times that Christ is the Word of God, and your own Coran confirms this. And do not be over-curious about this. The Word of God is lauded, and hymned, and worshiped by all the powers of heaven and the whole human race. And this Word dwelt in the flesh, or rather, that flesh is called the temple of the Word of God. And in this temple, the Word raised the dead in a manner befitting God, and so forth. A You see, since the Word of God is the temple of God, it follows that He had no need to pray; and if at any time it seemed good to Him to pour forth prayers before men, by this manner of acting He wished to teach them mercy and forgiveness, desiring to bring them to salvation. But you say: "And the angel was incorporeal, and a temple of God; why, therefore, does he pray?" You are raving. To none of the angels or prophets has God ever said: "Today I have begotten you," as David speaks, or "You are the temple of God." Nor again: "This is my beloved Son; hear him." And to none of the angels or prophets has it been said: "Sit at my right hand, until I place your enemies as a footstool for your feet." Nor to an angel was it said: "Our God is at the right hand." Nor again: "From the beginning, Your name is above the sun and the moon unto the ages." Nor yet to an angel or prophet: "To you the kings of the people will do homage, and the tribes, and in you they will be blessed, and all men will worship you." It does not, therefore, follow, as you imagine, that an angel is the temple of God. B And again, I will raise a question with you, sought out from your own scripture, where it is narrated that there are seventy-three tribes of the Musulmans, only one being destined for the delights of paradise, and all the others to be judged to punishments and torments; and while all acknowledge one Mohammed and confess one God, they cherish and profess four various opinions: the first from Hanifa, the second from Sephi, the third from Melchi, and the fourth from Achmet Champil. And I learned that Mohammed teaches in the Coran: "Seventy-two tribes for punishment, and one for paradise." Certainly, Mohammed did not teach or instruct his people out of a rich and manifold knowledge of books, so that some might follow his doctrine and others not; rather, his entire doctrine—his preaching to the people, his fearsome faith, his dogma, his confession of paradise and of the final judgment and eternal rest, his hymn, his psalmody, his prophecy, his teaching, his wisdom, his light, and the law which he delivered to the Moslem race—all this flows from one and the same farrago; that is to say: "There is no god but God, and Mohammed is the apostle of God." C And again, this is the sum of your salvation: to say, "In the name of the God who is merciful and compassionate," whom you pray to in truth; and that beyond such a dogma, you do not honor any other, nor is there any other word of salvation. And Mohammed is the apostle of God, who nevertheless did not inherit the kingdom of God; whoever
A confessed this as it is written shall be reckoned among the citizens and inhabitants of paradise. Woe to the entire Muslim race because of such a doctrine. For he who hears these things and believes that they come to pass in paradise is immersed in sin, as water gushes forth and overwhelms the grass. But since all Muslims, as I know well, utter such words and all think in this way, how can you maintain that seventy-two of their tribes and families are adjudged to punishment, while only one will attain paradise? Show me, if you know, how this happens; if you are not aware of it, I myself will tell you and make it known.
Therefore Muhammed said that seventy-two tribes are destined for punishment, but one for the delights of paradise, because, he says, those seventy-two are merely Muslim in their public worship B and only externally profess that Muhammed speaks the truth, while in secret they assert that the people of Muhammed, along with him, are being led astray and are straying. And I intend to teach you them, and their names: Chasisimi, Separi, Ismaeli, Montani, and the others that follow. But that we may not weave overly long ambiguities of words, I say again that your seventy-two tongues deny Muhammed. Our tongues, however, all confess one faith and worship Christ religiously. If your seventy-two tribes and tongues deny and reject Muhammed, which of them proclaims the truth? Either several or at least one of them must be lying. There is no point in your saying that the faithful and the elect proclaim the truth, for I shall dissolve and crush this response as well. Tell me, Agarene, why do you revile and slander God Himself by asserting that God has inscribed these words on the circuit of His throne: "There is no faith more true than the faith of the elect Muslims"? C This, indeed, I found written in your Quran. O you who stray from the truth, no one has ever seen God, nor looked upon His throne; who then informed you that these things are written and inscribed around the throne of God? If you say that you learned this from your own Quran, then surely your Quran lies. For where were all the Muslims when the throne of God was, and He who sits upon the throne, who overspreads His upper chambers with waters and contains all things?
Now, tell me, O faithful one, by what title do you contend to glory among all other nations? Is not the summation of the salvation of faithful men, and the true and straight path to eternal life, and the foundation of the salvation of soul and body, and of pure prayer to God, the knowledge of God? Yet you acknowledge and confess a god lacking reason and life, and you follow and venerate D him with divine worship, as I have shown above. Furthermore, you have neither prophet nor apostle; by what reasoning, then, do you call yourself elect? Declare and prove it. You have no priesthood, nor grace, nor temple, nor remedy for curing the illnesses of soul and body, nor psalms, nor prayers. If I lie, make it known that my error and deceit are manifest. Recognizing these things, therefore, how will you be able to enter the kingdom of heaven and become a partaker of the grace of God? You are most distant from all these things.
A And the proclamation which Muhammed proclaimed to you: "When you are about to pray, take a vessel with a long neck containing water. And with your right hand place your finger into your seat. And with your left hand apply the water, then wash. And with the finger with which you washed your seat, wash your mouth with it. Then your face, then both hands up to the elbows, then your eyebrows and your ears, and then your feet. And if you are on a journey, you ought to wash outside of your shoes, so as not to trouble yourself, then take them off and put them on again. And if you are wearing a gold ring, take it off, and then pray. But if not, pray. And if you are wearing fur made of cat skin, do not pray until you have taken it off. And if a Muslim drinks wine all day long, and wishes to pray, he should look closely at his garment. And if any drops of wine have dripped onto it, he must wash it with soap and water, and then he may pray."
I, however, reply: Woe to such folly, that the barrel is filled with wine, yet it is washed on the outside. B Thus, with your belly loaded and full of wine, you are not polluted, yet you are utterly defiled by the drops of wine with which your garment is stained. And further, you anathematize prayers contaminated by the wearing of a gold ring and cat skin, and you anathematize a paradise contaminated by swine and wine.
Finally, the teaching of your Muhammed commands you: "If you are near a mosque, take a handkerchief and spread it out in front of you, holding it so that your face may not be defiled by the color or the earth of the mosque. But if you happen to be outside the mosque and do not have a handkerchief, take off your upper garment and spread it out in front of you. Pray upon it, and let your prayer be as follows: 'Who is a great God such as our God? And there is no God but Him, and Muhammed is the apostle of God.' Amen. Then you proceed to make three genuflections, saying: 'We give thanks to You, O God and Lord of all, the abyss of mercy, who in the coming day are the incorruptible Judge and King, grant us the straight paths, in which You gave to Your saints the grace to walk, not as those who were wrathful, neither the way of those who have wandered.' Amen. And make three genuflections while sitting, and rising say: 'Who is a God as great as our God?' three times; C then sit again, and magnify God three times; then greet to the right side, saying: 'Peace be with us.' And from the left again the same, 'With the merciful God.' And dismiss."
This, then, is your whole prayer, and your teaching, and the wisdom you have from your Muhammed. Beyond this, you have no understanding. D I, moreover, bear witness to you that before all things the Arabs possessed these phrases and these writings along with "With the merciful and pitying One," which you Muslims and those who follow your written book are accustomed to mandate to your followers as the hymn and the psalmody and the saying, "Who is a God as great?" rather
astronomy, and the calculation of the phases or positions of the moon, and epilogues, and the wisdom of the medical art, and verses, and commentaries—all these things were manifest among the Arabs many years before Mohammed arose. Every wisdom devised by Mohammed and his preaching consists in this: that one should proclaim, "Mohammed is the apostle of God." You cannot convict me of lying. Learn this also from Mohammed himself: "If anyone," he says, "does this and confesses it, he shall be a future inhabitant of paradise; and if anyone has not purified himself with water, he ought not to become so rash as to dare to pray at any time; and if anyone has had intercourse and touched his wife, not only must he wash his lower parts and his fundament, but he must be washed from head to toe with water; and then he acquires the right to offer prayers and to attain paradise." And again, another preaching of Mohammed is as follows: "Where there is a lack of water, instead of water one must use dust or earth."
Listen, then, carefully to him who wished to teach you the right path. If it happens that you are stuck in a field not irrigated by any waters, or on a mountain, you have absolutely no authority to pray. But if death suddenly seizes you, you are utterly lost, unless you obey the mandate of your prophet, by which he concedes and orders that, when water is lacking with which you can wash yourself, you may use dust or earth in place of water, and with it cleanse your fundament. But now, O Hagarite, tell me: when you have gathered dust with your hand, and have rubbed and scrubbed your fundament with your hand, does not the hand wallow and become defiled in it, and yet it is decreed by your Mohammed that, when your fundament is cleansed, your mouth and your face must also immediately be purified? To such a degree that, with your fundament rubbed and cleansed, you are then immediately required to move that same hand to your mouth and your face, and this must be done five times repeated each day. If, therefore, it happens that you traverse some place where there is no water, and you must purify yourself five times with earth alone, how many stenches will you have to admit into your nostrils, indeed, even to the very marrow? And such is the most sweet-smelling odor exhaled by that paradise, so warmly prayed for and desired by you! But tell me again: if you are stuck on the peak of some very high mountain where there is neither water nor earth, and sudden and unexpected death invades you, you will have to perish entirely, O atheist, since in that state the power to pray is not granted to you, and I firmly know that he who does not pray has not God as his portion. But from the aforementioned and written things, I have abundantly manifested to you that you are truly an atheist. For you worship an irrational God, devoid of reason and spirit. From this you can observe the wisdom, the doctrine, and the C preaching of Mohammed to be utterly useless, how obscure it is and shrouded in darkness, how confused and mere chaos. Whence it happens that you are ignorant of what true sanctification of soul and body is. Woe to you, O you mired in mud!
I have shown you what your prayer is, and from your own doctrine you yourself can gather this, and I have manifested the whole of your perdition. And again, I will manifest to you that same perdition, and the ruin, and the destruction of your soul and of your body, and how you do not wish to be saved from the sins and crimes that you have committed. Always D
A in such preaching has Muhammad bound you—that you should wash your whole body from head to foot, whether with water or with dust. And the dust must be measured out in a suitable vessel, so that you do not take more or less than is fitting. See now, therefore: I say to you that neither is the soul sanctified by water, nor by dust. If you say that the soul is holy and has no need to be hallowed either by water or by dust, I too say that the soul is united to the body. How then do you say that the soul is sanctified by God, but that the body, since it is defiled, must be washed with water every day? If you argue that this is done because a defilement has befallen it, whether from sin or from filth, and it is therefore necessary to wash it with water and so pray—I also argue that soul and body are one and the same; and that for both there is sanctification from God, both for the soul and for the body, just as in the case of defilement both happen to be partakers. And nothing holy ever becomes defiled; rather, what is defiled is sanctified and made holy. And if a holy thing should happen to be defiled, it is never sanctified by water. You see, then, how you have been led astray.
Again, tell me, B why do you assert that your Quran is the Word of God, that it has come forth and was not created? I know only the Word of God, which is Light from Light. And how could the incorporeal and simple nature be united with your book? The most subtle nature, with such great density—especially with a roll that is trodden under the feet of men prone to the earth, and is the work of human hands? By what right, then, do you call it the Word of God that has come down and not been created? The body of my Christ is not the work of man, nor a thing that can be trodden underfoot. Why then do you not tolerate me and approve when I assert that the Word of God was united to flesh, and is begotten, and not created? If your book were thrown into a well and could not help itself, how could anyone call it the Word of God? And if our Lord C saved Himself from the fury of the Jews and has ascended to heaven to dwell, how should we not call Him the Word of God? And if you say, “We cannot grasp, understand, or learn the Word of God because of the density of the book,” why do you not accept from me, through many witnesses, that the Word of God was united to flesh and is begotten, not created? And so we too found, within the density of the flesh, that which is immaterial and subtle—the Godhead—and we saw His glory, clearly the glory of the Word of God.
Finally, why do you reproach us as enchanters and impious for this reason especially—that we have seen D terrible signs and countless miracles from the density of the divine flesh of the Word of God? Yet you cannot boast of any such thing regarding your Quran. And since you have not been able to learn the subtle and invisible in any other way, unless by the...
density and thickness of the body of your Quran; so I, a Christian, cannot understand and see the Word of God except through the density of his body. A And again, how can you Muslims say: "We wish to see our creator and fashioner on the day of judgment"? But I counter you: when you go to Mecca to pray, and diligently search and insist that you may see the tomb of Mohammed, and honor it with some salutation, those who dwell there seek to deter you from this plan, saying that at the very moment you see the tomb, you will be blinded and deprived of your eyes. Whence it follows that your prophet, far from aiding you, actually promotes your ruin and perdition. Thus, in the day of judgment, if you see God himself, as you contend will happen, you will find him prompt and ready for your destruction, and he will cast you into the hell of fire. Do you truly say that Mohammed is a man of God, and that he learned from God to act unjustly? In his whole life, instead of liberation and salvation, he created injuries and ruins for others, and after death the same thing continues; he still operates in the same way, and instead of illumination, he strikes you with darkness and blindness, as you yourself assert. O you who have wandered far from the truth, who have not seen the divinity in this present time! B
Why do you not assert that we truly see the Word of God, co-eternal with God, in the flesh, in which he raised the dead, and recalled to their former existence those who were corrupted and no longer existent, and brought his own dead flesh back to life as God? How then can you assert that he and Mohammed are equals? But before God, something still clearer remains for me to urge against you. When you are about to give yourself to prayer and supplications, you have your feet upon the earth, and beneath your feet lies Mohammed in the earth, consumed and dissolved by rot and worms; but you lift your hands and stretch them toward heaven, where the Word of God is, and his throne, and the Holy Spirit. And the place where Mohammed lies you strike and tread upon with your feet, but to the place where the Word of God dwells—to those highest heavens—you are accustomed to raise your hands, and you invoke the heavenly hosts, angels, archangels, Cherubim, Seraphim, who with hymns and acclamations celebrate God most great and powerful, with the Word and the Spirit. Take note, Agarene, the place which you tread is the place in which the dead Mohammed lies, but the sublime place to which you extend your hands is the place which resounds with the hymn and harmony mentioned above. Why then do you call Mohammed and Christ equal in dignity? Why do you not blush and be overwhelmed with shame? How can the ever-being and immortal be similar to him who is mortal, dead, and corrupted? How can the Word of God, the maker and creator of all things, be compared with a work and a terrestrial creature, with Mohammed, who is an impostor, and who taught you that water is the sanctification of the soul and the body? C
Hear then this parable: A certain man was clothed in a white garment, but as he was traveling on a way filled and soiled with mud and filth, he fell upon the ground and a place rough with rocks and stones; the garment was indeed stained with mud and filth, but his foot was crushed by the blow of a certain rock. Certain people, taking and lifting him from that plight, led him into his house, and casting his garment [into water, they washed it with soap; and it was bleached as it had been before. But the crushed...]
foot water and soap cannot heal, unless a highly experienced physician, taking upon himself A the burden with time and care, restores it to its former health. Yet your prophet taught you in this way, that every disease of soul and body is purged, washed, and removed by water. But now, water has not been able to heal the crushed foot, which is visible and manifest. How much more, then, is it unable to sanctify and wash the invisible soul? If you say, "Prayer is the sanctification of the soul," why is it not also that of the body? But now I say to you: it is acceptable first to heal the wound of the foot, and then to wash the garment and bleach it—that is, first to sanctify and enlighten the soul, and then to wash the body itself with water and soap. Woe to you, miserable one, B portion of future judgment! You call the holy soul to paradise and say, "Come, O Theotokos, come into paradise."
When, therefore, a man dies and is buried, and after three days he is no more, but is food for worms, and he stinks and putrefies; and if he were not buried deep in the earth with a stone and carefully hidden with his body, anyone approaching near him would die from the great stench. Now, what profit is there to a man to wash his posterior all the days of his life? For the prophet David says, "Create in me a clean heart, O God" (Ps. L, 12). And Moses fasted for forty days and nights, and C his mouth stank, and taking leaves of a tree, he wiped his lips. And God, being angry with him, said, "Why did you wipe your lips with the leaves? Go, fast another forty." And I, even now, am seeking the sanctification of soul and body; if your mouth stinks, what is that to me? You are dust, and to dust you shall return. Now tell me, O Hagarene, since God endured the mouth of the prophet stinking, and did not say, "Wash your prophet’s mouth with water, or wipe it," how do you say that D the soul and body are sanctified with water? You are deluded. And when you sin, not only does the body receive the sin, but the soul also. But now you have washed the body of filth with water; but with what water do you wish to cleanse the invisible soul from sin? And how do you prioritize washing the body five times a day, and leaving the soul [neglected]? Is the soul not greater than the body? Just as you bleached the garment, and yet the crushed foot you could not heal with water, but did so with physicians and excellent herbs—you can cure and bleach it; but the wounded and crushed foot you will not be able to help with water, but [only] with the experience of physicians and the powers of the most excellent herbs.
Now I wish to tell you another thing. You have a tomb which has on the outside a covering that is very marvelous, of gold and pearls, but inside it is full of stench and worms. Again I ask you, when the infant is separated from
emitted from the mother's womb, its body is cleansed by water. For its body is soft, and it cannot yet perform prayer, so that you might find an occasion to claim that its soul is sanctified by prayer up to the final moment of death. I have shown you, therefore, that water sanctifies neither body nor soul. But if you say that circumcision is necessary, and that it is thus sanctified, I say to you that this is neither a sanctification of the body nor of the soul. But the Israelites had this as a mark of their own lineage, to distinguish them from the nations. Yet again I say to you, that whoever teaches that God is irrational, A and simple, is devoid of piety and knowledge, just as I showed you from the beginning.
Again I ask you regarding the twenty-four myriad prophets whom you are accustomed to boast about, and whose names you teach us; so that you might tell us their names, and what each of them prophesied, or what miracle each performed, and under what empire each existed. The whole world consists of seventy-two languages, as we know. And if you are able to recount these prophets according to the number of the languages of the whole world, we will believe you. But now you cannot even recount the names of a hundred prophets. Hear then from me, the Edessene, a story that I will relate to you. One day a certain Zecchetes, that is to say, a hesychast, approached a certain one of the Chalepitae, hoping that he might receive alms or a gift from him. He requested that, since he was moved by love for God and the prophets, he should be willing to grant him a coin for the name of each prophet. And he agreed to give him as he had asked. And having set before him a B multitude of coins, he demanded that he speak the name of each prophet, and receive one coin for each. But he, having begun to take the coins, barely managed to recall a few names, and when demanded for more, he could not remember any further. Consequently, this man was mocked by the Moratinus, and was put to the test, and the coins that had been proposed were denied to him by him. If, therefore, some Christians had chanced upon this, would they not have ridiculed you? How then do you, since you do not know the names of the prophets, claim to have such a multitude of prophets? And you dared not ask for so many coins regarding those whose very number among your prophets you do not know. You tell me again that the first prophet is Adam, and the last is Muhammad; you fool, and one who is outside the truth. In various places I have found you C claiming, as you say, that Muhammad was before the foundation of the world. And when asked by me where he lived, you say: "He was hidden between clay and water." And so, how is he later than Adam, since he existed before the foundation of the world? You yourself say this. You yourself overturn your own words; and how do you not blush, you senseless one?
And I ask you again: tell me, then, where and when was Muhammad born, and where did he go, and where D did he die, or [who were] his father and his grandfather
All these things you do not know, but I know them and understand them well. If you are ignorant of your own writings, then [you are also ignorant] of mine. But even if you do not know mine, listen now to me, and be instructed not only about his grandfather, but even concerning ten generations of his own ancestry. I for my part teach my son, but he [your own] cannot do the same, for he is unable. A Thus also you are not able to know accurately the things that concern Muhammad, as we Christians can; for we are much older than Muhammad, and the things that pertain to him are clearly known to us. Tell us, therefore, if you know this: what feast is celebrated in memory of his birth and his assumption into the heavens? Tell me, what solemn day is established for the commemoration of his birth, or death, or burial? And what psalms and songs are chanted in honor of his falling asleep? I have gone through all your books, B and have found no subject matter written concerning his praise and hymnody. Neither was his mother, Iemena, greeted by Gabriel, nor did the Power of the Most High dwell in her so that she might conceive and be pregnant; nor did the Holy Spirit call her "saint," nor did she remain a virgin before birth and after birth. But only this is found written, that as she was a slave, she was purchased by various men. How, therefore, do you make such a woman — a slave — equal to the holy, blessed, and immaculate Virgin, the Mother of the Word of God, when there is no equality between them? C Thus, also, you say that Muhammad is equal to Christ, although Muhammad did not raise the dead, nor, like Christ, did he raise the four-day-old Lazarus to life, nor did he open the eyes of the man born blind, nor did he heal every disease and every infirmity, nor did he cleanse lepers, nor were the deaf and dumb healed by him, nor did he still the force of the winds and raging waves, nor did he walk upon water as if it were dry land, nor did he enter to his disciples when the doors were shut, nor was he transfigured before his disciples, nor was he sinless, nor immortal, nor a righteous judge. How can you make him equal to Christ, since Muhammad did not perform any such thing, nor any other thing of any significance? D He was neither an adherent of truth nor of justice, but rather he demonstrated all iniquity and commanded that everyone who did not confess him as the apostle of God be put to death. And you say, with shameless face, that Muhammad and Jesus Christ are the same! But as for the things concerning the life of this same Muhammad, I now turn to you and say:
The one called Amptoulmoutalep was unknown to the entire race of the now-called Muslims, and even now, it is not known or ascertained among you who he was. We, however, the Christians, who believe in the rational and living God and who hold fast to Him, and who are the inheritors of the earth, have known him well. But regarding this matter, just as with many other things that are unknown to you, you must be taught by me. Muhammad was the son of Amptoulas, Amptoulas was the son of Amptaulmoutalip, Amptaulmoutalip was the son of Asem, Asem was the son of Adelmunephi, Adelmunephi was the son of Cusi, Cusi was the son of Lova, Lova
was the son of Mutraca, Mutracas was the son of Cainan, Cainan was the son of Emuldab, Emuldab was the son of Elisai, Elisai was the son of Metusalach, Metusalach was the son of Arphalxiach.
Listen now, you fool, to the matters concerning the grandfather of Muhammed, A Amptoulmoutalip, and even the final events that befell Muhammed himself. For what I have said, and what I am about to say and write, has all been drawn and taken from the writings and books of the Chaldeans themselves. Amptulas, the father of Muhammed, bought for himself in a certain market of the Arabs a wife, Jemena, the mother of Muhammed, a maiden and daughter of a man whose name was Leo. When she had given birth to Muhammed, after ten years had passed, she finally died. Muhammed, therefore, being orphaned of his mother, was raised by Amptoulalep, and when he had reached his twenty-fourth year, he took ten wives, and in addition to these, six captive concubines. His first wife was called Caditsa, the daughter of a certain Chalepi; the second, Amptalme, the daughter of Saphove; the third, Aisai, the daughter of Omari; the fourth, Asiai, the daughter of Apupacri—otherwise known as Mpoumpaci—who succeeded Muhammed and occupied the seat after him, that is, he was B Caliph; the fifth was Maria the Egyptian; the sixth, Zite; the seventh, Zulcha, and those that follow.
Now, I will tell you whence and how he obtained and married them. Caditsa was drawing water and supplying drink to the camels; when Muhammed passed by there, he himself asked for water from the maiden, and without delay, he asked that she be joined to him in marriage. Caditsa truly replied, "I can indeed look upon your face, but I do not dare approach you; are you not that prophet who was born among the Corasiotae?" He answered: "Indeed, I am he." And he approached the girl's father, and from the father he obtained the girl to be joined to him in marriage. Amptalmen he took as a domestic slave, born in his own house, and when he had first deflowered and devirginized her, he later joined her to himself in marriage.
C But Aisai, when she saw Muhammed wandering and approaching from a distance, spread out her head-covering, and when he had walked upon it, the maiden said, "I give thanks to you. Your faith is great." But he sent word to her father, ordering that he should send his daughter to be joined to him as a wife. Now, upon hearing the message, the father of the maiden was filled with the greatest joy, and sent her with sour milk to Muhammed, so that he might eat it and pray for them. Having taken the milk, he gorged himself with it, and finally the maiden’s virgin seal was violated by the lecherous blade.
Maria, however, was an Egyptian, who was in a city called Mpois, situated in the Damascene territory. When Muhammed had arrived there with the camels of his mistress, which he was accustomed to lead for a hired wage, he saw the maiden and fell in love with her, D and he brought her into his own house as a wife. Zaiten, also, while carrying water and sprinkling it with a certain earthenware vessel, appearing conspicuous with her purple cheeks, he instantly fell in love with, and having grasped her by the hand, he spoke thus: "No one, besides me, shall have power and right over you," and afterwards he had her as a wife. When her father heard this, he abandoned himself to the greatest joy, and having gone to Muhammed, he fell down before him, saying: "Whence comes this to me, O Apostle of God, that you should be called my son-in-law?" Muhammed says to him: "Arise, for so it is written." Muhammed produced four male children and one female. The
first son was Taip, the second Taer, the third Casem. The fourth Ibrāhīm, and the female Phatima. And none of the males lived, only Phatima alone. How did he not raise his children from the dead before the Arabs, so that they might see them and believe in his miracles, if he were a prophet, as you say? B He gave Phatima as a wife to his cousin Ali, son of Abutalepi. And he produced two children with her: the first son was named Chasanem, the second Chuseinem. And after the death of Muhammed, his enemy arose, who had the name Mebias, and had a son named Jasit, a powerful ruler. And he sent men who slaughtered the two sons of Ali, Chasanem and Chuseinem, the former by poison, the latter by the sword. All these things I know truly. And tell me, since you call him a prophet, why did he not prophesy regarding his children and his grandchildren, that they were destined to die in such a manner after his death? From that time, C Apupacher sat in place of Muhammed as caliph for six years and a half. After him, Oiner, son of Chattap, for six years. Then Othmanes, son of Aphnæ, for twelve years, then Ali, son of Abutalipi, for four years. I tell you again and again, that if I wished to recount the names of his twelve ancestors and their shameful and disgraceful deeds, the Euphrates itself would fail me, even if it provided me with ink instead of its flowing waters.
Now hear the life and customs of Amptalmotalepi, the grandfather of Muhammed himself. At that time he dwelt in the region of Marada; but when his father Asem caused him trouble and vexed him with querulous reproaches, he came to Sephora D near the Corasiotai, whom he approached in blood and lineage. He had with him ten male children and three daughters. The first son was called Amases, the second Ampas, the third Abutalep, the fourth Ampelcap, the fifth Aplucadep, the sixth Apulsal, the seventh Amptulcasom, the eighth Amptuale, the ninth Sephuan, and the tenth Amptoulas. This is the father of Muhammed. Amptulmutalipes, the grandfather of Muhammed, had a brother named Corase, who bore the name of his own forefather. He lived in the land of Cham, at a distance of two days' journey from his brother in the land of Marada. Corase, blessed with numerous offspring, had ten daughters and three sons. The youngest daughter was called Lialule, that is, "Pearl" or "Margarita," and she was loved by Amptulas, the son of the brother of this Amptulmutalepi—who is the father of Muhammed—and he loved her greatly, and he says to his father: "I wish to speak to your brother Corase to give me his daughter as a wife." Now Corase was very much richer than his brother Amptulmutalepi. The father of Amptulas says: "Your uncle is rich and..."
he harbors vain and haughty thoughts; I am in narrow circumstances, and when I speak with him about this matter, he immediately meets me with contempt and reproaches." Yet he insisted, and urged his father to seek as a wife for him the cousin, the daughter of his brother, with whose love he was inflamed. Vanquished and overcome by these importunate demands, the father explained the whole affair to his brother, and asked that the daughter be joined in marriage to his son Amptulas.
But the brother, inflamed with anger, replied: "By the God of heaven and earth, if you were not my own brother, I would drive you from this land this very hour." And he conceived a great enmity against him. Now Amptulmutalepi B had a most outstanding and famous dog, and when it entered the house of Corase, he killed it and, piling up much earth, hid it, burying it in the ground so that it might not be found. Corase, for his part, had a mare of most wonderful form and speed, which surpassed even the wind in velocity, and which was fettered with two iron shackles and hobbles. When Amptulas and his father pondered in their minds that Corase had killed the dog, and Amptulas, unable to bear the grief of the dog, did not endure such an injury, he took a basket with him, and went to Corase with peace, concealing his design and putting forward a peaceful and kindly intention. C For the Arabs are accustomed to value peace as a thing of the greatest importance. Seeing him, therefore, coming with a basket and offering them all the civilities of peace, the Corasiotes began to be less concerned about him, thinking he did not nurse or revolve any wicked plans in his mind, and they received him as a most welcome guest. But he, springing from his bed at night and rising, slaughtered the mare with a knife and immediately rushed forth and looked to his own safety in flight. The next morning, the Corasiotes, awakened from sleep and bed, found the mare dead and pierced with various wounds. Whence Corases said: "Amptulas hid anger and vengeance in his heart, and deceived us with his simulated peace; therefore, D no care or concern held us to watch him."
Amptulas, having returned to his father, related everything just as it had occurred. The father replied: "Nothing remains for us now but to prepare ourselves quickly for war." And in truth, Corases, accompanied by a great crowd of people and equipped with various chariots and arms, attacked his brother and invaded him with bitter war. On both sides, many fell in a doubtful and indecisive victory. The father of Amptulas, inferior in strength and seized by such great fear that he was just about to breathe his last, headed in flight to Mecca, ten days' journey away, with his son and the remnants of his people; for many had perished in the various battles.
When he had established fixed abodes in the deserts of Mecca, in a space of three years, they procured for themselves animals, servants, and merchandise, and since they knew all the places well, they began to trade and transact business. It was the custom among the Arabs that each, as their means allowed, would buy as many female captives as possible, and would prostitute them to youths in the prime of life, and especially to Hebrews, from whose cohabitation with them they would become pregnant and produce children of more elegant form, to be sold for a high price in markets and public fairs. On a certain day, therefore, Amptulas, the father of Muhammed, said to his father: "Father, I desire a wife," and his father said to him: "Anathema..."
A be upon you, and upon the wife whom you shall join to yourself, and upon the children you shall beget by her; for in your lifetime we have become outcasts and refugees from our own land, and we shall not end our exile save with our life." After some time, however, he again importuned his father, saying to him: "Come with me to the forum, and let us buy a slave, such as God may provide for us, that she may be joined to me in marriage." Having gone to the forum and searched from end to end, Amptulas found a slave and bought her. And the tradesman who sold the slave stated—and confirmed it with an oath by the fearful Name of God—that this slave had been sold more than twelve times; wherefore, rejoicing, they led her to their house. After a short time, they sent her to pasture the camels according to the custom that prevailed among the Arabs; and every morning she would carry on her shoulder, in a basket, the daily food by which she was nourished, and B every evening she was accustomed to bring the same basket back to her master’s house filled with camel dung. And while she was serving in this way, as I have mentioned, Amptulas had relations with her. And when she was pregnant—whether by him or by one of the herdsmen who were with her pasturing the camels on the mountain (for the time of her delivery was at hand)—she went to the mountain to pasture the camels according to her custom and there gave birth to Muhammed. And having, according to custom, filled her basket in the evening with camel dung and placed the newborn Muhammed on top, she came to the house of her master. When his grandfather saw the infant Muhammed, he said: "Anathema upon the sower and upon the one who brings him, for it is by the fault of the sower that we were driven from our land and bereft of our wives."
She, however, according to her custom, would go to the mountain to pasture the camels, carrying Muhammed with her to suckle him. And when three full years had passed, the father of Muhammed went out to hunt; C and he hunted a wild sheep and dismounted to slaughter it, but a snake that happened to be there bit him, and he died immediately from the bite. After another five years, the grandfather of Muhammed passed away. The slave-woman, taking her orphan child, that is, Muhammed, went to a suitable place and found there Abutalep, her husband’s brother, and told him everything that had befallen her. Abutalep said to her: "I shall provide for my nephew Muhammed, and you shall serve in my house." And he remained with his mother in his house for ten years, and was brought up there. Thereafter his mother also died, and he was brought up by his uncle, Abutalep, who gave him over to shepherds to graze with them for ten years; and subsequently his mistress appointed him to travel from country to country for hire with her camels. He would bring the profits from this to his mistress, and he did this for five D years. In
A the mountain where he was pasturing the camels, there dwelt a certain hesychast monk, addicted to the Nestorian doctrine, whose name was Pachuras. There was a well by his cell; and as Muhammad would come and go, he would ascend to the water, and upon seeing the hesychast, he would encounter him and ask about the faith of the Christians. The hesychast would explain everything to him; and as he encountered him, he himself would explain and learn. And when he returned to his own home, he would relate everything to the Arabs, adding: "Thus says the Lord."
One day, having found a multitude of Arabs sitting in a circle, he wished to sit with them and discuss various things. Suddenly, affected by vertigo, he fell to the ground and lay prostrate, rolling and tossing himself, with his teeth gnashing and his mouth foaming—which is something very familiar to you, O Muslims, during prayer, and which you are accustomed to do very often, especially those among you who are called Phoracidae. For B they are accustomed to gather an assembly, carrying musical instruments—guitars and drums—and eating the tops of the hemp plant, and drinking boiled wine. Then they all rise up together, and the musicians play their musical instruments, while the Phoracidae dance uncover-headed and foolishly, and the commoners and laymen, together with their children, clap their hands and shamelessly strike the air with shouting. And the fools dance, and thus they fall down exhausted, foaming; and they gnash their teeth in imitation of Muhammad. The bystanders cry out: "An angel! An angel!" that is, "An angel has spoken with him." On the next day, if any happen to be there, they ask those who were present which one of them foamed the most; and, having identified the man, they immediately fly to his feet, seize them, and kiss them, asserting that he has seen an angel, just as Muhammad himself did. I am ashamed of this entire tale, so poorly contrived C and fabricated. Can you accuse me of lying regarding these things, O Agarene?
But to return to Muhammad himself: when he had come to his senses and was asked how the things that had just happened to him came about, he replied: "I saw an angel, and upon seeing him, I was thus troubled." Now Abutalepus, who had raised Muhammad, was present there at that time. Having returned home, he approached his wife and warned her with these words: "Do not henceforth keep Muhammad as a servant and mercenary, for today he has seen an angel."
Muhammad returned every day to the idle monk, and learning many things from him, he later narrated the same to the people and instructed the populace in them. But on a certain evening Abutalipes, fearing that some fraud lay hidden in the words of Muhammad, approached him thus: "I nourished and cherished you for a long duration of time, and D now, therefore, as some compensation for my services toward you, tell me sincerely what you saw when you fell to the ground foaming and gnashing your teeth." Muhammad replied: "This is the beginning of my prophecy, and, O my master, I intend to fast for thirty nights, and become thin, like an angel, and whenever the angel comes, I may encounter him." And he himself was fed for every
A day by Pachuram. And this monk, so that he might baptize him, nurtured him. When evening came he would return well-fed and full of belly, and then he would pretend that he did not want to eat. Then his uncle Aboutalipa said to him: "I wish you to explain to me your whole procedure. For I see that you eat nothing at all, but even walk out to the mountains every day, and return in the evening exhausted. Tell us, therefore, what is the revelation." Muhammed says to him: "If you wish me to explain, first gather the people and inhabitants of Mecca, and, returning from the mountain tomorrow, I will tell you all in their presence." But they did not understand that he was being taught and fed by the monk, nor did the monk himself dare to reveal to any of the Arabs that Muhammed was tarrying with him, so that he might baptize him, and teach him, and [so that] he might escape the danger from the Arabs.
B Then Aboutalipa, gathering the people into Mecca, said to the leaders of the Arabian sons: "A prophet has appeared among us, named Muhammed, who has fasted for thirty days; come therefore to see him." And hearing that a man of earth had fasted for thirty days and was not dying, they greatly glorified God, and this was heard in all the land of Arabia. And having gathered, they came with Aboutalipa, and he says to them: "Sit here, for he is about to come in the evening." When Muhammed therefore arrived, all gathered to meet him, and he who had reared him, Aboutalipa, cried out: "Well has come the star of Arabia, he who has fasted for thirty days and nights." And the crowds, hearing this, shuddered and trembled. Muhammed says: "Listen, O master Aboutalipa, and my foster-father, with thy people, that when I came to Damascus the last time, and I had lost C the camel, and you beat me and drove me from your house, I went, out of my grief, to the Royal well, and fell there and fell asleep. And I saw in a dream that the sun was descending and bowing down to me. And the next morning I arose, fearful, and as I was thinking about it, I said nothing to anyone at all. I went therefore into the mountains where I used to graze the camels, in order to ascend, and having found a rock, I sat beneath it, pondering the vision—the shade. And a voice came from heaven to me saying: 'Muhammed, do not be anxious about the vision. Go, and fast for thirty days, and wait here, that I may speak to you.' Thus I heard, and I fulfilled the days: thirty fasting D and thirty nights, and I come every day to your.
A A man stood before me named Gabriel, whose face shone like the sun, and his garments radiated like the appearance of the rainbow appearing in the sky, and he was exceedingly beautiful in form. And he would meet me with unspeakable words. "Now if you wish, listen to me, and do the will of him who sent me, and if I tell you anything, write these things down." And he himself would go away every day to the monk, and be taught by him, and coming down from there, he would pass on these teachings—one from one source, another from another; at times from Adam, at times from David, some from Christ, others from Abraham, at times from Noah, and at times from Solomon. And whatsoever Muhammad said to the people, thus they would write, and each one kept whatever he could grasp, and he played the false prophet. For seven years, going up into the mountain and coming down, he learned from Pachuros what he announced, imposing upon and mocking the miserable Borborites, among whom he shamelessly boasted that an angel of God named Gabriel came down from heaven, B who would inform him with such C revelations and instruct him.
He had four uncles; the first was Abutaleph, who raised Muhammad; the second was Othmanes the scribe, who wrote the Koran; the third was Apoutsales, who refuted Muhammad's lie when he asserted that he ascended into heaven; the fourth was Abtulchabes. Now Othmanes, whenever Muhammad related anything, would immediately draw it into his ear, his heart, and his faith. Yet on a certain day he said to his uncle Abutaleph, and this confidently and in the presence of many, that on that very night he had flown up to God, and had sat with Him as close as an eyebrow is to an eyebrow, nay, even wearing his very sandals, and mouth to mouth had mingled with Him in most familiar conversation. And that God had burst forth into these words: "You have come to me most welcome, Muhammad; I have burned with the greatest desire to see you. Through my glory, if you had not existed, and your affection and love for me, I would not have created heaven, nor earth, nor angels, nor the whole human race. But now you are my chosen people." And he commanded his uncle, Othmanes, that he should diligently commit all these things to writing. Therefore they wrote, and I have learned these things from your own writings, O Muslim, and thus I am able to confute and refute you regarding the truth. But, I ask, how are you not struck by the fear of God? How are you not at least suffused with the shame and modesty of men when you show yourself to be compliant and obedient to such empty doctrines? On the following day, his uncle Abutaleph, his rearer and nourisher, rising up, addresses him in these words: "From the time when you began to boast and teach among us such wonders and unheard-of things, seven years have passed; now make manifest and confirm among us the truth of the things that you are accustomed to utter. You say that you ascend into heaven, that you are on familiar terms with God, and that you hear from Him wonders that can hardly be expressed. But so that the Arabs may have faith in you, by what miracle do you commend yourself? Display your power in the performance
A of some sign, even a small one, so that all may be persuaded and convinced." Muhammed answered him, "Come to me this very night, and I will display such a miracle for all eyes to see. You shall see the moon split into two parts, one of which will scatter its rays in the east, and the other in the west." They gathered together, then, and as the air was overcast and clouded with darkness, Muhammed said, "I have performed the miracle, but you could not see it, for you are indeed unworthy to witness my miracle with your eyes." And until this day the memory of this affair persists among you, and thus it is recorded in your books.
Another of his uncles, Abutsales B, stood forward and asserted that he would by no means believe unless he saw at least some miracle, however slight. "I ask you to do this, which is very easy: you say that you can ascend to the heavens in a single stride, and with a single movement of your feet. Raise yourself, then, from the earth into the heights, and remain suspended in the air at a distance of three palms' breadth from the earth, so that I may be able to move and flourish my sword beneath your feet. If you do this, we will drink in all that you tell us from beginning to end with the firmest faith."
But Muhammed, seeing the incredulity of his uncle and that he could escape in no way, cried out to the people, "Abutsales, even though he is my uncle, let him be put to death immediately." The wiser ones among the people replied, "If your uncle has spoken anything evil, why do you not instruct him? And if he has spoken correctly and truthfully, why do you desire, with a most iniquitous sentence, that he be slaughtered by the people?" But the vast majority, as mere playthings of folly and madness, shouted, "The Prophet speaks the truth, which is confirmed by the testimony of his daughter Phatima, who saw him ascending into the heavens." Seizing courage from this, Muhammed drew his sword against his uncle, and the crowds, moved by his example, also drew their swords and pierced the uncle and slaughtered many others with him. Can you, O Mussulman, make me out a liar, or not? And from that day to this, he disseminated this barbaric doctrine: If anyone does not believe and confess that Muhammed is the apostle of God and a prophet, he shall be killed by the sword. This, in fact, prevailed for six years, and through the fear of death, many were gathered who would favor and protect the faction of Muhammed.
C When the Arabs residing there heard that such a great number of people had perished so unjustly, they convened among themselves and, having formed an army, attacked the followers of Muhammed, whom they broke and routed in the land of Madian by means of war and camel-drivers. Muhammed, fleeing, found a cave in which he lay hidden for three days and nights, and finally escaped safe. But you shamelessly say that while he was hiding in the cave, he was covered by a spider's web because of the danger. From this you may know that I have discovered all your delusions, and that I present them to you clearly.
Muhammed fled again and entered a certain city or camp along with the mobs who had too easily believed his dogmas. He entered a lodging or inn, and for fear of the death which the Arabs were surely intent on inflicting upon him, he lay hidden there for a long time. These Arabs, however, found another of Muhammed's uncles, Abubaker, and having seized him, they said, "Indicate to us where Muhammed is hiding." Abubaker said with an oath, "If you release me, and if I find Muhammed, by the compassionate and merciful God, I will bring him to you with his hands and arms bound." Then the uncle Abubaker went in to Muhammed and said, "I have come to you to take you bound by the arms and bring you to the Arabs." And Muhammed arose and embraced him, and squeezed him tight,
until he appeared to be on the point of fainting. Abubaker therefore replied: "Have mercy on me, most powerful servant of God; now I recognize that you are the prophet and apostle of God." To which Muhammed replied: "If you speak the truth, Abubaker, let us join and unite our efforts and plans." Abubaker said: "Take up arms with your people and come with me so that we may destroy the Arabs, for they are unprepared and buried in idleness."
Immediately, therefore, they rushed to arms, and Abubaker, with Muhammed, broke the Arabs with a sudden assault, and from that time forward he was always victorious. Seeing the crowd of people that Muhammed was everywhere victorious, they flowed to him in greater numbers every day. And Muhammed, from his younger and more excellent men, conscripted an army, and coming to Mecca, he routed the Arabs and stormed both the city and the fortress. With his forces increased, he occupied all the surrounding regions. He fixed a law by which it was decreed that if anyone did not confess that B Muhammed was the prophet and apostle of God, he would immediately be put to death; and for fear of death, a most numerous crowd followed his banners and embraced his doctrine. Thus he occupied various regions and cities of the Arabs, and finally arrived at a place named Tsumtsum, that is, a deep well. Near the well was a city or fortress named Susaita, that is, a black and dark stone, and when they had stormed it, they took a certain old woman captive therein with her seven children. They approached her thus: "You, with your children, believe in Muhammed and in his God, because he is the prophet and apostle of God." But she said to them: "I beseech you that I may see him immediately and confer with him." Being brought immediately to Muhammed, she said: "Why do you call yourself a prophet and apostle, and what kind of God is yours? I, for my part, have Venus and the star Phosphorus as gods; what kind of God do you have and worship?" Muhammed replied: "There is another God; he has as servants Michael and Gabriel. I am his apostle." The old woman said: "And where does this God of whom you speak dwell?" And Muhammed, lifting his palms to the stars, replied: "He dwells in heaven." The old woman persisted: "Do you alone know him, or does your people also know him with you? Does his voice reach the voice of earthly men, or is it different from it?" Muhammed replied: "Neither I know God, nor the people standing around me." The old woman pressed him: "How do these things square? A moment ago you were saying that with a single stride and almost a single leap you ascended the heavens with your sandals and reached even to God; now, however, you say that you do not know God. How then can you be called his prophet and apostle?" "It is so," said Muhammed, "but Gabriel the archangel of God comes to me daily and reveals to me the things that I announce to you." The old woman continued, and said: "When the angel approaches and speaks, do you alone hear him, or does your people also hear him? If everyone hears, then all are apostles of the archangel, and you cannot boast of any C special grace or favor. If, however, you alone hear, the archangel is the apostle, and you are absolutely nothing; do not, therefore, call yourself an apostle." Muhammed D says
"Turn yourself, A lest you and your children perish by the sword." The old woman says: "Fear the God whom you know. First, command that my children be cut to pieces, then me, lest, if the children be left behind me, they, being foolish and simple, might believe in your erroneous dogmas and renounce the worship and knowledge of our God." Muhammed says: "Say only that Muhammed is the prophet and apostle of God, and I will let you and your children go safe and sound." The old woman says: "Far be it that such words should ever even once escape our lips." Muhammed, therefore, in his fury, commands that the children be slain and their funeral piles be heaped upon the funeral pile of their mother. To this Abutalipes, his uncle and guardian of Muhammed, replied: "Certainly this old woman has been treated with great injury along with her children; for if she was lying and erring, she ought to have been rebuked and taught, but if her faith was true, why did you wish to kill her rather than let her go unharmed?" Muhammed said: "It is true, you raised me, but I shall show that I am doing the will of God, and yet you dare to contradict me? Beware, lest, all memory and consciousness of your favors being removed, I kill you immediately." Abutalipes said: "I do not believe in that God of yours, whose works are such things as you do." Muhammed replied: "Do you not, therefore, believe that I am the prophet of God?" He said: "Far be it that I should believe this!" Whereupon, stung by the gadfly B of fury, Muhammed ordered that he be killed immediately, which was done. That I speak the truth is attested by the custom and habit which is wont to be practiced among your abominable rites. For you are accustomed to bring forward one sign from among those who enter Mecca to pray. For they are accustomed to pelt that place with stones. And when asked, O Muslim, "Why do you stone the place?" you say that it is because Abutalipes would not believe in Muhammed. By another sign, however, I shall refute you. For near that place is a well, [called] Tsamsum, in which there is a very great supply of water, from which [well] you are wont to keep C people away and eject them. You, O impostor and deceived one, stone that holy place. And when you return home from Mecca, you take water from that well, which you keep for yourself as a blessing, and are wont to carry it around into other regions. And when asked by me, "What is this water, and whence did it draw and derive this blessing?" you answer: "It is the water of Zumzum, because there the son of Abraham slept, overcome by sleep, and having awakened, [and] being pressed by thirst, nor was there water at hand by which he might quench his thirst, he rubbed and struck the earth with his heel, and immediately the waters began to well up and remain." Near there, indeed, is an altar, to which the people approach and tarry there for a station of three days, crying out with D an uncomposed voice and pouring out prayers to God, and saying: "What do you command?" And also questioned by me a third time as to why you do this, you answer that it is because God joined Adam and Eve in marriage there; and with this fabrication and delirium you pile up your other trifles and absurdities. Woe to the absurdity and rashness whereby God is made an atheist! But I continue. After Muhammed had killed that old woman with her children, and Abutalipes, [he]...
A returned with his army to the city of Medina, and there he acquired and amassed a great store of goods. He said to the crowds: “The archangel of God came to me and said: ‘Go away to the land of Marada, to the ancestral lands of your grandfather, so that you may turn back a people who have been led astray. Now, I leave among you in my stead Abubaker, so that you may be exhorted and instructed by what is told to you; and do not be sad, for I shall return shortly, and you have Abubaker [for the meantime].’” He went, therefore, from place to place, and from province to province; and by the providence of the living and most wise God, he arrived at the place where his grandfather and the Corasii had engaged in battle one with another. They asked him, therefore, who he was and of whose family. He replied: “I am of the race of the Corasiotae.” They proceeded, and with repeated questions they urged him, so that they might at last know what his name was. They said, therefore: “By what proof do you confirm that you are an inhabitant of the region which you mention, and in which you say your grandfather lived?” And he described to them what the place was called—Marada. “It happened,” he said, “that two brothers, with war flaring up between them, harassed one another. Whence my grandfather had to flee, to leave the soil, and to seek dwellings elsewhere.” From these words they perceived that he was telling the truth. They asked, therefore, what his name might be. He said to them: “I am called Muhammed, and I am a prophet and apostle of God.” To which they countered: “A rumor has come to us that a prophet has truly been raised up from the city of Medina; are you that same one?” He immediately replied: “I am indeed that same one; but furthermore, hear from me a B tremendous mystery: I have been pursued by God with such love that I have been assumed into the highest heavens, with my very sandals on, and I sat next to God as closely as one eyebrow to the other eyebrow. I knew Him, and was known by Him, and He called and declared me a prophet, and said to me: ‘Without the love with which I pursue you, it would be that I had not created either heaven or earth. Indeed, your name has been inscribed around my throne, and it prides and glories itself in its own characters.’”
When those standing by heard these things, as if shedding tears and drawing sighs from their innermost breasts, they mocked him and said all together: “If you tell the truth, and no deceit lies hidden in your words, signify to us how you ascended into heaven.” He said to them: “I placed my foot at Jerusalem as upon a ladder, and with the other [foot] I penetrated the heavens themselves.” Having heard which, they cried out with one voice: “Glory be to God, the compassionate and merciful, who has willed that, with a single step, a man of earth should rise even to the heavens; we render the greatest thanks we can to the most powerful morning star, to God, merciful and compassionate, who has pursued us with mercy and has chosen and raised up from the race of the Corasiotae a most excellent prophet such as you.” He remained with them C for the space of twelve days, conversing with them and mixing in various speeches. When they were conversing among themselves, they said to him: “O Muhammed, chosen of God, our grandfather once had a mare truly marvelous, such as there was no second in all Arabia; and your father, Abtulas, coming [there], gave them peace so that they might live without care. But in the night, he killed her with a sword, and then from that [act] a war broke out; now, therefore, we beseech you, since you are the chosen one D
A of God, and because you have acknowledged God, and He hearkens to you in all things, raise up the mare which your father killed, and we shall not seek any further miracle from you. We do not say this merely because of our desire for the mare, but so that the Arabs might also see the miracle and believe that you are truly a prophet and an apostle of God. Muhammed says to them, "Show me the grave in which the mare was buried." Everyone says to him, "She was not a human, to be buried; she was a beast, and an irrational animal, and we cast her out, and she served as food for the barking and voracious stomachs of wild beasts." Muhammed says, "Since you do not know the grave, how do you expect me to raise her?" Everyone says to him, "Since you are a prophet and the chosen one of God, do you not know where the mare is? But you cannot raise her." However, after we found him, we sent and found a camel inebriated with incense and wine, and they say to him, "You are surely the son of him who bestowed the peace of the grandfather, and having fulfilled the end, which is obscure, we then seized him and tied his hands behind his back and say to him: 'You say that you ascended into the heavens; now jump from the ground and pass over the camel without touching your feet to its back, and then we shall believe that you ascended into the heavens.'" But after he had struggled much and could not, everyone said to him, "Coming, he greeted us with his peace, and wanted to turn us all away from our faith."
C I, however, a monk of Edessa, shall make clear to you what your faith and theirs is, namely, the words they spoke to the morning star: "Who is so great a God as our God? And there is no God just and benign except our God, the merciful and compassionate. And glory be to Your power, O Lord, O Lord, do not separate us from Your mercy, but save us by Your power. Amen." And the names of the men from the race of the Arabs are as follows: Theodulus, Theocharistus, Theoctistus, Theosterictus, and Theodore. To this day, there is one family of the Arabs called the Colpiotae, or Sculiotae, who hold such a faith and anathematize Muhammed. The people of Muhammed say again, "Since you could not pass over the camel, show us some small sign." He, while still bound, cried out: "From now on I have no sign for you, because you are faithless." They say to him, "You are faithless, because you have perennially and unjustly destroyed many souls." And having bound him to the tail of the inebriated camel, and having goaded it, they let it loose into the field; and the camel, startled by the shadows, now flees and drags him, now tramples him with its feet under its face, and thus he was trampled by the camel and D miserably killed. Such was the life of him and his forefathers, as you have heard, O Mussulman. You yourself first confessed that seventy-two tribes from the race of Mou-
the Mussulmans reject Muhammed and strike him with most bitter anathemas. A Secondly, you also assert that his four uncles denied him, and would not have faith in him as an impostor, and were unjustly killed by him. The first nourisher of him was Abutalebes, the second Apoutsales, the third Amptoulcalepes, the fourth Meebias. But a little woman, illiterate and rustic, with her seven children, refuted him and held him as naught. But we Christians, heirs of the heavenly kingdom, and legates and priests of the right faith, and treading firmly in the footsteps of the prophets, reject the cursed and profane Muhammed, and renounce him as a fool, a vain man, and an impostor.
For when the Mussulmans set out for the city of Medina to perform their sacrifice and prayers, B they ask the inhabitants of the place, saying: "Show us the sepulcher of Muhammed, that we may venerate it and kiss it prostrate." But they answer them: "And who can arrive at such rashness that he would dare to look upon his sepulcher? For whoever violates it with his gaze is immediately struck with blindness." But this is only an occasion and a pretext, and the whole of this business is false, and devised that the people might be deceived, lest they should arrive at the knowledge of the truth, and thus cast off this entirely despicable, most vain, and most absurd superstition. For outside the city of Medina, they built and constructed a wall in the shape of a circle, through which no entrance is given, and they scatter the report among all C that the sepulcher of Muhammed is kept there, but that no one may approach it, lest his curiosity be compensated by the loss of his eyes. And this imposture grew and prevailed in succession down to the following generations of Mussulmans.
Abubaker, indeed, waited for a long time for Muhammed to return. But when the people saw that he did not return, they forgot him, and said: "Bring the writings which Muhammed handed to you, that they may be gathered together, and one volume may be made from them." Abubaker succeeded into the place of Muhammed, and obtained the office and dignity of the caliphate or vicariate. Now Othmanes was a very distinguished and very famous scribe. D Abubaker appointed him to collect all the writings of Muhammed, and from them to construct one volume, which now everywhere goes under the name of the Alcoran. He committed this to execution just as had been decreed. The autograph or prototype of this book, written and inscribed by the hand of Othmanes himself, is still today preserved in the Trulla of the Church of John the Baptist, the precursor of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the city of Damascus, in the place which is called Tsemeen, which is the synagogue of the place. There your Alcoran is preserved. It contains, in truth, innumerable trifles, and figments supported by no reason and foundation: for instance, that Abraham shattered his father's idols, that Moses divided the sea and prepared a way for his people by which the people crossed over on dry feet, while Pharaoh was drowned in the waters, that Noah built an ark, that a whale swallowed Jonah, that Christ raised the dead, that Joseph inherited Egypt, that David made the Psalter, that Solomon knew the language of wild beasts and birds, and that Muhammed ascended into heaven, and met Christ, and conversed with him, and Muhammed, when he ascended into heaven, found written upon
A the throne of God: “There is no god but God, and Muhammed is the apostle of God.” And God says in another place in your Quran: “I greet you, Muhammed, with your family and your people.” And elsewhere your Quran says: “Mary ate the fruit of palm trees and became pregnant.” O Mussulman, since you say that your Quran descended from heaven and is the Word of God, and is co-eternal, as you claim, how is it that there are not in it declarations of counsel, and definitions, and things worthy of God, just as God said to Moses: “Do this and that,” in the most wise manner, teaching and commanding all things? But your book, as you yourself admit, says: “Such a one ate fruit; another went to sleep; another washed his garments; another descended into the belly of a whale; another broke idols; another says: ‘Do not eat swine’s flesh’; to another it is said: ‘Insert your finger into your anus and wash yourself, then shake your finger and put it again into your mouth’”; and to one who wears a gold ring or a fur garment it is forbidden to pray—these are altogether unseemly words. And how does God speak words that are faulty and profane?
B See then, and observe, that you are found everywhere to be liars and impostors. And I say to you in mockery, you possess no holy things, neither a temple of God, nor an altar, nor divine grace, nor baptism, nor psalmody, nor remission of sins, nor a kingdom of heaven, nor does anyone among you attain to paradise, except that one of you ascends to a high place and, placing one finger of his hand into his ear and the other finger of his other hand into his anus, he shouts in this way: “God is great! God is great!” and he testifies: “There is no God like our God, and I testify that Muhammed is the apostle of God.” And these things were known before to the Arabs before Muhammed, except for this one thing alone, that Muhammed is the apostle of God. C And such a man enters the mosque before the people and stands, as has been said, and recites the prayer that I mentioned.
Now your mosque is of this nature. When you are about to lay its foundations, you build with it, even before you establish your chair for the future salvation, you have also water, so that after you sit down at your customary chair, and after these things, you pray. And the mosque is floored, like a bed, so that it may not be defiled by a man walking upon it. But there are also wooden structures above and around the mosque, and they do not defile his adjoining seat, which wards off your sandals from under your feet, at the opposite side from your face when you enter into your prayer. D I also know that you carry a cloth, which you spread before you when you pray, so that your face may not be defiled, since the floor
be free, and that your face might not be defiled by your inclinations and prostrations. But since the mosque is all ornamented and carpeted with tapestries, what need is there still to bring cloths, as if there were a danger of defilement or filth? Woe to you, who cherish the worst dogmas. You who feel such things, how do you dare to vex Christians with this importunate and shameless petition, asking what and how they believe? The whole sum of the salvation of your soul consists only in this, namely, that it be said: "In the name of God, the compassionate and merciful." B The end of the life of the most impure Muhammad.
AGAINST MUHAMMAD
C B Concerning the Saracens who are called Ishmaelites, as if tracing their origin from Ishmael. Now he was the son of Abraham, born to him of Hagar, the handmaid of Sarah. And from this Hagar they are called Hagarenes. They are called Saracens because, when Hagar was driven from the house and was wandering through the desert carrying her son Ishmael, she said to the angel: "Sarah my mistress has driven me from the house," as is read there. Now the Saracens, up to the times of the Emperor Heraclius, were idolaters and religious worshippers of the morning star and Venus, which in their vernacular language they called Cabar, which signifies "great." In these times there arose among them the prophet Muhammad, whom they heralded as the greatest and an indefatigable helper. He was himself from one of the tribes of Ishmael. He was, as it were, one of the descendants of Ishmael. He had as his firstborn Etsar, whom he begot from Ishmael. Then he brought into the air of life and light two other sons, Mundarus and Scholarabiam. Mundarus begot Cuzarus and Themimanum. From them arose Muhammad, who was such in face and form. He was semi-dried and arid; in his gait and appearance he was altogether ridiculous. While still in his very infancy he was orphaned of his parents and overwhelmed by extreme poverty; he went about in torn rags and, being obscure, was handed over as a servant to a certain widow who was in some way related to him by kin. When he had passed the years of boyhood, he became a mercenary servant of this widow, whose name was Chadiga, a woman very rich and most affluent in resources. She, along with other various furnishings, kept many beasts of burden and a very great number of camels. Muhammad was appointed overseer of these, and with all his might he attempted to entice his mistress Chadiga into a love for him. He crept in secretly, consorted with her, and eventually became lawfully and publicly her spouse, and took her as his wife. D Afterwards, having changed her mind, Chadiga was ashamed that...
A she had not only entered into a union with a hireling, but that he was also graceless and deformed. And for many days, lying prostrate on the ground and foaming at the mouth, he suffered. But having become the master of her possessions, he often traveled abroad for the sake of trade. And once, having arrived in Palestine, he chanced upon the Hebrews, then the Arians, and later the Nestorians. And, wishing to appear as one who loves learning, he quickly drew from the Hebrews the doctrine of monarchy, from the Arians that the Word and the Spirit are creatures, and from the Nestorians the worship of a man. And from these he composed a composite religion for himself. When his limbs again fell into paralysis, the aforementioned wife was greatly afflicted and troubled, not only because she had united herself with a slave and a hireling, but also because her husband possessed such a great disease. Now, among them was a certain monk, B an exile in those parts because of his own doctrine. This man, at the suggestion of Muhammed, reassured his wife that the disease possessing Muhammed was no longer a common one, the monk said to her, but that as often as he saw the archangel Gabriel, he falls into this state, unable to bear his fearful appearance. For, he says, the manifest angel is sent to the great prophets, revealing to them the mysteries of God and knowledge of the things to come. He is sent, he says, also to your husband Muhammed, as to a great prophet. Persuaded by these words, and becoming overjoyed, she proclaimed the news clearly to other women, that Muhammed was a great prophet and chosen by God. And in this way, this report, having been disseminated from women to men, prevailed and grew. What happened? His wife Chadiga died, and she left the heir to all her property to Muhammed, who, having been a serpent with this inheritance, C at last became a dragon. And from that time, having become wealthy, he appeared honorable to everyone; for glory without end, and the reputation which one gains among the common people through wealth, seems a great and venerable thing to the lowly and the common folk. And having gathered his aforementioned empty teachings, Muhammed gathered the monarchy from the Jews, the saying that the Word and Son of God is a creature from the Arians, and the worship of a man from the Nestorians. And having gathered all these, he taught as has been told. And thus, having combined them, he preached them to the people and established them; and he instructed the people to honor him as a great prophet from God. But knowing that the Ishmaelites were slaves to their passions, and herdsmen, or rather beast-like, and slaves to the belly, he set forth a book of his own legislation D full of every form of impure law, which was agreeable to them, and he affirmed that it had been brought down from heaven through the archangel Gabriel, and he ordained it, having taught this law to the people.
A And he called this the Koran, that is to say, a divine legislation, expressly determining it, that each of the Hagarenes should have the power to associate with four wives, and to consort with them openly, and to have as many concubines as he might choose, one by one. And in this way he led the Hagarenes to his own honor, and thus he instructed them, also enjoining them to perform rituals of repentance. And other things of this sort he wrote down in the book. But also, at times, he simply established a law. For he had a friend by the name of Zez, who had a wife of very great beauty, and being stirred with love for her, and wishing to take her as his own spouse, he summoned him and said to him: "You know, friend, that I happen to be a prophet of God, and it is not holy for anyone to disbelieve my words. Know, B therefore, that God has commanded me that you should dismiss your own wife, and that I should take this one." Since, as we said, everyone considered him a prophet and honored him, Zez consented to his request and words, and was separated from his wife, whom he handed over to be the wife of Muhammed, just as he had commanded. He had, moreover, four principal wives of his own: namely, Zadize, and Aise, and Zinep, and Omielteim. He also had a daughter named Phatma, whom he gave in marriage to his son-in-law Alim, and two sons, Chasanes and Chouseines. And there were others, his fellow-initiates and co-workers and indefatigable successors in propagating his doctrine. Namely, Apoupicertas, and Coubiker, and Omar, and Talches, C and Opoupacres, and Saduc, and Mausie, and Supeer, and Adelau, and Zeit, and Zeiton, and Zait, and Othman, twelve in number. And he used to state that angels, by a wondrous portent, belonged to the number of things to be worshipped, namely Aratum, and Maratum, and Tsapham, and Maruam. And prophets and apostles were mentioned by Muhammed himself, namely Chud, Tsale, or Salec, Soaip, Edris, Choualciphil, and Loeman himself along with them. After these, he joins many others, most well-known from the writings of the Old Testament: Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Job, Moses, Aaron, David, Solomon, Elijah, Jonah, Zachariah the father of John the Baptist the forerunner, Jeremiah, Daniel, Melchizedek, and all the D prophets of old and those faithful to God.
He also boasted that he had received from heaven a doctrine asserting that God turns whomever He wishes toward the good, but that He hardens the heart of another and renders it disobedient. And that if God wished, men would not attack and provoke one another with mutual wars. But that God Himself does whatever He wills, and is the cause of every good and every evil, and commands both fate and fortune. He also thrust other dogmas upon the Israelites: that, namely, the Lord God, Jesus Christ, was begotten of the Virgin Mary without seed, through the Word and Spirit of God. And that when he had not yet passed the tender years of infancy, he fashioned birds from mud
A and by breathing into them made them living creatures, and healed the blind, and raised the dead. And that, at the entreaty of the apostles, he asked God, and He brought down a table from heaven, and fed them and a great multitude. And that he was neither crucified, nor did he die in truth as a man, but underwent these things in appearance alone, and that the Jews, thinking this to be true, crucified him; yet no one touched him at all, but they saw him according to their own impiety, disbelief, and inhumanity, and according to the failings and depravities their own faculties suffered. And he says this, that when he was asked by God: "Did you call yourself God in the world?" he said: "O John, you said this word, that I am the Son of God, and God." He denied it, saying: "You know all things, and you know that I did not call myself God, or your Son; for I am your servant, and I do not boast to be called this." And that God took him up to heaven because He loved him greatly. And when Christ had ascended into heaven, then he was asked about him. They do not call Christ the Son of God, but an apostle and prophet, because God, he says, has no partner, and all who make Christ a partner to Him are destined to be punished in the fire of Gehenna. Because God has no partner, nor anything equal to Him. These are the teachings of Muhammad. B And not only these fables, he adds how God took him up to the heavens because He followed him with vehement love. And that when Christ had ascended into heaven, a question was raised about him, that surely Christ is not to be called the Son of God, but an apostle and prophet, as God says, that He does not admit a partner, and whoever does not fear to maintain that Christ is God's partner shall be punished in the eternal torment of the fire of Gehenna. For God indeed has neither partner nor equal. These are all the things that Muhammad says about Christ.
He speaks about the creation of Adam, in which he says that man was fashioned C from earth and a drop, and bile, and a masticated substance, and that when man had been fashioned, all the other angels at the command of God worshipped him. Beliar alone was not persuaded to worship Adam, and for this reason he fell. He says about God that He Himself, being God, is the one who made all things, and no one was made equal to Him, but God is one, solid, neither begetting nor begotten, but He is one God, and everyone who divides Him, or makes an equal, shall not be a participant in salvation, but there is unbearable and eternal punishment. Such are the laws of Muhammad, these things he has ordained for the people of Ishmael. For the place in D Bacchæ, or Mēke, or Mächech, he decreed to be a house of prayer, and for them to offer their own worship there. That a stone was also lying in such a place, of great size, over the top of which stone it is said that Abraham conversed with Hagar, or as he tied his camel to it when he was about to sacrifice Isaac. He commanded those who gather there to perform their prayers in this way: one of their hands they are to extend toward the stone, and with the other they are to hold their own ear, and thus in a circular motion they are to whirl themselves around until they fall dizzy, and to watch the whole area around it, and to throw seven stones at the Christians. And that the words of his
prayer, which he had delivered and decreed should be learned and mumbled by everyone, might not be easily heard or consigned to memory, he arranged for them to be committed to writing, and for greater instruction he delivered them in a prayer which runs as follows: *"Ala, Ala Ouakoubar, Ala Koubar."* These words are repeated many times. B
Now *Ala* and *koubar* signify God the Great, and *ouakoubar* signifies the Greatest. Among the things he taught, this was also related: that there once existed a female camel, devoted and sacred to God, of truly immense height and breadth, which used to pour out prayers to heaven, itself shining and glittering in the light for a space of about two hours. The Agarenes of old were accustomed to feed it with milk, but it happened that it was wickedly killed by certain persons dwelling there, and for this reason they were rejected and reprobated by God. Its little camel, attacking the heavens with its lowing and clamor, implored the aid of the Morning Star, by whom, as it is said, it was caught up into heaven. For it has been said that they worship the Morning Star, or the dawn star, or Venus, which they call in the Arabic tongue *Va*, that is to say, "the Great." Muhammed, indeed, despising and holding the Christians in little esteem, calls them deniers and associators, and led the Saracens into this doctrine and way, and called the doctrine and way of God the slaughter of Christians, and the wars by which they are accustomed to lay waste to and provoke the Christians. He asserted that the Hagarenes who fall in these wars are children of God and the faithful, and worthy to be crowned with all the pleasures of paradise. Among other things, Muhammed also taught this: that if clear water is not at hand, earth may be used—but it must be fine and very subtle earth—with which the eyes, face, and hands may be rubbed and cleansed in place of water. Muhammed added this, [implying] that he himself is, as it were, the gatekeeper of paradise, and that the use of its keys depends upon his will.
Such, indeed, according to him, is paradise. In it there are four rivers: one of most limpid water, one of most sweet milk, one of most pleasant wine, and one of most purified honey, of marvelous distillation and cleansed of all coarser matter. On a certain future day, which God has fixed and determined, all the Saracens are to be transported there, to spend a most delightful life, along with their own wives—in the same number as they had wives living on this earth. There, under the shade and cover of certain trees which are called *Sidre* and *Talech*, they will eat most sweet fruits, while birds with their most sweet song soothe their ears. They will rinse their mouths with wine from the fountain of *Caphara* and from the fountain of *Zouziber*, which is called *Salsabila*. And they will be served wine from the fountain which is called C *Thesnim*. Their stature will be very tall—forty cubits for the men and [also for] the women. They will have intercourse with each other with insatiable lust, because God Himself is not ashamed of these congresses, nor do they cause Him disgust. And Muhammed asserts that He will introduce into paradise seventy thousand of the just, and that sinners will be judged by God, and once the [appropriate] labels have been placed around their necks, they will also be allowed to enter into that paradise, being called the freedmen of Muhammed. And so that [the] paradise...
might not be filled with filth, he asserts that the Samaritans are to be stationed there, who shall serve them and be occupied in the endless labor of cleansing away the filth. B
On the day of the final judgment, Muhammed contends that Moses will be subject to punishment as a transgressor of the Law; and that the whole people of the Israelites will be cast into fire, because although God taught them many things, since they were incredulous and disobedient, all the Israelites will have to be tormented with eternal punishments and inextinguishable fire. The Christians, too, will be given over to punishment because they called Christ God incarnate; yet he asserts that Christ himself attained salvation, which the Agarenes themselves also hold. Such were the dogmas, the imposture, and the sophistries of Muhammed, who, when he had finally succumbed to fate and was dead, after all the Agarenes had gathered like troops, rushing and flowing together, followed him with barbarian mourning and funeral rites, and placed him in his tomb by making a marble sarcophagus. The law of the Ishmaelites, therefore, which is called the Koran, and which is said to have been delivered by Muhammed, was not expounded and narrated by him alone, but by certain others as well, namely Ali, the son-in-law of Muhammed, and seven others—to wit, Naphe, Eon, Omar, Elresar, Aser, the son of Cheter, and the son of Amer. Since some followed one, and others another, and each wishing to establish his own leader after the death of Ali and Muhammed, seditions, rivalries, wars, and bloodshed occurred among their successors. C But today, while the wars among them have ceased, the discord and division have prevailed, and some accept this one, and others that one.
In the six hundred twenty-sixth year from the Incarnation of the Lord, Muhammed appeared, in the fifteenth year of the emperor Heraclius, under Chosroes, when the latter had been defeated and overcome in war by Heraclius. A certain Jacobite monk named Baira joined himself as a companion to Muhammed, because the latter was an ignorant and utterly unlettered man; but later Muhammed killed that Jacobite. But also some Jews, such as Phinees and another named Salon—who was later called Abdalla—and Salem, who also became Saraceni. And some Nestorians in particular communicate with the Saracenes, saying that no God was born from the Virgin Mary, but only the man Jesus Christ. And then Muhammed composed a certain form and regimen of law, plucking some things from elsewhere, and gathering them into one; for in reality he collected some things from the Old Testament, and others from the New. At that time, however, the people did not yet possess the Alcoran, but they later had it from Ali, who was the son of Abitelem. D
The names of the lunar months among the Agarenes. May is the beginning of the year. Sabala, Silcante, Silchitse, Mucherem, Sepher, Rembioulebel, Rembioulachil, Tsoumazi Elebel, Tsoumazi Elachil, Retsep, Sampan, Ramazan.