2 appears during that period, the commencement of the fast has to be postponed till the following new moon. The Manichæans also fasted for two days at every new moon; and our chief authority on the subject, En-Nedim, states that they had seven fast-days in each month. They fasted on Sundays, and some of them, the electi or "perfect ones," on Mondays also.1 We are told by Leo the Great that they observed these weekly fasts in honour of the sun and the moon ; but according to the Armenian Bishop Ebedjesu their abstinence on Sunday was occasioned by their belief that the destruction of the world was going to take place on that day. There can be little doubt that the Harranian and Manichæan fasts were originally due, not to reverence, but to fear of evil influences; reverence can never be the primitive motive for a customary rite of fasting. The thirty days' fast which the Harranians observed in the month of Adsâr finds perhaps its explanation in the fact that, according to Babylonian beliefs, the month Adar was presided over by the seven evil spirits, who knew neither compassion nor mercy, who heard no prayer or supplication, and to whose baneful influence the popular faith attributed the eclipse of the moon. But it may also be worth noticing that the Harranian fast took place about the vernal equinox-a time at which, as we have seen, the Brahmins of India are wont to fast, though only for a day or two. It is highly probable that the thirty days' fast of the Harranians and Manichæans is the prototype of the Muhammedan fast of Ramaḍân. During the whole ninth month of the Muhammedan year the complete abstinence from food, drink, and cohabitation from sunrise till sunset is enjoined upon every Moslem, with the exception of young children and idiots, as also sick persons and travellers, who are allowed to postpone the En-Nedim, Fihrist, in Flügel, Mani, pp. 95, 97. Flügel, p. 311 sqq. Kessler, loc. cit. p. 212 sq. Leo the Great, Sermo XLII. (al. XLI.) 5 (Migne, op. cit. liv. 279). Jastrow, Religion of Babylonia and fast to another time. This fast is said to be a fourth part of Faith, the other cardinal duties of religious practice being prayer, almsgiving, and pilgrimage. But, as a matter of fact, modern Muhammedans regard the fast of Ramadan as of more importance than any other religious observance; many of them neglect their prayers, but anybody who should openly disregard the rule of fasting would be subject to a very severe punishment.3 Even the privilege granted to travellers and sick persons is not readily taken advantage of. During their marches in the middle of summer nothing but the apprehension of death can induce the Aeneze to interrupt the fast; and when Burton, in the disguise of a Muhammedan doctor, was in Cairo making preparations for his pilgrimage to Mecca, he found among all those who suffered severely from such total abstinence only one patient who would eat even to save his life. There is no evidence that the fast of Ramadan was an ancient, pre-Muhammedan custom." On the other hand, its similarity with the Harranian and Manichæan fasts is so striking that we are almost compelled to regard them all as fundamentally the same institution; and if this assumption is correct, Muhammed must have borrowed his fast from the Harranians or Manichæans or both. 1 Koran, ii. 180, 181, 183. པཉྩ Cf. Lane, Modern Egyptians, p. 106. von Kremer, Culturgeschichte des Orients, i. 460. * Burckhardt, Bedouins and Wa háby, P. 57. Burton, Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah, i. 74 We can hardly regard as such the passage in the Koran (ii. 179) where it is said, "O ye who believe! There is prescribed for you the fast as it was prescribed for those before you; haply ye may fear." The traditionists say that Muhammed was in the habit of spending the month of Ramadan every year in the cave at Hirâ, meditating and feeding all the poor who resorted to him, and that he did so in accordance with a religious practice which the Koreish used to perform in the days of their heathenism. Others add that Abd al-Muttalib commenced the prac tice, saying that it was the worship of God which that patriarch used to begin with the new moon of Ramaḍân, and continue during the whole of the month" (Muir, Life of Mahomet, ii. 56, n*. Sell, Faith of Islám, p. 316). But, as Muir remarks (op. cit. ii. 56, n.*), it is the tendency of the traditionists to foreshadow the customs and precepts of Islam as if some of them had existed prior to Muhammed, and constituted part of "the religion of Abraham." See Jacob, Der muslimische Fastenmonat Ramadan,' in VI. Jahresbericht der Geographischen Gesellsch. zu Greifswald, pt. i. 1893– 96, p. 2 syy. Indeed, Dr. Jacob has shown that in the year 623, when this fast seems to have been instituted, Ramaḍân exactly coincided with the Harranian fast-month. In its Muhammedan form the fast extending over a whole month is looked upon as a means of expiation. It is said that by the observance of it a person will be pardoned all his past venial sins, and that only those who keep it will be allowed to enter through the gate of heaven called Rayyân.2 But this is only another instance of the common fact that customs often for an incalculable period survive the motives from which they sprang. In various religions we meet with fasting as a form of penance, as a means of appeasing an angry or indignant God, as an expiation for sin.3 The voluntary suffering involved in it is regarded as an expression of sorrow and repentance pleasing to God, as a substitute for the punishment which He otherwise would inflict upon the sinner; and at the same time it may be thought to excite His compassion, an idea noticeable in many Jewish fasts. Among the Jews individuals fasted in cases of private distress or danger: Ahab, for instance, when Elijah predicted his downfall, Ezra and his companions before their journey to Palestine," the pious Israelite when his friends were sick. Moreover, fasts were instituted for the whole community when it believed itself to be under divine displeasure, when danger threatened, when a great calamity befell the land, when pestilence raged or drought set in, or there was a reverse in war. Four 1 Jacob, loc. cit. p. 5. 2 Sell, op. cit. p. 317. 3 Wasserschleben, Die Bussordnungen der abendländischen Kirche, passim (Christianity). Koran, ii. 192; iv. 94; v. 91, 96; lviii. 5. Jolly, 'Recht und Sitte,' in Bühler, Grundriss der indo-arischen Philologie, p. 117; Dubois, Description of the Character, &c. of the People of India, p. 160 (Brahmanism). Clavigero, History of Mexico, i. 285. On the occasion of any public calamity the Mexican highpriest retired to a wood, where he constructed a hut for himself, and shut up in this hut he passed nine or ten months in constant prayer and frequent effusions of blood, eating only raw maize and water (Torquemada, Monarchia Indiana, ix. 25, vol. ii. 212 sq.). Cf. Benzinger, Fasting,' in Ency clopedia Biblica, ii. 1508; Schwally, Das Leben nach dem Tode nach den Vorstellungen des alten Israel, p. 26. 51 Kings, xxi. 27. 6 Ezra, viii. 21. 7 Psalms, xxxv. 13. 8 Judges, xx. 26. 2 Chronicles, xx. 3. Jeremiah, xxxvi. 9. 1 Samuel, vii. 6. Nehemiah, ix. 1. Joel, i. 14; ii. 12. regular fast-days were established in commemoration of various sad events that had befallen Israel during the captivity; and in the course of time many other fasts were added, in memory of certain national troubles, though they were not regarded as obligatory. The law itself enjoined fasting for the great day of atonement only. It may be asked why this particular kind of self-mortification became such a frequent and popular form of penance as it did both in Judaism and in several other religions. One reason is, no doubt, that fasting is a natural expression of contrition, owing to the depressing effect which sorrow has upon the appetite. Another reason is that the idea of penitence, as we have just observed, may be a later interpretation put upon a fast which originally sprang from fear of contamination. Nay, even when fasting is resorted to as a cure in the case of distress or danger, as also when it is practised in commemoration of a calamity, there may be a vague belief that the food is polluted and should therefore be avoided. But in several cases fasting is distinctly a survival of an expiatory sacrifice. The sacrifice of food offered to the deity was changed into the "sacrifice" involved in the abstinence from food on the part of the worshipper. We find that among the Jews the decay of sacrifice was accompanied by a greater frequency of fasts. It was only in the period immediately before the exile that fasting began to acquire special importance; and the popular estimation of it went on increasing during and after the exile, partly at least from a feeling of the need of religious exercises to take the place of the suspended temple services. Like sacrifice, fasting was a regular appendage to prayer, as a means of giving special efficacy to the supplication; fasting and praying became in fact a constant combination of words." And equally close is the 1 Zechariah, viii. 19. 3 4 4 Löw, Gesammelte Schriften, i. 108. Nowack, op. cit. ii. 271. Benzinger, in Encyclopedia Biblica, ii. 1507. 5 Judith, iv. 9, II. Tobit, xii. 8. Ecclesiasticus, xxxiv. 26. St. Luke, ii. 37. 3 5 connection between fasting and almsgiving—a circumstance which deserves special notice where almsgiving is regarded as a form of sacrifice or has taken the place of it.' In the penitential regulations of Brahmanism we repeatedly meet with the combination "sacrifice, fasting, giving gifts"; 2 or also fasting and giving gifts, without mention being made of sacrifice. Among the Jews each fast-day was virtually an occasion for almsgiving, in accordance with the rabbinic saying that "the reward of the fast-day is in the amount of charity distributed"; but fasting was sometimes declared to be even more meritorious than charity, because the former affects the body and the latter the purse only." And from Judaism this combination of fasting and almsgiving passed over into Christianity and Muhammedanism. According to Islam, it is a religious duty to give alms after a fast; if a person through the infirmity of old age is not able to keep the fast, he must feed a poor person; and the violation of an inconsiderate oath may be expiated either by once feeding or clothing ten poor men, or liberating a Muhammedan slave or captive, or fasting three days." In the Christian Church fasting was not only looked upon as a necessary accompaniment of prayer, but whatever a person saved by means of it was to be given to the poor.10 St. Augustine says that man's righteousness in this life consists in fasting, alms, and prayer, that alms and fasting are the two wings which enable his prayer to fly upward to God."1 But fasting without almsgiving "is not 10 1 Supra, i, 565 sqq. Gantama, xix. 11. Vasishtha, xxii. 8. Baudhayana, iii. 10. 9. 3 Vasishtha, xx. 47.. • Kohler, Alms,' in Jewish Ency clopedia, i. 435. Löw, op. cit. i. 108. Cf. Tobit, xii. 8; Katz, Der wahre Talmudjude, p. 43. Ibid. fol. 6 b, quoted by Greenstone, in Jewish Encyclopedia, v. 349. Berakhoth, fol. 32 b, quoted by Hershon, Treasures of the Talmud, p. 124. 7 Sell, op. cit. p. 251. 8 Ibid. p. 281. This opinion is based on a sentence in the Koran (ii. 8 |