In the issue of this Journal for July, 1903 (pp. 467–493), Professor D. S. Margoliouth propounds a theory in explanation of the words Muslim and Ḥanīf, used in the Ḳur'ān, which is thus stated:—
“The suggestion, then, which I should offer for the explanation of these terms is that some twenty years before Mohammed's mission some sort of natural monotheism was preached by Musaylimah, whose followers being called Muslims [after the preacher's name] and Ḥanīfs [from the tribe of Ḥanīfah to which he belonged], these words were supposed to signify monotheist, and as such were adopted by Mohammed, who, owing to the comparative obscurity of Musaylimah, had at least at first no knowledge of their origin, and afterwards felt bound to assert positively that they were both in use in Abraham's time.”