BEFORE entering upon an intelligent study of the Qur’ân it is necessary to make oneself acquainted with the circumstances of the people in whose midst it was revealed, with the political and religious aspects of the period, and with the personal history of the prophet himself. Arabia or Gazîrat el ʿArab, ‘the Arabian Peninsula,’ as it is called by native writers, is bounded on the west by the Red Sea; on the east by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman; on the south by the Indian Ocean;