Footnote 13:  This spelling of the word ("Quran”) represents the native Arabic pronunciation if it be remembered that “q” stands for a “k” sound proceeding from the lower part of the throat.  The initial sound is therefore to be distinguished from that of the Arabic and Hebrew letters properly transliterated “k.”

Footnote 14:  The pronunciation heard by the present writer among the Muslim Arabs of Egypt, Syria, etc.  The word means literally “The Praised One” or “The One to be Praised.”  The “h,” however, in the word is not the ordinary one, but that pronounced at the lower part of the throat, as the Arabic equivalent of “q” is.  Hence this “h” is transliterated as “h” with a dot underneath it.

Footnote 15:  All the suras, except the ninth, begin with this formula, as, indeed, do most Arabic books, often even books of an immoral nature.

Footnote 16:  Muhammad’s uncle, who, with his wife, rejected the prophet’” claims.

Footnote 17:  A word-play, Lahab meaning “flame.”

Footnote 18:  Said by Muslim commentators to be one of the last ten nights of Ramadhan, the seventh of those nights reckoning backwards.

Footnote 19:  The earliest mention of the doctrine of abrogation of previous revelations.  When Muhammad was convinced that what he had previously taught was erroneous he always professed to have received a new revelation annulling the earlier one bearing on the matter.

Footnote 20:  There is perhaps here an indirect reference to the alleged deification of the Virgin Mary by the Christians with whom Muhammad came in contact.

Footnote 21:  This is from one of the oldest suras.  A most important Muslim tradition says that Muhammad declares this sura to be equal to a third of the rest of the Koran.  Some say it represents the prophet’s creed when he entered upon his mission.

Footnote 22:  This is directed against both the Mekkan belief that angels were daughters of God and also against the Christian doctrine that Jesus was the Son of God.  Reference is also made, perhaps, to the Jewish description of Ezra as God’s son.

Footnote 23:  Muhammad here adopts the Jewish and Arab myth that Solomon had a seal with the divine name (Yahwe) inscribed on it giving him control over winds and jinns, or demons.

Footnote 24:  In Arabic, Mary and Miriam are spelt exactly alike ("Miriam").  This evidently misled Muhammad.  In sura 56 he describes the Virgin as a daughter of Amram, the father of Aaron, Moses, and Miriam.  (See Numbers xxvi. 59, and Exodus xv. 20.)

Footnote 25:  This is a well-known Arab fable, based on a misunderstanding of I Kings iv. 33, influenced by the second Targum on Esther.  See an English translation of this last in a commentary on Esther by Paul Cassel (T. & T. Clark), p. 263.  This Targum is certainly older than the Koran, and it embodies Jewish legends of a still greater antiquity.

Footnote 26:  This legend about Mount Sinai is contained twice in the Jewish Talmud (Abodah Zarah Mishnah II, 2, and Shabbath Gemarah lxxxviii. 1).  It is no doubt this Jewish tradition that suggested the above passage.