JAMES MADDEN AND CO.

In One Volume, %vo, price 10s. Qd., SELECTIONS FROM THE KUR-AN, COMMONLY CALLED IN ENGLAND, THE KORAN, WITH AN INTERWOVEN COMMENTARY, TRANSLATED FROM THE ARABIC, METHODICALLY ARR'NGED, AND ILLUSTRATED BY NOTES, CHIEFLY FROM SALE'S EDITION.

TO WHICH IS PREFIXED, AN INTRODUCTION, TAKEN FROM SALE'S PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE, WITH CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS.

EDWARD WILLIAM LANE, Author of " The Manners and Customs of tlie Modern Egyptians" and Translator of " Tim Thousand and One Ni(jhis."

" Mr. Lane has set before us, for the first time, what we may yenture to call the ' Scriptural Creed' of Islam ; or, in other words, the articles of the Mohammedan faith, with the passages of the Koran by which they are supported, collected together and arranged, so far as it was possible, in the form of continuous argument. He has judiciously interwoven with the text the elucidations given by the best commentators, without which many passages in the Koran would be unintelligible." Athenceum, March 9, 1844.

" To say that the means of gratifying this laudable interest (the knowledge of the Kur-an) has not hitherto been afforded, would be erroneous. Sale's valuable version of the Kur-an, a work of real erudition and laborious production, being in our possession, the crime of ignorance might well rest upon those who have not entered upon its investigation. But the very learning of the work has, to a great extent, rendered it a sealed book. Not being presented to us in a popular form, unintelligible passages, often apparently without connexion, perplex and fatigue the mind ; and it is thus most generally laid aside under the impression of disappointment. ' Knowledge of a part is better than ignorance of the whole,' stands as the motto of Mr. Lane's title-page ; but we might almost consider it as an emendation if we were to read, ' Knowledge of a part is better than knowledge of the whole,' when that whole comprises such a ritual of moral, civil, and religious law, as is scarcely suitable for general perusal ; and this being the case, we consider that the present selection and abridgment, in which both the text is explained and methodically arranged, is a production our literature most peculiarly needed, and one that must soon find its way on to every library shelf. Mr. Lane's previous researches into Arabic letters, and his labours as a translator, rendered him peculiarly well fitted for his task, which he has discharged with, a degree of united industry and ability that must not only make his work really well received, but enhance his own literary character." Metropolitan, November.