learned men And though there is no feare that the Alchoran in English should do hurt to any of our Nation carrying with it its own confutation in regard of it's vanity and falshood Yet it is not amiss that that being put into our tongue this discourse should follow it which is a Strong Rational and cleare Eviction of its wickednesse By the reading of which you will see what mercy God gives to this Nation in freeing us from those seductions and revealing to us the Gospell of hiâ—â—onn which leads us in the waies of â—â—â—eth and Salvation The authors Preface THe singular goodnesse of God doth not onely communicate it self within it's own Infinite and Eternall Essence by interior qualityes but also being willing to dilate and manifest it self by exterior workes did by an Act of Creation produce divers creatures after the likenesse and unlikenesse of his own divine excellencyes After it's likenesse it hath created reasonable Creatures as are Angells and humane soules After it's unlikenesse it hath created Corporeall thinges such as are Jmaginative Sensitive Vegetative and Elementary and All for the adorning and beautyfying of the great Fabrick of the world which it hath appointed for man and men and Angells for it self as their End that from thence they might seek the being of the Creatures and there by might understand that God is eternally Intelligible amiable and worthy to be allwaies praysed and accordingly should love him and render him prayses without end So that it evidently appears that God is the beginning and end of all things as also himself affirmes in the book of the Revelation of St. John where he sayes I am Alpha and Omega i.e. I am the beginning and the end Beginning because all things which have being have had their beginning from him End because he is the Center and bounded end of all Beings Created for the benefit of others or their own their own as Angells and men for others viz. for the benefit of man who is the End of all other things they being Created for his use and service And as in the order and sequell of Causes the finall by it's Excellency and dignitie moveth and draweth the other to it's self so and far better without comparison God who is the eternall unchangeable and ever-unvariable Center is as wee said above the bounded end of man and by the Influence of himself without ceasing by the beames of his divine Clemency moveth and draweth Man to himself which is the end and purpose wherefore he made him Provided that man of his own choyce and free will wherewith bee was Created do not by his own fault runn astray for who can truly say that there is any hower or moment of time in which God will not be obeyed and worshipped by his people seing he Created them for this purpose Man therefore who hath his beginning and comes from God and by the meanes or help of his workes goeth through the Conditions and Vertues of his End which is God himself continually desireth to attayn the accomplishment and Execellency of his perfection By which marveilous revolution and order the truth of the universall resurrection and of the other life which wee wait for is manifested Which End bound and Rule of all Created things at the beginning of the world was God hidden and only intelligible and Comprehensible by faith and for this reason from thence untill the sixth age of the world but few men knew him as did the first holy fathers Patriarks and the Prophets of the old testament and an Infinite number of souls who lost the light and knowledge of him thereby lost themselves also Wherefore when the time of his sacred appearance more openly was Come he shewed and manifested himself to the world not onely by the understanding but also by sense becoming a sensible man and chusing unto him self Apostles for witnesses and preachers of his truth he raysed himself on high in the midst of the world on the tree of the holy and true Crosse for a signall mark whereby all men might see him and that no man might say Thou condemnest and destroyest me because I could not know thee And from that time forward O thou supreme Goodnesse and wisedome of God from this thy high throne of the holy and true Crosse where the divine and Humane natures hung for to bee known how many Apostles Martyrs Confessors Virgins and how great a multitude of Believers hast thou moved of thy self and hast called and drawn them to thee who art the bound and true End of all beleevers and saved ones Vntill that in the yeare 620. in the city of Mecca Abdalla Matalib and Jmina his wife Idolaters descended from the Bastard linage of Ismael the son of Hagar did beget the son of Contradiction and discord the false prophet Muhamed who when he was come to years of discretion with his wicked Companions Vbequar Homar Hozmen and his other seaven sectarian Captaines began to make the people goe astray and wander from the simple End and certain way of Salvation and to open the wayes of error by a false worship whereby he hath drawn an Infinite of souls to the everlasting paynes of Hell Vnto which Worship because it was altogeather sensuall and given to pleasures and delights presently the three Arabia's and all Egypt turned aside and their Caliphs and succescors have passed through and Converted all Africk and from thence the Kingdomes of Spayn almost all which they possessed with the City of Sciatinia in the Kingdome of Valentia where many years after I was borne and was instructed in the sect of Muhamed by Abdalla my naturall father who was Alfaqui of that Citie upon whose decease I succeeded in his office of Alfaqui wherein a long time I was lost and went astray from the truth untill that in the year 1487. the most reverend and no lesse learned Marquesse Adesora preaching in the great Church or Cathedrall of Valentia where I chanced to bee present on the feast day of our Lady in August the resplendent Beames of Divine light and the influence of the End whereof I spake above expelled and illuminated the darknesse of my Understanding and on a suddain opened the eyes of my Soul so that by the knowledge which I had of the Sect or Religion of Muhamed I under stood that wee could not attayn and come to the End of Salvation for which men were created by that Sect or way of worship being so perverse and wicked but by the holy Law of Jesus Christ and remembring the call and vocation which I had heard say was done by Jesus Christ at the sea of Galilee unto St. John and St. Andrew I obtained that I should bee called John Andrew and having taken holy Orders and of the Alfaqui and Slave of Lucifer being made a Priest and Minister of Jesus Christ I began like St. Paul to preach and publish the Contrary to what I had formerly falsely beleeved and affirmed and
was called Ayate ragime i. e. the verse of Lapidation which was in the sixth Chapter of the Light in the third book so that the Alcoran was larger and had more verses in the dayes of Muhamed than it now hath Now tell mee O Moore who never knewest or heardest such things what thinkest thou of the Scripture which you so much reverence that when ye take it in your hands ye kisse it and swear by it and keep it like a God and call it Alkitib Alhazim i. e. a glorious book and Alcoran alhadin i. e. the Mighty Alcoran so that indeed ye hould it for a God I tell thee O Moore that if it were from God and the word of God that of it which is lost had not been lost and the Mice had not eaten those notes in Axa's house that verse of Lapidations had not been lost Observe then O Moore consider this and thou wilt know thy error be converted to God God will have mercy on thee if thou lovest thy self and if thy soul be dear to thee and so I will conclude this second Chapter CHAP. III. The third Chapter of this Treatise discourseth of Muhamed's Suné what the word signifies of the six books thereof and what they contain their names and the reason of the Collecting of them who collected them and when they were collected corrected and reduced into the order they are now in SUné Signifies a Way or Law or the following of the sayings actions and counsels of Muhamed which his disciples wrote after his death and after his Disciples the Moores transcribed copied the disciples books augmented and abridged them and wholy altered Muhamed's deeds and words whence proceeded so great a confusion in all the books that what he in his life time commanded negatively they laid the same down affirmatively and what Muhamed had commanded and set down in his Law affirmatively they set the same down negatively insomuch that this Law was like to be destroyed and never used more Upon which ground and because of the great dammage and difference which hapned in the Muhametan Sect and to prevent the utter losse of the same an Alkalife or King of the Moores caused publick Proclamation to be made through all his dominions that all the Learned men Alfaquies and Docters should repaire to him to the City of Damascus and should bring with them all the books that could be found written of the Suné and of Muhamed's words and works Whereupon all the Learned men then lieving amongst the Moores came thither and brought all the books of the Suné Then the said Caliph or King of the Moores commanded that six Alfaquies and learned men who were best instructed read in the Suné should be chosen from amongst them whereupon out of two hundred learned men which repaired thither six were chosen the first or principall of which was called Muâ—lin the second Bohari the third Buhora yra the fourth Anecery the fifth Aâ—ermindi the sixth Doud Then the said Caliph called these six learned men unto him and commanded them that they should goe alone into a house with all the books which till then could be found of the Suné and that each of them should by himself collect one book of all the sayings and deeds of Muhamed which he should conceive to be true and that they should each entitle his book with his own name So these six men went into a house with all the books which the Moores had gathered from all parts and each of them collected a book and entituled and called it by his proper name and they presented them to the King or Caliph who after the said six books had been viewed and examined by all the other docters there assembled commanded that all the other books should be cast into a great river near Damascus called Adegele whereupon having laden two hundred Camels with the multitude of books which were brought thither they cast them into this river Likewise the King gave notice by a Decree or publick Proclamation throughout all the countries of the Moores that no Alfaquy should dare to read or keep any book but the six aforesaid and that none should mention any saying or deed of Muhamed but such as should be found written in the said books and that all Moores and Musselmen or beleevers of Muhamed should receive these books for as true and authentick as if they were the very Alcoran it self and that they should not be lesse reverenced amongst them than the Alcoran it self All which the Moores observe and have these books in as great reverence as the Alcoran it self and the words thereof are amongst the Moores of as much yea greater authority than is the Alcoran I have the more enlarged my self upon this point because that in some cases they follow the sayings of Muhamed and leave the sayings of the Alcoran as of no effect which sayings of Muhamed are contained in the six books aforesaid so that the word of God which in their opinion is the Alcoran is made voyd by Muhameds sayings as is declared in the preceeding Chapter and as shall further appear in the eleventh Chapter In this manner was Muhamed's Sect restored and for this the Moores hold and esteem the said Caliph for a Saint Nevertheless I say that in most part of what these learned men gathered and collected in those six books they have incerted severall contrarieties and divers sayings and doings of Muhamed which contradict each other and doe not agree one whit Which hath caused the four opinions which the Moores have in their Law and retaine in their Sect which were raised afterwards by four doctors the first whereof was called Melich the second Assafihi the third Alambeli and the fourth Abuhamfa and yee must understand that the said difference in opinion is practised by the Moores in their washings which they use when they make their Zala or praier and not onely in making of their Zala but also in their fasts and in severall other Ceremonies and customes but especially in those things which appertain to Judicature so that each opinion in it self differs from the other three Of Melech's opinion are all the Moores of Medina and of all Africk and all the Moores which are and were in Spain Of Assafihy's opinion are the Moores of Meka and the Country adjacent all those of Arabia the Happy and the Great those of Baldeck and Damascus Of Alambelii's opinion are the Moores of Armenia and Persia and of Buhamfai's opinion are the Moores of Syria and Alexandria but in Grand-Cair all the four opinions are followed I mean that those Moores are divided into four parties or Sects viz. one holds Melich's opinion another Alssafihy's opinion another is of the third opinion and another of the fourth opinion the which proceeds from the great and innumerable multitude of people in that City So that by reason of those six Books and of those four opinions Muhameds Sect hath alwaies
by the Assistance of Almighty God first in this Kingdome of Valentia I converted and guyded to the way of Salvation many soules of Infidell Moores which were in danger to bee lost in hell and were under the power of the devill from thence I was called by the most Catholick Princes the King Don Ferdinand and the Queen Donna Isabella to goe preach in Granada unto the Moores of that Kingdome whom their Highnesses had Conquered where by the will of God who would so have it and my preaching an infinite number of Moores denying Muhamed were Converted to Christ And a little while after I was by their favour created a Canon and was again called by the sayd Christian Queen Donna Isabella to come to Arragon for to emplay my self in the Conversion of the Moores of that Kingdome who to the great despight and dishonour of our Crucifyed Saviour and to the dammage and perill of Christian Princes still to this day perish in their error But this her Highnesses most holy intent could not take effect by reason of death surprizing her And I that I might not remain idle set my self to translate all the Law of the Moores that is to say The Alchoran and the glosses thereon and the 6 bookes of the suné out of Arabick into the Arragonian toung moved thereunto by the command of the right Reverend father Martyn Garcia Lord Bishop of Barcelona and Inquisitor of Arragon my much honoured Lord to the end that in the Charge which I had from his Grace to preach to the Moores I might Confute and vanquish them by the authority of their own Law which I Could not easily have done without translating it Finally when that was done that I might not hyde the desire which God had given mee for their Conversion I determined to compose this present treatise which shall be divided into twelve Chapters and herein briefly to collect the fabulous fictions ridiculous discourses Impostures bestialities fooleries Vilanies inconveniencies impossibilities and Contradictions which that wicked Muhamed hath sowen and dispersed in the books of his Sect thereby to deceive ignorant people especially in the Alcoran which he sayes was revealed to him in one night by an angell in the City of Meka notwithstanding else-where contradicting himself he affirmes that he was 20 years Composing it I have entituled this Work the Confusion of Muhamed's Sect and my intent in publishing it was that even the weakest Judgements may perceive that in Muhamed's Law there is not any groend or reason how it can bee true and that the ignorant Moores being vanquished by the testimonies of their own nation might know the Error wherein they are and whereunto their false Prophet hath led them I say the ignorant because no men of knowledge amongst them doe beleeve in Muhamed but on the Contrary doe esteeme their Sect to bee false and very bestiall and finally to the end that they might all come in to the holy Law and true End for which they were Created And likewise to the end that not onely wise Christians but also the weakest knowing the various faith of the Moores on the one hand might laugh at their insolencyes and beastlines and on the other hand might lament and bewayl their blindness and perdition Wherefore after this said Treatise had been viewed and Corrected by the Reverend Doctors Mr Soler Officiall of Valentia Canon and Dean of Letida and Mr Jasper Pertusa Canon of the See of Valentia and Mr Jerosme Fuster and Mr John Sola masters in sacred Divinity whereunto ex abundante was added the authority of the Right Reverand and noble Lord Don Mercader Bishop of Tortosa and grand Inquisitor of this Kingdome I endeavored to have it printed and sent into the World for publick good entreating the Curteous Readers if they find any thing in this Treatise well spoken that they would attribute it to God from Whom it proceeds and what may bee evill that they impute it to my small knowledge and insufficiency in the examining and persuing the whole Treatise which with my self I Submit to their benign correction and to the holy Roman Church as a Catholick and a faithfull Christian The Confusion of Mahomet's Sect c. CHAPTER I. The first chapter treateth of Muhamed's life the place of his birth his parents and ancestors when hee began and finished his Sect and his death MUhamed was born in the city of Mecca in Arabia the happy and was the son of an eminent Citizen of that place Called Abdalla Motalib This Abdalla Motalib had eleaven brethren the eldest whereof was Buggelino 2 Bulehebin 3 Hessin 4 Butelib the 5 Corasi the 6 Tanin the 7 Hanza the 8 Alabez c. These two Hanza and Alabez dyed Moores but the other nine Vncles and Muhamed's father dyed Idolaters and were all opposers and mortall enemyes of Muhamed and fought many battailes against him and his Moores in defence of their Idolatry Judging it better to dye Idolaters than to follow his Sect though both their wayes were evill and erroneons Muhamed's parents his Vncles the people of Meka and the Countreys adjacent worshiped an Idoll by them called Aliethe Aluza which Idoll was erected in a tower in the midst of the Temple of Meka This tower was then and is yet called Elcaba and Alkible of which Idoll and Tower wee shall speak hereafter Muhamed's father dyed and lest him Posthumus his mothers name was Imina the daughter of Guabbin she dyed 2 years after his birth and so he became an Orphant and a Nurse called Lina or Alima fosterd him untill he was sixteen years old The descent of Muhamed according to a certain book called Azar which containes a History of his life and death and is as authenlick and of as great authority amongst the Moores as the life of Jesus Christ our Lord is amongst us Christians is thus viz. That Muhamed descended of Ismael the son of Abraham and Hagar Sarah's handmaid from which Hagar the Moores are called Hagarens and ought not to be called Saracens because they do not descend from Sarah the lawfull wife of Abraham but from Hagar who was Sarah's handmaid as wee see in the 16 and. 17 Chapters of Genesis The said book Azar sayes that Abraham had two sons Isaack the son of Sarah and Ismael the son of Hagar and that Ismael the son of Hagar founded and built the temple of Meka and it was called Beitalla i. e. the house of God it is likewise called Beithalla Alharan i. e. the house of God prohibition or excommunication and the reason why it is called prohibition is because that Abraham as that book says fower months in the year forbad and prohibited hunting in the territories of Mecca which the Idolaters afterwards observed and kept in reverence to the Idoll which they erected in the sayd Tower Elaabba And the Moores retain and observe the same Law to this day The second chapter of the first book of the Alcoran saies that the temple of Mecca
the faith of Jesus Christ why tarriest thou then O Moore why dost thou not become a Christian that thou mayest goe to the place where this Christian Martyr is I believe that divers Moores hear this aforesaid but doe not believe it but bid thou the Moore which denies it to read the gloss of Alzamaxeri and the gloss of Buhatia and if he doe not find what I have set down above word for word in the said two glosses let him call me the greatest lyer in the world This History his Grace Martin Gartia Lord Bishop of Barchinone hath set down in his Book of the Alcoran which I translated out of Arabick into the Spanish tongue by his Graces command and himself hath the said two Arabick glossaries Yee must know that the Alcoran holds forth and attributes three excellencies to our Lord Jesus Christ which it doth not give to any other of the Prophets not to Moses Abraham David no nor to Muhamed The first is that which the Alcoran mentions in the second Chapter of the first Book viz. That he ascended to Heaven in Soul and Body and upon this place the Suné sayes that he must come into the world to judge as a just Judge in Arabick and the Suné he sayes thus Oguayniziolo c. i. e that Jesus the Son of Mary shall come down to the earth and shall be a just Judge therein The second excellency which the Alcoran attributes to Jesus Christ is that it calls him Calimethuallah i. e. The word of God The third is that he is called in the Alcoran Rohc alkodus allah i. e. The holy Spirit of God of which two names never was any man worthy nor ever will be so that having proved that Jesus Christ is the word of God and the holy Spirit of God it is proved that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and very God This appears in the third Chapter of the first Book of the Alcoran which in Arabick runs thus Omet mazeho c. i. e. The Messras Jesus the Son of Mary is no other than the word of God sent to Mary the Spirit of God himself and the messenger of God by which words O Moore thou mayest see that he declares that Jesus Christ is God and Man CHAP. XII The twelfth and last Chapter treateth and sheweth that Christians should not wonder why Muhamed's Sect hath so propagated and that the Moores should not be so presumptuous and say as they usually doe that if their Religion were not good it had never propagated so much for that reason is of no waight It likewise sheweth how Muhamed's Disciples carried themselves after his death and what discords contests and murthers were practised amongst them for dominion and the Vanities of this world and to become Kings Califes and great Potentates NOw to the end that Christians may not have occasion or ground to wonder and much less the Moores to presume I will lay down three causes whereby the Sect of the Moores hath propagated and augmented but not by any goodness in it self The first cause was that Muhamed began and instituted this Law or Religion of the Moores in a Nation very rustick ignorant beastly and Idolatrous being men voyd and destitute of all knowledge and understanding for amongst that people were no Logicians Astrologers Philosophers nor Physicians but they were all earthly given to eating drinking and luxury an ignorant and rude people as the Alcoran calls them in the first Chapter of the first Book in Arabick Sufeha i. e. ignorant people The Countrey likewise was full of Idolaters aswell in Arabia the happy as in Arabia the great and throughout all Persia and Armenia where were twelve sorts or Sects of Idolaters as we shewed in the first Chapter of this book some of them worshiped a tree unto which they Sacrifised and annually celebrated Feasts and a kind of Easter which tree they called Detulanger the Lord and Captain of the Province where this tree was in Muhamed's time was called Azamahinali Others worshipped a great statue made of a black metall which was three fathoms long this Idoll was called Bohinum and it was in the Province of Armenia the Lord and Captain of this Idoll in Muhameds time was called Alquazad Others in Armenia worshipped the Sun and the Prince of that people was called Sanharben Carquar They of Mecca and the Provinces adjacent worshipped Alzete and Alluza as we have said before so that Muhamed began his Sect amongst the most blockish people in the world and unto these Muhamed gave to understand that they were Idolaters and that they ought to worship the God of heaven and earth who was the true God who had Created the Heavens the Planets the earth and the waters that caused rain to fall from heaven and fruits to proceed from the earth for Man and beast that God who caused men to dye and after death to rise again for to reward every man according to his deserts with glory or punishment that God who created the Paradises with so many excellent things for the blessed and that God who created Hell with so many Torments for the Damned All which they of Mecca and the other Idolaters denyed and by his preaching this aforesaid to them which is the Contents of half the Alcoran divers began to believe in Muhameds Law or Sect many likewise were induced to believe Muhamed by reason of the great boasting and threatning which he used when hee read the Alcoran and the scrowles of the Punishment of their predecessors viz. Those who are drowned in the world by the Deluge and who escaped in the Ark of Noah also the People of Lot and of the five Cities which are very neer unto Mecca he also threatned and terrified them with the example of Pharaohs People and the nine plagues which God sent upon them and told them how they were swallowed up in the Sea because they did not believe in Moses hee also terrified them with the pains of Hell and with the horror of the things which hee writes of Hell which is obvious in divers chapters of the Alcoran and thus they beleeved in Muhamed and were perswaded that he who Created all things and hath power over all was the true God so that whereas Muhamed converted them to his own opinion and made them know nine Articles of the Christian faith and those other things of the Christian faith expressed in the precedent Chapter if he had as well given them knowledge of the whole Christian faith and had injoyned them to believe all the 12. Articles and be Baptised he had done very well and they had all been Christians but hee would not doe so because he could not that way have made himself so great as he did The immoderate ambition wherewith Muhamed was transported hath undone the Moores and been the cause of his own and their error and utter perdition Yet this wee must believe that the Moores who believed in God and acknowledged that he