. p.
1-248,) and Sale, (Preliminary Discourse, p. 33-56,) had accurately
studied the language and character of their author. Two professed Lives
of Mahomet have been composed by Dr. Prideaux (Life of Mahomet, seventh
edition, London, 1718, in octavo) and the count de Boulainvilliers, (Vie
de Mahomed, Londres, 1730, in octavo: ) but the adverse wish of finding
an impostor or a hero, has too often corrupted the learning of the
doctor and the ingenuity of the count. The article in D'Herbelot
(Bibliot. Orient. p. 598-603) is chiefly drawn from Novairi and
Mirkond; but the best and most authentic of our guides is M. Gagnier, a
Frenchman by birth, and professor at Oxford of the Oriental tongues.
In two elaborate works, (Ismael Abulfeda de Vita et Rebus gestis
Mohammedis, &c. Latine vertit, Praefatione et Notis illustravit Johannes
Gagnier, Oxon. 1723, in folio. La Vie de Mahomet traduite et compilee
de l'Alcoran, des Traditions Authentiques de la Sonna et des meilleurs
Auteurs Arabes; Amsterdam, 1748, 3 vols. in 12mo.,) he has interpreted,
illustrated, and supplied the Arabic text of Abulfeda and Al Jannabi;
the first, an enlightened prince who reigned at Hamah, in Syria, A.D.
1310-1332, (see Gagnier Praefat. ad Abulfed.;) the second, a credulous
doctor, who visited Mecca A.D. 1556. (D'Herbelot, p. 397. Gagnier, tom.
iii. p. 209, 210.) These are my general vouchers, and the inquisitive
reader may follow the order of time, and the division of chapters. Yet
I must observe that both Abulfeda and Al Jannabi are modern historians,
and that they cannot appeal to any writers of the first century of the
Hegira. * Note: A new Life, by Dr. Weil, (Stuttgart. 1843,) has added
some few traditions unknown in Europe. Of Dr. Weil's Arabic scholarship,
which professes to correct many errors in Gagnier, in Maracci, and in
M. von Hammer, I am no judge. But it is remarkable that he does not
seem acquainted with the passage of Tabari, translated by Colonel Vans
Kennedy, in the Bombay Transactions, (vol. iii.,) the earliest and
most important addition made to the traditionary Life of Mahomet. I am
inclined to think Colonel Vans Kennedy's appreciation of the prophet's
character, which may be overlooked in a criticism on Voltaire's Mahomet,
the most just which I have ever read. The work of Dr. Weil appears to me
most valuable in its dissection and chronological view of the Koran.--M.
1845]

[Footnote 112: After the Greeks, Prideaux (p. 8) discloses