Studies in a Mosque - The Search For Mecca

120 STUDIES IN A MOSQUE.
man's heart, and begin to understand the power of
Mohammad's influence, and the fascination of his
voice. It is no longer a standard classic that we
study, but a living revelation that we hear.*
Apart from the Eastern glow which is for the first
time retained in a translation, Palmer's unrivalled
* Palmer's principle of translating the Koran as if it were the
speech of a modern Bedawy has its drawbacks. Although it has
always been held up as the model of Arabic style, the Koran
contains many expressions which it is difficult to regard as anything
else than vulgarisms. Mohammad, as an unlettered man,
naturally addressed his countrymen in their common everyday
speech, and it is not surprising to find a certain proportion of
what is called "slang" in his language. Palmer's mistake was
not in admitting this, but in trying to reproduce it. The im-
pression produced upon an audience in Mekka by certain vulgar
expressions which were in everyday use is quite different from that
produced upon the educated readers for whom Palmer's translation
is intended by corresponding vulgarisms in English. To
us the occurrence of such phrases as Palmer intentionally intro-
duces has something of the effect that the insertion of a musichall
melody in a svmphony of Beethoven's would produce. To
the original audience the " slang " expressions were part of their
own speech and excited no remark. We, however, do not use
" slang " expressions, and when we meet with them in books,
especially sacred books, they jar upon our literary sense. Palmer
attempted the task—an impossible one we admit—of pi'oducing
the same impression upon English readers as was produced upon
and he failed
the original audience by Mohammad's own rhetoric ;
in the attempt because he forgot that the audiences are wholly
dissimilar, and that what would strike a rude Arab in a given
manner would have a totally different effect upon a cultivated
reader. Palmer's theory would only ajDply if the readers of his
translation were entirely of the lowest classes ; as they are ob-
viously almost wholly restricted to the educated classes, the theory
breaks down and offers an impediment, instead of an aid, to the
due appreciation of the Koran.