J. F. Campbell Collection > Koran: or, Alcoran of Mohammed

58 PKELIMINARY DISCOURSE. sect. it.
near the white tower to the east of Damascus, when the people are returned
from the taking of Constantinople ; that he is to embrace the Mohammedan
religion, marry a wife, get children, kill Antichrist, and at length die after
forty years', or according to others twenty-four years'^continuance on earth.
Under him they say there will be great security and plenty in the world,
all hatred and malice being laid aside; when lions and camels, beai-s and
sheep, shall live in peace, and a child shall play with serpents unhurt.^
0. War with the Jews; of whom the Mohammedans are to make a pro-
digious slaughter, the very trees and stones discovering such of them as
hide themselves, except only the tree called Gharkad, which is the tree
of the Jews.
7. The eruption of Gog and Magog, or, as they are called in the east,
Yajuj and Majuj; of whom many things are related in the Korfm,^ and
the traditions of Mohammed These barbarians, they tell us, having passed
the lake of Tiberias, which the vanguard of their vast army will drink dry,
will come to Jerusalem, and there greatly distress Jesus and his compa-
nions; till at his request God will destroy thera, and fill the earth with
their carcasses, which after some time God will send birds to carry away,
at the prayers of Jesus and his followers. Their bows, arrows, and
quivers the Moslems will burn for seven years together;' and at last God
will send a rain to cleanse the earth, and to make it fertile.
8. A smoke, which shall till the whole earth.'
9. An eclipsie of the moon. Mohammed is reported to have said, that
there would be three eclipses before the last hour; one to be seen in tha
east, another in the west, and th.e third in Arabia.
10. The returning of the Arabs to the worship of Allat and al Uzza,
and the rest of their ancient idols; after the decease of every one in whose
heart there was faith equal to a grain of mustard seed, none but the very
worst of men being left alive. For God, they say, will send a cold odori-
ferous wind, blowing from Syria Damascena, which shall sweep away the
souls of all the faithful, and the Koran itself, so that men will remain in
the grossest ignorance for a hundred years.
11. The discovery of a vast heap of gold and silver by the retreating of
the Euphrates, which will be the destruction of many.
12. The demolition of the Caaba, or temple of Mecca, by the Ethio-
pians.^
13. The speaking of beasts and inanimate things.
14. The breaking out of fire in the province of Hejaz; or, according
to others, in Yaman.
lb. The appearance of a man of the descendants of Kahtan, who shall
drive men before him with his staflT.
16. The coming of the Mohdi, or director; concerning whom Moham-
med prophesied, that the world should not have an end till one of his own
family should govern the Arabians, whose name should be the same with hii
own name, and whose father's name should also be the same with his fa-
ther's name; and who should fill the earth with righteousness. This per-
son the Sbiitts believe to be now alive, and concealed in some secret place,
till the time of his manifestation; for they suppose him to be no other than
the last of the twelve Imams, named Mohammed Abu'lkasem, as their
prophet was, and the son of Hassan al Askeri, the eleventh of that suc-
cession. He was born at Sermanrai in the two hundred and fifty-fifth
« Al Thalabi, in Kor. chap. 4. ^ See Isaiah xi. 6, &c. 8 Chap. 18. and 21.
* See Ezek. .\xxix. 9. Revel, xx. 8. ' See Koran, chap. 44, and the notes thereon.
are also Joel ii. 30, and Rev. i^. 2. * See after, in this section.