what was good in Muhammadanism was entirely ignored...

what was good in Muhammadanism was entirely ignored, and what was not good, in the eyes of Europe, was exaggerated or misinterpreted.

It must not, however, be forgotten that the central doctrine preached by Muhammad to his contemporaries in Arabia, who worshipped the star; to the Persians, who acknowledged Ormuz and Ahriman; to the Indians who worshipped idols; and to the Turks, who had no particular worship, was the unity of God, and that the simplicity of his creed was probably a more potent factor in the spread of Islam than the sword of the Ghazis.

It is difficult to decide to what extent Mr sale's citations in the notes represent first-hand use of Arabic commentators, but I fear that the result of a close inquiry only points to very little original research on his part.

His refutations, which swell the work to a large volume, are of little (use) or none at all, being often unsatisfactory, and sometimes impertinent I do not wish to imply that Sale did not know Arabic, but I do maintain that his work as it stands gives a misleading estimate of his original researches, and that his tribute to Marracci falls far short of his actual indebtedness. (from Introduction to Sale's Qur'an,by E.

Dennison Ross, Frederick Warne,London) The translation of tile Holy Qur'an by Mr sale is claimed by its publishers to be the best and the most accurate. Such a claim is regarded as false by another great Christian scholar, E.H. Palmer: From the large amount of exegetical matter which has been incorporated in his (Sale's) text, and from the style of language employed, which differs widely from the nervous energy and the rugged simplicity of the original.

his (Sale's) work can scarcely by regarded as a fair representation of the Qur'an. In spite of his endeavour to distort the meaning of the Holy Qur'an in order to help the missionaries and to divert the attention of the world from the Holy Book, George Sale could not help confessing its glorious and miraculous nature: The Koran is universally allowed to be written with utmost elegance and purity of language.

It is confessedly the standard of the Arabic tongue, inimitable by any human pen and therefore insisted on as a permanent miracle. (George sale, in the preliminary discourse to his translation) Every seeker of the truth will want to hear what the great Western scholar Goethe says of the Holy Qur'an: However often we turn to the Qur'an, it soon attracts, astounds and In the end reinforces reverence.