The Speeches and Table-Talk of the Prophet Mohammad (Lane-Poole)
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Selection or partial work
- Authorship:
- Recorded or compiled by others
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~52,600 words · 250 passages
Cite this work
- APAHadith. (n.d.). The Speeches and Table-Talk of the Prophet Mohammad (Lane-Poole). Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/hadith/the-speeches-and-table-talk-of-the-prophet-mohammad-lane-poole
- MLAHadith. The Speeches and Table-Talk of the Prophet Mohammad (Lane-Poole). Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/hadith/the-speeches-and-table-talk-of-the-prophet-mohammad-lane-poole.
- ChicagoHadith. The Speeches and Table-Talk of the Prophet Mohammad (Lane-Poole). Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/hadith/the-speeches-and-table-talk-of-the-prophet-mohammad-lane-poole.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
Sayings of the Prophet, selected by Stanley Lane-Poole.
Context and history
An anthology of hadith — the words and deeds attributed to Muhammad — chosen and translated by a British orientalist in 1882. **It should be read for what it is**: a Victorian selection made on its translator's criteria, not a canonical collection like those of Bukhari or Muslim. It is worth having as a document of reading, not as a source of authority.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
Mekka was the centre of this trading life, the typical Arab city of old times, a stirring little town, with its caravans bringing the silks and woven stuffs of Syria and the far-famed damask, and carrying away the sweet-smelling produce of Arabia, frankincense, cinnamon, sandal-wood, aloe and myrrh, and the dates and leather and metals of the south, and the goods that came to the Yemen from Africa and even India; its assemblies of merchant-princes in the Council Hall near the Kaaba; and again its young poets running over with love and gallantry; its Greek and Persian slave-girls brightening the luxurious banquet with their native songs, when as yet there was no Arab school of music and the monotonous but not unmelodious chant of the camel-driver was the national song of Arabia; and its club, where busy men spent their idle hours in playing chess and draughts, or in gossiping with their acquaintance. It was a little republic of commerce, too much infected with the luxuries and refinements of the states it traded with, yet retaining enough of the free Arab nature to redeem it from the charge of effeminacy. Mekka was a home of music and poetry, and this characteristic lasted into Muslim times. There is a story of a certain stonemason who had a wonderful gift of singing. When he was at work the young men used to come and importune him, and bring him gifts of money and food to induce him to sing. He would then make a stipulation that they should first help him with his work. And forthwith they would strip off their cloaks, and the stones would gather round him rapidly. Then he would mount a rock and sing, whilst the whole hill was coloured red and yellow with the variegated garments of his audience.