LIKE the preceding chapter, this one also appears to be a mere fragment of a longer Sura. Some writers regard it as a portion of chap. cv. In it Muhammad exhorts the Quraish to thank the Lord of the Kaabah for their commercial blessings, connected with the dispatch of the two annual caravans.

For reasons already given, the date of this chapter must be the same as that of chap. cv.

The Quraish exhorted to thank God for commercial privileges 1—4

(1) For the uniting of the tribe of Quraish; (2) their uniting in sending forth the caravan of merchants and pur-

(1) For the uniting, &c. "Some connect these words with the following, and suppose the natural order to be, 'Let them serve the Lord of this house, for the uniting,' &c. Others connect them with the last words of the preceding chapter, and take the meaning to be, that God had so destroyed the army of Abraha for the uniting of the Quraish, &c. And the last opinion is confirmed by one copy, men-

veyors in winter and summer; (3) let them serve the LORD of this house, who supplieth them with food against hunger, (4) and hath rendered them secure from fear.

tioned by al Baidháwi, wherein this and the preceding make but one chapter."— Sale.

(2) The caravan. "It was Háshim, the great-grandfather of Muhammad, who first appointed the two yearly caravans here mentioned; one of which set out in the winter for Yaman, and the other in summer for Syria."— Sale.

(3) Who suppheth. . . . food. "By means of the aforesaid caravans of purveyors; or, 'who supplied them with food in time of a famine,' which those of Makkah had suffered."— Sale, Baidháwi.

(4) Secure from. fear. "By delivering them from Abraha and his troops, or by making the territory of Makkah a place of security."— Sale.

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