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A31023 Mirza a tragedie, really acted in Persia, in the last age : illustrated with historicall annotations / the author, R.B., Esq. Baron, Robert, b. 1630. 1647 (1647) Wing B891; ESTC R17210 172,168 287

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the face you know the man so by these as by Titles you know the contents of that division It was composed by Mahomet their Prophet with the help of Abdalla a Jew Sergius a Nestorian Monk who for embracing the Heresies of Arrius Cedron Sabellin●s and others was banished from Constantinople and comming into Arabia fell acquainted with Mahomet whom though formerly circumcised he baptized and taught to misinterpret many places of the Scriptures out of which false glosses of theirs they coined a new Religion neither wholly Jewish or wholly Christian but rejecting in both what they disliked and this newest Religion from him was called Mahumetisme So Pomponius Laetus Joan. Baptista Egnatius c. But the Glossers of the Alcoran and their Book Azar which is a History of Mahomet authentique among the Moores as the Gospel among us Christians say that those that helped Mahomet in compiling his Alcoran were two Sword-Cutlers Christian slaves unto one of Mecca who knew much confusedly of the new Testament and out of their imperfect informations he gleaned what served his turn not looking for antecedents subsequents or coherence any where So observes Joannes Andreas Maurus who was once an Alfaqui or Bishop among the Moores of the City of Sciatinia in the Kingdom of Valentia and afterwards Circ An. 1487. a Christian Priest and probable it is that the composers of that rapsody of errours were illiterate persons because they contradict all philosophy sciences History and Reason the Alcoran being a Fardel of Blasphemies Rabinical Fables Ridiculous Discourses Impostures Bestialities Inconveniences Impossibilities and Contradictions To speak a word of the chief Author Mahomet his pe●son he was born about the year 600 not to mention any pa●ticular yeare I find Authors so differ about it and I want room he●e to reconcile them or shew reason for ad●ering to any one some say in Itrarip a Village of Arabia others in the City of Mecca others in Medina Alnabi of obscure parentage some that name his Father call him Abdalla a Pagan p●rhaps mistaken him for one of his Tutors such make his Mother a Jewess and of ill repute whom they call Emina So uncertain was the beginning of this Impostor Baudier saith that his Father dying and his Mother being left very poor she not able to keep him committed him to an Uncle but he casting him off young Mahomet was a prey to Theeves who put him in chaines among other slaves and in that quality being set to sale a rich Merchant named Abdemonople bought him he dying Mahomet by marriage of his mistresse the Merchants wife not effected as was thought without Witch-craft attained to much riches whereupon leaving the exercise of Merchandize he became a Captain of certain voluntary Arabians that followed the Emperour Heraclius in his Persian Wars who falling into a mutiny for that they were denyed the military Garment and incensing the rest of their Nation with the reproachful answer given them by the Treasurer which was that they ought not to give that to Dogs which was ordained for the Roman Souldiers a pa●t of them chose Mahomet for their Ring-leader but being disdained by the better sort for the basenesse of his birth to avoid ensuing contempt he gave it out that he attained not to that honour by military favour but by divine appointment That he was sent by God to give a new Law unto man and by force of armes to reduce the world to his obedience then wrested he every thing to a divine honour even his naturall defects calling those fits of the falling sicknesse wherewith he was troubled holy trances and that Pigeon which he had taught to feed out of his Ear on pease the holy Ghost So went he on to feign his messages from heaven by the Angel Gabriel and to composse his Alcoran A man of a most infamous life he was Bonsinus writes that he permitted adultery and Sodomy and lay himselfe with beasts and Mr. Smith in his Confutation of Mahumetism arraigns him of Blasphemy Prid● lyes Sodomy Blood Fraud Robbery for he was a common Thief usually robbing the Caravans of Merchants as they travelled as entitles him Heir apparent unto Lucifer no lesse then 12000. falshoods being contained in his fabulous Alcoran To particularize a little what higher blasphemy could he be guilty of then to prefer himselfe as far before Christ as he was above Moses He also denyes the divinity of our Saviour and affirms that the Holy Ghost is not distinct in pe●son but onely an operative virtue of the God-head that inspires good motions Many other absurdities he is guilty of concerning the Trinity as not comprehending that glorious mysterie The Alcoran impugnes both the divine Law and naturall Reason at once in that assertion lib. 4. Cap. 2. viz. That at the end of the world a Trumpet shall blow and the Angels in Heaven and men on Earth shall fall downe dead and at the second sounding rise again So it makes the Angels mortal when who knows not that the Angels are Spir●ts having no bodies so cannot die for death is nothing but the separation of the soul from the body Adams sinne was the cause of his death and his posterity whence it followes had he not sinn'd neither he nor we had dyed And surely the good Angels being not guilty of the cause of death sin must be exempt from the effect Lucifer and the evill Angels that sinn'd with him by their Pride were deprived of the glory of heaven and cast into the bottomlesse pit for ever but not condemned to die because they were spirits And if the Devils that sinned dyed not how is it that the Alcoran saith that the Angels that sinned not shall die Another fable concerning Angels is in the first Chaper lib. 1. Sc. That God sent two Angels called Harod and Marod as Judges to do justice in the City of Babylon where in a Cave for soliciting a Ladies chastity they hang by the eye-lids and must so hang till the day of judgement and the woman was transformed into the morning star O divine Metamorphosis It 's like Mahomet might have heard somewhat of the story of Susanna and the Elders and so ignorantly shuffled it into this But to follow his Text I would ask a Moorish Astrologer whether the morning star be not more ancient then the City of Babylon how then could an inhabitant of that City be turned into that star And I would know of their Divines why if the Angels have bodies the Alcoran in many places contradicting it selfe calls them Roch Spirits if they be spirits and uncorporeal how were they capable of knowing women or hanging by the eye-lids If they be Corporeal where abouts in Babylon may one see them hanging and why doth the Alcoran confesse them to be Spirits Another ridiculous assertion of the Alcoran concerning Angels is s. 1. cap. 1. and l. 2. c. 1. c. viz. That God made man of all sorts and colours of earth and being formed for some
two Trees comming at his command to shade him when in the fields in a hot day he had occasion to untruffe and infinite other of his contradictions and repugnances I might remember as that of King Alexanders Journey from the East to the West where he daily saw the Sun set in a hot Fountain which oppugneth Philosophy as the journey doth History c. But with these I have tired my self and I am sure the Reader much more Yet give me leave to remember one of his absurdities more though none of the least viz. That at doomes-day he shall turn himself into a great Ram and all Mussulmen into Fleas they shall hide themselves in his spacious fleeces and thus burthened shall he travell till hee comes where he can skip into Paradise there he assumes his proper glory and gives them new shapes new strength Wine brave women c. as you may read at large in the eighth note upon the Fourth Act and this absurd fooler is generally credited by his whole Sect so just with God i● it to give them up to believe lies and Doctrine of Devills fo● that they accounted Christ crucified to be but foolishnesse Thi● Legend of lies they say was written upon the skin of th● Ram that Abraham sacrificed an absurd Tradition for neither could that skin hold it nor was that Ram flead or if h● had how could their Prophet so many years after have rod● upon him to Heaven and Hell c. It is held by the Mahumetans in no lesse veneration then the old Testament by the Jewes and the New by us Christians They never touch it with unwasht hands and a capitall crime it is in the reading thereof to mistake a letter or displace the accent They kisse it Embrace it and swear by it calling it the book of Glory and director unto Paradise It is written in Arabic Rhime without due proportion of Numbers and must neither be written nor read by them in any other Language It containeth according to Hozmans reformation four books the first Book has five Chapters the second twelve the third 19. and the fourth 175. in all 211. Mahomet the second is also said to have altered it much he and many others seeking to reconcile those repugnances wherewith it so abounds even in the Positive Doctrine which inclines me to Andreas Maurus his opinion that they were ignorant Persons that helped Mahomet to compose it Sergius had more knowledge then to have err'd so grossely whether it was that Sergius that was Patriarch of Constantinople and author of the Monothelites Heresie as some contend I determine not or whether hee was onely a banished Hereticall Monk from thence An● yet the coherence betwixt Mahomet and the antient Heretiques of all whose puddle streams Sergius had drank deep and it s like the poor Cutlers were free leads me to think him his Tutor I will onely briefly give you a touch of the harmony betwixt their Discords and leave you to judge who composed the Lesson Mahomet denies the Trinity with Sabellius He said it was ridiculous to think that Christ was God and therefore with Arrius and Eunomius he calls him a Creature and with Carpocrates a holy Prophet He maintain'd with Cedron that it was impossible that God should have ● Son because he had no wife He denyed with the Manichees that Christ was crucified but saith he one was crucified in his place who was very like him with the Originists he will have the Devills to be saved at the end of the world with the Anthropomorphites he will have God to have the form and members of a man with Cerinthus he places the chiefest felicity of man in carnall pleasures with Ebion he doth admit of Circumcision In imitation of Menander he calls himselfe the Saviour of the world with Nicolas of Antioch he taught and practised Luxu●y Yet with the Eucratitae he forbids the use of wine c. yet like his predecessors he baited his hooks speciously enough in some places commanding upright dealing amity Reverence to Parents Charity to hate contention and Murder c. and speaks reverently of our Saviour and B. Lady and indeed of all in some ●laces excluding no Religions out of his Paradise hee is so kind Moses he saies shall bring the Jewes Christ the Christians and he his Mahumetans but the chief place glory must be theirs theirs the b●st Gold sweetest Rivers and most beatifull Damozels and good reason he should be master in his own house But I have swell'd this note to a rambling Treatise and have yet much adoe to take my pen off yet I will force my self to it and refer you that would know more of the Alcoran to Cardinall Nicolas de Cusa his examination of the Alcoran Lod. Vives l. 4. de veritat Relig. Christ. Ricoldus in his computation of the Lawes of Mahomet Barthol Hungarius Johannes de terra Cremata and Guil. Postells in their books against the Mahumetans Saracens c. Sandys Herbert D'Juigne Johannes Andreas Maurus his confutation of Mahomets sect and the Alcoran its self t●anslated out of the Arabic into Latin by Theod. Bibliander for the late published English Translation I cannot commend its faithfulnesse I had almost forgotten though quoted above Baudier his History de la Religion des Turcs c. 17 To make all Lands and Goods hereditary c. The Turks and Persians content themselves with very mean low buildings few above two stories high some of rough stone some of timber some of Sun-dryed brick the Marble being used onely about the Princes Palaces and the Mosques though the Countries in some places are plentifully stored with it especally about Persepolis the people rather choosing to hoard their wealth then by making a magnificent show to tempt their Princes to take it from them or at best from their Children when they die for no Possessions are hereditary but all at the wil of the Emperour so absolute is his Tyranny and the peoples slavery Sandys c. 18 Tomaynes A Toman is a Persian coine worth 3 l. 6 s. sterl Herbert 19 Balsora A Town where Tygris and Euphrates empty themselves into the gulph of Persia. This Town is famous for the birth of Elhesin-Ibnu-Abilhasen the greatest Doctor of Antiquity he taught the Persians and Arabs 80 years after Mahomets death Herbert 20 Bizantium A Maritime City of Thrace the seat of the Turkish Empire Eusebius saith it was built by Pausanias King of Sparta 663 years before the incarnation of our Saviour others will have Pausanias onely to re-edifie this City then called Bizantium of Biza the founder and taken by assault but a little before from the Persians since which it still increased in fame but by nothing more then by the two famous sieges she endured both times holding out three years once taken once not the last was in the time of her 31 Emperour Leo Isauricus about the year of our Lord 718 when Caliph Zulciman besieged her and after three years