front coverTRÜBNER’S
ORIENTAL SERIES.
VII.
Ballantyne Press
BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO.
EDINBURGH AND LONDON
MECCASELECTIONS FROM THE ḲUR-ÁN
BY
EDWARD WILLIAM LANE,
HON. DOCTOR OF LITERATURE, LEYDEN;
CORRESPONDENT OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE;
HON. MEMBER OF THE GERMAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY, THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY,
THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE, ETC.;
AUTHOR OF “THE MODERN EGYPTIANS,” AND “AN ARABIC-ENGLISH LEXICON;”
TRANSLATOR OF “THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS.”
A New Edition, Revised and Enlarged,
WITH AN INTRODUCTION,
BY
STANLEY LANE POOLE.
LONDON:
TRÜBNER & CO., LUDGATE HILL.
1879.
[All rights reserved.]
PREFACE.
There are several translations of the Ḳur-án in severallanguages; but there are very few people who have thestrength of mind to read any of them through. Thechaotic arrangement and frequent repetitions, and theobscurity of the language, are sufficient to deter the mostpersistent reader, whilst the nature of a part of its contentsrenders the Ḳur-án unfit for a woman’s eye.
Yet there always has been a wish to know somethingabout the sacred book of the Mohammadans, and it waswith the design of satisfying this wish, whilst avoidingthe weariness and the disgust which a complete perusalof the Ḳur-án must produce, that Mr. Lane arranged the‘Selections’ which were published in 1843. In spite ofmany printer’s errors, due to the author’s absence fromEngland, the book was so far successful that the editionwas exhausted, and it is now very difficult to obtaina copy. But partly owing to the obstructions to thereading offered by an interwoven native commentary,and partly by reason of the preference shown for thedoctrinal over the poetical passages, the book wentinto scholars’ hands rather than into the libraries of[Pg vi]the general reading public. It has proved of considerableservice to students of Arabic, who have foundit the most accurate rendering in existence of a large partof the Ḳur-án; and even native Muslims of India, ignorantof Arabic, have used Lane’s ‘Selections’ as their Bible.
In this edition I have endeavoured rather to carry outthe original intention of the translator. Experience hasshown that the first plan was over-learned to commenditself to the average reader, for whom Mr. Lane haddestined the book; in this edition I have thereforeomitted many of the notes, which will not be missedby the reader for whom the book is intended, and forwhich the Arabic scholar has only to refer to the firstedition, or to Sale’s Koran, whence most of them werederived.