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 A MAP tniilu.n-aie ISLAMISM
 
 NON-CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS 
 SYSTEMS, 
 
 ISLAM & ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 BY ,' . ' 
 
 J. W: H. STOBART, B.A, 
 
 PRINCIPAL, LA MARTINIERE COLLEGE, LUCKNOW. 
 WITH MAP. 
 
 PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF 
 
 THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION 
 
 APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING 
 
 CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 SIXTH THOUSAND. 
 
 LONDON: 
 SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORIES t 
 
 77, GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLn's-INN FIELDS ; 
 
 4, ROYAL EXCHANGE; 48, PICCADILLY; 
 
 AND BY ALL BOOKSELLERS. 
 
 New York : Pott, Young, & Co. 
 1878.
 
 D EDICATED 
 
 TO 
 
 A BELOVED ^I OTHER 
 BY HER SON. 
 
 BONCHURCir, 
 
 3rd Octolcr, 1S76.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 I AM SO much indebted to the researches of 
 others for the contents of this little Manual, 
 that I scarcely know where to begin my ac- 
 knowledgments. My especial thanks are due 
 to Sir W. Muir, for the valuable aid of his 
 work * — confessedly the best on the subject, — 
 which I have taken as my guide in these pages. 
 Sale's translation is used in the quotations from 
 the Koran, and from his " Preliminary Dis- 
 course" and " Notes" I have freely quoted. I 
 have also found valuable aid in the writings of 
 Freeman {TJic Saracens), Forster {GeograpJiy 
 of Arabia), Kasimirski {Koran), Irving {Life 
 of MaJiomct), Monier Williams {Indian Wis- 
 dom), Lane {Modern Egyptians, &c), Burton 
 {El Mecca and El Medineh), Kennedy, the Rev. 
 J. {Christianity and the Religions of India), 
 Hughes, the Rev. T. P. {Notes on MuJiamvia- 
 danisni), Lamartine, Prideaux, Deutsch, Bos- 
 worth Smith, Gibbon, and others who have 
 written on the subject. 
 
 * " Life of Mahomet," 4 vols. 4to. London. 
 B 2 
 
 2054519
 
 2 PREFACE. 
 
 I have thought best to retain the spelling 
 « Mahomet," " Koran," " Caliph," " Wahabee," 
 &c., as being naturalized in our language, and as 
 likely to hold their place till some uniform 
 system of transliteration is generally adopted.^ 
 
 With regard to the contents of this book, I 
 am not conscious that any important matter 
 connected with Islam, or regarding its founder, 
 has been omitted. In treating of the leading 
 features of the Mahometan system I have sought 
 to state facts and results, rather than to attribute 
 motives ; and, whilst compromising nothing of 
 the truth, have endeavoured to avoid every- 
 thing which would appear like partisanship or 
 prejudice. 
 
 Sincerely trusting that I may not, in any 
 particular, have neglected the golden rule of 
 Christian Charity in speaking of " the great 
 antagonistic Creed," and fully conscious of the 
 imperfections of my work, whose aim is to be 
 a popular exposition of the subject, I now 
 submit it to the indulgent criticism of the 
 reader. 
 
 J. W. H. S. 
 
 Clifton, 5M July, 1876. 
 
 ' We meet with " Muhammad," " Mohammed," " Moham- 
 mad"; Quran, Coran, Al-coran, C-kooran, &c. The verse- 
 numbers are those of Kasimirski.
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. — Geography, Early History, and Peopling 
 
 OF Arabia 5 
 
 II. — Ancient Religious Observances of the 
 
 Arabs, and Ancestry of Mahomet , 29 
 
 III. — Birth of Mahomet, and Life to his Fortieth 
 
 Year.— [A.D. 570-610.] 45 
 
 IV. — Mahomet's Legation, and the first Esta- 
 blishment OF Islam. — [A.D. 610-617.] 69 
 
 V. — Early Teaching at Mecca 86 
 
 VI. — Last Years of Mahomet at Mecca. — [A.D. 
 
 617-622.] 123 
 
 VII. — The Latest Teaching at Mecca 135 
 
 VIII. — Mahomet's Career at Medina. — [A.D. 622- 
 
 632.] 148 
 
 IX. — Mahomet's Teaching at Medina 1S5 
 
 X. — Islam 196 
 
 XI. — Spread of Islam 208 
 
 XII. — Conclusion 227
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 GEOGRAPHY, EARLY HISTORY, AND PEOPLING OF 
 ARABIA. 
 
 "Jezeret-ul-Arab," or the Chersonese of Arabia, 
 is the name given by its inhabitants to the great 
 peninsula which, bordered by the Red Sea, the 
 Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf, and the deserts 
 which extend to the Euphrates, stretches, in round 
 numbers, from the 12th to the 34th degree of north 
 latitude. Its length, from the Mediterranean to the 
 Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, is about 1,400 miles, its 
 breadth across the neck of the peninsula is 800 miles, 
 whilst its coast-line on the Indian Ocean approaches 
 1,200 miles. " Although Arabia is not greatly inferior 
 in extent to India, it does not possess a single 
 navigable river." ^ Few of its streams reach the 
 ocean. Most of them exist only when swelled by the 
 periodic rains, and, as a rule, lose themselves in the 
 sandy plains. Arabia forms a part of that barren and 
 nearly rainless region, of which the Sahara, in Africa, 
 and the deserts of Shamo, in Thibet, form the western 
 
 ' Muir, I. cxlvi.
 
 6 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 and eastern boundaries. It embraces, within its 
 extent, strange varieties of scenery and soil, — barren 
 hills, vast sandy deserts uninhabited and uninhabit- 
 able, a rock-bound coast, stretches of excellent pas- 
 turage and fertile wadies, which, contrasted with the 
 bleak wilderness around, charm the traveller with an 
 unspeakable freshness and verdure. 
 
 The name Arabia was often used by old writers in 
 a wide sense. Thus it is applied by Pliny to part of 
 Mesopotamia; by Herodotus (ii. 12) to Syria, and to the 
 coast of the Red Sea between it and the Nile valley. 
 The general division of Arabia, by Greek and Roman 
 writers, is into Arabia Deserta and Arabia Felix. This 
 latter epithet is probably only a mistaken translation 
 of " El Yemen," — the land on the right hand, that is, 
 of the south, for the Orientals faced east ; as con- 
 trasted with Syria, which in Arabic is called " El 
 Sham," or the country to the left of Mecca. The 
 third division, Arabia Petraea, that is, Arabia of 
 Petra, first appears in Ptolemy, applied to the Sinai 
 district. Arabia Deserta was inhabited entirely by 
 nomad tribes — Scenitae — tent-men, and Saraceni. 
 Arabia Felix was occupied by more settled tribes, as 
 the Sabsei, &c. Their principal port was Aden, the 
 Arabias Emporium of Ptolemy. The Arabians were 
 never subdued, properly speaking, as a nation. 
 Indeed, their innumerable tribal and political divi- 
 sions, and the nature of the country, rendered their 
 subjugation to a foreign power next to impossible. 
 They gave to the Great King, as allies, not as sub- 
 jects, a gift of one thousand talents of frankincense 
 (Herodotus, iii. 97).
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 7 
 
 The Emperor Augustus (B.C. 24) sent an expe- 
 dition of Arabian discovery and conquest, under 
 ^lius Gallus, the Roman governor of Egypt; of 
 ivhich PHny and Strabo have left accounts. The 
 latter was a personal friend of the commander, and 
 his narration may probably be relied upon. Great 
 difference of opinion exists as to the geographical 
 interpretation of the accounts extant. The expedi- 
 tion embarked from Cleopatris, the modem Suez, 
 and, after a voyage of fifteen days, landed at " Leuke 
 Kome," a port of the Hejaz, on the Arabian shore 
 of the Red Sea. Partly owing to sickness, which 
 delayed the army a year, and the treachery of 
 the Arabian (Nabathean) King of Petra — Obodas, 
 and his minister Syllseus, who for six months led the 
 force alternately through deserts and fertile tracts, the 
 expedition failed. Among other places which were 
 taken and destroyed was Mariaba — a city six miles 
 in circumference. Thence they proceeded to Mar- 
 syaba, the siege of which, from the strength of its 
 fortifications and the scarcity of water, they were 
 obliged to raise. They retreated, and in tAvo months 
 reached " Nera Kome," whence they embarked and 
 landed at Myos Hormus, in Egypt. Mr. Forster^ has 
 sought, with apparent success, to identify these 
 places ; but Sir W. Muir thinks it " impossible to 
 
 ' Vol. ii. sec. 6 : "Leuke Kome"=El Hailra, or Horan, north 
 ofYembo. "Nera Kome "=Yembo of the Calingii, or Beni 
 Khaled. " Mariaba," identified with Mareb in Bahrein, on the 
 Persian Gulf ; not Mareb, the capital of the Sabeans, in Yemen. 
 " Marsyaba "=Sabbia, or Sabe, north of Jebel, Climax Mons, 
 in Wadi Najran.
 
 8 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 recognize any of the to\^ais through which the expe- 
 dition passed." ^ 
 
 The Emperor Trajan (A.D. 105) made Arabia. 
 from Damascus (El Sham) to the Red Sea, including 
 the kingdom of Nabathea, a province under the 
 governor of Syria, Cornelius Palma. Petra was its 
 chief town ; but it gradually sank with the loss of its 
 caravan trade, and Bostra grew into importance. In 
 the third century it was divided into two provinces, 
 with these two towns as their respective capitals. 
 
 South Arabia (Yemen) has, from time to time, 
 felt the influence of political vicissitude and foreign 
 subjection, to which allusion will hereafter be made ; 
 but, generally speaking, Arabia, protected by the 
 deserts of sand and sea which surround it, has but 
 partially, and that only on its border lands, been 
 subjected to those political revolutions which have 
 affected the neighbouring countries ; and its peoples 
 present the picture of a race still, after centuries, 
 retaining nationally the characteristics of their primi- 
 tive condition, unchanged by successive deluges of 
 alien immigration or foreign conquest. 
 
 A nearly continuous range of lofty hills and 
 mountains runs down the peninsula, irregularly parallel 
 to the Red Sea. In some places the hills approach 
 the coast, whilst here and there they recede, so as to 
 leave a broad margin of low land. From this longitudi- 
 nal chain, three other ranges extend. In the north 
 the Jebel Shammar, running eastward from about the 
 head of the Gulf of Akaba ; in the centre Jebel Ared,
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 9 
 
 extending from near Mecca to the Persian Gulf; in 
 the south irregular ranges of generally barren moun- 
 tains overlooking the sea, extend from the Straits of 
 Bab-el-Mandeb through the provinces of Hadhramaut 
 and Oman. 
 
 Between the ranges of Jebel Shammar and Jebel 
 Ared lies the high central land of Najd. It is a 
 lofty plateau or steppe, rising to the height of some 
 9,000 feet, its water-shed generally being from west 
 to east. It is a fertile country, and produces the finest 
 breed of horses in Arabia. 
 
 The Hejaz, lying between Najd and the Red Sea, 
 and running along the latter, includes the sacred 
 cities of Mecca and Medina, with their respective 
 ports of Jiddah and Yembo. It is about loo miles 
 broad, the land generally rising to the granite peaks 
 of Jebel Kora, whence eastward is the high land of 
 Najd. It is the holy land of Islam. It was conquered 
 by Muhammad Ali, of Egypt, and in 1S40 incor- 
 porated with the empire of Turkey. 
 
 The south-western portion of the peninsula is the 
 fertile Yemen, where perennial streams flow from the 
 mountains to the sea. It is rich in corn-fields and 
 coffee-gardens, and its soil and vegetation entitle it to 
 the name it bears of "Arabia Felix." North of Yemen 
 lies the district of Najran. Politically, Yemen is 
 under the government of an Imam who resides at 
 Sana : its chief port is IMocha. 
 
 Hadhramaut lies along the south coast, which, 
 though presenting from the sea a nearly uniform aj)- 
 pearance of barrenness and desolation, is a short dis- 
 tance inland fruitful in the highest degree. A glowing
 
 lO ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 description of it is to be found in Wellsted's " Travels 
 in Arabia" (vol. i. pp. 115, 116). He says that the 
 country about Minna, in the Jebel-el-Akhdar, or green 
 mountains of Oman, abounds in the most luxuriant 
 cultivation. Verdant fields of grain stretch for miles ; 
 streams of water flowing in every direction, groves of 
 citron, almond, and orange trees, and a happy, con- 
 tented peasantry, make up a picture worthy of Araby 
 the blest. 
 
 The chief towns of Oman are Rostok and 
 Muscat. The Imam of the latter town exercises 
 sway in Oman, and as far into the interior as he 
 can make his influence felt. South of Yamama lies 
 the great dessert of Akhaf, which extends from 
 near Mecca to Oman. On its border -lands the 
 neighbouring tribes find, after the periodic rains, 
 pasturage for their flocks and herds. Some of its 
 arid tracts are reported never to have been explored. 
 It is called by the Bedouins " Roba-el-Khaly," the 
 empty abode. The only habitable spot in its dreary 
 expanse of sand is Wadi-Jebryn, by which place the 
 Arabs of Najd travel An winter to Hadhramaut. 
 Along the Persian Gulf lies the province of Bahrein. 
 
 Arabia is a land of drought and barrenness. 
 Some of its desert sandy wastes and granite hills are 
 refreshed by scarcely a single shower in the year ; at 
 other times violent rains rapidly fill the tanks and 
 wadies, and give rise to a luxuriant and intermittent 
 vegetation. The date-palm is almost the only tree, 
 and the weary traveller, as he traverses the country, 
 finds but scanty shelter from the glaring sun. Aromatic 
 herbs and a coarse undergrowth take the place of our
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. II 
 
 grassy fields, and afford excellent pasturage to vast 
 flocks, and to a noble breed of horses. In the 
 higher lands, where well watered, a greater luxuriance 
 prevails. Coffee, dates, and other fruits, cotton, 
 balsam, myrrh, and frankincense are, together with 
 " dhurra," which takes the place of corn, its staple 
 products and exports. Arabia has no native indus- 
 try, but is dependent on other countries for manu- 
 factured commodities. Its intellectual supremacy 
 has long since departed ; though schools exist 
 throughout the country, little is taught beyond the 
 reading of the Koran, a little elementary arithmetic, 
 and science. 
 
 The mode of life of the Arabs is of three 
 kinds : either they are nomadic (Bedouin), obtaining 
 their livelihood from the rearing of camels, horses, 
 cattle, and sheep, pitching their tents within certain 
 limits, where water and pasturage are most abundant ; 
 or they are engaged in the transport of mer- 
 chandise along the trading routes through the 
 desert, in search of which employment they travel 
 over the country with their camels ; or they are 
 sedentary, dwelling in towns either inland or on 
 the seaboard, and engage in commerce with the in- 
 terior or with the ports on the coast, on the opposite 
 shores of Africa and Persia, or with India. In 
 ancient times commercial intercourse was confined 
 almost exclusively to the land, for in those days the 
 trader trusted to the treacherous ocean as little as 
 possible ; and the spices and precious wares of Arabia 
 and India were conveyed to the northern marts on the 
 " ship of the desert " by settled routes, the halting-
 
 12 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 places being fixed at regular intervals, where shade, 
 water, and provender were to be obtained. Here the 
 weary traveller and his more wearied beasts of burden 
 could rest and refresh themselves. At some of these 
 halting-places regular towns in time arose, supported 
 by the traffic which in many cases had called them 
 into existence. 
 
 There appear to have been t^vo chief routes , 
 one from Yemen through the Hejaz, passing Mecca 
 and Petra, chiefly supplying Egypt and Palestine ; 
 and another from Hadhramaut by the Persian Gulf, 
 and thence branching off to the Euphrates valley, cxnd 
 chief towns of Syria, — Damascus and Tyre. 
 
 The prophet Ezekiel (B.C. 600), c. xxvii., in 
 taking up the lamentation of Tyrus, speaks of its 
 traffic with Arabia, the multitude of its wares (v. 16), 
 its spices and gold (v. 22), and mentions some of the 
 ports of Yemen and Hadhramaut, Haran, and Canneh 
 and Eden, which retain their names to this day. 
 
 The western caravan route was in use in Ma- 
 homet's time, and his great-grandfather Hashim 
 died at Gaza when on a mercantile expedition to 
 Syria. Eventually the growing skill in navigation 
 during Roman times annihilated the caravan trade, 
 and substituted the sea route. The holy city of 
 Mecca felt the loss of this inland traffic, but in its 
 shrine — the Kaaba, — universally recognized as a place 
 of pilgrimage throughout the peninsula, it possessed an 
 element of life unknown at Petra ; and with the rise 
 and progress of Islam continued to flourish, and still 
 thrives on the stream of pilgrims who visit it. 
 
 Living thus in tents, or in temporary dwellings,
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 1 3 
 
 and leading a free, wandering life, the Arab is simple 
 and temperate in his habits and wants. He is 
 generous and reverential in his mode of thought, 
 acute and imaginative, delighting in eloquence, 
 and easily touched by the charms of poetry. He 
 is sudden and quick in honour, addicted to re- 
 venge as a sacred duty, yet strongly bound by the 
 laws of hospitality. His character has its dark side 
 too. He is careless of human life, and considers 
 every stranger who is not of his kindred or tribe, or 
 an ally, an enemy, whom, if occasion require, he will 
 not scruple to circumvent by the blackest treachery. 
 He is, as a rule, bigoted and selfish, and prone to 
 debauchery ; his reverence degenerates into fanati- 
 cism, and he is regardless of suffering in others. 
 Cleanliness and the ordinary laws of sanitation are 
 ignored. Burckhardt draws a deplorable picture of 
 the filthy state of Mecca during his visit. 
 
 The remote ancestry of the Arab race has been 
 represented as involved in much obscurity. Historians 
 and geographers, in seeking to fix it with any degree 
 of accuracy, have as their guides the following sources 
 of information : — 
 
 (i) The Scripture record in the Old Testament. 
 
 (2) The records of Greek and Roman writers. 
 
 (3) The present names of places, regions, and 
 tribes. 
 
 (4) Information regarding the local habits and 
 characteristics supplied by modern travellers. 
 
 (5) Arab traditions, and the writings of their own 
 historians. 
 
 Of the above, the Scripture records are the
 
 14 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 only sure guides in any attempt to penetrate the 
 darkness of their early history. From classical 
 sources information of high value is also to be 
 derived, and the names of places, regions, and 
 nations, either obsolete or still remaining, form 
 data of very great authority in this field of investiga- 
 tion. Tradition has, especially with such a nation, 
 its value ; but the Arab genealogies and their own 
 accounts of their early ancestry are so mixed up 
 with fabulous details, their chronology is so evidently 
 manufactured, contradictory and foolish, as to merit 
 little credence. 
 
 From such authorities the industry of modern 
 research seems to have set in clear light the ancestry 
 of this ancient people, and demonstrated the strict 
 and literal accuracy, regarding the post-diluvian peo- 
 pling of the world, of the Mosaic records, and of the 
 other scattered notices to be found throughout the 
 books of the Old Testament.^ 
 
 Any information derived from ethnological or 
 geogi'aphical sources which illustrates and confirms 
 the Mosaic record cannot fail to be of the highest 
 value to the Christian reader ; and an intimate know- 
 ledge of Arabia in its past and present state, its tradi- 
 tions and tribal occupations and local nomenclature, 
 its monuments and antiquities, will be found satisfac 
 torily to sustain the sacred account of the distribution 
 of mankind after the Flood, and has paramount claims 
 on the Christian scholar and theologian. 
 
 For however firm our belief in the authenticity 
 
 ' On this subject the reader should consult "The Geography 
 of Arabia," by the Rev. Mr. Forster.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 1 5 
 
 of the books of the Old Testament as the only sure 
 and authentic guide in the study of the early history 
 of our race, still, when we find living memorials and 
 undesigned confirmations of the same in Arabia, we 
 cannot but receive the same with feelings of grateful 
 recognition. From the authorities mentioned above, 
 it may be shown that the Arab race is sprung from 
 the five great patriarchal stocks of (i) Gush, (2) Shem, 
 (3) Ishmacl, (4) Keturah, and (5) Esau. 
 
 The limits of this work and its especial object 
 induce me, reluctantly, to abandon the attempt to 
 give the reader any detailed account of the settle- 
 ments in Arabia of the children of Gush and Shem, 
 of Esau and Keturah. The Old Testament records, 
 by incidental allusions, afford the most literal proofs 
 of their migration thither.^ Of Gushite settlements 
 the clearest traces are still to be found on the coast of 
 the Persian Gulf, and in the province of Oman. In 
 the word Ghuzestan, or the land of Gush ; in the names 
 Asabi or Sabi (Seba), the Hammseum Littus of Pliny 
 (Ham), the island of Aval (Havilah), the chief of the 
 Bahrein group, and in Regma (Raamah), and Dadena 
 (Dedan), probable memorials of the ancient Scripture 
 names still remain.^ Sale, in his " Preliminary Dis- 
 course," says, " Others of the Arabs were the posterity 
 of Ham by his son Gush, which name is in the 
 Scripture constantly given to the Arabs and their 
 country, though our version renders it Ethiopia ; but, 
 
 * Conf. Num. xii. i (margin) ; Ezek. xxviii. 20-22 ; Ps. Ixxii. 
 10 ; Job i. 15 ; Habak. iii. 7 ; iv. 39-41. 
 ' Conf. Gen. x. 6-8; Forster, i. 73; IMuir, i. ex. 
 C
 
 l6 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 Strictly speaking, the Cushites ^ did not inhabit Arabia, 
 properly so called, but the banks of the Euphrates 
 and the Persian Gulf, whither they came from Chu- 
 zestan, or Susiana, the original settlement of their 
 father " (p. 9). 
 
 Very ancient tradition pronounces the great existing 
 race of the Beni Kahtan to be the descendants of Shem, 
 the stock of the patriarch Eber by his second son Joktan.^ 
 This cherished tradition of the Arab race, which 
 claims the patriarch Joktan (or Kahtan) as the ancestor 
 of the race (which has spread from near Mecca in the 
 Hejaz, throughout the whole of Yemen and the south 
 coast of Oman, and is found also in the Najd, having 
 dominated over all other races in those parts), is sup- 
 ported by strong evidence in the names of places 
 and localities still existing. It may be clearly shown 
 that the very names given in the Old Testament are 
 to be identified in the settlement of the great Semitic 
 race, and thus that here again the sacred record, 
 Arab tradition, the statements of the classical writers, 
 and modern geography are unanimous in their inde- 
 pendent testimony. 
 
 The descendants of Abraham by Keturah, and 
 of Esau,3 gained a strong and permanent footing in 
 the northern parts of the peninsula and on the shores 
 
 • On the identity of the name "Midianite" and "Cushite" 
 see Forster, vol. i. p. 12, ei seq. 
 
 9 Conf. D'Herbelot, art. "Arab," i. p. 34S ; W. Irving, 
 "Life of Mahomet," p. 112; Forster, i. 77-175 ; Muir, "The 
 Life of Mahomet," i. p. cvii(x). ; Lamartine, " Hist, de T," 
 i. p. 370 ; Sale, P. D., p. i. 
 
 ^ Gen. XXV. 1-6 ; xxxvi. 1-43.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER, 1 7 
 
 of the Gulf of Akaba ; and frequent reference to 
 them as peoples of Arabia is to be found in the pro- 
 phetic books of the Old Testament.^ The greatness 
 of the race of Esau, as foretold in Scripture, was 
 abundantly fulfilled in after-times. It is allowed by 
 the best authorities ^ that the great Arab nation of 
 Amalek was descended from the grandson of Esau ; 
 and the richness and fertility of their possessions is 
 referred to by a recent traveller.^ The name of this 
 race is still imprinted on the shores of the Red Sea, in 
 "Ras Edom" and ''Jezeret Edom," a cape and island 
 of the Hejaz. The existence of the Edomite settle- 
 ments found there, in Yemen, and on the Persian 
 Gulf, supports the statement of the classical writers 
 that the Edomites are identical with the ancient 
 Idumeans, who commanded the navigation of the 
 Erythrean Sea, and renders the suggestion probable 
 that the name of this great commercial nation was 
 once imposed upon the waters of the Indian Ocean.* 
 As the reputed ancestor of the prophet of Mecca 
 the descendants of Ishmael deserve particular 
 notice.^ Few can read without emotion the story 
 of the expulsion of Hagar and her son Ishmael 
 (born B.C. 1910); how they wandered in the 
 A\'ilderness of Beersheba solitary and in exile ; how, 
 
 ' Isaiah, xxi. 13. 
 
 " Muir, I. cxiii., notes. 
 
 ^ Robinson, "Bib. Res.," ii. 55I, 552. 
 
 * " When the Adites sent messengers to the Kaaba to implore 
 for rain, Mecca was in the hands of the tribe of Amalek" (Sale's 
 "Koran," p. 124). 
 
 * Conf. Forster, i. 176-316. 
 
 C 2
 
 l8 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 when the water in her bottle was spent, she cast the 
 child under one of the shrubs of the desert, lest she 
 should see him die ; and yet, how, from this the depth 
 of her anguish, God's providence was fulfilled how 
 her eyes were opened, and she saw the well of water ; 
 and how that son, for whom the aged Patriarch had 
 besought the Almighty (before the birth of the chosen 
 seed) " that he might dwell before Him," was blessed 
 exceedingly, and became a great nation, his children 
 being, " by their towns and by their castles, twelve 
 princes according to their nations" (Gen. xvii. 18- 
 20, and XXV. 12-18). 
 
 In the book of Genesis the names of Ishmael's 
 SODS are given, and the bounds of their habitation ; 
 for we are told that he lived " in the wilderness of 
 Paran," and that they dwelt " from Havilah unto 
 Shur, that is before Egypt" (Gen. xxv. 18). Aban- 
 doned and almost repudiated by his father, and 
 coming as a stranger with his mother to these regions, 
 it can easily be imagined that to Hagar alone would 
 reference be made concerning the ancestral stock, 
 and this is abundantly found to be the case. 
 
 Constant reference is made in Holy Scripture 
 to the Hagarites and the Hagarenes, and they are 
 represented a", inhabiting those very parts of northern 
 Arabia, towards which Hagar was sent. Thus, in 
 Psalm Ixxxiii. we read of " the tabernacles of Edom 
 3nd the Ishmaelites, of Moab and the Hagarenes," na- 
 tions dwelling in close proximity, in the lands spread- 
 ing southwards from the Holy Land towards the Red 
 Sea. In the days of Saul (B.C. 1095-1055), the sons 
 of Reuben, a pastoral tribe whose settlements lay to
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 1 9 
 
 the south-east of the Dead Sea, " made war with the 
 Hagarites, and dwelt in their tents throughout all the 
 east land of Gilead " (i Chron. v. lo); and again in 
 the days of Jeroboam (B.C. 975-954), the tribes which 
 dwelt beyond Jordan " made war with the Hagarites, 
 with Jetur, and Nephish, and Nodab," where we again 
 have mention of the maternal name (Hagar) in con- 
 junction with those of the youngest sons of Ishmael 
 (1 Chron. v. 18, 19, and Gen. xxv. 15). 
 
 The synonymous use of the terms " Midianites " 
 and " Ishmaelites " serves to fix the situation of the 
 country inhabited by the latter (Gen. xxxvii. 28) ; 
 and St. Paul, in speaking of the old and new cove- 
 nants, expressly states that Mount Sinai, " which gen- 
 dereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is 
 Mount Sinai in Arabia" (Gal. iv. 24, 25). 
 
 In the books of the Old Testament frequent 
 mention is made of Nebajoth (or Nebaioth) and 
 Kedar, the eldest, two sons of Ishmael. Thus Isaiah 
 (Ix. 6, 7), in speaking of the glories of the Redeemer's 
 reign, says " that they from Sheba shall bring gold 
 
 and incense all the flocks of Kedar 
 
 and the rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto thee," 
 a declaration coupling these two names together, and 
 pointing to their pastoral occupation ; whilst the 
 Psalmist's allusion to the " tents of Kedar " (Ps. cxx. 
 5, 7) intimates clearly the nomadic mode of life which 
 they led. 
 
 The " wilderness of Paran " is recovered, on the 
 authority of Ptolemy, in " Pharan Oppidum " and 
 ' Pharan Promontorium," which latter terminates the 
 Peninsula of Sinai ; and in the "PharanitK," described
 
 20 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 by him as extending northward from the head of the 
 Gulf of Akaba to the desert of Tyh. The whole pro- 
 vince of Bahrein, which once bore the Cushite name 
 of Havilah, is now known among the Arab tribes in- 
 habiting it chiefly and properly by the Ishmaelite name 
 of Hagar. The latter name occurs in Yemen, showing 
 probably that offshoots of the race migrated thither. 
 Josephus (who flourished in the first century after 
 Christ) affirms the existence of twelve Arab nations 
 sprung from the sons of Ishmael ; and St. Jerome also 
 says " that Kedar is a country of the Saracens, who 
 in Scripture are called Ishmaelites." ^ 
 
 The descendants of the eldest son of Ishmael 
 are to be identified with the " Nabatheans " of the 
 classical writers, described as the most illustrious king- 
 dom and people of Arabia. They are the Beni Nabat 
 of the Mahometan writers. Petra^ was the capital 
 of their kingdom, which from it took the name of 
 " Arabia Petraea," and was comprised within the limits 
 of the ancient Edom. The strength of the sons of 
 
 Forster, i. p. 200. Niebuhr, iii. 293. 
 ' Pliny says of Petra that "the Nabatsei inhabit a city called 
 Petra, in a hollow somewhat less than two miles in circumfe- 
 rence, surrounded by inaccessible mountains .... distant from 
 the town of Gaza on the coast 600 miles." Strabo writes that 
 it is fortified with a barrier of rocks, has excellent springs of 
 water, and that outside the city the country is a desert. To 
 Burckhardt belongs the honour of being the first to penetrate to 
 this long-lost city. Dressed as an Arab Sheikh, he passed the 
 mountains of Edom, and on the 22nd August, 181 2, entered 
 Petra by the wonderful gorge of Sik. He describes the town as 
 surrounded with vineyards and fruit-trees, the grapes being espe- 
 cially fine ("Alps of Arabia," pp. 201-204).
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 21 
 
 Nebajoth was well illustrated, and perhaps explaioed 
 by that of their capital, which, situated in the midst of 
 deserts, and, itself a natural fortress, became the high 
 road of the commerce between Yemen and Syria, the 
 Persian Gulf, and the ports and marts of Egypt. 
 
 Three centuries before the Christian era, we 
 hear of them baffling the attacks of the Macedonian 
 monarchs of Babylon behind the rocky ramparts of 
 Petra. Their kingdom extended from Egypt to Pales- 
 tine, and down the shores of the Red Sea. In the 
 reign of Augustus we have seen that their king Obodas 
 assisted ^lius Gallus in his unsuccessful expedition 
 against Yemen. At the beginning of the Christian 
 era they gradually became dependent on Rome, and 
 their kingdom was annexed (A.D. 105) by the em- 
 peror Trajan. 
 
 The Old Testament evidences for the existence 
 of Kedar, as a powerful people of Arabia, are full and 
 explicit ;i and on a reference to these it will be found 
 that their details are compatible with the settlements 
 of Kedar being in the Hejaz, near or between Mecca 
 and Medina ; and it is on this very ground that Pliny 
 places a people of similar name, identical with the 
 Kedarys, or Beni Kedar. 
 
 The tradition of the Arabs themselves represents 
 Kedar to have settled in the Hejaz, and from this 
 patriarch the family of the Coreish, the guardians of 
 the Kaaba, always boasted their descent.^ Though 
 
 • Isaiah xxi. 11, 17; xlii. 10-12; Ix. 7; Jer. ii. 10, II. 
 
 ^ Vide Forster, i. p. 251, on this point. Muir (Life ot 
 Mahomet, i. p. ccix.) gives a quotation from M. C. de Percival 
 (vol. i. p. 183) :- "The Arabs of the Hejaz and Najd have al-
 
 22 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 traces of the remaining sons of Ishmael are to be 
 found, it may generally be said "that they either 
 mingled with the other tribes, or, penetrating the 
 peninsula (south), have escaped observation." ^ 
 
 In addition to the immigrants whom we have now 
 considered, and who, as a "mingled people" (Jer. 
 XXV. 24), formed the permanent inhabitants of Arabia, 
 there were in later times large colonies and tribes of 
 Jews scattered throughout the peninsula. They are 
 found holding lands and castles, and occupying im- 
 portant positions in the country, especially about Me- 
 dina, in which and in its vicinity numerous powerful 
 tribes of them were settled. Kheibar was one of their 
 strongholds. In the eighth year of the Hejira the 
 Jews of this place were attacked by Mahomet, their 
 lands and fortresses fell into his hands, and their chief, 
 Kinana, tortured to death. Many of their numbers 
 perished, and those who remained were exterminated 
 in the caliphate of Omar. Two of Mahomet's wives 
 were of this religion, Safia, ^\^dow of the murdered 
 Kinana, and Rihana. 
 
 A force of 500 Jews formed part of the con- 
 tingent supplied by the Nabathean king to ./Elius 
 Gallus in his expedition. One of the kings of the 
 Himyarite dynasty in Yemen, named Dzu-Nowas (A.D. 
 490 to 525), having on a visit to Medina (Yathrib), 
 
 ways (?) regarded Ishmael as their ancestor. This conviction — 
 the source of their respect for the memory of Abraham — is too 
 general, too deep not to repose on a real foundation. In fine, 
 Mahomet, who gloried in his Ishmaelitish origin, was never 
 contradicted on that point by his enemies the Jews. " 
 ' Muir, I, cxii
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 23 
 
 of which half the population were Jews, embraced 
 their creed, invaded Najran, for the purpose of extir- 
 pating the Christian faith, which had made very con- 
 siderable progress in that province. His cruelties, 
 especially in having thrown the Christian martyrs into 
 a trench filled with burning materials, are alluded to 
 in the Koran (sura Ixxxv. 4 et seq.). The number of 
 victims are stated at no less than 20,000 (Muir, i. 
 clxii.). This persecution of the Christians of Yemen 
 moved to vengeance the Prince of Abyssinia, who was 
 of the Nestorian sect. An army was sent over the 
 narrow gulf, and the expedition (A.D. 525) ended in 
 the death of Dzu-Nowas, and the subjection of Ye- 
 men, which became a dependency of the Abyssinian 
 king. 
 
 Aryat and Abraha were the successive vice- 
 roys. Vigorous missionary efforts were made to 
 Christianize the country. A magnificent cathedral 
 was built at Sana, and it was hoped that the Arab 
 tribes would be diverted from Mecca to the new 
 shrine. These hopes were frustrated, and in revenge 
 for his disappointment, and for certain indignities 
 which had been practised in the cathedral itself, 
 Abraha set out to destroy the Kaaba. The expedi- 
 tion (A.D. 570) failed, and its leader perished. The 
 event, which took place in the year of Mahomet's 
 birth, is recorded in the Koran, sura cv., entitled 
 " The Elephant." 
 
 The destruction of Jerusalem by Titus (A.D. 
 70) probably scattered many Christians throughout 
 Arabia, in nearly all quarters of which they would be 
 likely to meet with sympathizers with their own faith.
 
 24 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 The Christian religion had gradually and partially 
 penetrated into Arabia, and gained scattered converts, 
 though it never succeeded in taking a permanent hold 
 there, or in superseding the existing idolatry. The 
 opposition which it would meet \vith from the Jews 
 must not be forgotten • and we must also remember 
 how antagonistic the general habits of the Arab race 
 would be to the spread of the gospel. " The haughty 
 temper and revengeful code of the Arab tribes, and 
 their licentious practices, were all alike hostile to the 
 humble and forgiving precepts of Christian morality."^ 
 Still, Christianity was not unrepresented in the 
 peninsula. In the fourth century Petra was the resi- 
 dence of a Metropolitan, whose diocese embraced 
 the ancient Idumaea and Nabathea ; and several 
 Christian bishoprics were established in Arabia sub- 
 ject to him. Abd-Kelal (A.D. 275), Himyarite king 
 of Yemen, was a Christian. He is said to have been 
 converted by a Christian stranger, who, in conse- 
 quence of the king's defection, was murdered. This 
 is the first intimation of Christianity in Yemen. ^ 
 During the reign of Marthad (A.D. 330), son of 
 Abd-Kelal, the emperor Constantius sent a Chris- 
 tian embassy to the court of the Himyarite monarch, 
 who is called " Prince of the Sabseans and Homer- 
 ites," and certain privileges were gained from the 
 tolerant king for the professors of the Christian faith 
 visiting or residing in Yemen. Three churches were 
 built at Izafar the royal residence, at Aden, and on the 
 Persian gulf. No important event followed this em- 
 
 Muir, I. ccxxxvi. ''lb. I. clx.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 25 
 
 bassy, but the knowledge is gained thereby that the 
 inhabitants of Yemen at the time were partly Jewish 
 and partly Pagan. The latter practised circumcision, 
 and sacrificed to the sun and moon, and to other 
 divinities. 1 
 
 The cruelties of Dzu-Nowas, a subsequent king 
 of Yemen, to the Christians have been spoken 
 of above. Christian anchorites, dwelling in their 
 solitary cells in Arabia Petrsea, must have aided in 
 spreading a knowledge of their belief. It reached 
 the kingdom of Hira, a town near Kufa, on the 
 Euphrates, and the seat of an important Arab dy- 
 nasty ; and, under Nonian(3i9 — 418 A.D.), spread in 
 his dominions ; and there is good reason for believing 
 that he himself had embraced the same faith. In 
 the reign of Mundzir III. of Hira (513 — 562 A.D.) 
 a Christian embassy of two bishops, sent by the 
 Patriarch of Antioch, failed to gain over the king to 
 their tenets, though he granted toleration to its fol- 
 lowers throughout his territories. Noman V., of 
 Hira, the last of the Lakhmite dynasty (A.D. 583 — 
 605), was a Christian. Many of the Arab tribes were 
 Christians, and it was generally adopted in Najran 
 about the close of the fourth century. ^ 
 
 The princes of Axum, in Abyssinia, a powerful 
 and extensive state, were Christians of the Nestorian 
 sect. The persecutions practised in turn by differing 
 Christian sects contributed to scatter believers through- 
 out the East, and drove numbers into Arabia. 
 " Christianity was there known, living examples of it 
 
 ' Muir, I. clx. Gibbon, "Decline and Fall,'' cap. xx. 
 ^ Muir, I. ccxxix.
 
 26 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 were to be found amongst the native tribes ; the New 
 Testament was respected, if not reverenced, as a book 
 that claimed to be divine, and some of its facts and 
 doctrines were admitted without dispute." ^ Yet its 
 progress was disabled and impeded by the differences 
 of contending schisms, which had substituted "the 
 puerilities of a debasing superstition for the pure and 
 expansive faith of the early ages."^ To this subject 
 we shall hereafter return, when we come to consider 
 the nature of the influence exercised by Jewish and 
 Christian doctrine, practices, and innovations on the 
 religion established by Mahomet. Enough has at 
 present been said regarding the existence of the two 
 religions in the Arabian peninsula. Such, then, is a 
 general sketch of the elements which went to make 
 up the great Arab race. 
 
 ' Muir, I. cxxix. * lb. i. ccxxvi.
 
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 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ANCIENT RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES OF THE ARABS, 
 AND ANCESTRY OF MAHOMET. 
 
 We have the assurance that Noah was " a perfect 
 man, and walked with God" (Gen. vii. 9), and as 
 a " preacher of righteousness " (2 Peter ii. 5), having 
 with his sons been witness of the Flood, handed down 
 to his posterity the worship of the True God. This 
 knowledge could not have been lost when the de- 
 scendants of Shem wandered forth to subdue the 
 fertile lands of the* South, nor at the time when the 
 Abrahamic stocks entered Arabia, for Noah was con- 
 temporary with the " Father of the Faithful," and 
 Shem lived beyond the time when Ishmael and 
 Keturah, with their sons, had left their original 
 homes. 
 
 Yet we find that idolatry before this had crept 
 in, and that Terah, the father of Abraham, had ob- 
 scured the worship of *' the Lord God of Shem," and 
 "served other gods" (Joshua xxiv. 2); Laban (B.C. 
 1739) ^^^ images; and Amaziah (B.C. 820), after 
 the slaughter of the Edomites, brought away " the 
 gods of the children of Seir" (2 Chron. xxv. 14). 
 
 But idolatry, — that yearning of the heart for a
 
 30 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 visible object of devotion, something that the eye can 
 see and the hands handle, the worship of the creature 
 more than the Creator, — the idolatry which sprang 
 up among the kindred nation of Israel was from 
 time to time checked by the divine interference 
 peculiar to the theocracy under which the chosen 
 people lived. 1 
 
 Without these restraints, no wonder the less 
 favoured descendants of Shem in Arabia rapidly 
 degenerated into gross and universal idolatry. There 
 is reason for believing that the worship of the heavenly 
 bodies was the oldest form of their spiritual deca- 
 dence ; and it is natural perhaps to expect that, 
 living in such a country, their idolatry would take 
 that form. Leading a nomad life, their existence 
 was emphatically one spent in the open air ; by day 
 amidst their flocks, and herds, and encampments, 
 and by night habitually sleeping beneath their rainless 
 heavens. Amid the silence of night, with the busy 
 scenes of day over, and no change visible but that 
 of the constellations rising and setting, or fading with 
 the dawn, the Chaldean shepherd or the Arab chief, in 
 the absence of a diviner revelation, came to consider 
 that human events were influenced by these heavenly 
 luminaries. 
 
 Seeing the changes brought about by the seasons, 
 and observing the influence of the sun and moon 
 on the earth ; noticing, too, that the products of 
 
 ' Confer 2 Kings xxiii. 5-1 1, where we have recorded that 
 Josiah (B.C. 641— 610) put down "them that burnt incense to 
 — the sun and to the moon and to the planets and all the host 
 of heaven." Confer Joshua xxiv. 14, 15; Acts vii. 42, 43.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 3 1 
 
 their fields and vineyards and the periodic rains 
 corresponded with the heliacal rising of certain con- 
 stellations, they naturally supposed that these pheno- 
 mena had influence ^ over the destiny of individuals 
 and nations. Thus astrology, or the art of divining 
 by the position of the stars, became one of the oldest 
 superstitions of the human race. 
 
 The early religion of the Arabs, then, was a 
 kind of Sabeanism, and "chiefly consisted in wor- 
 shipping the fixed stars and planets and the angels 
 and their images, which they honoured as inferior 
 deities, and whose intercession they begged as their 
 mediators with God." - This worship of the heavenly 
 bodies is alluded to in the book of Job (xxxviii. 31 — 
 33), and the names of certain constellations which 
 were adored are given. Sacrifices to the sun, &c., 
 we learn, took place in Yemen even as late as the 
 fourth century. Herodotus (iii. 8) writes of the 
 Arabs that " they acknowledge no other gods but 
 Bacchus and Urania . . . they call Bacchus Orotal, 
 and Urania Alilat." ^ He also states that in giving 
 pledges the hands of the contracting persons were 
 cut, and while invoking their deities the blood was 
 smeared on seven stones placed between them. 
 The invocation of Urania, identical, doubtless, with 
 
 ' The tendency to worship the host of heaven is anticipated 
 in Scripture. Confer Dcut. iv. 19, and xvii. 3 ; 2 Kings xvii. 
 16, and xxi. 3 ; Jerem. xviii. 13. 
 
 ' Sale, P. D., p. 15. 
 
 * The people of Tayif, near Mecca, had an idol of their own^ 
 called Lat, which they honoured as the Meccans did that at the 
 Kaaba. They were jealous of the superior fame of the Meccan 
 shrine.
 
 32 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 the Meccan idol Allat and the mystic number seven, 
 connects their worship with that of the seven heavenly 
 bodies, having real or apparent motion, known to 
 them. The seven circuits of the devout pilgrim 
 round the chief shrine, the Kaaba, are thought to 
 be emblematical of the revolutions of the heavenly 
 bodies. 
 
 The worship of rude unshapen stones may have 
 arisen from the practice of carrying away to distant 
 parts stones from the sacred inclosure at Mecca, and 
 of paying to them the ceremonial observances usual 
 at the Kaaba. It is easy to understand how in time 
 the original motive would be forgotten, and the idols 
 remain to increase and perpetuate idolatr}^ Five 
 gods of the antediluvian world are mentioned in the 
 Koran (sura Ixxi. 22, 23), and these having been 
 recovered after the Deluge (?) were worshipped by 
 certain tribes under various forms. Each tribe had 
 its special divinity, and each family its idol penates, 
 which were saluted on leaving and returning home. 
 The worship of the sun at Saba is mentioned by Ma- 
 homet (Koran, xxvii. 24) : " Of angels or intelligences 
 which they worshipped the Koran makes mention of 
 three only, Allat, Alozza, and Manah, who are called 
 the daughters of God." ^ 
 
 The heavenly bodies especially worshipped were 
 Canopus (Sohail), Sirius (Alshira),^ Aldebaran iu 
 Taurus, with the planets Mercury (Otarod), Venus 
 (Al Zohirah), Jupiter (Al Moshtari) ; and Sale states 
 that the temple at Mecca was said to have been 
 
 ' Sale, p. D., p. 17 ; Koran, sura liii. 19, 20. 
 ' Koran, sura liii. 50.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 33 
 
 consecrated to Saturn (Zohal). About the Kaaba 
 was the famous idol Hobal, the tutelary deity of 
 Mecca, supposed to have the power of granting rain, 
 surrounded by 360 others of smaller size, represent- 
 ing the saints and divinities, which could be invoked 
 on each day of the year.^ Of the form of the adora- 
 tion paid to these idols little is known, but by analogy 
 it may be assumed that the occasions of their pil- 
 grimage would be connected with their domestic or 
 family history, and chiefly the absorbing desire for 
 offspring. There is a record of an embassy sent to the 
 Kaaba to implore for rain in a time of drought.^ 
 Solemn engagements were ratified before the cele- 
 brated " Black Stone." ^ 
 
 Though there are authentic accounts of idolatrous 
 shrines and places of pilgrimage in Yemen, and 
 as far as Hira, yet the most famous throughout the 
 entire peninsula was the Kaaba. Arab tradition has 
 surrounded this shrine with a cloud of legendary story, 
 and attributed its first building to Adam and Eve, 
 who after their expulsion from Paradise and de\ious 
 
 ' D'Herbelot, voc. Hobal. 
 
 ^ Kasimirski, "Le Koran," p. 350. Lokman. 
 
 ^ Muir, ii. 49. "It is the characteristic of the Oriental, 
 and especially of the Semitic mind, to see in every event, even 
 the most trivial, a direct supernatural interference, vrrought by 
 the innumerable unseen ministers, both good and evil, of the 
 Divine will. The definite form in which the belief clothed 
 itself was, by the admission of the Jews themselves, derived 
 from Babylon. Even the most ordinary forces of nature and 
 passions of the mind were by them regarded as angels. The 
 Jews would have interpreted quite literally the verse Ps. civ. 4." 
 (Farrar, "Life of Christ," ii. p. 465, Excursus vii.) 
 D 2
 
 34 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 wanderings, met at length in penitence and forgive- 
 ness near Mecca, and were allowed to build a temple 
 in imitation of that in which they had offered their 
 pure worship in the garden of Eden ! ^ Destroyed 
 by the Flood, an angel revealed its site to the forlorn 
 Hagar and Ishmael perishing with thirst in the 
 desert, and there, to their needs bubbled forth the 
 waters of the well Zem Zem> The fountain attracts 
 a neighbouring tribe of Amalekites, who build near 
 its waters the town of Mecca, and with them the 
 youthful Ishmael and his mother find protection and 
 rest.2 
 
 Here Ishmael was visited by his father Abra- 
 ham, who, in obedience to Divine command, is 
 about to offer him up on a neighbouring hill, but 
 some vicarious sacrifice is accepted, and they set 
 about the work of rebuilding the Kaaba on its 
 
 ' On their expulsion from Paradise, so the story goes, Adam 
 fell in Serendib, or Ceylon, where the footprint on the top of 
 Adam's Peak (attributed by his priests to Buddha) was, say the 
 Mahometans, made by our first parent. Eve fell in Arabia, 
 near Jiddah, and after two hundred years' separation they were 
 permitted to come together on Mount Arafat, near Mecca, where 
 they lived many years. The tomb of Eve is shown near Jiddah, 
 outside the walls. It is sixty cubits long and twelve wide, for 
 Adam and Eve in stature equalled the tallest palm-tree ! Adam's 
 place of interment is variously stated to be near Mecca and in 
 Ceylon. Cf D'Herbelot, art. "Adam"; Koran, sura ii. 34, 
 
 35 ; Sale's note ad Ice. 
 
 ^ The Mahometans say that " Zem Zem and Siloah are the 
 two fountains of Paradise " (Farrar, " Life of Christ," ii. p. 81). 
 
 ^ The settlement of Ilagar and Ishmael at Mecca is alluded 
 to in the Koran, thus : " O Lord, I [Abraham] have caused 
 some of my offspring to settle in an unfruitful valley, near thy 
 holy house, O Lord, that they be constant at prayer" (Sura 
 xiv. 40).
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 35 
 
 ancient site. ' To assist in this work, the angel 
 Gabriel brought them one of the stones of Paradise 
 — the celebrated Black Stone — which rose and fell as 
 the divinely-aided masons progressed with the work. 
 This " Heavenly Stone" was, on completion of the 
 Avork, inserted in an outer corner of the wall of the 
 Kaaba, and after varying fortunes is still devoutly 
 kissed or touched on each of the seven circuits round 
 the Temple. At first it was bright and translucent, 
 but its present colour is supposed to reflect, but too 
 truly, the salutations of sinful mortals." 
 
 Grown to man's estate, Ishmael takes first an 
 Amalekite wife, but on her repudiation for a supposed 
 insult to his father, and the expulsion of her tribe by 
 an invading or migratory race from Yemen, he is 
 united in marriage to a daughter of Modadh, the 
 Jorhamite, chief of the strangers who occupy the 
 country. Of this alliance twelve princes ^ are the 
 issue, whose descendants and the tribes deriving their 
 origin from them, are known by the name of 
 " Mostaraba," i.e. naturalized or instititious Arabs, as 
 
 ' " Call to mind when we gave the site of the house of the 
 Kaaba for an abode unto Abraham, saying, Do not associate 
 anything with me . . . and proclaim unto the people a solemn 
 pilgrimage." — Koran, sura xxii. 27, 28. 
 
 * Black Stone at Mecca. This famous stone, which is a frag- 
 ment of volcanic basalt, sprinkled with coloured crystals, is 
 semicircular, and measures about six inches in height and eight 
 inches in breadth. It is placed in the wall of the Kaaba, at the 
 east outer corner, and about four feet from the ground. It has 
 a border of silver round it. Its colour is reddish- black, and its 
 surface is undulating and polished. Cf. Muir, ii. 35, and au- 
 thorities quoted by Burckhardt, pp. 137, 138; Burton, vol. iii. 
 160-162, and 210 ; W. Irving, 16, 17. 
 
 ^ Genesis xvii. 20.
 
 36 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 distinguished from the progeny of Kahtan, the same 
 "with Joktan, the son of Eber, whom they name 
 Al-Arab-al-Araba, genuine or pure Arabs." ^ Ishmael 
 and the daughter of Modadh, the Jorhamite chief, 
 are the reputed ancestors of Mahomet, the prophet of 
 Mecca. "The ready pen of the traditionists has 
 filled up the space of twenty-five centuries, between 
 Ishmael and Mahomet, with a list of progenitors 
 derived from Jewish sources ; yet Mahomet himself 
 never traced his pedigree higher than Adnan, and 
 declared that all who went further back were guilt}' 
 of fabrication and falsehood" (Muir, i. cxciii.). 
 
 Adnan was the father of Maadd, whose name was 
 associated with the Maaddite tribes, the ancestors 
 of the Coreish, who were in their different families 
 descended from him. The year 130 B.C. is given as 
 the date of Adnan's birth and from him, in the eighth 
 generation, was descended Nadhr, born A.D. 134, 
 the grandfather of Fehr Coreish, who was born 
 A.D. 200. 
 
 Up to this time, under nine generations of kings 
 of their race, the Jorhamites had enjoyed the supre- 
 macy in the Hejaz, and had usurped the privileges 
 of the Kaaba, which, according to the language 
 of the Moslems, belonged of right to the lineal 
 descendants of Ishmael ; when an immigrant tribe — 
 the Azdites — from Yemen appeared, and, notwith- 
 standing the opposition of the ruling race, were able 
 successfully to establish themselves in Batn-Marr, a 
 valley near Mecca. They did not, however, long 
 remain there, but departed towards Syria, and left 
 ' Sale, P. D.. p. 8.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 37 
 
 behind them a " remnant" — the Beni Khozaa, 
 who settled in Mecca. These, with the Coreish, 
 slaughtered or expelled from the country the Jor- 
 hamite families and their last king, Modadh. A 
 struggle now commenced between the rival Maaddite 
 houses for the administration of the Kaaba, and the 
 supremacy at Mecca, but these were wrested from them 
 by their former allies, the Beni Khozaa, and retained by 
 them for upwards of two centuries ; till after a variety 
 of romantic adventures Cussai, the sixth in lineal 
 descent from Fehr Coreish, after spending his youth 
 in the highlands of Syria, returned to Mecca, married 
 Hobba, the daughter of Holeil — the Khozaaite king 
 — and was permitted to assume the immediate 
 management of the Kaaba. 
 
 On the death of Holeil, Cussai set about, with the 
 support of the other Coreish families, to assert and 
 defend the right of his family to the guardianship ot 
 the Kaaba and the government of Mecca. Together 
 with the guardianship of the temple, he possessed 
 himself of the chief religious dignities connected with 
 the sacerdotal office. From the Beni Safa he ob- 
 tained the "Ijaza," or the right of dismissing the 
 assembled Arab tribes from Mina after the ceremonies 
 of the Greater Pilgrimage ; and, after much carnage, 
 wrested from the Beni Khozaa the supremacy over the 
 Hejaz. This took place about 440 A.D. Cussai 
 gathered together, and settled at Mecca many scat- 
 tered families of the Coreish, enlarged the town, built 
 near the Kaaba the " Council House," where political 
 questions were discussed and social ceremonies solem- 
 nized, and whence the yearly caravans set forth ; and
 
 38 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 finally succeeded in establishing himself Sheikh of 
 Mecca and Governor of the country. ^ 
 
 The dignities of which he possessed himself 
 were five in number, — viz. (i) "The Hijaba," 
 which gave him the keys and the control of the 
 Kaaba; (2) "The Sicaya " and the " Rifada," or 
 the prerogatives of providing drink and food for 
 the pilgrims; (3) "The Kiyada," the command of 
 the troops in war ; (4) " The Liwa," the right of 
 affixing the banner to the staff and presenting it 
 to the standard-bearer; (5) "The Dar-ul-Nadwa," 
 the presidency of the Hall of Council. The 
 religious observances customary at the time of 
 Cussai were those prevailing when Mahomet arose, 
 and, the idols excepted, are there practised, with 
 slight modifications, to this day. " The centre ot 
 veneration was the Kaaba, to visit which, to kiss the 
 Black stone, and to make the seven circuits, was at 
 all times regarded as a holy privilege " (Muir, 
 i. ccv.). 
 
 Next was the Lesser Pilgrimage (Hajj al Asghar), 
 which, in addition to the above, included the 
 rite of running quickly to and fro seven times 
 between the hills of Safa and Manva close to 
 
 • Prideaux, " Life of Mahomet," p. 2, gives a different version 
 of the method in which Cussai gained his position : — "Cosa 
 was very famous among the Koreeshites for gaining to his family 
 the keeping of the keys of the Caaba." " The government of 
 Mecca and the presidency of the Caaba having fallen into the 
 hands of Abu Gabshan, a weak and silly man, Cosa circum- 
 vented him while in a drunken humour, and bought of him the 
 keys of the Temple, and with them, the presidency of it, for a 
 bottle of wine."
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 39 
 
 the Kaaba.i This ceremony had especial merit 
 in the holy month Rajab. Lastly, the Greater 
 Pilgrimage (Hajj al Akbar) involving all the above 
 and the additional rite of pilgrimage to Arafat — 
 an eminence of granite rocks, ten or twelve miles 
 east of Mecca. This can be performed only in 
 the holy month " Dzul Hijja." On the 8th the 
 pilgrims start from Mecca, spend the 9th at Arafat, 
 and on the same evening hurry back to a spot 
 called Mosdalifa. Two or three succeeding days are 
 spent at Mina, and the pilgrimage is concluded with 
 the sacrifice of a victim. - 
 
 The country round Mecca to a distance of several 
 miles was called sacred (Haram), and during four 
 months of the year, by general consent, wars and 
 hostilities were laid aside, so that the pilgrims could 
 travel unmolested from distant parts, and, assuming 
 the sacred garb (Ihram), perform the accustomed 
 rites in peace and security. 
 
 It will be gathered from the above how strangely 
 the idolatrous practices at the Kaaba were mixed up 
 with the biblical story of Abraham, Hagar, and Ish- 
 mael, to whom the traditions current among the 
 Arabs long before the era of Mahomet attributed the 
 first founding of the temple and its rites. Doubtless 
 this legend maybe dismissed into the realms of fancy, 
 
 ' This act was supposed to be in memoiy of the distiessed 
 mother Ilagar, anxiously running in search of watei for her 
 son before the waters of Zem Zcm were mii-aculously brought to 
 hght in answer to her cry. 
 
 ^ Muir, I. ccvi. Fide LUe of Burckhardt, "Chambers's Mis- 
 cellany," vol. X. No. 4, where an interesting account of the cere- 
 monies of the yearly pilgrimage is given. — Burton, M. and M., 
 vol. iii.
 
 40 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 as devoid of consistency ; but the question arises how 
 the worship at Mecca came to be what it was at the 
 time of Mahomet's birth. The worship was made up 
 of t^vo totally different elements; viz. pure idolatry 
 and, in addition, rites and observances which, by 
 tradition, were associated with the story of living 
 characters of the Old Testament, and the reality of 
 that association riveted and certified by the names of 
 spots in the neighbourhood which could be seen and 
 visited, and which were intimately connected with the 
 ceremonies which were performed. 
 
 The following is probably the way in which the 
 above came about. It may be assumed that the purely 
 idolatrous practices, the reverence for the well Zem 
 Zem and the Black stone and the circuits of the 
 Kaaba, &c. were of indigenous growth, or were im- 
 ported by the tribes and peoples of Yemen who settled 
 at Mecca. This place owed its importance as a large 
 commercial centre to its position on the western 
 caravan route, midway between Yemen and Petra, 
 and to its plentiful supply of water.^ Here, it is 
 pointed out, a change of carriage eventually took 
 place, the merchandise for the north and south 
 dividing at this point, and occasioning thus a per 
 manent intercourse between it and Syria, Egypt, and 
 the ports of South Arabia. It is easy to imagine 
 that merchants of various nationalities, and from dis- 
 tant parts, would from time to time visit the great 
 entrepot at Mecca, and that the Bedouin? of Central 
 
 ' The well Zem Zem is about seven feet eight inches in dia- 
 meter and fifty-six feet deep to the surface of the water. The 
 water is said to be very abundant and wholesome, though its 
 taste is brackish.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. ' 41 
 
 Arabia, attracted to the spot, would give to the shrine, 
 its well, and its worship, a kind of national or metro- 
 politan character ; and that the superstitious reverence 
 for the place prevalent throughout the peninsula would 
 continue long after its commercial pre-eminence had, 
 with the failure of the caravan trade, ceased. The 
 traditional belief in the Abrahamic origin of the 
 Kaaba which is asserted in the Koran (sura ii. ii8, 
 et seq.) is probably to be accounted for by the early 
 and extensive commingling of the Abrahamic stocks 
 with the other Semitic tribes chiefly settled in Yemen. 
 Branches of the descendants of Ishmael settled, as has 
 been shown, about and to the north of Mecca; and 
 these, with the Nabatheans, a great commercial nation 
 who had been attracted by its good business position, 
 brought with them to their new settlement the Abra- 
 hamic legends, which the Jews who traded there, and 
 who were settled in considerable force in the country, 
 tended to revive and perpetuate. Thus in time the 
 Abrahamic story and the Jewish legends were grafted 
 on to the indigenous idol-worship and became incor- 
 porated with it. Hence it was that the well Zem Zem 
 became the scene of Hagar's relief ; hence the sacrifice 
 in the valley of Mina to typify the vicarious sacrifice 
 offered by Abraham in place of his son Ishmael; 
 hence Abraham and Ishmael were made the founders 
 of their temple, which, under the sanction of the name 
 of the Father of the Faithful and the Friend of God, 
 was, in the belief of the followers of Islam, to be esta- 
 blished as a house of prayer for all nations.^ 
 
 Cussai having thus concentrated in his own 
 
 ' The above account of the origin of the worship of the Kaaba 
 and its ceremonies is adopted from Sir W. Muir, i. cap. iii. sec. iv.
 
 42 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 person the chief temporal and spiritual dignities at 
 Mecca, died, leaving three sons, viz. Abd-al-Dar, 
 Abd-Menaf, and Abd-al-Ozza.i To his eldest son 
 he left all the offices which he held ; but Abd-al- 
 Dar, less energetic than Abd-Menaf, allowed the 
 latter to usurp the real management of public affairs. 
 On the death of Abd-al-Dar, his rights passed to his 
 sons and grandsons ; but the latter were too young 
 to sustain successfully their legal prerogatives against 
 their more powerful rivals, Al-Muttalib, Hashim, Abd- 
 Shams, and Naufal, the sons of Abd-Menaf. Two 
 hostile factions thus arose in Mecca, and bloodshed 
 was avoided only by a compromise, which, securing 
 the other offices to the elder branch of the family, 
 gave the privilege of providing food and water to 
 Hashim, and the leadership in war to his younger 
 brother, Abd-Shams. 
 
 The noble and generous character of Hashim 
 and his riches prompted and enabled him munifi- 
 cently to perform the duties of the sacred offices he 
 had thus obtained. Reservoirs of water were by his 
 care provided for the pilgrims, and food liberally sup- 
 plied them. He is said to have fed the people of 
 Mecca during a famine. Commercial treaties were 
 concluded by him or his brothers with the neigh- 
 bouring powers — with the Roman emperor, the ruler 
 of Abyssinia, the king of Persia, and the princes of 
 Himyar, in Yemen. By Salm, a widow of Medina, 
 of the tribe of Khazraj, he had a soil born in his old 
 age (A.D. 497), who was soon after left an orphan 
 
 ' His two sons, Menaf and Ozza, were called after his gods. 
 From the latter was descended Khadija, daughter of Khuvveilid, 
 and wife of Mahomet.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 43 
 
 by the death of his father at Gaza. The dignified 
 offices which he held were bequeathed to his elder 
 brother, Al Muttalib, who, with loyal affection, suc- 
 ceeded before his death, notwithstanding the efforts 
 and opposition of the rival race of Abd Shams, in 
 reinstating the orphan boy in his paternal estate, 
 which had been appropriated by his uncle Naufal ; 
 and under the name of Abd-al-Muttalib, the son of 
 Hashim became the head of the Coreish in Mecca. 
 
 Succeeding thus to the dignified office of providing 
 food and drink to the pilgrims, Abd-al-Muttalib had to 
 contend against the continual rivalry and opposition 
 of the richer, and probably more powerful, family of 
 Omeya, the son of Abd Shams, who, as we have seen, 
 held the important office of the Leadership in war. 
 But his fortunate rediscovery of the ancient well 
 Zem Zem, which for some centuries had been lost 
 or choked up, in restoring to Mecca its abundant 
 supply of water, strengthened his influence, which 
 was further increased by the possession of a large and 
 powerful family of ten sons and six daughters, so that 
 he continued to his death the virtual chief of Mecca. 
 
 Of his sons, the most important in the subsequent 
 history of their race were Al-Harith, his first-born, 
 Al-Zobier, Abu-Talib, Abu-Lahab, and the youngest, 
 Abdallah, who was born in the year A.D. 545.^ It was 
 during his tenure of ofiice as chief of the Kaaba (A.D. 
 570) that Abraha, the viceroy of Yemen, sought, in 
 the interest of the Christian temple at Sana, to de- 
 
 ' At a later period two other sons were born to him, viz., 
 Abbas and Hamza, both of whom play a conspicuous part in the 
 subsequent history of the estabhshment of Islam. Ilamza was 
 in all probability bom about the same time as Mahomet.
 
 44 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 stroy its formidable rival at Mecca. The failure of 
 this expedition, and the dignified conduct of Abd-al- 
 Muttalib, contributed much to the confirmation of his 
 power. 
 
 But a few months before the invasion of Abraha, 
 "the year of the Elephant" (A.D. 570), Abd-al-Mut- 
 talib had betrothed his son Abdallah to a maiden of 
 the house of Coreish, Amina, the daughter of Wahb, 
 the son of Abd-Menaf, the son of Zohra, a brother of 
 that famous Cussai who, more than a hundred years 
 before, had consolidated the fortunes of their house. 
 Abdallah was the best-beloved son of his father, a child 
 of benediction, who being once in fulfilment of a vow 
 devoted to death, like his storied ancestor Ishmael, on 
 the heights of Arafat, had, at the eleventh hour, been 
 saved from the sacrificial fire and given again to life. 
 For Abd-al-Muttalib had promised, if the Almighty 
 would give him ten sons, that one of them should be 
 devoted ; and it was only after the divining arrows^ 
 had ten times been cast that the slaughter of one 
 hundred camels before the idol god was permitted to 
 redeem the victim and absolve the parent from liis 
 rash vow. 2 
 
 ' Conf. Koran, sura v. 45 and Sale's P, D., sec. v. 
 
 ' Thus Mahometans report their prophet to have said that he 
 was the S07i of two sacrifices, meaning (i) his father Abdallah, 
 and (2) as being descended from Ishmael, which son, and not 
 Isaac, they believe Abraham to have offered. — Conf. Sale's 
 Koran, cap. xxxvii. p. 369 ; Muir, i. cap. 4.
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 BIRTH OF MAHOMET, AND LIFE TO HIS FORTIETH 
 YEAR. — [a.D. 570-610.] 
 
 Brief was the wedded life of Abdallah and Amina. 
 Shortly after the marriage her husband set out with the 
 yearly caravan for Gaza, in South Syria, leaving preg- 
 nant the young wife who was destined to see him no 
 more. It was their first and last parting, for on the 
 return journey Abdallah sickened, and being left with 
 his grand maternal relatives at Medina, died and 
 was buried there. For the support of his widow he 
 left behind him no richer legacy than four camels, 
 a flock of goats, and a slave girl named Baraka. 
 Wonderful stories are told of the marvels which 
 accompanied the gestation and birth of his infant 
 child. The very powers of the air were shaken to 
 herald his advent. All oracles were dumb, the sacred 
 fire of Zoroaster, guarded for centuries by the Magi, 
 was extinguished before the greater light which had 
 dawned. The evil spirits which dwell in malignant 
 stars were abashed, and fled shrieking, and Eblis 
 himself was hurled into the depths of the sea ! Many 
 legendary tales, which resemble those told of our 
 Blessed Saviour in the apocryphal Gospels, are related 
 about, and associated with, the infant son of Amina,
 
 46 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 whose birth, with the nearest approach to accuracy, 
 is fixed for the autumn of the year A.D. 570.' 
 
 Under the rocks of the Abu-Cobeis, which rise 
 eastward of Mecca over the narrow valley, stood 
 the house of Amina, the birthplace of her only son. 
 At the time of the infant's birth, the aged Abd-al- 
 Muttalib was worshipping in the Kaaba ; and, taking 
 the child to the sacred shrine, like Simeon of old, he 
 lifted him up in his arms, and blessed God and gave 
 thanks, saying, that he was to be called "Mohammad," 
 a name in not unfamiliar use before and at the time. ^ 
 But Amina had not long the comfort of her son's 
 presence. It was then customary for the infants of 
 her house to be nurtured among the outlying Bedouin 
 tribes. Moreover, grief is said to have dried up the 
 fountain of her breast, and she was thus, for a 
 double reason, constrained to part with her son, who, 
 amidst the valleys and hills which range southward of 
 Tayif, with his nurse Halima, breathed the pure air 
 of the desert. Here, too, he learned the purer speech 
 of Arabia among the Beni-Saad, to which tribe his 
 foster-mother belonged, and for which he afterwards 
 entertained the greatest affection and gratitude. 
 
 Strange stories, as usual, are made to surround 
 the infant child in his mountain home. The house 
 of Halima is blessed for his sake ; her flocks and 
 herds are, beyond hope, prolific amid the green pas- 
 tures where they lie down, and where the still waters 
 never fail. The child, too, grows and increases in 
 favour with all ; and, more than this, the heavenly 
 
 • Conf. W. Irving, pp. 12, 13 ; Muir, ii. p. 12. 
 
 * Muir, ii. p. 16, and note.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 47 
 
 messengers are sent, and, at God's command, wring 
 from his heart the single black drop of original sin, 
 and, so purified and gifted with the prophetic light, 
 he is thus early selected by the Almighty to be the 
 future channel to inan of the last and best revelation 
 of His will. 1 
 
 At the end of two years the infant was weaned and 
 sent to visit his mother, but the latter, whilst charmed 
 at his healthy looks, and dreading the unwhole- 
 some air of Mecca, sent him back to his mountain 
 home with his nurse, who had so faithfully watched 
 over him. When approaching his fifth year, he 
 appears to have become subject to certain epileptic 
 fits, which alarmed his foster-parents, as such attacks 
 were attributed to the influence of evil spirits, and 
 made them resolve to rid themselves of their charge. 
 So he was again taken to his mother, and the reason 
 of the visit explained to her ; and though persuaded 
 to continue their guardianship for some time longer, 
 they finally restored him to Amina when he had 
 reached his fifth year. 
 
 ' It would be manifestly unfair to make Mahomet or his doc- 
 trine answerable for all the miraculous incidents which have 
 clustered round nearly every event of his life. To the Koran 
 alone can we look for the only correct exposition of his views. 
 Some of the stories which occur in the events of his life are so 
 beautiful, that it is certainly a matter of regret to Ije obliged to 
 pronounce them devoid of historical value. The passage (sura 
 xciv. i), " Have we not opened thy breast and eased thee of thy 
 burden ? " is thought by some to allude to the above story ; but it 
 is more probable that the text itself gave rise to the subsequently- 
 framed interpretation. Conf. Koran (sura xlvii. 21), where Ma- 
 homet is directed to ask pardon for Iiis sins, thus acknowledging 
 himself to be a sinner. ( Vide Sale's note ad loc. ) 
 E
 
 4S ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 In his sixth year (A.D. 575) he paid a visit to 
 Yathrib, better known by its later name of Medina. 
 There he saw the tomb of his father, and found 
 youthful relatives of a companionable age. At Abwa, 
 a spot halfway from Medina to his native place, he 
 had the misfortune to lose his sole remaining parent. 
 Though the sorrows and griefs of childhood are 
 happily brief and evanescent, time appears never to 
 have obliterated the memory of his mother, nor the 
 feeling of desolation which her loss occasioned him. 
 Years subsequently, after his prophetic mission had 
 been preached and accepted, he visited her tomb, 
 and there lifted up his voice and wept, and especially 
 did he mourn that the Almighty would not permit him 
 to pray for the parent he so tenderly loved, inas- 
 much as she had died in unbelief, and ignorant of that 
 saving faith which her son was sent to proclaim. 
 
 The faithful slave Baraka escorted him back to 
 Mecca, and there, in the house of his grandfather, 
 the little orphan found for two years a happy home ; 
 and when Abd-al-Muttalib died (A.D. 578) he con- 
 signed to his son Abu-Talib the charge of the boy. 
 In the family of his uncle he was treated as a son, 
 and faithfully, as we shall see, did the generous Abu- 
 Talib, in adversity, and through evil and good 
 report, fulfil the sacred trust imposed upon him. 
 
 Living thus in the house of his grandfather and 
 uncle from his sixth year, the youthful mind of 
 Mahomet cannot but have imbibed lasting and im- 
 portant impressions, from the domestic and social 
 circumstances by which, at his susceptible age, he 
 was surrounded. Abd-al-Muttalib was the Chief of
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER, 49 
 
 Mecca, and fulfilled, as his father had before him, 
 the most important of the sacerdotal offices con- 
 nected with the national worship. To him for food 
 and help resorted the devout pilgrim from his distant 
 home, and in his hands was the custody of the sacred 
 well Zem Zem. We read, too, that with the other 
 chiefs of his family in Mecca he was wont daily to 
 spend some time beneath the sh idow of the Kaaba, 
 and that the youthful Mahomet was there his constant 
 companion. The grave and dignified manners and 
 words of the old patriarch, daily association with the 
 ceremonies of the holy house, the superstitious awe 
 which surrounded the place, the prostrations, the 
 prayers, and the pious offerings of the faithful, his 
 own near relationship to the priestly families, the 
 order and decorum of the house of his guardians, 
 where the sacred rites were rigidly observed, all these 
 together doubtless strongly and lastingly influenced 
 him, and gave that tendency to his thoughts which 
 manifested itself in the prophetic character he after- 
 wards assumed. ^ 
 
 To the sacred offices held by Abd-al-Muttalib, 
 Zobier, his second son, succeeded (for the eldest, 
 Al-Harith, was dead), and from him they descended 
 to Abu Talib ; but he was poor and unable to meet 
 
 ' Note, ' ' Among the religious observances of the Arabs in 
 their ' days of ignorance ' — that is to say, before the pi-omulga- 
 tion of the Moslem doctrines — fasting and prayer had a foremost 
 place. They had three principal fasts within the year : one of 
 seven, one of nine, and one of thirty days. They prayed three 
 times a day : about sunrise, at noon, and about sunset ; turning 
 their faces in the direction of the Kaaba, which was their Kebla, 
 or point of adoration." — W. Irving, "Life of Mahomet," p. 17. 
 E 2
 
 50 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 the demands which the performance of the hospitable 
 duties involved, and so the privilege of supplying 
 water was made over to Abbas, a younger and richer 
 brother ; whilst the right of giving food to the pil- 
 grims was made over to the descendants of Naufal, a 
 brother of the munificent Hashim. Still, from the 
 nobility of his character, and the gentleness yet firm- 
 ness of his disposition, Abu Talib occupied a com- 
 manding position among the richer chiefs of Mecca 
 as one of the guardians of the Kaaba, though his 
 positive power was less than that of the richer de- 
 scendants of Abd-Shams. The latter was the father 
 of Omeya, from whom the royal race of the Omeyades 
 took their name. Omeya was the father of Harb, and 
 Harb of Abu Sofian, afterwards the obstinate opponent 
 and bitter enemy of Mahomet. 
 
 It was unfortunate for the preservation of the 
 Jrights of private property, and the orderly execution 
 of the law, that the powers of the government had 
 thus become divided among the hostile, or, at any 
 rate, rival branches of the house of Coreish ; for the 
 consequence was that there remained no smgle chief 
 in Mecca strong enough to restrain tyranny and op- 
 pression, and to protect the helpless. The incon- 
 venience of this state of things, which threatened 
 seriously to interfere Avith the commercial prosperity 
 of the city, led in time to the formation of a league 
 among the heads of the chief families, called the 
 " Hilf-al-Fadhul," the object of which was to secure 
 the due and impartial execution of justice. ^ 
 
 The arrival of the early caravan on its w^ay 
 
 ' Muir, ii. lO.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 5 1 
 
 from the south to Syria, with the influx of the ])ilgrinis 
 to the Kaaba, was probably the most interesting event 
 of the year, and was looked forward to with ardent 
 curiosity by the youth of Mecca. The multitude of 
 camels bearing spices, the merchants of Aden and 
 Hadhramaut with their precious freights — the choice 
 products of Yemen and of India— the bustle and 
 tumult of the crowded streets, would excite the imagi- 
 nation with visions of those distant regions whence all 
 the riches came, and arouse a desire to visit them. 
 From this influence the youthful Mahomet did not 
 escape. At his earnest entreaty his guardian, Abu 
 Tahb (who, like most of the chiefs of his house, 
 engaged in mercantile adventure), permitted the 
 youth, then in his twelfth year, to accompany him on 
 the northward journey. On this, and on subsequent 
 trading expeditions, indelible impressions must have 
 been made upon his youthful mind. With the excep- 
 tion of one visit to Medina when six years of age, and 
 his infant days spent in his desert home in the hills 
 of Tayif, he had never been absent from the narrow 
 valley of Mecca. Now the daily march, the nightly 
 halt, new scenes, the camp fires, around which wild 
 tales and legends of spectral beings haunting each 
 hill and vale, and of ancient races swept away in ages 
 past, 1 would naturally imprint themselves deeply on 
 the imagination of the melancholy child. On the way 
 he had to journey between the mountains and the 
 sea, and would pass, not without mournful regret, the 
 tomb of his mother at Abwa ; and then on to Akaba, 
 
 ' Conf. Koran, suia Ixxxix. 6; sura xci. il ; sura vii. 63- 
 73 ; sura liv. 18-31 ; and Sale's P. D., p. 67.
 
 52 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 where, in the dim distance of the western sky, there 
 would arise to his view the sacred heights of Horeb 
 and of Sinai, once the scene of God's message to man 
 through that mighty Prophet, to whom in after-years 
 he ventured to deem himself more than equal. He 
 would visit the rocks of Petra, the glories of which 
 had passed away; and so to the halting-place at 
 Bostra, beyond the accursed valley, where the waters 
 of the Dead Sea were said to hide for ever the devoted 
 cities of the plain. 
 
 During these journeys Mahomet must without 
 doubt have come in contact with numerous Christians, 
 who, as we have before stated, were scattered over 
 the regions he visited ; and it is not improbable that 
 he may frequently have witnessed the ceremonies of 
 their worship. The Christian Church in the East 
 had been for a long time convulsed by theological 
 controversies. Bitter disputes for centuries over the 
 great mysteries of the faith had ended in the produc- 
 tion of a number of sects. There were the Arians, 
 who denied the essential equality of the three Persons 
 of the Godhead ; the Sabellians, who reduced these 
 Persons to three relations ; and the Eutychians, who 
 believed in the fusion of the Godhead and the man- 
 hood of Christ into one nature. There were the 
 Jacobites, adherents of the Monophysite heresy, the 
 Nazaraeans, and the Ebionites, numerous in Arabia, 
 the Marianites, who made the Virgin Mother the 
 third person in the Trinity ; the Collyridians, who 
 made Mary their God, and worshipped her as such ; ^ 
 
 ' Koran, sura v. 115 : "And when God shall say unto Jesus 
 at the last day, O Jesus, Son of Mary, hast thou said unto
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 53 
 
 and " other sects there were, of many denomina- 
 tions, within the borders of Arabia, which took refuge 
 there from the proscription of the imperial edicts " 
 (Sale, p. 35). We learn, too, that the worship of 
 saints and images had there arrived at a very high 
 pitch, and that many other superstitions largely pre- 
 vailed (Sale, P. D., p. 33). 
 
 In Syria, Mahomet would see the Christian re- 
 ligion the ruling national faith, in full vigour, with 
 its scenic ritual, its crosses, pictures, vestments, pro- 
 cessions, and regularly-recurring services ; and these 
 observances he would, doubtless, compare with that 
 gross idolatry, in the practice of which he had grown 
 up to years of manhood. Still, though those who called 
 themselves by the name of the Saviour were nume- 
 rous in Arabia, in Syria, at Bostra, and at Hira, and 
 though he must have had full and ample opportunity 
 of learning the truth of the things which they believed, 
 "nothing is more remarkable than the gross igno- 
 rance of some of the leading features of Christianity, 
 which, notwithstanding all the means of information 
 which, at any rate during his residence at Medina, he 
 possessed, is displayed by Mahomet" (Muir, i. cxci, 
 note). 
 
 In the account of his first journey, in his twelfth 
 year, miraculous signs crowd upon us, and the visible 
 protection of Heaven accompanies the youthful pro- 
 phet. At one time the wings of his guardian angel 
 shield him from the noonday heat ; at another, the 
 
 men, take me and my mother for two gods, beside God ? " From 
 this passage it is evident that this early worship of Mary was 
 known to Ivlahomet.
 
 54 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 withered trees of the desert are clothed in living 
 green, to afford shelter to the chosen of Heaven 
 (W. Irving, p. 20). At Bostra, a city lying eastward of 
 the Jordan, and chiefly inhabited by Nestorian Chris- 
 tians, where the caravan halted, the prophetic light • 
 which shone in his face, and the seal of prophecy 
 between his shoulders, are seen and recognized by a 
 monk of a neighbouring convent. By him the youth 
 is hospitably entertained and instructed in the true 
 faith of the living God ; but especially, and thus early, 
 is there sown in his heart a deep-rooted abhorrence of 
 that idolatry in which he had hitherto been educated. - 
 This Nestorian monk is variously called Bahira, 
 Sergius or Jergis, Felix and Said, and the whole story 
 is so mixed up with fable as to make it, as it stands, 
 quite unworthy of belief. It is quite possible that 
 Mahomet may have imbibed impressions, or received 
 instruction similar to that noted in the text, during 
 one of his commercial visits to the Syrian towns ; and 
 we are further assured that he was on intimate and 
 familiar terms with several persons of the Christian 
 and Jewish faith. It appears a vain and unprofitable 
 task to inquire at what particular time he adopted 
 his iconoclastic views, and was led to assert his 
 especial dogma of the unity of the Godhead. The 
 most superficial acquaintance with the books of the 
 
 ' This is an old myth, and occurs in the stoiy of the lambent 
 flame which played in the hair of Ascanius, and that settled on 
 the cradle of Servius Tullius (Livy, i. 35). 
 
 ^ Prideaux, " Life of Mahomet," p. 7; Muir, i. 36, note; 
 Lamartine, i. p. 91 ; Dr. Sprenger, "Life of Mahomet," p. 79 ; 
 W. Irving, p. 21. Conf. also Sale, Koran, sura xvi. p. 223, 
 where the question is discussed.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER, 55 
 
 Old Testament — such knowledge as he had full and 
 ample opportunity of gaining, would impress on his 
 mind the great salient fact that idolatry and the 
 worship of strange gods was the one especial sin which 
 uniformly provoked the wrath of Heaven, and called 
 down temporal punishment upon that chosen nation, 
 whose especial mission it was to keep alive in the 
 earth the knowledge of Him in whose worship no 
 graven image was to take part. If we can assume his 
 acquaintance with the first two Mosaic command- 
 ments, or if he had learnt the "Shema" (Deut. vi. 4) 
 usually taught to Jewish children, even of the humble 
 classes,^ we have sufficient data to account for the 
 two special doctrines which he sought afterwards to 
 enforce.- 
 
 At the annual fair at Ocatz, which he attended, 
 there is reason to believe that he listened to the fervid 
 eloquence and pure doctrine preached by Coss, the 
 Christian bishop of Najran, and there he may have 
 
 ' Farrar, "Life of Christ," i. 89, note. 
 
 ' On this head Dr. Adler, Chief Rabbi, has kindly favoured 
 me with the following remarks, in answer to an inquiry whether 
 the Decalogue formed part of the daily services of the Jews at 
 that time. He says: "At the time when he (Mahomet) lived, 
 it is probable that tlie recitation of the Decalogue did not form 
 an integral portion of the daily public service ; for we are told 
 that the priests recited it at the Temple service, but that laymen 
 w ere not to include it in their daily devotions, lest they should 
 imagine that these were the only precepts given in the law. 
 (Talmud Berachoth.) Still the Decalogue is included in every 
 prayer-book, and was read as the lesson of th.C day on the Feast, 
 of Pentecost, and on two Sabbaths of the year. Mahomet would 
 have become acquainted with the prohibitions of images from his 
 intercourse with Jc«'s."
 
 56 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 imbibed the germs of that faith round which the 
 tribes of Arabia were one day to rally. The jnutual 
 animosity of Jew towards Christian, though both pro- 
 fessed to worship the true God, though both appealed 
 to the Old Testament, and both equally revered the 
 name of Abraham and professed to abhor that idolatry 
 in \vhich he had been bred, may have led him to 
 think that possibly some divine truth lay hid in both 
 these systems of belief, though covered and concealed 
 by human inventions, and may have suggested to 
 him the possibility of forming out of these conflicting 
 elements one single simple catholic creed, and of 
 thus uniting mankind in the worship and love of the 
 Great Father of all. 
 
 And so the life of Mahomet ran on. At the 
 age of twenty (A.D. 590) he is found engaged in 
 what is called " Fijar," or " the Sacrilegious War," in 
 which "he was present with his uncles and discharged 
 arrows at the enemy." ^ This arose from a feud be- 
 tween the Coreish and the Beni Hawazin, a tribe of 
 kindred origin, and gained its name from having been 
 fought Avithin the sacred territory and during one of 
 the sacred months. At this time, too, he was em- 
 ployed, like Moses and David of old, in tending 
 sheep, and in following the ewes great with young, in 
 the valley beneath the slopes of the Jebel Jyad, south 
 of Mecca. Such an occupation was suited to the con- 
 templative and thoughtful mind of the youth, whose 
 pure manners and unobtrusive demeanour gained him 
 the title of " Al-Amin," or "the Faithful." 
 
 When he had reached his twenty-fifth year, on 
 
 ' Muir, ii. 6.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 57 
 
 the recommendation of Abu Talib, he entered the 
 service of Khadija, a rich widow of Mecca. She was 
 of the house of Coreish, the daughter of KhuweiHd, 
 who was the son of Asad, the son of Abd-al-Ozza, the 
 son of Cussai. With Meisara, her servant, he was 
 placed in charge of the widows' merchandise ; and 
 accompanying the yearly caravan to the north, by 
 judicious barter with the Syrian merchants of Bostra, 
 Aleppo, and Damascus, succeeded in doubling Kha- 
 dija's venture. From Marr-al-Tzahran, the last halt- 
 ing-place on the return journey before Mecca, he 
 was sent forward to announce to his thrifty and ex- 
 pectant mistress the success of their journey. The 
 widow was charmed with the noble features of the 
 ingenuous youth, and her heart was touched with a 
 soft and irresistible feeling. The negotiations and 
 advances which her love and modesty set on foot 
 soon brought about the union she desired. The 
 home of Mahomet and Khadija was a bright and 
 happy one, and their marriage fortunate and fruitful. 
 Two sons and four daughters were its issue. Their 
 eldest son was Casim, who died at the age of two 
 years ; then followed (in what precise order is un- 
 known) four daughters, — Zeinab, Rockeya, Om-Kol- 
 thum, and Fatima ; and lastly a son, generally known 
 by the name of Abdallah, who died in infancy. 
 
 The wealth of Khadija raised Mahomet to a 
 level with the other chiefs of his house, and re- 
 lieved him from the shepherd's crook and from his 
 duties among the camel-drivers of Mecca. The love 
 of Khadija, who had at first been attracted by his 
 noble and pleasing exterior, increased daily at the
 
 $8 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 recognition of the sterling qualities which her partial 
 heartwas ready to discover in the husband of her choice. 
 Though usually reserved and thoughtful, he was known 
 at times to unbend, and to yield to a vein of humour, 
 which occasionally tinged his graver words. He was 
 able to keep his passions under the strongest control, 
 and in his general intercourse amongst his friends, the 
 affectionate though often hidden impulses of his 
 heart knew how to " grapi)Ie with hooks of steel " 
 those whom his commanding aspect at first had 
 awed and attracted. But the chief idiosyncrasy of 
 his character was a quiet patient determination of 
 will and fixedness of purpose, which neither years of 
 opposition nor personal danger nor exile could sub- 
 due, and which "was destined to achieve the marvel- 
 lous work of bowing towards him the hearts of all 
 Arabia as the heart of one man" (Muir, ii. 31). 
 
 In all his troubles, and amid all his mental 
 doubts and conflicts, he had one tender and affec- 
 tionate bosom into which he could pour his griefs, 
 and to which he could, in later years, confide the 
 story of the ecstatic visions which, in the solitary cave 
 or on the arid uplands, haunted his day dreams and 
 his nightly vigils. For the heart of Mahomet did 
 safely trust her, and Khadija yielded to him her 
 faith ; and when the world called him impostor and 
 cheat, she was the first to acknowledge him to be 
 indeed the apostle of God. 
 
 In his thirty-fifth year, the Kaaba having been 
 seriously injured by the action of one of those periodic 
 deluges to which the valley of Mecca is to the present 
 day liable, the chiefs of the Corcish set about the task
 
 ISLAM AM) ITS FOUNDER. 59 
 
 of executing the necessary repairs, for which the 
 timbers of a ship stranded on the coast near Jedda 
 furnished them a welcome though unexpected supply 
 of material. The rivalry and jealousy of the various 
 " heads of houses " in Mecca who exercised any of the 
 sacerdotal offices was so great that an elaborate pre- 
 vious distribution of the work was necessary before 
 the repairs were allowed to be undertaken. At length 
 the four sides of the shrine were divided among 
 four sets of the families interested, and then they 
 began their task. The fiery Walid ^ was the first to 
 commence the work, but as it proceeded, and the 
 walls rose, the question presented itself who was to 
 move to its place the sacred Black Stone. The dis- 
 pute grew hot, swords w'ere drawn, and bloodshed 
 was imminent, when it was settled to refer the solu- 
 tion of the dispute to him who first entered the sacred 
 inclosure by the gate of the Beni-Sheyba ; when lo ! 
 Mahomet was seen approaching, and was the first to 
 reach the appointed spot. The story goes on to tell 
 how he spread his mantle on the ground, placed the 
 stone thereon, and gave to the chief of each party a 
 corner, so that each might equally assist in raising it, 
 but that he himself guided and fixed it in its final 
 resting-place. 
 
 We cannot but suppose that this incident, accom- 
 panied by the circumstances which assigned to him 
 the most honourable task in the rehabilitation of the 
 national shrine, was deeply impressed on his memory ; 
 and that it afterwards served to confirm his own 
 
 ' Walid-Ibn-al-Mughira was descended from Makhzum, a son 
 of Yokdah, uncle of Cussai.
 
 6o ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER, 
 
 belief in the divineness of his mission, and strength- 
 ened his claim on the faith of his adherents. 
 
 Though after his marriage with Khadija he still 
 continued his commercial pursuits, and at times 
 accompanied the yearly caravans north and south, 
 and visited the fairs of Arabia, he yet had ample 
 leisure for that religious meditation to which he 
 was naturally inclined. The general bias of his mind 
 in this direction, fostered by his early training and 
 associations in the house of Abd-al-Muttalib and of 
 Abu Talib, inclined him to speculation in matters of 
 faith ; and this was further stimulated by the view of 
 the gross idolatry which he saw practised at the 
 Kaaba, as contrasted with the more spiritual worship 
 of the Christian and Jew, of which he had been witness 
 on his visits to Syria. With the real doctrines and 
 true teaching of lieither of these religions had he 
 made himself acquainted. He knew not how in the 
 eternal purpose of God the ritual of the Mosaic dis- 
 pensation, its hallowed priesthood, its bleeding sacri- 
 fices, its lamb without spot or blemish, the blood 
 sprinkled on the mercy-seat, were types and shadows 
 of Him who was to come. Of the need of a 
 Redeemer, and of the finished Atonement, he knew 
 nothing ; and he doubtless formed his opinion of the 
 Christian religion and of the Jewish Church chiefly 
 from corrupt Christian sects who paid adoration to 
 the Virgin Mary and to saints and images, and from 
 the Jewish communities he met on his journeys, and 
 whom he considered no less idolatrous. With such 
 erroneous notions, and the sight of the mutual 
 hatred, the divergent worship and recriminations alike
 
 ISLAM AND ITS KOUNDER. 6 1 
 
 of Jew and Gentile, it is scarcely to be marvelled at 
 that the necessity for some reformation occurred to 
 him ; and that his solitary musings aided him in fixing 
 his mind on the task which he set before himself of 
 freeing the observances of religion from all visible 
 objects of idolatrous adoration, and of reducing the 
 faith of the creature to its original purity, the sum 
 and substance of which was to be the worship of the 
 one only God. 
 
 Such were probably some of the thoughts which 
 occupied him ; but other influences there were at 
 work which further directed his mind in this field of 
 speculation. In the house of Khadija, Waraca, her 
 cousin, was a frequent and a welcome visitor. He is 
 said to have been a convert to Christianity, and to 
 have had some knowledge of the Scriptures of both 
 Christian and Jew. From him Mahomet is " thought 
 to have derived much of his information regarding 
 these WTitings, and many of the traditions of the 
 Mishna and Talmud, on which he draws so copiously 
 in the Koran." ^ From Zeid also,^ his adopted son, 
 sprung from Arab tribes in which Christianity had 
 made considerable progress, he would gather some 
 dim impressions of the teachings of the Christian 
 faith ; and Othman,^ too, another cousin of Khadija, 
 who had embraced Christianity at Constantinople, 
 
 * W. Irving, "Life of Mahomet," p. 29. 
 
 ^ For his previous history, see Muir, ii. 47. 
 
 ' Othman Ibn-Huweirith, cousin of Khadija. He was put to 
 death at Constantinople. He is not to be confounded with 
 Othman-Ibn-Affan, afterwards Caliph.
 
 62 ISLAM AND ITS fOUNDER. 
 
 would further instruct him in the chief tenets which 
 he held. 
 
 From the knowledge thus gained by actual in- 
 tercourse with those who had been instructed, how- 
 ever imperfectly, in a better faith : from the general 
 spirit of inquiry which is said to have prevailed at the 
 time ; from what he himself had seen and learnt of 
 the nature of Christian and Jewish worship, and from 
 dim traditions of the purer faith of their ancestor 
 Abraham, he gradually became sensible how much 
 such pure adoration was at variance with the gross 
 and degrading idolatry which prevailed in Arabia. 
 With a brooding anxiety for something that would 
 answer the secret longings of his soul, he began to 
 withdraw himself from the busy scenes of the city to 
 the barren hills, whose desolate solitudes were con- 
 genial to his meditative and melancholy nature. 
 
 We read that often with his faithful wife he 
 repaired to the cave of Hira ' for meditation and 
 prayer, and that his long and anxious vigils and nightly 
 wanderings were followed by ecstasies, and trances, 
 and convulsive fits long continued, which alarmed 
 his wife, but in which " the faithful " see the begin- 
 ning of the working of the Spirit of God, and the 
 throes of a mind burdened with a revelation more 
 than human. His tendency to epileptic attacks, and 
 his long vigils, sufficiently account for these pheno- 
 
 * Mount Hira lies about three miles north of Mecca, and is 
 about a quarter of a league to the left of the road to Arafat, and 
 beyond the Sherifs' summer-house. The cave is about four 
 yards long, and varies in breadth from one to three yards {vide 
 Muir, ii. 55, notes).
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 63 
 
 mena. To the faithful, however, they constituted the 
 ordeal through which he had to pass before he could 
 be made the means of revealing the message of 
 Heaven. 
 
 It is not easy for an adherent of any other religion 
 to form an impartial opinion upon the part played by 
 the founder of Islam. Of those who deny the truth 
 of the claims which Mahomet sets forth, the judg- 
 ments have been, and probably will continue to be, 
 very divergent. Luther looked upon him as " a devil 
 and the firstborn child of Satan." The gentle Me- 
 lanchthon considered " that Mahomet was inspired by 
 Satan, because he does not explain what sin is, and 
 showeth not the reason of human miser}'." Maracci, 
 on the Papal side, was of opinion that Mahometanism 
 and Lutheranism were not very dissimilar, — " witness 
 the iconoclastic tendencies of both." Spanheim and 
 D'Herbelot were liberal in their epithets of "wicked im- 
 postor," "dastardly liar," &c., with reference to him.^ 
 By one earnest and learned writer ^ he is pronounced a 
 wilful and intentional deceiver from first to last, who, 
 for the purpose of raising himself to supreme power, 
 invented the wicked imposture which he palmed with 
 so much success on the world. He is accused, in 
 prosecution of his design, of having abandoned a licen- 
 tious course of life, and of having affected that of an 
 Eremite, in order to gain " a reputation for sanctity 
 before he set up for prophet " ; and with his accom- 
 plices in the cave, of having " made his Al-Koran " 
 whilst pretending that his visits there were for fasting 
 
 ' Quarterly Review, October, 1S69, 
 ^ Prideaux, "Life of Mahomet," pp. Ii, no. 
 F
 
 64 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 and prayer ; and generally that hypocrisy, the lust oi 
 power, and lechery were the sole and leading principles 
 of his conduct. Such indiscriminate abuse is unsup- 
 ported by facts, and cannot be justified by a reference 
 to what is known of his early conduct His life up 
 to the time of his assumption of the prophetic cha- 
 racter is eminently decorous, for " all authorities agree 
 in ascribing to the youth of Mahomet a correctness of 
 deportment and a purity of manners rare among the 
 people of Mecca." ^ 
 
 Happily the time has come when the use of 
 bitter epithets, and the sweeping condemnation of 
 those who agree not with us, are no longer demanded 
 in religious controversies. Critics of the present age 
 are men of greater enlightenment, of truer education, 
 and of a charity that weighs in a juster balance the 
 motive and deeds of those mighty men who for 
 good or for evil have graven their names on the 
 page of history. A recent writer ^ rejoices that 
 justice can now be dealt to Mahomet without fear 
 of misconception or misrepresentation. '' It is no 
 longer thought," he says, " any part of the duty of a 
 Christian writer to see nothing but wickedness and 
 imposture in the author of the great antagonistic 
 creed." 
 
 His domestic conduct was that of a faithful and 
 affectionate husband, whilst his reserved, medita- 
 tive, and sober manners in public secured him the 
 love and praise of his fellow-townsmen. It is im- 
 possible to suppose, if his conduct and character 
 
 ^ Muir, ii. 14. 
 
 * Freeman, "History of the Saracens," p. 38.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 65 
 
 had been licentious and hypocritical, that the repu- 
 tation which he established and maintained would 
 have been as high and faultless as it was. Judging 
 his motives by his acts, and by those parts of the 
 Koran which he first promulgated, our view of Ma- 
 homet will at once differ from those who admit his 
 loftiest claims, and from those who denounce him as 
 the worst and most successful impostor the world has 
 seen. We shall see in him the picture of a soul at 
 first honestly searching for the light amid ecstatic 
 visions of heaven and hell, under conviction of the 
 unity of God, and of His beneficent kindness, and 
 persuaded that the raging fire and the pit were for 
 those whose balances were not heavy with good 
 deeds ; ^ of one believing in the future judgment of 
 the righteous God ; ^ and in the fate of those nations, 
 the children of Ad and the Thamudites, who multi- 
 plied corruptions on the earth, and were swept away 
 for their rejection of the Lord and His apostles.^ 
 Amid such visions and fancies, groping his way to a 
 purer faith, he at length came to believe that the 
 trances and mental paroxysms, which drove him to 
 meditate suicide,* were the true working of the same 
 God who in ages past had inspired other messengers, 
 and now had selected him for the same high ofiice. 
 
 ' Koran, sura ci. 1-8. 
 
 * Sura xcv. 
 
 ^ Sura Ixxxiv. 1-8. Muir thinks that at this period his specu- 
 lations unburdened themselves in wild and impassioned verses, 
 and that these were afterwards embodied and preseiTcd in the 
 Koran. 
 
 * He was about to throw himself from Mount Thubcir, but 
 was arrested by a voice from heaven (Muir, ii. 84). 
 
 F 2
 
 66 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 Such a thought once harboured in his soul, the 
 idea of a " Divine commission " would soon be 
 fully formed, grow strong, and be identified with his 
 desire to give to his native land a purer faith ; and 
 then, almost unconsciously, the demon of spiritual 
 pride and ambition would begin its subtle work, and 
 thus "at this crisis the fate of Mahomet and of 
 Islam trembled in the balance. It was his hour of 
 trial, and he fell " (Muir, ii. 93). 
 
 Assuming that his early longings after a more 
 spiritual faith, and his searchings after God were ear- 
 nest and real, the Christian scholar who contemplates 
 him at this, the turning point of his career, will view 
 with regret the melancholy result of his aspirations. 
 For it is hard to believe that the Spirit of Truth 
 leaves in darkness and error the honest heart which 
 looks to Him for light. If Mahomet's sole purpose 
 had been the search after truth, if his eye had been 
 single, the still small voice would have doubtless sug- 
 gested the way; some Philip, in his desert Gaza, 
 would have pointed him to the true Light ; the teach- 
 ing, which the great Apostle of the Gentiles found in 
 that land of Arabia, would have been his also, and 
 Mahomet might have become a bright herald of the 
 cross to its idolatrous tribes. But the stealthy advances 
 of a worldly ambition blinded his mental vision, blunted 
 his dependence on a higher Power, and by the sug- 
 gestions of the Evil One took captive his soul, and 
 chained it in that delusive, yet strong and unwaver- 
 ing belief, which swayed his future career, and 
 retained a paramount influence over him to the hour 
 of his death, — that he was the ordained of Heaven, the
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 67 
 
 messenger of God. " Thus was Mahomet, by what- 
 ever deceptive process led to the high blasphemy of 
 forging the name of God, a crime repeatedly stigma- 
 tized in the Goran itself as the greatest that man- 
 kind can commit" (Muir, ii. 75). 
 
 That his own belief in his Divine mission was a 
 real, and apparently (however much he was deceived) 
 an honest one, and yet that spiritual pride and ambi- 
 tion was the rock upon which he split, will abundantly 
 appear from a careful consideration of those motives 
 which usually influence men in the prosecution of 
 any great object in life. Riches he sought not, for 
 his marriage had placed him on a level with the 
 wealthy chiefs of Mecca, and gave him more than 
 sufficient to supply his moderate wants. We shall 
 find afterwards, when riches untold might have been 
 his, that he maintained the same simplicity of man- 
 ners which had ever distinguished him. Regal state 
 he coveted not ; for when his name was exalted above 
 the name of all creatures, borne on the prayers of the 
 faithful, and made second only to Allah himself, he 
 still occupied the same humble house, at times per- 
 formed even the menial duties of his household, still 
 exercised himself in acts of humility, and still expressed 
 himself as much as ever in need of the mercy of the 
 All -Compassionate for his entrance into Paradise.^ 
 And, finally, ambition could hardly have been 
 altogether his prevailing motive, for he made no 
 provision to perpetuate in his own family the tem- 
 poral power which was his. At the first promulga- 
 tion of his mission, the believers were a little 
 
 ' Sura xlvii. 21.
 
 68 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 knot of devoted friends, without power, but whose 
 ardent faith and attachment were all in all to him, 
 and provided him a more than sufficient recom- 
 pense for the scorn and obloquy which he had to 
 endure. Thus for many years he persevered, preaching 
 and believing in the truth of his mission, never 
 wavering in his faith, never doubtful of the reality of 
 that revelation which called down upon him ridicule 
 a.nd persecution, which compelled some of his nearest 
 relatives and followers to take refuge beyond the sea, 
 which placed his life in danger, broke up his home, 
 and, as a hunted fugitive drove him at last to take 
 refuge in exile and in flight. Thus, then, in the 
 absence of any more adequate reason, we are led to 
 consider that a substantial belief in the reality of a 
 divine commission to preach, and to re-establish in 
 the world what he considered the original simple 
 faith, sustained and impelled him forward, excited 
 the enthusiasm of his adherents, and was the secret 
 motive which called into being those spiritual claims 
 of which the results have been so memorable. 
 
 And, as time goes on, we shall also find how 
 these impulses, which at first may have aimed at the 
 light, become more and more tinged with the things 
 of earth and the things of sense ; how, by degrees, 
 the forbearance of his early years is abandoned, and 
 is succeeded by acts of vindictive revenge, by rapine 
 and lust ; and how still he makes bold in believing 
 these revelations which, under the name of the 
 Almighty, are invoked to justify his deeds ; and thus, 
 by the very deceitfulness of his heart, he comes to 
 consider his wild and sinful impulse as the will of 
 Heaven, and as indubitable inspiration from on high.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Mahomet's legation and the first establishment 
 
 OF ISLAM. — [a.D, 610-617.] 
 
 With such religious speculations possessing his 
 mind, he approached his fortieth year,^ and was 
 spending the month of Ramadhan in the cave of 
 Hira. It was the night of Al Kadr, " which is better 
 than a thousand months : therein do the angels de- 
 scend, and the spirit of Gabriel also, by the permis- 
 sion of the Lord, with the decrees concerning every 
 matter, and it is peace until the rising of the morn " 
 (Koran, sura xcvii.), — when there appeared to him 
 " one mighty in power, endued with understand- 
 ing; .... he appeared in the highest part of 
 the horizon. After^vards, he approached the pro- 
 phet, and drew near unto him, until he was at the 
 distance of two bows' length from him, or yet nearer ; 
 and he revealed unto his servant that which he 
 revealed" (Koran, sura liii.). It was the angel Ga- 
 briel, who held in his hand a silken cloth covered 
 with writing, and bid Mahomet read ; but he replied, 
 
 ' Conf. Koran, sura x. 17 : — "I have already dwelt among 
 you [the men of Mecca] to the age of forty years. "
 
 70 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 that he could not. Then the angel, repeating part of 
 the ninety-sixth sura, spoke as follows : — " Read in 
 the name of the Lord, who hath created all things. 
 Read, by the most beneficent Lord, who taught the use 
 of the pen ; who teacheth man that which he knoweth 
 not" (Koran, sura xcvi. 1-5). And then the angel 
 left him, and the words were as though they were en- 
 graved on his heart. ^ Such was the first appearance 
 to him of the heavenly messenger, and the first inti- 
 mation of the Divine will. 
 
 And then we are told that there was an interval 
 of doubt and despondency in his mind ; he was per- 
 plexed, and dreaded lest these beginnings of his in- 
 spiration might in reality be promptings of evil spirits 
 and genii ; and, driven to desperation, he contem- 
 plated suicide, but was held back by invisible hands. 
 After a sufiicient " intermission," the voice returned, 
 and the angel, from a throne between heaven and 
 earth, thus addressed him : — " Oh, Mohammed ! thou 
 art the apostle of God, and I am Gabriel." This in- 
 timation strengthened his heart, allayed his fears, and 
 at length, persuaded of his divine appointment, he 
 went to announce the glad tidings to Khadija. 
 
 Overjoyed at the news, she now understands 
 the meaning of the strange visitations which had 
 fallen on her husband, at once accepts the truth of 
 his divine mission, and her faith, we learn, comforted 
 and reassured him. Waraca, too, confirms the agi- 
 tated mind of the prophet, and tells him that the 
 
 ' Koran, sura ii. 91 : "For he hath caused the Koran to 
 descend on thy heart by the permission of God ... a direction 
 and good tidings to the faithful. "
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 71 
 
 angel who had appeared to him was the same as an- 
 nounced to Moses his mission. Zeid, his adopted 
 son, embraces the faith, and to these were added the 
 names of two others, his adopted son AH, and Abu 
 Bekr, both afterwards caHphs, and both reckoned 
 amongst the earHest beUevers. AH was the son of 
 Abu TaHb, and cousin of the prophet, but nearly thirty 
 years his junior. Abu TaHb, however, had fallen on 
 evil days, and when the burden of a numerous family 
 pressed too heavily upon him, his former kindness to 
 Mahomet was gratefully remembered, who, being 
 then in affluent circumstances, took upon himself the 
 charge of Ah, adopted him in place of his own lost 
 Casim, and they afterwards felt towards each other 
 the mutual attachment of parent and child. At the 
 time when Mahomet assumed the prophetic charac- 
 ter, Ali was about fourteen years of age, but with the 
 permission of Abu Talib grew up in the faith of his 
 adopted father. 
 
 Abu Bekr belonged to a collateral branch of the 
 house of Coreish, being descended from Taym, the 
 son of Morrah, the grandfather of the celebrated 
 Cussai. He was about the same age, and the bosom 
 friend of Mahomet ; his charity was unbounded, his 
 character gentle and unimpulsive, his passions always 
 under the control of reason, and his firm and un- 
 wavering mind manifested no hesitation at the pro- 
 phet's call to accept Islam. His proper name was 
 Abdallah, and his firm attachment to Mahomet gained 
 him the name of " Al-Sadiq," or " The True." In 
 history he is celebrated under the name of Abu Bekr, 
 or "the Father of the Virgin," a surname gained from
 
 72 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 the fact that Ayesha, his daughter, was the only virgin 
 bride of the prophet. 
 
 By the influence of Abu Bekr five new con- 
 verts were added to Islam : Saad, a nephew of 
 Amina ; Zobier, a nephew of Khadija ; Talha, after- 
 wards a valiant warrior of the faith ; Othman-ibn- 
 Affan,^ subsequently caliph ; and Abd-al-Rahman, 
 the son of Awf, whose four companions, on their first 
 visit to the prophet, embraced the new doctrines. 
 Others were gradually added to the little band of the 
 faithful. Of these may be mentioned Said-ibn-Zeid, 
 then a boy, and his wife Fatima, sister of Zeid- 
 ibn-Khattab, and of the famous Omar, afterwards 
 caliph. In all, it may be assumed that in the first 
 three or four years a small group of thirty or forty 
 converts were the fruits of the secret preaching and 
 private solicitation of the prophet. ^ 
 
 It was towards the end of this period that the 
 prophet received, as he supposed, the divine com- 
 mand to preach openly the doctrines he had hitherto 
 secretly promulgated. It was either on Mount Hira, 
 or when, after being " reviled by certain of the Co- 
 reish, he was sitting pensive and wrapped in his 
 mantle," ^ that the same angelic messenger came, and 
 thus addressed him : — " O thou covered, arise and 
 preach, and magnify the Lord, and clean thy gar- 
 ments, and fly every abomination ; and be not liberal 
 in hopes to receive more in. return, and patiently wait 
 
 ' Othman was descended from Omeya, a son of Abd-Shams, 
 and by his mother was a grandson of Abd-al-Muttalib. 
 ^ Muir, " Life of Mahomet," ii. in, 112. 
 ' Sale's " Koran," p. 471, note.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 73 
 
 for thy Lord. . . . Let me alone with him ^ whom I 
 have created, on whom I have bestowed abundant 
 riches, ... he is an adversary to our signs ; I will 
 afflict him with grievous calamities. May he be 
 cursed ; . . . and again may he be cursed 3 ... he 
 was elated with pride ; and he said this is no other 
 than a piece of magic, ... I will cast him to be 
 bound in hell " (Koran, sura Ixxiv.). 
 
 Such then was the commission to preach openly, 
 and as such it affords a view of the opposition which 
 he had already met with, and of the form of that 
 opposition. They taunted him with being a magician. 
 We may also notice how, in his bitter and vindictive 
 feelings, the authority of Heaven is sought to curse 
 those who " frowned on him and put on an austere 
 countenance, and turned their backs." ^ For, though 
 
 ' The person alluded to is supposed to be Walid-ibn-al- 
 Magheira, a chief man among the Coreish — the same who had 
 begun the restoration of the Kaaba. Mahomet treats his uncle 
 Abu-Lahab with similar curses for the bitter hostility with which 
 he sought to oppose the establishment of the new religion. 
 Thus, " Let the hands of Abu-Lahab perish (or let him be 
 damned), and he shall perish. His riches shall not profit him 
 ... he shall go down to be burned into flaming fire ; and his 
 wife also bearing wood, having on her neck a cord of twisted 
 fibres of a palm-tree" (Koran, sura cxi.). Abu-Lahab's wife, 
 Om-Jemil, a sister of Abu-Sofian, had offended Mahomet by 
 strewing thorns in his path, and thus comes in for her reward. 
 Conf. Sale's "Koran," sura cxi. notes ad loc. ; Muir, ii. 80; 
 Kasimirski, p. 538, note; D'Herbelot, art. " Abou-Lahab," 
 who relates the traditional realization of Mahomet's curse. 
 
 * As a further specimen of this, the following may be men- 
 tioned. It is a quotation from the Koran, and is supposed to 
 be levelled against Walid-ibn-al-Magheira : " Obey not any 
 who is a common swearer, a despicable fellow, a defamer,
 
 74 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 hitherto Mahomet had contented himself with making 
 known his doctrines privately among his relatives and 
 friends, and those whom their conversion allured to 
 the new faith, the progress of his work had been suffi- 
 cient to excite the hatred and alarm of the Coreish 
 —the priestly caste — from whose ranks converts had 
 been made, and to arouse the opposition of all those 
 who directly or indirectly were interested in the 
 conservation of the rites of the Kaaba, and the 
 continuance of Mecca as a place of pilgrimage for 
 the whole of Arabia. 
 
 We may be well assured that the chiefs of the 
 Coreish were deeply interested in the retention of that 
 idolatry which made Mecca at once a centre of reli- 
 gious resort and a flourishing and important com- 
 mercial emporium. To attack its idols was to 
 attack Mecca ; for any diminution of the supersti- 
 tious veneration in which it was held, would be fol- 
 lowed by a loss of those pecuniary advantages which 
 they derived from their sacerdotal functions, or their 
 trade ; and so it is found that while calling upon him 
 for some heaven-sent proofs of the truth of the claims he 
 
 going about to slander . . . cruel . . . and besides this, of spu- 
 rious birth . . . we will stigmatize him on the nose" (Sura 
 Ixviii. 11-16). Tradition says that the prophetical menace was 
 made good at the battle of Bedr, where Walid had his nose 
 sli*: ! To reprove " common swearing," and condemn "slander " 
 and " cruelty," is legitimate enough ; but to reproach any man 
 with his " spurious birth " betrays a degree of personal rancour 
 altogether unworthy of the prophetic character to which he pre- 
 tended. Yet the above are words put into the mouth of the 
 Almighty ! 
 
 ' They demanded some miracle, such as turning the little hill 
 Safa into gold, &c. ; but he refused, declared his inability, and
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 75 
 
 made, the partisans of the old faith subjected both Ma- 
 homet and his followers to scorn and ridicule, to insult 
 and persecution. For, in order to accomplish their ends 
 and arouse opposition, it was necessary only to raise 
 the cry of impiety and disbelief in the national idols. 
 In the earlier part of his career, the outrages of the 
 excited populace were not confined to menaces alone, 
 and on a certain occasion one of the assailants was 
 wounded by Saad, who thus had the honour of shed- 
 ding the first blood in the cause of Islam. 
 
 At the termination of the fifth year of his mis- 
 sion, Mahomet took up his abode in " the House 
 of Arcam," which lay facing the Kaaba to the east ; 
 and there he received those who resorted to him for 
 instruction in the principles of his belief, and for read- 
 ing those portions of the Koran then revealed. From 
 the important conversions there made it was after- 
 wards styled " the House of Islam." Among the 
 disciples here gained was a Christian slave named 
 Jabr, from whom his enemies said he gained in- 
 formation regarding the Scriptures ; and Suheib, a 
 native of Mosul, in Mesopotamia, who had been made 
 a captive, and sold a slave to Constantinople, and 
 there educated and brought up. He came next to 
 Mecca, where he gained his freedom and embraced 
 Islam. He is supposed, on fair grounds, to be the 
 person accused by his enemies as having furnished 
 Mahomet with his Scriptural knowledge, and as 
 thus alluded to : " Say, the holy spirit hath brought 
 the Koran down from the Lord with truth, that 
 
 said that the power of working miracles belonged to God alone. 
 Conf. sura vi. 109-111.
 
 76 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 he may confirm those who beUeve. We, also, know 
 that they say, Verily a certain man teacheth him 
 to compose the Koran ; the tongue of the person 
 unto whom they incline is a foreign tongue," &c. ' 
 This person was deeply attached to Mahomet and 
 his doctrine, and on his " flight," abandoning all his 
 wealth, followed him to Medina, 
 
 And so believers were added till they reached 
 about fifty ; among whom are numbered many who 
 were in menial or servile positions at Mecca. The 
 incarcerations and tortures, chiefly by thirst in the burn- 
 ing rays of the sun, to which these humble converts were 
 subjected, to induce their recantation and adoration of 
 the national idols, touched the heart of Mahomet, and 
 by divine authority he permitted them, under certain 
 circumstances, to deny their faith, so long as their 
 hearts were steadfast in it. Thus : " Whoever denieth 
 God, after he hath believed, except him who shall 
 be compelled against his will, whose heart con- 
 tinueth steadfast in the faith, shall be chastised" 
 (Koran, sura xvi. loS).^ It should be related that 
 the history of Islam can afford examples of those who 
 have refused to avail themselves of the permission 
 here given, a permission which must be confessed to 
 be subversive of all morality.^ 
 
 Among the chief opponents of Mahomet and 
 his doctrines were, as mentioned above, Walid and 
 Abu Lahab, his uncle; to these may be added Abu 
 
 ' Koran, sura xvi. 104, 105. 
 * Conf. Sale, chap. xvi. p. 224. 
 
 ^ Conf. also 2 Kings v. 18, where the heathen Na^man asks 
 forgiveness for "bowing in the house of Rimmon."
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 77 
 
 Sofian, the son of Harb, the grandson of Omeya, and 
 great-grandson of Abd Shams. He was a man of 
 great wealth, and one of the most influential men in 
 Mecca. Abu Jahl,^ a Coreishite, descended from 
 Yokdha, uncle of Cussai was also a bitter and abu- 
 sive opponent of the new doctrines. One day, having 
 covered Mahomet, whom he met on the hill of Safa, 
 with a shower of opprobrious epithets, and perhaps 
 even blows — all which were patiently borne — the 
 matter was reported to Hamza, Mahomet's uncle, a 
 mighty hunter, who, with his bow and arrows, was 
 just returning from the chase. Indignant, he pur- 
 sued Abu Jahl, found him sitting in the Kaaba, in- 
 flicted immediate chastisement, and at once adopting 
 
 ' Abu Jahl. The real name of this man, an implacable ad- 
 versary of Mahomet, was Amm ibn Hestam, but was subse- 
 quently surnamed Abu Jahl, or the "Father of Folly." In the 
 Koran he is thought to be alluded to thus : — "There is a man 
 who disputeth concerning God, without either knowledge or a 
 direction — proudly turning his side — on the resurrection we will 
 make him taste the torment of burning " (Koran, sura xxii. 8, 
 9). His injustice to an orphan is also supposed to be alluded 
 to in Sura cvii. 2, though the passage is also applied to Abu 
 Sofian and to Walid ibn al Magheira. He advised the Meccans 
 to put Mahomet to death. Thus : " Call to mind how the un- 
 believers plotted against thee, to put thee to death or expel thee 
 the city, but God laid a plot against them ; and God is the best 
 layer of plots " (Koran, sura viii. 2,0 ei set/.). He was a boastful, 
 debauched man, and perished at the battle of Bedr. It is re- 
 lated of him that, being a near neighbour of Mahomet, he used 
 to fling unclean and offensive things at the prophet and upon 
 the hearth as he cooked his food. His example, it is added, 
 was followed by some of the neighbours ; but beyond such 
 treatment and invective, Mahomet had to suffer hardly any injury 
 of a personal nature.
 
 78 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 the doctrines and faith of his nephew, was his faithful 
 and vigorous supporter till his death at the battle of 
 Ohod. 
 
 Up to the fifth year of his ministry (A.D. 615) 
 Mahomet was probably free from the apprehension of 
 personal danger, and in this he fared better than 
 those converts of servile position, who were, as we 
 have seen, exposed to chains and imprisonment, and 
 whose scars and wounds showed the sufferings they 
 had been called on to endure. His steady and 
 constant protector was the amiable and venerable 
 Abu Talib, who, though poor, yet, as the head ot the 
 house of Hashim, had both the power and inclination 
 to shield from his hostile kinsmen the nephew who 
 had been intrusted to his care, and yet whose faith he 
 had not adopted. 
 
 It will perhaps be well at this stage to glance 
 at the internal relations of Mahomet's family. As 
 above related, his son Casim died at the age of two 
 years. His eldest daughter, Zeinab, had been given 
 in marriage to a Coreishite of the house of Abd- 
 Shams, Abul-Aas by name, who was also a nephew, by 
 his mother, of Khadija. On Mahomet's flight to 
 Medina, she remained behind at INIecca with her 
 husband, to whom she was much attached. The 
 latter resisted the solicitations of his relatives to re- 
 pudiate his wife. At the battle of Bedr, in which he 
 fought against Mahomet, for he was not then a be- 
 liever, he was taken prisoner and liberated on condi- 
 tion of sending Zeinab to her father. She died in 
 the ninth year of the Hejira of the injuries she had 
 received at the hands of the Coreish on her escape
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 79 
 
 from Mecca ; but before her death her husband had 
 become a convert, and Hved for a short time in hap- 
 piness with her at Medina. 
 
 Rockeya and 0mm Colthum, his second and 
 third daughters, were married to Otba and Oteiba, 
 sons of Abu Lahab. On the assumption of the pro- 
 phetic office, the latter, as we have seen, became one 
 of Mahomet's bitterest opponents, and influenced his 
 sons to repudiate their wives. Rockeya was then 
 given to Othman-ibn-Afifan. She was, as we shall 
 see, with her husband, one of the emigrants to Abys- 
 sinia, and died ten or twelve years after her second 
 marriage at Medina. Omm Colthum, repudiated as 
 above mentioned, was, on the death of Rockeya, 
 also united to Othman-ibn-Affan. She died before 
 Zeinab. Fatima, between whom and Ali an attach- 
 ment had gradually sprung up, was left behind at 
 Mecca on Mahomet's flight, but joined him after- 
 wards at Medina, and was married to her betrothed. 
 ^Vithin two years she gave birth successively to two 
 sons, Hasan and Hosein, who were born in the years 
 A.D. 625 and 626. 
 
 To avoid the indignities and persecution to which 
 many of his followers were exposed, Mahomet ad- 
 vised them to seek protection in a foreign land. 
 The suggestion was adopted, and in the fifth year of 
 his mission, eleven men, four of them with their 
 wives, embarked at Shueiba, a port near Jiddah, 
 and found a welcome asylum at the court of Abys- 
 sinia. Three months afterwards the fugitives returned, 
 having received a report of the conversion of the 
 Coreish to the new doctrines. This proving', without 
 
 G
 
 8o ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 foundation, a second emigration took place about the 
 year A.D. 6i6. Small bodies of converts from time 
 to time joined themselves to the little band in 
 Abyssinia, till their number amounted to about one 
 hundred. Some returned afterwards to Mecca, and 
 the rest joined Mahomet at Medina, in the seventh 
 year of the Hejira. 
 
 The report which had reached the fugitives con- 
 cerning the conversion of the Coreish arose from 
 the following circumstance. It is said that at the 
 time of their first departure a season of deep de- 
 pression fell upon Mahomet. For years he had 
 suffered the scorn and malice of his opponents ; 
 he had preached and prayed, and yet but fifty 
 converts had been the fruits of his five years' mis- 
 sion. Barren as had been the results of the past, 
 in the future he had before him a dark, cheerless 
 prospect of continued opposition, of contumely, and 
 perhaps of eventual failure. His heart and soul were 
 wearied with waiting, and he longed, if it were pos- 
 sible, for a reconciliation. One day, whilst sitting by 
 the Kaaba, he uttered, in the hearing of his oppo- 
 nents, words of compromise regarding their gods 
 Al-Lat and Al-Ozza and Manah that " their interces- 
 sion might be hoped for with God." These words were 
 listened to with surprise by the idolaters who were 
 present, and a reconciliation seemed possible ; but 
 within a few days the concession he had made was 
 by the prophet attributed to a suggestion of the Evil 
 One, was uncompromisingly withdrawn, and the idol- 
 worship condemned and reprobated, thus : — " What 
 think ye of Al-Lat, and Al-Ozza, and Manah that
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 8 1 
 
 Other third goddess ? . . . . they are no other than 
 empty names, which ye and your fathers have named 
 goddesses" (Sura liii. 19 — 23). 
 
 And, again : — " What think ye ? Show me what 
 part of the earth the idols which ye invoke, besides 
 God, have created ? Bring me a book of Scripture 
 revealed before this, or some footstep of ancient 
 knowledge, to countenance your idolatrous practices ; 
 if ye be men of veracity" (sura xlvi. 14, 15), where 
 he asserts that no system of Scriptural belief ever 
 countenanced idol-worship. 
 
 The trumpet of the prophet having given thus no 
 uncertain sound, his ships were burnt on the strand, 
 and the door of any compromise with the idolaters shut 
 for ever. That he had strangely vacillated he long 
 remembered, and felt often afterwards a deep con- 
 sciousness of the danger he had run. In one of 
 the later Meccan suras he thus writes : — " It wanted 
 little, but the unbelievers had tempted thee to 
 swerve from the instructions which we had revealed 
 unto thee, that thou shouldst devise concerning us a 
 different thing ; and then would they have taken thee 
 for their friend ; and unless we had confirmed thee, 
 thou hadst certainly been very near inclining unto 
 them a little" (Koran, sura xviii. 75, 76).^ 
 
 Doubtless this circumstance did him and his 
 cause harm, gave his enemies a handle to reproach 
 him \vith want of consistency, to call him a " Fabri- 
 cator" and a "Forger,"^ and induced them to assume 
 an attitude of more decided hostility to him than 
 before. Finding that Mahomet was not to be alarmed, 
 
 ' On this see Sale's note ad loc. 
 ^ Suras xlvi. 6, 7 ; xvi. 103. 
 G 2
 
 82 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 or brought to change his proceedings, they made an 
 attempt to alienate from him the powerful and steady 
 protection of his uncle, Abu Talib ; and for this pur- 
 pose sent to'him a deputation of the most powerful and 
 violent opponents of Islam. They represented to 
 Abu Talib, who was still an adherent of the old super 
 stition, that his nephew had spoken opprobriously 
 of their idols, " saying that they be no gods which are 
 made with hands," and had condemned their reli- 
 gion ; moreover, that he had abused them as fools, 
 and also given out that their forefathers had all gone 
 astray;^ and they requested that Mahomet might be 
 left to them to be dealt with. 
 
 Abu Talib, with courteous and gentle words, 
 refused to accede to their request, but representing 
 matters firmly to his nephew, besought him that he 
 would not lay on him a burden greater than he could 
 bear. Mahomet was moved to tears by what he 
 thought might end in his being abandoned by his 
 guardian and protector, yet protested that neither the 
 sun, nor the moon, nor death itself, could force him 
 from his undertaking without the permission of God. 
 Won by his courage and determination, Abu Talib 
 bid him depart in peace, with the assurance that he 
 would not abandon him for ever.^ 
 
 The circumstances of the conversion of Hamza, 
 called, from his heroism, the " Lion of God," 
 have been related above. It was about this time 
 (A.D. 6x6) that there was added to the faith a man 
 who plays a distinguished part in the history of 
 Islam — Omar-ibn-Al-Khattab — afterwards the second 
 
 ' Muir, ii. 162. 
 
 » Id.ii. 168; W. Irving, p. 45.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 83 
 
 Caliph, whose gigantic stature, prodigious strength, 
 and valiant courage rendered him a fit companion to 
 Hamza. He was at the time twenty-six years of 
 age, was a Coreishite, descended from Ada — a brother 
 of Morrah, and notorious for his enmity to the new 
 faith. Aroused by the castigation which his near 
 relative Abu Jahl had received at the hands of 
 Hamza, he set out to seek revenge ; but on the way it 
 was hinted to him that his own sister — Fatima — had 
 not escaped the taint of conversion. To her house, 
 therefore, he went, and at the door overheard her 
 and her husband reading the Koran. ^ Springing in, 
 he wounded his sister in the face, but was induced to 
 listen to the words they had been reading, on learning 
 that the prophet had been praying for him, and for 
 his conversion to the faith of those whom he had 
 hitherto treated with such violence. The part of the 
 Koran was as follows : — " We have not sent down. 
 the Koran unto thee that thou shouldst be unhappy ; 
 but for an admonition unto him who feareth God ; 
 being sent down from Him who created the earth 
 and the lofty heavens. The Merciful sitteth on his 
 throne ; unto Him belongeth whatsoever is in heaven 
 and on earth, and whatsoever is between them, and 
 v/hatsoever is under the earth. If thou pronounce 
 thy prayer with a loud voice, know that it is not 
 necessary in respect to God ; for He knoweth that 
 which is secret, and what is yet more hidden. God ! 
 there is no God but He ; He hath most excellent 
 names" (Sura xx. 1-7). 
 
 ' This fact proves that copies of the Suras were in use for 
 private reading and devotion.
 
 84 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 The words sank deep into his heart, and, iu 
 true keeping with his impulsive nature, he without 
 hesitation went to the " house of Arcam," obtained 
 admission, made the confession of faith, and was 
 added to the number of beUevers. The adhesion of 
 such men greatly strengthened Mahomet's position ; 
 "no one dared to approach or molest the Prophet, 
 being deterred by the looks of those terrible men of 
 battle Hamza and Omar, who, it is said, glared upon 
 their enemies like two lions that had been robbed of 
 their young." ^ We also read that " the Moslems no 
 longer concealed their worship within their own 
 dwellings, but with conscious strength and defiant 
 attitude assembled in companies about the Kaaba, 
 performed their rites of prayer, and compassed the 
 holy house," while " dread and uneasiness seized the 
 Coreish." 2 
 
 Now that the followers of IMahomet had no longer 
 need secretly to profess and practise their reHgion, 
 converts of social power and influence were from 
 time to time added to their number. But the hostile 
 chiefs of the Coreish were not idle, and soon entered 
 into a solemn confederacy to place a social and civil 
 ban upon the new sect The terms of this league 
 were that they would neither intermarry with the 
 proscribed, nor sell to or buy from them anything, 
 and that they would entirely cease from all inter- 
 course with them. Heavily, indeed, did this ostra- 
 cism weigh upon those who fell under it. To avoid 
 personal violence, they withdrew (A.D. 617) to 
 
 ' W. Irving, p. 49. ^ Muir, ii. 172.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 85 
 
 what is called the Sheb or quarter of Abu Talib, 
 a secluded part of Mecca, lying under the rocks of 
 the Abu Cobeis. A low gateway cut them off from 
 the outer world, and within they had to suffer all 
 the privations of a beleaguered garrison. No one 
 could venture forth except in the sacred months, 
 when all hostile feelings and acts had to be laid 
 aside. Supplies at other times were with difficulty 
 obtained, could be purchased, indeed, only from the 
 foreign traders, and at exorbitant prices. "The citizens 
 could hear the voices of the half-famished children 
 inside the Sheb " ; ^ and this state of endurance 
 on the one side, and persecution on the other, 
 went on for some three years. Mahomet, in the 
 intervals of the holy months, went forth and mingled 
 with the pilgrims to Mecca, and at the annual 
 fairs sought to propagate among them the especial 
 doctrines of his sect, the abhorrence of idolatry, 
 and the worship of the one true God. But few 
 heeded him : they taunted him with the disbelief 
 of his own kindred and townsfolk, and so, disheart- 
 ened, but not dismayed, he returned to those devoted 
 few, by whose faith he was comforted, and among whom 
 he sought strength from God. Shut up thus with his 
 disciples, whose hearts and affections he had won, 
 and whose belief was confirmed by his own patient 
 endurance and faith, we may now consider what was 
 the nature of those doctrines, and of that teaching 
 which could so firmly knit to himself the devotion of 
 his loyal followers. 
 
 ' Muir, ii. 175.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 EARLY TEACHING AT MECCA. — [a.D. 6 10-6 1 7.] 
 
 The Koran, or inspired book of the Moslems, con- 
 sists of one hundred and fourteen chapters or Suras, 
 which vary much in length, some containing only a few 
 lines, whilst the longest (the second) has as many as 
 two hundred and eighty-six verses. It is made up of 
 those revelations which Mahomet professed from time 
 to time to have received direct from God, which he 
 repeated to those about him, and of which, according 
 to strict Mahometan doctrine, every word is of divine 
 command. It is also by the Moslems considered the 
 fountain head of all science, of all knowledge, and of 
 all law. When made known, the different chapters, or 
 parts of chapters — for it was seldom that an entire 
 one was revealed at once — were by his followers com- 
 mitted to memory, or written down on palm-leaves, 
 white stones, pieces of leather, shoulder-blades of the 
 sheep and camel ; and these in later years were put 
 into a chest in the prophet's house, and subse- 
 quently came into the keeping of Haphsa, one of his 
 wives. Copies of the suras, as they appeared, were, it 
 seems, made for the private devotions of his followers. 
 •No complete copy of the several revelations which 
 make up the present Koran appears to have existed
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 87 
 
 during the lifetime of Mahomet ; but during the 
 caliphate of Abu Bekr, his successor, and at the sug- 
 gestion of Omar, a copy was written out by the 
 prophet's secretary, Zeid-ibn-Thabit. 
 
 This was doubtless found an easy task, for having 
 been in daily religious use, the different chapters 
 were indelibly impressed on the accurate and re- 
 tentive memory of the faithful. Indeed, a know- 
 ledge of the Koran in those early days, in addition to 
 its being fraught with spiritual blessings, was consi- 
 dered the highest title to nobility : and certain of the 
 prophet's contemporaries, as is the case at the present 
 day, were able to repeat the whole book by heart. 
 The copy made by Zeid was retained by Omar 
 during his caliphate, and by him made over to his 
 successor Othman. During his reign it was disco- 
 vered that differences of reading had gradually crept 
 into many of the copies made from Zeid's edition. 
 These were all called in by the Caliph, a careful 
 recension made, copies sent to the chief cities of the 
 empire, and the incorrect manuscripts destroyed. Un- 
 fortunately the sequence of the chapters in the Koran, 
 though asserted to be that prescribed by the prophet, 
 does not follow the chronological order in which they 
 were given, and is devoid of any intelligible arrange- 
 ment, the revelations promulgated at Mecca before 
 the Hejira, and afterwards at Medina, being thrown 
 together apparently in the most careless and perplex- 
 ing manner.^ Yet there are ample and sufilicient 
 
 ' In Rodwell's "Translation of theKoran," the chronological 
 order in which they are thought to have been revealed is pre- 
 served.
 
 88 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 grounds for believing that the existing Koran consists 
 of the genuine words, and is the original composition 
 of the prophet, as learned or transcribed under his 
 own instruction (Muir, i. c. sec. i). 
 
 The whole of the Koran, therefore, as most pro- 
 bably the original delivered by the lips of Maho- 
 met, forms a clear index to his own feelings, and 
 ought to give an insight into the varying influence 
 of external circumstances, were it found possible to 
 arrange approximately the different chapters in the 
 order and at the particular times when they were pub- 
 lished. As it is, the chronological sequence of the 
 different suras is to be gathered alone from the sub- 
 ject matter, and from clear references to passing 
 events which may be discovered in them. Those 
 which are considered the earliest are also the shortest, 
 and are distinguished by their " wild and rhapsodical 
 language, the counterpart of his internal struggles 
 after the truth." ^ For it would seem that the reli- 
 gious emotions of Mahomet, and his early specula- 
 tions unburdened themselves in strains of impas- 
 sioned poetry; and of these fugitive pieces many 
 which his followers had committed to memory after- 
 wards found their way into the Koran. ^ 
 
 Eighteen of the chapters are assigned to that 
 period of his career when, though he believed him- 
 self moved by a higher power to warn and admonish, 
 
 • Muir, ii. 58. 
 
 ^ For an account of the exegesis of the Koran, according to 
 their modem divines, the reader should consult "Notes onMu- 
 hammadanism," by the Rev. T. P. Hughes (N. Quran), p. 11, 
 ei seq.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 89 
 
 he had not received that direct commission to 
 "preach openly," of which mention has aheady been 
 made. 
 
 Of the eighteen ^ suras of this early period, the fol- 
 lowing extracts are specimens : — 
 
 Chapter ciii., entitled "The Afternoon." "In the 
 name of the most merciful God.^ By the afternoon ; 
 verily, man employeth himself in that which will 
 prove of loss : except those who believe, and do that 
 which is right, and who mutually recommend the 
 truth, and mutually recommend perseverance unto 
 each other " (conf. Psalm xxxix. 6). 
 
 Chapter c, entitled " The War-horses which run 
 swiftly." This chapter is cast in a highly poetic 
 strain; it invokes the war-horses which run swiftly 
 and pant to the battle, whose hoofs strike fire and 
 surprise the enemy in the early dawn, to bear witness 
 that " man is ungrateful to his Lord " ; but that the 
 hidden thoughts of men's hearts will be brought to 
 light, and that when the graves give up their dead, 
 God will be fully informed concerning them {conf. 
 Eccles. xii. 13, 14). 
 
 Chapter i., entitled "The Preface or Introduc- 
 tion." " Praise be to God, the Lord of all crea- 
 tures ; the most merciful, the King of the day of 
 Judgment. Thee do we worship, and of Thee do we 
 beg assistance. Direct us in the right way, in the 
 
 ' The eighteen suras are numbered in the Koran as under : — 
 103, 100, 99, 91, 106, I, loi, 92, 102, 104, 82, 92, 105, 89, 90 
 93, 94, io8. (Muir, ii. Appendix.) 
 
 ' All the suras except the 9th — the last revealed — begin with 
 this invocation.
 
 90 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 way of those to whom Thou hast been gracious ; not 
 of those against whom Thou art incensed, ^ nor of 
 those who go astray." This chapter, which is here 
 given in full, bears the title of " Al Fatihat," or the 
 beginning; and is also called "The Seven Verses," 
 "The Mother of the Book," and is held in great 
 veneration by the Mahometans, and regularly repeated 
 in their public and private devotions. It is a prayer 
 for the guidance of God, and is directed to be re- 
 peated frequently (conf. Sura xv. 87). 
 
 Chapter xcix., entitled " The Earthquake," teaches 
 the doctrine that God at the last day will reward men 
 according to the deeds they have done ; and this is in- 
 sisted on in various other parts of the Koran. Thus : 
 " Verily, if any do a good action God will recom- 
 pense it in His sight with a great reward " (conf. 
 Sura iv.). Again, "Verily, whoso doeth evil, and is 
 compassed with his iniquities, they shall be com- 
 panions of hell fire" (Sura ii. 75). Yet, it must be 
 observed, that Mahomet has also declared that no 
 person's good works will be sufficient to gain him 
 admittance to Paradise, and that he himself would 
 be saved, not by his merits, but by the mercy of 
 God. 
 
 Chapter ci., entitled "The Striking." This is 
 a powerful and vivid picture of the last day, and 
 is so called because it will strike the hearts of 
 all creatures with terror. " In that day we shall 
 
 ' Supposed to allude to the Jews and Christians. As a rule, 
 Mahomet speaks of the Christians much more tenderly than of 
 the Jews ; and we shall find that this feeling veiy much regu- 
 lated his conduct towards the two.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 9 1 
 
 be like moths scattered abroad, and the mountains 
 shall become like carded wool of various colours 
 driven by the wind. Moreover, he whose balance 
 shall be heavy with good works shall lead a pleasing 
 life ; but as to him whose balance shall be light, his 
 dwelling shall be in the pit of hell. It is a burning 
 fire." 
 
 Chapter xcv. speaks of the original purity, the irmo- 
 cence, and the fall of man, and the vile condition of 
 all, "Except those who believe and work righteousness, 
 for they shall receive an endless reward. What, 
 therefore, shall cause thee to deny the day of 
 judgment after this ? Is not God the most wise 
 Judged' 
 
 Chapter cii. reproves those emulously desirous of 
 multiplying riches and children till they visit the 
 grave. Tells them that hereafter their folly will be 
 made manifest in hell (Sura xii. 13-21). 
 
 Chapter civ. " Woe to every slanderer and back- 
 biter who heapeth up riches, and thinketh they can 
 render him immortal. He shall be cast into ' Al 
 Hotama,' the fire of hell kindled by God." 
 
 Chapter Ixxxii., entitled " The Cleaving in sunder,"^ 
 refers to the last judgment. "When the heaven shall 
 be cloven asunder ; and when the stars shall be scat- 
 tered;- and when the seas shall be suffered to join their 
 waters ; and when the graves ^ shall be turned upside 
 down ; every soul shall know what it hath committed, 
 and what it hath omitted. O man ! what hath seduced 
 thee against thy gracious Lord, who hath created thee, 
 
 ' 2 Peter iii. 10. '^ St. Matt. xxiv. 29. 
 
 ' St. John V. 28, 29; Eccles. xii. 13. 14.
 
 92 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER, 
 
 and put thee together, and rightly disposed thee ? In 
 what form He pleased hath He fashioned thee.^ Assur- 
 edly. But ye deny the last judgment as a falsehood. 
 Verily, there are appointed over you guardian angels, 
 honourable in the sight of God, writing down your 
 actions,^ who know that which you do. The just 
 shall surely be in a place of delight ; but the wicked 
 shall surely be in hell ; they shall be cast therein to 
 be burned on the day of judgment, and they shall not 
 be absent therefrom for ever.^ What shall cause 
 thee to understand what the day of judgment is ? It 
 is a day .on which one soul shall not be able to ob- 
 tain an)1:hing on behalf of another soul ; and the 
 command on that day shall be God's." The reader 
 will notice, from the references in the note below, how 
 Scriptural much of the above is. The statement in 
 the concluding paragraph, that " one soul shall not be 
 able to obtain anything on behalf of another soul," 
 is consistently sustained throughout the Koran, and 
 amounts to a direct denial of the Redemption. 
 
 Chapter cv. is a short song of victory, on the 
 defeat of Abraha, who, in the year of IMahomet's 
 birth, advanced towards Mecca to destroy the Kaaba. 
 It is entitled " The Elephant," from the animal upon 
 which Abraha rode; and is quoted here at length, 
 as perhaps the earliest specimen of the way in which 
 fabulous traditional stories are introduced into the 
 Koran, with the supposed authority of inspiration : — 
 
 ' Ps. cxix. 73, and cxxxix. i6 ; Romans ix. 20. 
 ^ Gen. xlviii. 16; Ps. xci. 11, 12, and Ivi. 8; St. Matt. x\'iii. 
 10 ; Phil. iv. 3 ; Rev. iii. 5 ; xiii. 8 ; xx. 12, 13. 
 ' Rev. xiv. II.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 93 
 
 " Hast thou not seen how thy Lord dealt with the 
 masters of the elephant? Did He not make their 
 treacherous design an occasion of drawing them into 
 error; and send against them flocks of birds, which cast 
 down upon them stones of baked clay ; and rendered 
 them like the leaves of corn eaten by cattle ?" The 
 commentators say that flocks of birds, like swallows, 
 pursued the retreating host, and destroyed it in the 
 manner related above. They also assert that on each 
 stone was written the name of its intended victim ! 
 The Koran, itself, gives a similar account of the way 
 in which the inhabitants of Sodom were destroyed 
 (Sura XV. 74) : — " We turned those cities upside 
 down, and we rained upon them stones of baked 
 clay, one following another, and being marked." 
 
 Chapter xc, entitled "The Territory," tells that 
 there are two highways — the path of good and the 
 path of evil. The former is likened to a cliff, of 
 which the ascent is difficult; for "it is to free the 
 captive, or to feed in the day of famine the orphan 
 who is of kin, or the poor man who lieth on the 
 ground." They who do this " shall be the com- 
 panions of the right hand," "but they who shall 
 disbelieve in our signs shall be the companions 
 of the left hand, and over them shall be arched 
 fire." 
 
 In Chapter xciii., he comforts his heart with 
 a remembrance of the goodness and mercy which 
 have followed him. "By the brightness of the 
 morning, and by the night when it groweth dark, thy 
 Lord hath not forsaken thee, neither doth He hate 
 thee. Verily, the life to come shall be better for
 
 94 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 thee than this present life ; and thy Lord shall give 
 thee a reward with which thou shalt be well pleased. 
 Did He not find thee an orphan, and hath He not 
 taken care of thee ? And did He not find thee 
 wandering in error, and hath He not guided thee 
 into the truth?" 
 
 Such, then, is a somewhat detailed view of those 
 "revelations" which he asserted to have come to 
 him before he received the direct announcement of 
 the angel Gabriel, that he was the chosen prophet 
 of the Lord, and was directed to preach openly ; and 
 it will be admitted that, as far as they go, there is 
 nothing in their morality to which we, as Christians, 
 need take exception. In them we find him seeking 
 direction from that gracious Lord, the God of all 
 creatures, who knows the secrets of all hearts, and 
 who, when the graves are opened, will bring to light 
 every secret thing written in the book of His remem- 
 brance. 
 
 We meet with the statement that men will be 
 judged according to the deeds done in the body at 
 the last day, when the mountains shall be carried 
 into the midst of the sea, and the earth shall be 
 removed; and that the wicked shall go into ever- 
 lasting punishment, but the righteous into everlasting 
 happiness. We meet with the assertion of the original 
 purity, and also of the fall of man, and that the most 
 wise Judge will condemn all, except those who believe 
 and work righteousness. Further, we have repeated 
 warnings of the folly of those who trust in their riches 
 to profit them, and to secure immortality. Against 
 the slanderer and backbiter wrath and woe are
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 95 
 
 denounced ; the existence of two paths — of good and 
 of evil — is pointed out ; and the duty is insisted on 
 of ministering to the captive, the orphan, and the 
 dying, and also of shunning idolatry, and of giving 
 alms. And, lastly, we have an acknowledgment of a 
 righteous judgment to come; of God's power and 
 overruling Providence, and a grateful mention of the 
 goodness of the i\lmighty, who found him an orphan, 
 and led him all his life long ; who met him wandering 
 in error, and guided him to the truth. 
 
 But not only do we find much to commend in 
 these earlier suras, we also notice the absence of 
 those personal feelings of revenge, which he after- 
 wards allowed to burst forth in scathing invective, and 
 for which he claims the high authority of Heaven. 
 Up to this time, indeed, the time of his commission 
 to preach openly, opposition had not grown fierce — 
 the vital interests of personal profit and loss, family 
 rights and phylarchical prerogatives were not yet at 
 stake ; even the gods of Mecca seemed hardly in 
 danger, and had not begun to totter on their thrones. 
 But now the change creeps in, the strife grows hot ; 
 disciples must be attracted to the new faith, and, 
 once attracted, they must be retained. Now, there- 
 fore, the grosser elements of earth begin to mingle 
 with the more spiritual utterances of an earlier 
 time. Elaborate descriptions of the torments of 
 hell, reserved for the wicked, the unjust, the covetous, 
 and those who " charge the Koran with falsehood," 
 deal terror to the unbeliever ; while sensuous, 
 pictures of the delights and rewards reserved 
 for the " faithful," in his material heaven., promise 
 
 H
 
 96 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 fresh and unsatiating pleasures to those who be- 
 lieve. 
 
 The chapters revealed between his command to 
 preach publicly and the time of the first Hejira, to 
 Abyssinia, a period of two years, are reckoned at 
 about twenty. ^ They are generally much longer than 
 those we have been considering, and too long for 
 entire quotation, or even for separate examination. 
 T shall, therefore, seek to group them together, and 
 to give such extracts from them as my space will 
 allow, and as may best convey a general idea of their 
 subject-matter. 
 
 In the chapters, then, of this second 'period, the 
 doctrine of Predestination, or Fate, is inculcated 
 (Sura Ixxiv. 3, 4). " Thus doth God cause to err whom 
 He pleaseth, and He directeth whom He pleaseth " ; 
 .and again, in the same chapter (v. 54, 55), "Whoso 
 is willing to be warned, him shall the Koran warn ; 
 but they shall not be warned unless God shall please." 
 This doctrine appears also in Sura xcii. 4, where it 
 is stated that on the night of Al Kadr " Gabriel 
 descends with the Lord's decrees concerning every 
 matter " regarding which the Mahometans believe 
 that on that night the events of the ensuing year are 
 fixed by God. This doctrine is further insisted upon 
 in the chapters of a later date, and generally leavens 
 their whole teaching. Thus (Sura xvii. 14), "The 
 fate of every man have we bound round his neck " ; 
 and again (Sura iii. 139), " No soul can die unless 
 
 1 A.D. 613-615. These suras are numbered thus : — 96, 112, 
 74, 87, 97, 88, 80, 81, 84, 86, no, 85, 63, 78, 77, 76, 75, 70, 
 109, 107, 55, 56.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 97 
 
 by the permission of God, according to what is 
 written in the book of the Determination of Things. "^ 
 
 Thus the Mahometans accept the doctrine of 
 God's absolute predestinating decree, both for good 
 and evil, for man's obedience and disobedience, for 
 his future happiness and misery, and also that these 
 eternal and immutable decrees cannot by any wisdom 
 or foresight be avoided. Carried to its extreme, this 
 doctrine saps the foundation of free-will, renders men 
 blind to the teaching of the past, apathetic in the 
 present, and indifferent to the future. It makes 
 prayer an empty form, destroying as it does all 
 dependence upon an overruling Providence, and, 
 pitiless as the grave, takes away alike the power of 
 avoiding sin, and of escaping its punishment ; making 
 even the power and mercy of the Almighty subject 
 to the fiat of an inexorable Fate. 
 
 But it should be remarked that Mahomet was far 
 from carrying this doctrine to that extreme length 
 which it has reached in the opinions and practice of 
 the great mass of his followers. He seems to have 
 been deeply imbued with a belief in the power of an 
 overruling Providence, and in the duty and efficacy 
 of prayer, which, indeed, he says "preserves man 
 from crimes, and from that which is blamable " 
 (Sura xxix. 44). Take also the following passage : — 
 " Follow the most excellent instructions which have 
 
 ' "This revelation was obtained to still the murmurs and 
 grief of those who lost relatives at the disastrous battle of Ohod 
 (A.D. 625), where Mahomet was defeated. He assured them 
 that, had those who fell in battle remained at home, they could 
 not have avoided their fate, whereas they now had the advan- 
 tage of dying martyrs for the faith." — Sale. 
 H 2
 
 98 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 been sent down unto you from your Lord, before the 
 punishment come suddenly upon you . . . and a man 
 shall say, Alas ! for that I have been negligent in my 
 duty to God ; verily I have been one of the scorners : 
 or say, if God had directed me, verily I had been one 
 of the pious : or say ... if I could return once more 
 into the world, I would become one of the righteous. 
 But God shall answer, My signs came unto thee 
 heretofore . . . and thou becamest one of the unbe- 
 lievers." Here is clearly " free-will " preached. On 
 such a mysterious subject, any teaching is naturally 
 ambiguous, "and the doctrine has given rise to as much 
 controversy among the Moslems as among Christians."^ 
 In the chapters of this period is seen the first 
 hint of that doctrine which he probably began to find 
 both necessary and convenient • viz. that God had it 
 in His power to annul or abrogate any revelation of 
 the Koran once given, or to supply its place with a 
 different one. " This doctrine offered an irresistible 
 temptation to suit the substance of the Koran to the 
 varying necessities of the hour." ^ Thus (Sura Ixxxvii. 
 6, 7)) " ^Ve will enable thee to rehearse our revela- 
 tions, and thou shalt not forget any part thereof, 
 except what God shall please ; for He knoweth what 
 is manifest and what is hidden." At a later period 
 this power is more strongly insisted on (Sura ii. 100) •. 
 "Whatever verse we shall abrogate, or cause thee to 
 forget, we shall bring a better than it, or one like unto 
 it. Dost thou not know that God is Almighty ? " 
 
 ' Lane, "Modem Egyptians," vol. i. p. 9. 
 - Muir, vol. ii. p. 157. See also "Notes on Muhammadan- 
 ism," Hughes, p. 24, regarding these "abrogated passages."
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 99 
 
 It might be suggested here to a thoughtful j\Ia- 
 hometan that this was a severe test to which the 
 prophet's beUef in his own inspiration was put, im- 
 plying, as it did, that the revelations of an earlier date 
 might prove defective, and even erroneous. Indeed, 
 he seems to have felt this for his disciples, for we find 
 that soon afterwards particular injunction is laid upon 
 them not to Avaver in their loyalty to the " excellent 
 Koran, the original whereof is written in the preserved 
 book ... a revelation from the Lord of all crea- 
 tures." ^ 
 
 Hence some of the Mahometans deny that the 
 Koran was the composition of their prophet, and 
 assert that it is eternal, and uncreated, and of the 
 essence of God Himself ^ Others refuse to detract 
 from the honour of God by making anything co-equal 
 with or not created by Him ; though they, too, are 
 unanimous in their belief that Mahomet was merely 
 the medium for conveying God's will to men, and 
 that his words, therefore, are the words of the 
 Almighty, who speaks in every sentence. 
 
 The Unitarian doctrine is asserted in the 112th 
 Sura, which is as follows (title, " The Declara- 
 tion of God's Unity ") : — " In the name of the most 
 merciful God. Say, God is one God, the eternal 
 God : He begetteth not, neither is He begotten : and 
 there is not any one like unto Him." This chapter 
 
 ' See also Sura Ixxxv. 21, 22. 
 
 * Conf. D'llerbelot, art. "Alcoran," for details of the dispute 
 on this subject. Motavakkel, the loth caliph of the Abbassides 
 (A.II. 231), published an edict allowing the faithful to believe 
 what they liked in the matter.
 
 lOO ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 is held in particular veneration by the Mahometans, 
 and is declared by a tradition of their prophet to 
 be equal in value to a third part of the whole 
 Koran. 1 
 
 The doctrine of the Unity of the Godhead, 
 in contradistinction to the Christian belief in the 
 Trinity in Unity, is continually insisted upon in the 
 Koran, and may be said to be the characteristic 
 tenet, the foundation-stone of the faith of Islam. 
 This dogma, to which is added that of the belief in 
 the mission of Mahomet, is ever in the mouth of the 
 devout Moslem, the formula being, " There is no God 
 BUT God, and Mahomet is the Prophet of God," 
 
 In later chapters the doctrine of the Unity of 
 God is repeatedly insisted upon in refutation of 
 the doctrine held, or supposed to be held, by the 
 followers of other religions. Thus (Sura xxiii. 95) 
 " God hath not begotten issue, neither is there any 
 other God with Him." And again (Sura ii. no), 
 " They [the Jews and the Christians] say God hath 
 begotten children : God forbid " ! Again (Sura xvi. 
 59), " They [the idolaters] attribute daughters to 
 God : far be it from Him." And again (Sura xxxvii. 
 146), " Do they [the people of Mecca] not say of 
 their owti false invention, God hath begotten issue : 
 a-nd are they not really liars ? " 
 
 At this period we find him clearly renouncing 
 the idolatry of the Kaaba. It is said that certain of 
 the Coreish having proposed to him either to asso- 
 ciate the worship of his God with that of their gods, 
 or to worship them alternately for a year, he at once 
 ' Sale.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. lOI 
 
 rejected the compromise, and his refusal is contained 
 in Sura cix., entitled " The Unbelievers." " In the 
 name of the most merciful God." — " Say, O unbe- 
 lievers, I will not worship that which ye worship ; nor 
 will ye worship that which I worship." 
 
 It is not to be supposed by this that Mahomet 
 disapproved of the veneration given to the "holy 
 places," which were hallowed in the traditions of their 
 fathers, though disfigured by the later introduction of 
 idolatry. It was against the latter only that he waged 
 uncompromising war. It will be found hereafter that 
 he upheld the ancient rites of the Kaaba, and estab- 
 lished it as the Kibla, or Point of Adoration, towards 
 which the Faithful were to turn. 
 
 At first, neither he nor his adherents appear to 
 have followed in this respect any particular use, it 
 being declared to be perfectly indifferent. Thus : 
 " To God belongeth the east and the west ; therefore 
 whithersoever ye turn yourselves to pray, there is the 
 face of God, for God is omnipresent and omniscient." 
 
 But aftenvards, when the prophet fled to Me- 
 dina, and, possibly with the hope of alluring the Jews 
 of that place to his worship, he established " Jerusa- 
 lem " as the place towards which they were to pray,^ 
 
 This continued for some time, but failed in ac- 
 complishing the object Mahomet had in view. After- 
 wards, 3 to satisfy his own ardent wish, and the desire 
 of his Arab followers, who were deeply attached to the 
 national shrine, he made Mecca the Kibla towards 
 
 ' Sura ii. 109. 
 
 ■' Conf. I Kings viii. 29, 44, 48 ; Ps. v. 7 ; Dan. vi. lO. 
 
 ^ About sixteen months after his arrival at Medina, A.D. 623.
 
 102 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 which, in whatever part of the world they might be 
 their prayers were to be directed. Thus,' "Turn 
 therefore thy face towards the holy temple of Mecca, 
 and wherever ye be, turn your faces towards that 
 place." And later,^ he received a further revelation 
 on this head, asserting the antiquity of Mecca as a 
 place of worship, and its being a Kibla for all nations. 
 Thus : ^ " Verily, the first house appointed unto men 
 to worship in was that which is in Becca;* blessed, 
 and a direction to all creatures." 
 
 To this period also belong those outbursts of vitu- 
 peration against those who opposed him, of which 
 mention has already been made. How widely the 
 spirit thus shown by Mahomet differs from that of our 
 blessed Lord under like provocation, " who, when He 
 was reviled, reviled not again " ; and who, with love 
 strong unto death, thus prayed for His murderers : — 
 " Father, forgive them, for they know not what they 
 do." 
 
 And yet these chapters contain an interesting 
 proof of Mahomet's candour and magnanimity. The 
 8oth Sura is entitled " He frowned," and in it he ad- 
 ministers a rebuke to himself for having paid more 
 respect and attention to some of the powerful Coreish, 
 with whom he was in conversation, than to a poor 
 blind man who came to him and asked to be taught 
 about God. Thus:^ "The Prophet frowned and 
 turned aside, because the blind man came to him. . . . 
 The man who is wealthy thou receivest respectfully ; 
 . . , but him who cometh unto thee earnestly seeking 
 
 ' Sura ii. 139. " A.D. 624. ^ Sura iii. 90. 
 
 * Ancient name of Mecca. * Sura Ixxx. i-ii.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 103 
 
 salvation, and who feareth God, dost thou neglect. By 
 no means shouldest thou act thus." 
 
 In the 70th chapter, God bids him "bear the in- 
 sults" of the Meccans with becoming patience, " for 
 they see their punishment afar off, but we see it nigh 
 at hand." 
 
 Various other subjects are treated of at this 
 time. The persecutions of the Christians of Najran, 
 whom he calls " true believers," by Dzu Nowas, is 
 reprobated : ^ the power and goodness of God are ex- 
 tolled " in causing corn to spring forth, and giving 
 grapes, and clover, and the olive, and the palm, and 
 gardens planted with thick trees, and fruits, and grass 
 for the use of yourselves and your cattle." ^ Wrath is 
 denounced against "those who give short measure or 
 weight, and defraud " ; ^ and destruction and woe to 
 those " who accused the Prophet of imposture." ■* 
 The certainty of the resurrection is asserted, and we 
 are told that on that day the wicked "will seek a place 
 of refuge, and shall find none " ; ^ and that he " shall 
 wish in vain to redeem himself from punishment, by 
 giving up his children, and his wife, and his brother."^ 
 We are further told that " in that inevitable day " all 
 men shall be separated into three classes, " the com- 
 panions of the right hand, and the companions of the 
 left hand ; and those who have preceded others in the 
 faith shall precede them in paradise." 
 
 In the 70th chapter is found the first official per- 
 mission given to cohabitation, or concubinage with 
 female slaves obtained by purchase, or made captive in 
 
 ' Sura Ixxiv. '■' .Sura Ixxv. ■* Sura Ixx. 
 
 * Sura Ixxvii. * Sura Ixxv, * Sura Ixx.
 
 I04 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 war (called " those whom your right hands possess "), 
 in addition to their lawful wives. ^ The above permis- 
 sion " was one of the earliest compromises by which 
 Mahomet fitted his system to the usages and wants of 
 those about him ; and was, in after days, largely taken 
 advantage of, both for his own indulgence, and as 
 holding out an inducement for his followers to fight 
 in the hope of capturing females who would then be 
 lawful concubines." ^ 
 
 To this period finally belong those gross pictures 
 of heaven and hell, which, if accepted in their 
 literal sense, are sufficient in themselves to disprove 
 the claim made by their author to Divine inspiration. 
 Doubtless, their material delights would prove irre- 
 sistibly fascinating to the Arabs living in such a 
 climate in such a scorched and desert land. The 
 prospect of exchanging their toils amid the burning 
 sands and naked rocks of Arabia for " long rest and 
 dreamful ease " upon soft beds, in cool shaded gar- 
 dens, beside murmuring waters, and tended by the 
 beautiful black-eyed girls of Paradise, must have been 
 ineffably attractive. 
 
 Hell is described in terms of a kindred colouring. 
 Thus,^ the wicked " shall be cast into scorching 
 fir,e to be broiled : they shall be given to drink of a 
 boiling fountain : they shall have no food, but of drv 
 thorns and thistles." Again : " The companions of 
 the left hand shall dwell amidst burning winds and 
 scalding water, under the shade of a black smoke."^ 
 
 ' Sura Ixv. 2S-31 ; iv. 28. ^ Muir, ii. 140, note. 
 
 ^ Sura Ixxxviii. 1-6. ^ Conf. Sura xxxvii. 62-66.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. IO5 
 
 The joys of Heaven are thus depicted.' The 
 just " shall drink of a cup of wine mixed with the 
 water of Cafur,"^ and shall be rewarded "with a 
 garden and silk garments : therein shall they repose 
 themselves on couches — fruits shall hang low " near 
 them, " so as to be easily gathered." And they shall 
 have besides " two other gardens " — "of a dark green" 
 — " in each of them shall be two fountains of water " 
 — " fruits and palm-trees, and agreeable and beauteous 
 damsels " — " having fine black eyes ; and kept in 
 pavilions from public view."^ 
 
 The sensuous delights of Mahomet's paradise are 
 by some of his apologists accepted as allegorical 
 pictures of more spiritual pleasures, and are not, they 
 say, intended to be understood according to their 
 literal sense. 
 
 True indeed it is, that in Holy Scripture God shows 
 His condescension in the form which He allows 
 Divine truth to take, using, as He does, human lan- 
 guage, and imagery drawn from material objects, suited 
 to the finite comprehension of His children. Thus 
 veiled, we are enabled to gaze upon the light of 
 heaven, and though softened and tempered to our 
 weakness, it is still the unchanged Word of God. 
 Thus the ecstatic vision in Patmos tells us of the 
 pearly gates and golden streets of the New Jerusalem, 
 of " the water of life," and the tree whose " leaves are 
 
 ' Sura Ixxvi. ^ Camphor. 
 
 ^ Sura Iv. The Mahometans assert that there are seven hea- 
 vens, or stages of celestial bliss in Paradise, and seven divisions 
 of hell for the reception, respectively, of guilty Mahometans, 
 Christians, Jews, Sabeans, Magi, Idolaters, and for Hypocrites.
 
 I06 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 for the healing of the nations " : moreover, we read 
 how, at the Last Supper, our blessed Lord spake of 
 that " fruit of the vine " of which He would drink 
 hereafter in the kingdom of His Father. But these 
 humanized ideas of happiness contain no element ot 
 grossness or possible impurity, and are evidently to 
 be interpreted by the light of those other passages, 
 which point to the absence of all sin and grief, and 
 the immediate presence of a holy God, as the highest 
 bliss of the Christian heaven. 
 
 The Koran, indeed, teaches that there are 
 differing degrees of happiness in heaven, and the 
 reward of the most favoured seems associated with 
 the beatific vision.^ We read that there, among the 
 believers, " there shall be no vain discourse," and 
 "no incitement to wickedness,"^ expressions which 
 would imply a state of at least passive goodness. 
 Yet how can we suppose that grosser joys and feelings 
 are excluded, when we read that in Paradise the true 
 believers, " lying on couches," " shall look down upo-n 
 the infidels [in hell] and shall laugh them to scorn."^ 
 Such feelings surely could not find place in the hearts 
 of beings who were freed from the dross and corruption 
 of earth. 
 
 The truth seems to be, that Mahomet was 
 unable to form any estimate of celestial happiness 
 apart from the sensual indulgences, to which the 
 story of his life shows him to have been so keenly 
 addicted ; and however much some of his followers 
 may try to explain away his sensuous descriptions, 
 
 ' Sura Ixxxiii. 28. ^ Sura lii. 2. 
 
 ^ Sura Ixxxiii. 34, 35.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. I07 
 
 " the general and orthodox doctrine is, that the whole 
 is to be strictly believed in the obvious and literal 
 acceptation." ' 
 
 Another learned author, writing of the heaven 
 of Mahomet, says : " It must be admitted that 
 spiritual pleasures and the favour of God are also 
 said to form part of its delights, and that the per- 
 manence of man's personality is implied. But a 
 holy God is still immeasurably removed from His 
 creatures, and intimate union with Him, or even ad- 
 mission to His presence, is not the central idea of 
 beatitude.'"- 
 
 From a careful perusal of the suras of this second 
 period, it may safely be said that there is nothing 
 in them which an Arab, acquainted with the general 
 outline of the Jewish history and legend, and of 
 the traditions of his own country, and possessed of 
 some poetic fire and fancy, might not have written, 
 and that the hypothesis of a divine origin is in no 
 way required to account for them. 
 
 The details of the history and doings of certain 
 beings who are called Genii, repeatedly referred 
 to in the Koran, may here be cited as a speci- 
 men of the curious working of Mahomet's mind. 
 It is to be borne in mind that the statements re- 
 garding them are supposed to be made by Divine 
 authority, and even to be the very words of God 
 Himself. 
 
 These allusions to the Genii show that the belief 
 in the existence of these spectral beings was one of 
 
 ' Sale, p. D., p. 102. 
 
 ^ Monier Williams, "Indian Wisdom,'' Intr., p. xx\ix.
 
 108 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER 
 
 a popular character in Arabia at the time of Mahomet, 
 and that he probably drank in with his earliest ex- 
 perience the weird stories that associated Genii with 
 the deserts and mountains of his native land. 
 
 Poetic fancy, indeed, in other climes has wan- 
 dered in the same path and peopled the world with 
 troops of impalpable beings • has given the dryad 
 to the woods, the oread to the mountain heights ; has 
 conjured up fay and kelpie, satyr and fawn, and all 
 the elfin crew; and, with superstitious dread of the 
 unseen, has shaped the forms of wicked sprite, ma- 
 licious demon, and hideous ghoul, to haunt the cities 
 of the dead, and ^vreak on the living their hatred and 
 revenge.^ 
 
 When such fancies occur in fairy story they find 
 their use ; but when they are put forth as facts in- 
 vested with Divine authority, the absurdity becomes 
 apparent to intelligent minds. 
 
 This, then, is what the Koran says of these beings. 
 They are represented as having been created by 
 God of " subtle fire,"^ for no other purpose than to 
 serve Him.^ They were believed by the old Arabians 
 to haunt desert places, and to " protect those who fled 
 to them for refuge," and, like the idolaters around 
 them, to believe that there was no resurrection.* 
 These words are put into the mouth of the Genii : — 
 "And we formerly attempted to pry into what was 
 
 ' For an exhaustive account of these beings [Jinn, &c.], vide 
 Lane, "Arabian Nights," notes to the Introduction, vol. i. 
 No. 21. ^ Sura XV. 27. 
 
 ' Sura li. 5, 6 ^ Sura Ixxii. 6, 7.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. IO9 
 
 transacting in heaven, but we found the same filled 
 with a strong guard of angels, and with flaming darts ; 
 and we sat on some of the seats thereof to hear the 
 discourse of its inhabitants; but whoever listeneth 
 now, findeth a flame laid in ambush for him, to guard 
 the celestial confines." — "And when we could not 
 frustrate God, and had heard the Koran, we 
 believed therein." — " Some of us are Moslems " — 
 "and whoso embraceth Islam, they earnestly seek 
 true direction." ^ 
 
 We are told that certain of the Genii, when the 
 prophet was resting in the valley of Nakhla, during 
 his escape from Tayif, overheard him reading the 
 Koran, and believed; and they are represented as 
 preaching to their fellows, and urging upon them " a 
 belief in Mahomet, to escape a painful punishment. "^ 
 The Koran is said to have been sent to save both 
 men and Genii. 
 
 The shooting stars are, by the Moslems, believed 
 to be heaven's artillery, used for the dispersion of the 
 genii and devils, who listen to catch by stealth scraps 
 of the celestial secrets, for the purpose of giving them, 
 like the Promethean fire, to mortals.^ 
 
 The Genii are stated to have been forced to 
 work in Solomon's presence, " and they made him 
 whatever he pleased " — " of palaces, and statues, and 
 large dishes like fish-ponds " : * and, finally, his army 
 is said to have consisted of " genii, and men and 
 birds." 5 
 
 We now enter upon the consideration of the third 
 
 ' Sura Ixxii. 6-14. ° Sura xha. 30. 
 
 ' Sura Ixvii. 6. '' Sura xxxiv. 11, 12. 
 
 5 r/^tf D'Herbel6t, art. "Ginn."
 
 no ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 group of suras.i Here begin the more detailed 
 references to the Jewish Scriptures, and the laborious 
 arguments drawn from the rejection of God's pro- 
 phets by the Jews, by which Mahomet sought to 
 establish his own claims against the incredulous 
 Meccans, of which we shall have more to say 
 further on. Imaginary conversations are held here 
 between the ancient people and those who were sent 
 to them, and words are put into the mouths of the 
 old Patriarchs and Prophets, so that they, like the 
 Genii, are made to speak Mahomet's warnings, and 
 express his thoughts, and to thus adroitly support the 
 teaching which he had addressed to the idolatrous 
 Meccans : and further, the very objections which 
 these latter made to him are represented as being 
 identical with those urged by the unbelievers in 
 former ages, and which are shown to have brought 
 down upon them the fiery vengeance of Heaven. 
 
 We gather from these suras that his opponents 
 accused him of imposture j^ called him "soothsayer";^ 
 denied him the title of " an honourable apostle " ; ^ 
 stigmatized him as a " distracted poet," and his warn- 
 ings as " manifest sorcery." ^ They ascribed the 
 origin of the Koran to devils,*^ and teased him for a 
 sign of the authenticity of his mission.'' 
 
 As a specimen of the kind of argument used 
 by Mahomet, I give the following : ^ — The chapter 
 
 ' Fi'c/^ Muir, II. Appendix. The twenty suras are numbered 
 in the Koran as follows :— 67, 53, 32, 39, 73, 79, 54, 34, 31, 69, 
 68, 41, 71, 52, 50, 45, 44, 37, 30, 26, 15, 51 ; A.D. 615-619. 
 
 - Sura Ixxvii. passim ; lii. 2, &c. ^ Sura Ixix. 41. 
 
 * Sura Ixix. 40.. ' Sura xxxvii. 15. 
 
 • Sura xxvi. 210. ' Sura xxvi. 1S7. ^ Sura xv. I-15.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. Ill 
 
 [xv.] is entitled " Al Hajar," a territory in the He- 
 jaz, between Medina and Syria, where the tribe 
 of Thamud dwelt. They had fallen into idolatry, 
 and therefore " the prophet Saleh was sent to bring 
 them back to the Avorship of the true God " ; but 
 they rejected him, and, acting impiously, were de- 
 stroyed by an earthquake. To this nation and its 
 fate repeated reference is made in the Koran. ^ 
 " These are the signs of the book and of the perspi- 
 cuous Koran. The time may come when the un- 
 believers shall wish they had been Moslems." "We 
 have not destroyed any city, but a fixed term of re- 
 pentance was appointed them. No nation shtll be 
 punished before their time shall be come, neither shall 
 they be respited after. The Meccans say, O thou to 
 whom the admonition hath been sent down, thou art 
 certainly possessed with a devil ! Wouldest thou not 
 have come unto us with an attendance of angels, if 
 thou hadst spoken truth ? Answer : We send not 
 down angels unless on just occasion." — "We have 
 sent apostles before thee among the ancient sects, and 
 there came no apostle unto them, but they laughed 
 him to scorn. In the self-same manner will we put it 
 into the hearts of the wicked Meccans to scoff at their 
 prophet." — " If we should open a gate in the heaven 
 above them, and they should ascend thereto all the 
 day long, they would surely say. Our eyes are only 
 dazzled." 
 
 In this last sentence he makes the Almighty giv£ 
 His reason for not performing a miracle, to attest 
 the validity of His servants' mission ; and in the 26th 
 sura we find Him consoling Mahomet under the same 
 
 Vide Sale, P. D., p. 7. Sura xv. note, ad loc. 
 I
 
 112 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 kind of reproach, and pointing out that the Meccans 
 have continually before them the signs of His 
 Almighty power, that He causes the fruits of " every 
 noble species " to spring up, and that of old He has 
 shown His wonders and judgments on those who 
 turned away from Him, and that, if they accept not 
 these, no special miracle would have any effect upon 
 their stubborn and hardened minds.^ 
 
 On this head it may be remarked that Mahomet 
 always disclaimed the power of working miracles, 
 and assumed no higher honour than that of being a 
 prophet sent by God — •" a warner," an apostle — the 
 instrument of communicating God's will to men ; and 
 the honesty of his conduct in this respect speaks well 
 for him, and implies a perfect reliance on the good- 
 ness of his cause. 
 
 To those who demanded from him some miracu- 
 lous proof of the truth of his claims, he pointed to 
 the Koran — a book revealed to "an ignorant and 
 unlearned man,"^ as the greatest of miracles, and he 
 assured the objectors that if not convinced by it, no 
 sign, hpwever stupendous, would have power to com- 
 pel their belief.^ 
 
 During this period he claims for the Koran 
 authority supplementary and superior to that of the 
 " Book of the Law," which had been given to the 
 people of Israel.* Thus, "We gave to the children 
 
 ' Sura xxvi. 1-5. » Sura vii. 156. 
 
 ^ Compare Luke xvi. 31. 
 
 * Though the Mahometan doctors are driven to say that the 
 Koran has abrogated the Old and New Testaments, there is no 
 authority for the assertion in the teaching of the book itself. 
 Thus : " Oh, children of Israel, believe in the revelation"
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 113 
 
 of Israel the Book of the Law, and wisdom, and pro- 
 phecy, and we fed them with good things " ; but they 
 fell to " variance among themselves through envy " ; 
 aftenvards, " we appointed thee, O Mohammed, to 
 promulgate a law concerning the business of religion ; 
 wherefore follow the same." " This Koran is a direc- 
 tion and a mercy unto people who judge aright." i 
 
 Mention has already been made of the angel 
 Gabriel, and his announcement to Mahomet that he 
 was appointed the " prophet of God " ; and as two 
 other of these spiritual beings are alluded to in the 
 chapters of this period, it may be well to consider 
 what is the teaching of the Koran, and the belief of 
 its followers regarding them. They are represented 
 as having been created by God, and as partaking, like 
 the Genii, of the nature of fire,^ as capable of falling, 
 but without the gross passions of the Genii. They 
 are God's messengers to men,-^ and are of different 
 grades. ^ They are appointed to bear God's throne 
 aloft at the last day.^ Two of them attend con- 
 tinually to the work of noting down the good and bad 
 actions and words of each mortal ;'' and they are 
 appointed to guard the celestial regions from the near 
 approach of wicked spirits. 
 
 Of the angelic beings who surround the throne 
 of God there are four of the highest dignity and 
 power. Gabriel, the Angel of Revelation, who com- 
 
 (Koran) "which I have sent down, confirming that which is 
 -Mith you" (Sura ii. 38). Cf. "Notes on Muhammadanism," 
 p. 25. See also sura v. 52. 
 
 ' Sura xlv. 15-19. ^ Sura vii. II. Comp. Heb. i. 7. 
 
 •* Sura xviii. 2. ■• Sura xxxv. i. 
 
 * Suralxix. 17. ^ Sural. 16, 17. 
 
 I 2
 
 TT4 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 municated the Koran to Mahomet, ^ and is said therein 
 to have been sent by God to the Virgin Mary, to pro- 
 mise her "a Holy Son."^ Michael, "the Friend of 
 the Jews," mentioned in conjunction with Gabriel as 
 one of those, enmity against whom involves enmity 
 against God Himself ^ Azrael, called "the Angel of 
 Death," who separates men's souls and bodies,* and 
 with his assistants either " tears them asunder with 
 violence, or draws them apart with gentleness."^ 
 Jsrafil, whose business it will be to sound the two 
 trumpets at the last day.^ 
 
 The devil, named Eblis in the Koran, was once 
 one of the archangels in heaven, and was called 
 Azazil, but by disobedience fell, under circumstances 
 thus related : — " And we created Adam, and said to 
 the angels, worship Adam, and they all worshipped 
 him except Eblis," who refused, and said, " I am more 
 excellent than he : Thou hast created me of fire, and 
 hast created him of clay " ; '^ for this God drove 
 him down from Paradise, and, being respited till the 
 day of judgment, his business is to " tempt man to 
 disobedience on the earth," but he has no power over 
 God's servants, but only over those "who shall be 
 seduced." ^ 
 
 ' Sura ii, 91. ^ Sura xix. 17-19. 
 
 ^ Sura ii. 92. * Sura xxxii. 2. * Sura Ixxix. I. 
 
 ^ Sura xxxix. 68. Compare i Thess. iv. 16. 
 
 ' Sura vii, 9-1 1. 
 
 ^ Sura XV. 39-42. A recent writer forcibly points out the 
 palpable contradiction of the Koran in the order given by God 
 to Eblis to worship Adam thus : — "Satan's fall is represented 
 as caused by his refusal to worship Adam at God's command 
 when the other angels obeyed ; that is, for refusing to render 
 the creature the homage due to the Creator alone — a sin more
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. I 1 5 
 
 In all that the Koran teaches on this head we 
 find no parallel to that comforting belief in the 
 " ministry of angels," which the Christian gathers from 
 the few transient glimpses into the mystery of God's 
 kingdom, afforded by the New Testament regarding 
 the employments of these pure intelligences. They 
 sang, as we remember, to the astonished shepherds 
 their heavenly songs of gratulation on the birth of the 
 Saviour. Their ministry it was which the Son of 
 Man deigned to accept when, wearied with fasting, 
 He had foiled the tempter; and, again, in the fearful 
 hour of the agony in the garden, He was willing to 
 take comfort from those whom He had made — the 
 Creator from the creature. We are told that these 
 happy beings — an innumerable company — stand 
 around the throne of God, and that they rejoice over 
 "every sinner that repenteth" ; that the "angels" of 
 those " little ones," whom the Saviour loves, stand 
 ever in the presence of the Father and behold His 
 face. We are also told that the angels " desire to 
 look into" the great mysteries of God's dealings with 
 sinful man ; that they were witnesses of the incarna- 
 tion of the God-man ; that they shall be God's 
 reapers at the great harvest ; and that now they are 
 His " ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to 
 them who shall be heirs of salvation." How dif- 
 ferent is this from all that the Koran teaches, with 
 its mixture of Magian fancy and Talmudic lore. But 
 the reason to us seems obvious, the solution easy — 
 the Koran is human, the Bible divme. 
 
 frequently and sternly denounced in the Quran tlian any other," 
 — The Rev. James Kennedy, " Christianity and the ReHgions 
 of India," p. 231 (A.D. 1S74).
 
 Il6 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 We now come to the doctrine of the Koran 
 concerning Prayer. In chapter seventy-three Ma 
 hornet inculcates this duty, and the desirabih'ty of 
 apportioning to it certain stated times. Thus : — " O 
 thou wrapped up, arise to prayer, and continue 
 therein during the night, except a small part ; that is 
 to say, during one-half thereof; or do thou lessen 
 the same a little, or add thereto, and repeat the 
 Koran." "Verily the rising at night is more effica- 
 cious for steadfast continuance in devotion," " for in 
 the daytime thou hast long employment." ^ And, 
 again, " Regularly perform thy prayer at the declen- 
 sion of the sun, at the first darkness of the night, and 
 the prayer of daybreak ; for the prayer of daybreak is 
 borne witness unto by the angels."^ 
 
 Mahomet thought prayer so necessary that he 
 used to call it " the pillar of religion," and " the key 
 of Paradise." He continually insists on its practice 
 in the Koran. The pious Moslem performs this duty 
 five times every day. i. Before sunrise ; 2, at noon ; 
 3, before sunset ; 4, after sunset, during the short 
 twilight ; 5, when night has set in. Wherever he 
 may be, in the desert, at home^ in his shop, or in the 
 crowded street, he steps aside, spreads out some little 
 carpet or cloth, takes ofi" his shoes, and, with his face 
 turned tov/ards the Kibla at Mecca, performs, sitting, 
 standing, or prostrate, his solemn and picturesque 
 devotions. Some repair to the mosques for this pur- 
 pose, but this, owing to occupation or distance, is 
 not always practicable, and does not seem to be 
 considered important. 
 
 It is not to be understood that these five appointed 
 
 ' Sura Ixxiii. 1-7. ^ Sura xvii. 8.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. II7 
 
 times of devotion are strictly and universally attended 
 to. Many of "the faithful" use no prayers at all; 
 some pray only at sunrise and sunset, or attend the 
 mosque on Friday at the public prayers. 
 
 Certain ablutions, called " the key of prayer," 
 are directed to be used, not before all their prayers, 
 but always when the worshipper is conscious of 
 impurity. The ordinary purification consists in 
 washing the hands and arms to the elbows, the head 
 and face, and the feet to the ankles;^ and all these 
 acts must be conducted with certain short prescribed 
 prayers for God's pardon and help, for deliver- 
 ance at the last day and admission to Paradise. 
 The greater purification is the lustration of the whole 
 body on the occurrence of certain natural defile- 
 ments. - When water cannot be procured, or its use, 
 owing to sickness, would be dangerous, fine sand 
 may be substituted. ^ 
 
 The " adzan," or call to prayer, is chanted from 
 the minarets of the mosques by the Mueddzin, 
 in words which allude to the majesty and unity of 
 God, the mission and glory of Mahomet, and (at 
 night) the superiority of prayer to sleep. The 
 prayers which are used at the five seasons are said to 
 consist of so many " rakaats " or genuflexions, occur- 
 ring between short prayers, from four to eight in 
 number, which are either taken from the Koran or 
 othenvise appointed.'^ 
 
 ' Sura V. 8, 9. " Sura iv. 46. ^ Sura v. 9. 
 
 ^ Suras i. cxii., the declaration of the unity, cviii., or some 
 of the other shorter ones, are used ; also selections from the 
 larger. Conf. "Notes on Muhammadanism,"xviii. Prayer 6, 63. 
 Prayers from the Koran are entitled Farz ; Sannat those founded 
 on the teaching of Mahomet ; and Nafal vohmtary prayers.
 
 Il8 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 On Friday, the day of public assembly, the same 
 prayers are used, led by some Imam (antistes), who 
 holds office at the mosque, for there is no order 
 of men set apart for the purpose ; and he usually 
 reads, in addition, some set address (Khutbah), or 
 preaches to those assembled. 
 
 Rosaries, consisting of ninety-nine beads (the 
 number of the names of Allah), are frequently seen 
 in the hands of the most zealous Moslems, and are 
 used to count the ejaculatory prayers: such as 
 'Praise be to God," "God is most great," &c., 
 which are directed to be repeated a certain number 
 of times. On the conclusion oi. the set prayers, the 
 devout, sitting cross-legged at their ease, and with 
 downcast eyes, may offer up any special prayer for 
 which they have occasion. ^ 
 
 Women are taught that it is better for them to 
 pray at home ; they are absolutely excluded from 
 some mosques, and are seldom seen in the others at 
 the ordinary times of prayer. They join, however, 
 in the festival of the Moharram, particularly on the 
 
 • In Mahometan countries, though there are no regularly- 
 ordained clergy, still there are learned men specially appointed 
 to expound the orthodox law in ecclesiastical, civil, and criminal 
 cases. The chief of these are the Qazi (Cadi), the chief judge 
 who passes sentence. (2) The Mufti, the official referee who 
 supplies to the judge decrees (fetwa) in difficult cases, based on 
 the Koran or the rulings of the great orthodox doctors. (3) 
 Imam, appointed to read public prayers. (4) Moulvies, 
 Moullas, Muj tabids, learned doctors and teachers of religion. 
 The word sheikh, corresponding to presbyter or elder, is a title 
 of respect. The Sheikh-ul-Islam in Turkey has much powei, 
 holds the ecclesiastical revenues, and is referred to by the 
 Sultan as tlie highest authority in matters civil and ecclesiastical.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER, II9 
 
 tenth day; and they accompany their liusbands on 
 the pilgrimage to Mecca. 
 
 A learned writer has remarked, " The utmost 
 solemnity and decorum are observed in the public 
 worship of the Moslems." " Never are they guilty of 
 an irregular word or action during their prayers," — 
 " they appear wholly absorbed in the adoration of 
 their Creator, without affected humility or a forced 
 expression of countenance."^ 
 
 In the thirtieth chapter, which belongs to this 
 period, usury is forbidden, and this includes taking 
 any interest for money. Thus, " Whatever ye shall 
 give in usury, to be an increase of men's substance, 
 shall not be increased bythe blessing of God."^ And, 
 again, " Truly, selling is but as usury, and yet God 
 hath permitted selling and forbidden usury," " Who- 
 ever returneth to usury they shall be the companions 
 of hell-fire, they shall continue there for ever."^ 
 Lawful commerce is allowed ; " God sendeth the 
 wind" — " that ships may sail," — "that ye may seek to 
 enrich yourselves of His abundance by commerce, 
 and that ye may give thanks.""^ 
 
 The thirty-first chapter of the Koran is en- 
 titled "Lokman," surnamed "the Wise"; an indi- 
 vidual, around the circumstances of whose era, 
 nationality, and parentage, such a crowd of fables 
 and anachronisms have gathered, as to make it more 
 than doubtful whether he ever really existed. He is 
 introduced to us in the Koran, and an amiable and 
 pious discourse is put into his mouth, addressed to 
 his son, whom he advises to flee from polytheism, 
 
 ' Lane, "Mod, Egypt.," 1. 120. ^ Sura xxx. 3S. 
 
 ' Sura ii. 276. ■• Sura xxx, 45.
 
 I20 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 and to believe in one only God, to follow that which 
 the Almighty reveals, not that which the fathers fol- 
 lowed ; to be constant at prayer, patient under afflic- 
 tion ; to dread the day of judgment ; and to avoid the 
 way of arrogant and insolent men. This is a specimen 
 of the artful way in which the prophet seeks to sup- 
 port his special doctrines, by making them part of 
 the teaching of an ancient sage, and so investing 
 them with his authority and credit.^ 
 
 The other revelations of this period are chiefly 
 made up of the stories of the Old Testament, 
 adapted so as to support Mahomet's claims ; and he 
 does seem to have found means of gaining a fairly 
 comprehensive idea of the leading facts of the Jewish 
 histories. Curious fabulous additions, which will be 
 noticed hereafter, taken from rabbinical legends, tra- 
 dition, and other sources, are interwoven with them ; 
 but there can be little doubt, from whatever source he 
 got his information, that many a secret hour must have 
 been spent in study and composition to enable him 
 to produce the revelations demanded by the press- 
 ing necessities of the hour, and the craving faith of 
 his disciples. 
 
 As a specimen of the introduction of these Old 
 Testament characters into the Koran, and of the 
 jumble made of their history, which would often be 
 unintelligible but for our knowledge of the sacred 
 narrative, the following may be cited : ^ — " Jonas was 
 also one of those who were sent by us ; when he 
 
 ' Vide D'Herbelot, art. "Locman-al-Hakira" ; Sale, p. 335, 
 note. Lokman and the Persian hero Rustum may probably 
 be placed in the same category. 
 
 ^ Sura xxxvii. 133-142.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 121 
 
 fled into the loaded ship, and those who were on 
 board cast lots among themselves, and he was con- 
 demned, and the fish swallowed him, for he was 
 worthy of reprehension. And if he had not been 
 one of them who praised God, verily he had re- 
 mained in the belly thereof until the day of resurrec- 
 tion. And We cast him on the naked shore ; and he 
 was sick ! And We caused a plant of a gourd to 
 grow up over him, and We sent him to an hundred 
 thousand persons, or they were a greater number, 
 and they believed : Avherefore We granted them to 
 enjoy this life for a season." ^ 
 
 Finally, as an example of the way in which 
 Mahomet takes the fancies of the Talmudists, and 
 the legends of the Haggidah, and reproduces them 
 in the Koran, the following may be given. In the 
 148th Psalm, "the sweet singer of Israel," in the 
 exuberance of poetic fervour, calls upon the heavens 
 and all the angel host, the mountains and all hills, 
 and even the "flying fowl," to join in praising the 
 Lord. Occurring in a poem, such mode of express- 
 ing the gratitude of the Psalmist for God's good- 
 ness to him and to all creatures is natural and 
 appropriate. The Talmudists, however, as was their 
 wont, notwithstanding the palpable absurdity, have 
 taken this passage in its bare literal sense, and 
 Mahomet, accepting their interpretation, founds upon 
 it this passage : — " We heretofore bestowed on David 
 
 ' This reads much more like notes jotted down for a fuller 
 history of Jonah, which have been accidentally incorporated with 
 the Koran — a supposition not unwarranted by tl;e way in which 
 these compositions were kept by the prophet, and put together 
 by his followers.
 
 12 2 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 excellence from Us ; and We said, O mountains, sing 
 alternate praises with him ; and We obliged the birds 
 also to join therein." ^ And in a later sura it is 
 repeated, " And we compelled the mountains to 
 praise us with David, and the birds also : and We 
 did this." 2 
 
 In the Gospels only a few brief glimpses are 
 afforded us of the manner of life of our blessed 
 Lord during those quiet years at Nazareth, when, 
 in obedience to his parents, from " sweet and holy 
 childhood " to years of manhood He " increased in 
 wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and 
 man." But this mysterious veil of silence, which 
 divine wisdom has drawn, was not respected by the 
 fabulists of Christendom, who have surrounded His 
 boyhood with innumerable stories of the exhibition 
 of a marvellous and divine power. In the Arabic 
 " Gospel of the Infancy," for instance, it is related 
 how among His playmates He gave life to little 
 sparrows which He had moulded out of clay, and 
 when He clapped His hands they rose and flew 
 away. Mahomet, by some means or other, possessed 
 himself of this story, and in a late Medina sura repro- 
 duces it as part of the " preserved book." ^ Such, 
 then, is as detailed an account as our space will allow 
 of those parts of the Koran revealed up to the time 
 of the imprisonment in the Sheb Abu Talib (A.D. 
 617). 
 
 ' Sura xxxiv. 102. ' Sura xxi, 79. 
 
 ' Sura iii. 43
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 LAST YEARS OF MAHOMET AT MECCA. — [a.D. 617- 
 622.] 
 
 We now take up the thread of Ivlahomet's history. 
 Allusion has been made to the sufferings which he 
 and his followers endured with patience, to their 
 scanty supply of food consequent on their social 
 isolation, and how this state of things went on for 
 some three years. We read that, in order to bind 
 firmly together the ranks of the adverse faction cer- 
 tain terms of union had been agreed upon, and to 
 give the league a religious sanction, that this table of 
 conditions had been hung up in the Kaaba. At 
 the expiration of three years it was discovered, to 
 the consternation of the confederates, that the docu- 
 ments had been destroyed by insects. This circum- 
 stance, to which a portentous meaning flivourable to 
 the new sect was at once given, aided by other rea- 
 sons, probably of a family nature, detached from the 
 league five of its chief supporters. This fact broke up 
 the confederacy, released the imprisoned religionists, 
 and restored them to their homes in comparative 
 peace and safety. 
 
 It was at this time that Mahomet suffered the loss, 
 by death, of two of his nearest and best friends — his 
 wife, Khadija (A.D. 619), and his faithful uncle, the 
 aged Abu Talib (A.D. 620).
 
 124 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 Though Khadija was much older than the pro- 
 phet, and though the custom of Mecca and his own 
 revelations permitted polygamy, he is said to have 
 remained true to her, and never to have wounded her 
 heart or aroused her jealousy by taking a second 
 wife during her lifetime. Deeply did he lament her 
 loss, and to the day of his death honoured the 
 memory of her goodness and of her early unwavering 
 faith, and placed her name in the list of the four 
 perfect women.i 
 
 The loss of Abu Talib he mourned much, though 
 he is said to have died in unbelief, for it was to 
 him a loss of great political moment. The whole 
 tenor of his acts, and his sacrifices for his nephew, 
 "stamp his character as singularly unselfish and 
 noble." 2 
 
 For a time Mahomet's uncle, Abu Lahab, hitherto 
 and afterwards his bitter opponent, undertook to 
 take the place of Abu Talib, and to be his pro- 
 tector; but he was soon seduced by the hostile 
 Coreish, and thus Mahomet and his followers became 
 exposed to the unchecked insults and persecutions 
 incited by Abu Sofian, Abu Jahl, and others; and 
 being but a handful in the hostile city, were unable 
 to cope \vith its rich and powerful chiefs. 
 
 At this critical period, either because he found 
 it unsafe to remain in Mecca, or because he trusted 
 that his message would find more acceptance else- 
 
 ' Conf. Koran, sura Ixvii. ii, 12. The names of these four 
 women who reached perfection were Asia, wife of Pharaoh ; 
 Mary, daughter of Imran, the mother of our blessed Lord ; 
 Khadija, the wife of Mahomet ; and Fatima his daughter, wife of 
 Ali. — Vide Sale, note ad loc. 
 
 ^ Muir, ii. 195.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 125 
 
 where, Mahomet, accompanied by his faithful freed- 
 man Zeid, set off to Tayif, a strongly fortified town 
 inhabited by the Bcni Thackif, situated some seventy 
 miles to the east of Mecca. 
 
 There is something very touching in the view of 
 the solitary wanderers as they set forth in faith and 
 devotion. On they toiled, across sandy wastes, over 
 l)urning rocks and barren hills, till they reached the 
 heights of the Jebel Kora, where gardens, palm-trees, 
 vineyards, and " fruits of plenty spread on every 
 hand," made a welcome and refreshing contrast to 
 the dreary wilderness through which they had passed, 
 and cheered the visionary seer and his faithful 
 comrade. 
 
 And so they descended into the valley of Tayif, 
 which town at that time and long after was one 
 of the great strongholds of idolatry. There a stone 
 image, called " Al Lat," usually adorned with costly 
 vestments and precious stones, was an object of wor- 
 ship and profound veneration, and was esteemed to be 
 one of the daughters of God. Here for ten days 
 Mahomet preached to unwilling ears, and met with 
 nothing but opposition and scorn from the chief men, 
 which soon spread to the populace. At last, with Zeid 
 lie was driven out of the town, and, maltreated and 
 wounded, had to make for the foot of the hills, 
 where he hoped to find shelter among the vineyards 
 and to escape the pursuit of the infuriated rabble. 
 
 Driven thus forth from the city and worn out, they 
 sat down under a vine in a garden belonging to two 
 youths of the hostile Coreish, who had noticed the 
 fugitives' forlorn plight, and touched by their suffer- 
 ings sent them a dish of grapes. Refreshed by the
 
 126 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 welcome present, Mahomet set forward on his journey, 
 and halfway to Mecca rested in the valley of Nakhla, 
 where, as we have seen, the Genii heard him at night 
 reading the Koran, and were converted. After a few 
 days' rest at this place he returned to Mecca, wearied 
 indeed and disappointed, but still strong in the belief 
 of his divine mission. 
 
 Mahomet now found himself free from personal 
 molestation, under the protection of Mutim, a chief 
 of the blood of Abd Shams. His unsuccessful 
 mission to Tayif, which became known to the hostile 
 faction, procured for him a season of contemptuous 
 toleration, more bitter, perhaps, to his lofty soul than 
 active opposition. 
 
 At this time (A.D. 620) he entered into a double 
 matrimonial alliance, taking to wife Sawda, the widow 
 of one of his converts of the Coreish ; and being be- 
 trothed to Ayesha — the daughter of his bosom friend 
 Abu Bekr — then only seven years of age. 
 
 But though thus pleasing himself in his do- 
 mestic life, his outward circumstances were dark 
 enough. His private means were straitened ; the 
 consoling sympathy of Khadija and of Abu Talib 
 was his no more ; for ten long years his life had 
 been a scene of such care, anxiety, obloquy, and 
 comparative failure, as must, at his age (for he was 
 now fifty), have weighed heavily on his mind. 
 
 His fortunes, however, had reached their lowest 
 ebb, when the tide suddenly turned, and in its flow 
 bore him on beyond his most sanguine expectations. 
 During the season of the annual pilgrimage, in the 
 spring, Mahomet sallied forth, as was his wont, and 
 preached to the assembled crowds.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 1 27 
 
 When the usual ceremonies were drawing to a 
 close, and the devotees had returned to the valley 
 of Mina, he approached a " little group of six or 
 seven," who proved to be strangers from Medina,' of 
 the tribe of the Khazraj. To them he explained his 
 doctrines, and urged them to accept a purer faith 
 than tliat in which they were born. It would appear, 
 indeed, that upon the dwellers in Medina idolatry 
 had not so firm a hold as upon the Meccans, owing, 
 perhaps, to their familiarity with the purer worship 
 of the Jews, and also to the absence of any strong 
 personal or political interest in the maintenance of 
 the ancient superstition. 
 
 It is also believed by some writers that the Jewish 
 hopes of a Messiah had penetrated to their Arab 
 neighbours and had awakened in them, torn as they 
 were by intestine feuds, a yearning for a deliverer 
 so that they were ready to accept the one who came 
 to them of Arab blood, of the sacerdotal caste, and 
 who seemed likely to fulfil their highest hopes. 
 
 However this may be, it is certain that Maho- 
 met's eloquent teaching found more congenial soil 
 among them, and so they joyfully acknowledged his 
 mission, and made profession of " the faith." To his 
 new disciples he poured out the story of the difficulties 
 and dangers of his position at Mecca, and inquired 
 whether they would protect him at Medina. They 
 
 ' The city of Yathrib, better known by its later name of Me- 
 dina, lies some 250 miles to the north of Mecca. In and around 
 it were large colonies and tribes of Jews, and from its proximity 
 to Syria, the inhabitants doubtless must have formed some con- 
 ception of a more spiritual religion than that practised at the 
 Kaaba. 
 
 K
 
 128 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 explained that their city was rent by opposing fac 
 tions, that they could not therefore make him the. 
 promise he desired, but that at the next annual pilgrim 
 age they would come and give him their answer. 
 
 And so they returned home, and spread his 
 doctrine, and that with such success that " there 
 remained hardly a family in Medina in which men- 
 tion was not made of the Prophet." ^ It would even 
 appear that the Jews favoured him, inasmuch as he had 
 acknowledged the validity of their Scriptures, and 
 taught some doctrines which they loved. Thus, from 
 a variety of causes, Islam secretly and openly took 
 deep root and spread in Medina. 
 
 Faithful to their promise, twelve of the new con- 
 verts returned at the annual pilgrimage and formally 
 acknowledged him as their prophet, and plighted 
 him their faith, " agreeing to acknowledge but one 
 God, to act morally and justly, not to kill their 
 children, and to obey the Prophet in all things 
 lawful." Such was the first pledge of Acaba, agreed 
 to in April, A.D. 621. And so they returned to their 
 native home, and the faith continued to spread in 
 Medina, chiefly through the preaching of Musab-ibn- 
 Omeir, a young and ardent Moslem, who had been 
 sent thither by Mahomet at the request of the inhabi- 
 tants. Their idols were thrown aside, many even of 
 the hostile factions of the Aws and the Khazraj joined 
 in the common devotions, and thus wonderfully was 
 a purer theistic faith substituted for the old super- 
 stitions of the Arab population. 
 
 External events, too, favoured the fortunes of 
 Islam. For many years the \-ictorious arms of the 
 ' Muir, ii. 210.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 1 29 
 
 Persian Chosroes had humbled the Christian princes 
 of the East ; but in A.D. 621 an important and decisive 
 victory gained by the emperor Heraelius, rolled back 
 the tide of invasion from the shores of the Bosphorus, 
 and the Cross triumphed over the fire-worship of the 
 Magian invaders. This was, at the same time, a 
 triumph for the theistic faith of Mahomet, and seemed 
 in its mystical meaning to prefigure the downfall of 
 Arabia's idolatrous rites, for in it true believers saw 
 the sure accomplishment of a prophecy which their 
 leader had uttered,^ thus " The Greeks have been 
 overcome by the Persians, but after their defeat they 
 shall overcome the others in turn within a few years " 
 — " Write, to God belongeth the disposal of this 
 matter " — " And on that day shall the believers rejoice 
 in the success granted by God." ^ 
 
 The fortunes and hopes of the dejected prophet 
 having thus risen, his heart naturally went out to 
 those who had acknowledged his mission. Mecca 
 had rejected it, called him " liar," and his teaching 
 "falsehood." 3 No converts were being added to 
 the faithful few there ; surely it must be the will of 
 Heaven that he should leave them ! The Meccans 
 must have been given over to worship their idols, 
 and to a reprobate mind ; and what if his preaching 
 were opposed to the evident signs of the Almighty ? 
 what if he were found to be fighting against the 
 decrees of Allah ? Such may have been some of 
 
 ' Sura XXX., entitled "The Greeks — Al Roum" — properly 
 the Romans. 
 
 ■^ Conf. Kasimirski, "Koran,"' p. 343; Sale, notes, ad loc; 
 Muir, ii. 224; Freeman, "The Saracens," p. 24. 
 
 ^ Sura vi. 34-37. 
 
 K 2
 
 130 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 the thoughts which occupied the mind of Mahomet 
 as he reflected upon the hopeless prospect at home, 
 and gazed longingly over the northern hills towards 
 the city, where he was regarded as a revered apostle, 
 and perhaps almost as a prince. And so, as he 
 recalled the asylum which in past years the con- 
 verts had found beyond the sea, the picture of a 
 peaceful haven at Medina, and of crowds of enthu 
 siastic and devoted followers, would grow still brighter 
 and more alluring. 
 
 And therefore we cannot wonder that the little 
 flock are bidden to prepare themselves for abandon- 
 ing their homes, and that soon the wall of Heaven 
 is found to sanction, nay command, the step which 
 they meditate of quitting the doomed city; thus, 
 " they accuse thee, O Mohammed, of imposture, and 
 follow their own lusts " — " and now hath a message 
 come unto them, wherein is a warning from ob- 
 stinate infidelity : " — " but warners profit them not ; 
 wherefore do thou withdraw from them." ^ 
 
 Thus the year A.D. 621 draws to its close, un- 
 marked by any important event. The cry of the 
 prophet is unheard in the streets, for his thoughts 
 are far away. Revelations from Heaven come as 
 occasion requires, by them the faithful are strength- 
 ened, but still more by the calm trust and undaunted 
 attitude of their spiritual guide. 
 
 In the spring of the next year, during the holy 
 months, there assembled at the national shrine 
 at Mecca the usual crowds of busy devotees ; but 
 amidst the throng one group alone of about seventy 
 persons need claim our regard. They are the new 
 ' Sura liv. 2 -6.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. I3I 
 
 disciples from Medina, come to tell the prophet of 
 their Avelfare, that the truth had found a ready recep- 
 tion, and that they were prepared to offer him a resting- 
 place in their midst, and to conduct him from the 
 idolatrous city. 
 
 I'owards the close of the ceremonies, the am- 
 bassadors assembled secretly at the hill of Acaba, 
 " a secluded glen " northward of Mecca, where, in 
 order to escape the notice of the hostile Coreish, it 
 had been arranged they were to meet the prophet, 
 and formally pledge him their word. Before mid- 
 night Mahomet repaired to the place, accompanied 
 by his uncle Al-Abbas, who (though he had not 
 openly declared for the new faith) loved his nephew, 
 and was anxious that his decision at this crisis should 
 be wise and prudent. He therefore urged on the 
 men of Medina not to raise hopes which they could 
 not fulfil, nor to promise a protection which they 
 might prove unable to afford. They replied that 
 they were able, and fully determined, to secure 
 his safety with their lives and fortunes ; nay, more, to 
 take him as their prophet and their master. Such 
 was the " second pledge of Acaba," ^ which took 
 place in the March of A.D. 622. The protection 
 thus offered and accepted, gained for the believers 
 of Medina the title of " Ansar," or Auxiliaries. 
 
 Some vague accounts of the midnight meeting, 
 and of the imi)ortant pact entered into between 
 Mahomet and the men of Medina, as well as rumours 
 of an early emigration of the Moslems from Mecca, 
 reached the ears of the Coreish, and roused them to 
 a renewal of such severities and persecutions, in- 
 
 ' Muir, ii. 239.
 
 132 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 eluding in some cases inaprisonment, as hastened 
 the departure of the believers to the city where they 
 were assured of a friendly reception. By permission 
 of the prophet the emigration began, and within two 
 months — with the exception of Mahomet and Abu- 
 Bekr and their households, and those who were 
 forcibly detained in slavery — all had met with the 
 cordial welcome and hospitality of their brethren at 
 Medina.! 
 
 The devotion of the Moslems at the call of 
 their faith and their prophet, and the sight of the 
 abandoned dwellings, alarmed the hostile chiefs of 
 Mecca ; but their deliberations as to how they might 
 effectually extinguish the growing sect, or counteract 
 the bold step which had been taken, came to no defi- 
 nite result. The flight of his adherents had placed 
 Mahomet more than ever in their power, yet they 
 seem to have been unable to settle how to act under 
 the unexpected emergency. Their deliberations, how- 
 ever, were made known to the prophet, and hearing 
 that certain of their number were appointed to visit 
 his house, he directed Ali to occupy his bed, threw 
 over the youth " his red Hadhramaut mantle," and at 
 once proceeded to the house of Abu-Bekr, who had 
 already made the necessary preparations for their 
 flight. 
 
 Passing the southern suburb of Mecca in the 
 dusk of evening, they escaped to a cave on Mount 
 Thaur, a lofty hill some six miles to the south-east. 
 There they remained concealed for three days, till 
 the search was somewhat relaxed. Food was con- 
 veyed to them at night by Abdallah and Asma, the 
 ' Muir, ii. 247.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 1 33 
 
 children of Abu-Bekr, and they had a plentiful supply 
 of milk brought them by a faithful shepherd. There 
 is, perhaps, no incident in the life of the prophet 
 which more nearly touches the sublime, which sets 
 his courage, his calm unwavering trust in God in a 
 more exalted light than the story of this cave on 
 Mount Thaur. If discovered thus alone on the 
 barren mountain how easily might the assassin have 
 executed his murderous work unseen by mortal eye. 
 Pursuit was hot, and the less masculine soul of Abu- 
 Bekr, fearful for the safety of the apostle of God, con- 
 jured up visions of approaching foes in each dark 
 shadow of the fitful twilight and in every rustling 
 leaf of the thorny acacias. " They be many th:,t 
 fight against us, and w^e are but two." "Not so, 
 Abu-Bekr," replied the prophet ; " we are but two, 
 but God is in the midst a third." 
 
 The flight, pursuit, and the safety of the wanderers 
 are, as might be expected, adorned with details 
 of the miraculous protection of Heaven. Among 
 these is the well-known story that for their safely a 
 spider spun its web over the mouth of the cave ; and 
 on a tree which miraculously sprang up the brood- 
 ing wood-pigeons, undisturbed, showed the pursuers 
 that no one could have taken refuge within. ^ In one 
 of the later Medina suras the before-mentioned cir- 
 cumstances are thus referred to : — " If ye assist not 
 the Prophet, verily God will assist him, as He assisted 
 him formerly, when the unbelievers drove him out of 
 Mecca, the second of two : when they were both in 
 the cave : when he said to his companion, God is 
 with us " (Sura ix. 40). 
 
 ' Conf. Sale, P. D., p. 51 ; Irving, p. 72 ; Muir, ii. 257.
 
 134 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 Two camels had been provided by Abu-Bekr 
 for their northern journey, and on the fourth day, 
 leaving their place of retreat, they struck off west- 
 ward towards the Red Sea, passed Bir-Osfan and 
 Codred, and on the eighth day reached the rocky 
 ridge whence the traveller looks down on the rich 
 valley in which Medina lies. Their eyes, wearied 
 with journeying under a meridian sun through barren 
 and thirsty defiles, must have been refreshed at the 
 sight which opened before them. They would look 
 down on green fields, orchards, and palm groves, a 
 scene to them of quiet, though of infinite beauty and 
 repose. To the right the summit of Jebel Ayr ; 
 northward, beyond the valley, the granite mountain 
 of Ohod, where afterwards the sword of Islam failed 
 in the hand that wielded it ; away to the south and 
 east, till lost in the horizon, the plateau of Najd ; 
 and below the peaceful suburb of Coba, nestling 
 amidst its palm groves. 
 
 Thither the travellers wended their way, and wel- 
 comed by the greeting of the exiles who had preceded 
 them, and by the smiles and gratulations of the new 
 converts, soon after alighted in Medina. Such was 
 the celebrated " Hejira," or Flight of Mahomet from 
 Mecca to Medina, from which the Mahometan world 
 computes its era. He fled from the cave of Thaur on 
 the 2oth, and arrived at Medina on the 28th June, 
 A.D. 622. Within a few weeks the members of the 
 families of Mahomet and Abu-Bekr, who had remained 
 behind at Mecca, set out leisurely and without mo- 
 lestation, to join the rest of the fugitives at Medina.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE LATEST TEACHING AT MECCA. — [a.D. 6 1 7-62 2.] 
 
 I PROPOSE now to take into consideration those 
 chapters^ of the Koran which are thought to have 
 been dictated during the last years of the prophet's 
 residence at Mecca. In them we shall be able to 
 trace the influence of external circumstances on his 
 hopes and aspirations, and notice how they served to 
 develop the scope of his teaching and the future of 
 Islam. 
 
 In nearly the whole of these chapters we meet with 
 wearisome repetitions of the same line of argument 
 which he had taken up in the earlier suras. We en- 
 counter the same references to the unsuccessful mission 
 of earlier prophets to the idolatrous nations of old, to 
 show that the rejection of his words by the Meccans 
 was to be looked upon as a mere repetition of the 
 same want of faith, and, more than this, as construc- 
 tively a proof of the validity of his mission. Hud 
 sent to the Adites, Salah to the children of Thamud, 
 Lot to the city of Sodom, Shoaib to the " Midianites 
 of the wood," Abraham's unheeded preaching, and 
 
 ' Muir, " Life of Mahomet," Appendix, vol. ii., gives tlie fol- 
 lowing sequence of the chapters : — 46, 72, 35, 36, 19, 18, 27, 
 42, 40, 38, 25, 20, 43, 12, II, 10, 14, 6, 64, 28, 2"?, 22, 21, 17, 
 16, 13, 29, 7.
 
 136 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 Pharaoh's rejection of the words of Moses, were but 
 so many types of his mission to the inhabitants of 
 Mecca, and of their reception of him; and it is 
 shown that calamities, similar to those which befell 
 the nations of old, will assuredly overwhelm them if 
 they continue to prefer their idols to the worship of 
 God, and still reject his warnings. His religion, he 
 tells them, is freely offered, for he asks no reward ; 
 and he assures them that he is not a preacher of any 
 new doctrine, no innovator, but sent at God's com- 
 mand to instruct them in that faith which is the only 
 true one, and the rejection of which will bring upon 
 them the judgment of Heaven. Thus : " He hath 
 ordained you the religion which He commanded 
 Noah, and revealed to thee, O Mohammed — and 
 Abraham and Moses and Jesus, saying. Observe this 
 religion" (Sura xlii. 11). 
 
 During this period it cannot be doubted that 
 Mahomet found opportunity, generally we may believe 
 during the quiet hours of the night, for prosecuting 
 his study of the Jewish histories ; for he reproduces 
 the minute details of the stories of Moses (Sura xxviii.), 
 of Joseph (Sura xii.), and of others, though all are 
 more or less mixed up with legends and apocry- 
 phal additions of his own. In his treatment of the 
 Scriptures he shows no comprehensive grasp of Old 
 Testament teaching ; his knowledge is purely super- 
 ficial, touching only the outside shell of facts, and 
 these are often distorted and strained to suit his owti 
 purposes, and abound in fanciful and incongruous 
 details and fables. 
 
 Thus he tells the story of the " Seven Sleepers ''
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 1 37 
 
 donnant in the cave for 309 years, to illustrate 
 God's care of those who avoid idolatry (Sura 
 xviii.) ; the golden calf in the wilderness is made 
 to low (Sura xx. 90) ; the children of Israel are 
 seduced to idolatry by a Samaritan {Idem, 7, 8) ; 
 Joseph is stated to have been sorely tempted by the 
 " Egyptian's wife," and the women of Egypt cut them- 
 selves for their love of his beauty (Sura xii. 24) ; 
 Joseph satisfies his father that he is still alive in 
 Eg}'pt by sending him an inner garment, the smell 
 of which Jacob recognizes, and is by it cured of his 
 blindness (Sura xii. 95) ; the odour of the vest is 
 borne on the air to the aged patriarch from Egypt to 
 Canaan (Sura xii. 94) ; the people of the " City near 
 the sea " are changed into apes for fishing on the 
 Sabbath (Sura iii. 166) ; Abraham, for speaking 
 against the idolatry practised round him, is cast into 
 a burning pile — but God makes the fire cold (Sura 
 xxi. 69) ; the winds are said to have been subject to 
 Solomon, and to have run at his command {Idem, 81) ; 
 the latter asserts himself to have been taught the 
 language of birds (Sura xxvii. 16), and talks with a 
 lapwing which expresses its belief in the unity of God 
 {Idem, 20—26) ; a terrible genius (in org Efreet) brings 
 to Solomon, in the twinkling of an eye, the queen of 
 Shcba's throne {Idem, 40) ; Job strikes with his feet, 
 and a fountain springs up as a liniment for his sores ; 
 he is also ordered to beat his wife with rods {Idem, 
 41-43); &c. 
 
 Such are a few specimens of the frivolous inci- 
 dents mixed up with the graver story of the doings 
 of the old patriarchs. A perusal of the Koran can
 
 138 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 alone give the reader any just idea of the tedious 
 manner in which certain " special subjects " are re- 
 peated over and over again, with but trivial variation. 
 In the midst of all these revelations there occur here 
 and there excellent moral sentiments to which no 
 exception can be taken. Thus the duty of helping 
 the poor, of relieving the needy traveller, and of doing 
 justice to the orphan, is insisted on. The love and 
 honour due to parents from their children, the per- 
 formance of covenants, and the use of just weights, 
 form part of the believer's duty. Liberality is com- 
 mended, profuseness condemned. The Prophet points 
 out, how, at the end of the world, our words, our 
 thoughts, nay, the very use of our eyesight, will be 
 brought into account, and he states how desirable it 
 is for the true believer to love God, to pray to Him, 
 and to walk humbly in His sight (Sura xvii.). 
 
 On the occurrence of such sentiments in the 
 Koran, it may be well to remember, that no civilized 
 heathen nation ever existed, in which just, beautiful, 
 and sublime sentiments were not known and recorded 
 in their sacred books. The works of Confucius abound 
 in them ; the ancient writings, still held in veneration 
 by millions in Hindostan, furnish many passages of a 
 morality as discriminating and high-toned as any to 
 be found in the book of Mahomet. But it is the 
 juxtaposition of other pernicious opinions, claiming 
 equal inspiration and authority, which have ever 
 tended to neutralize what was just and true, and to 
 render them without any efficient practical influence.* 
 
 ' Conf. M. "Williams's " Indian Wisdom," pp. 3, 38, 58, 
 512, et seq.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 1 39 
 
 We may notice at this time an important change 
 in the attitude to be assumed by believers. They 
 are now permitted to repel the ill-usage of their 
 enemies and draw the sword as a defensive weapon ; 
 thus, " Permission is granted to those who take arms 
 against the unbelievers, for that they have been un- 
 justly persecuted and turned out of their habitations 
 injuriously, and for no reason than because they say 
 our Lord God" (Sura xxii. 40). In a few short 
 months we shall find how tlie aggressive sword of 
 Islam is permitted to succeed this defensive war- 
 fare. 
 
 He is, as usual, profuse in his praise of "the 
 perspicuous," " the glorious Koran," sent down from 
 Heaven ; and he now ventures to appeal to his know- 
 ledge of the Old Testament histories as a proof of its 
 authenticity. He represents himself as ignorant and 
 illiterate, but that God directly instructed him. Thus : 
 " We (God) relate unto thee a most excellent history, 
 by revealing unto thee this Koran, whereas thou wast 
 before one of the negligent " (Sura xii. 2). And again : 
 " Say, it is a weighty message from which ye turn 
 aside. I (Mahomet) had no knowledge of the ex- 
 alted princes when they disputed about the creation 
 of man ; it hath been revealed unto me only as a 
 proof that I am a public preacher" (Sura xxxviii. 
 67-70). 
 
 He explains his imperfect knowledge, and how it 
 is that he is still ignorant of some parts of the old 
 Scriptures, thus : "We (God) have sent a great number 
 of apostles before thee : the histories of some of whom 
 we have related unto thee, and the histories of others
 
 140 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 we have not related unto thee." In face of the above 
 assertions, if his words are to bear a literal meaning, 
 we know not how to acquit Mahomet of something of 
 conscious misrepresentation ; for it is incredible that 
 he could, by any tortuous reasoning, construe the 
 results of his own study to mean direct inspiration, 
 or that the knowledge which he gained from human 
 agents was the teaching of God. 
 
 In the sixth sura we meet with certain positive 
 precepts regarding food, where " that which dieth of 
 itself, or blood poured forth, or swine's flesh, or that 
 slain in the name of some other god " are forbidden 
 as an abomination (Sura vii. ii8). The ancient rites 
 and ceremonies of the temple at Mecca, the pilgrimage, 
 the circuits round the Kaaba, the accustomed sacri- 
 fices and vows, are still to continue in force, except 
 only that the faithful " depart from the abomination 
 of idols in associating any other with God" (Sura 
 xxii. 27—32). The horrible practice of infanticide, 
 viz. burying their daughters alive, which prevailed 
 among certain of the Arab tribes, is condemned and 
 forbidden, and those who slay their children threatened 
 with perdition (Sura vi. 138, and Ixxxi. 8, 9). 
 
 To this period, " when visions of a journey north 
 ward flitted before his imagination,"! belongs the 
 story of the celebrated " Night Journey" [Lailat-al- 
 Miraj] of the prophet from Mecca to Jerusalem, on 
 the winged steed AI-Borac, and thence by a ladder of 
 light above the seven heavens to the very presence 
 of God, whom '' he saw by the Lote Tree, beyond 
 which there is no passing" (Sura liii. 13, 14). For 
 Muir, "Life of Mahomet," ii. 219.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 141 
 
 the details of this revelation, ^ with all its later em- 
 bellishment of curious and extravagant fiction, dra\vn 
 from the legends of the Haggidah, and the dreams of 
 the Midrash and the Talmud, the prophet cannot, in 
 fairness, be made responsible. His simple account 
 of what was probably only a dream prompted by his 
 waking thoughts, is as follows : — " Praise be unto 
 Him, who transported his servant from the sacred 
 temple (at Mecca), to the farther temple (at Jerusalem), 
 the circuit of which we have blessed, that we might 
 show him some of our signs" (Sura xvii. i). I have 
 •already alluded to the repeated direction of Heaven 
 to the prophet " to withdraw from the unbelievers," 
 which occurs in many of the suras, ^ revealed when 
 thoughts of a sanctuary at Medina were present to 
 his mind, and when he was on the eve of his depar- 
 ture from Mecca. 
 
 Lastly, we have proof that he was now begin 
 ning to extend his study from the books of the Old 
 to those of the New Testament ; if, indeed, it may be 
 assumed that he ever consulted the original texts, 
 and did not content himself with gaining his know- 
 ledge from apocryphal sources, which have distorted 
 his views and tinged his words with their own 
 colouring. It may, I think, be assumed that 
 Mahomet got his information chiefly through these 
 and Jewish channels, and hence we shall see no 
 cause to wonder that he has adopted the teaching of 
 those who " killed the Prince of Peace," and " desired 
 
 ' For a curious account of the "night journey," vide Prideaux, 
 "Life of Mahomet," pp. 41-51 ; also Muir's "Life of Maho- 
 met," ii. 219-222; D'Herbelot, art. "Borak"; Lane, "Modem 
 Egyptians," ii. 225. ' Conf. Suras xliii. 89, vi. 112.
 
 142 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 a murderer to be given unto them";i and find no 
 reason to marvel at his incorrect views of the Saviour, 
 and of the introduction into the Koran of pueriHties 
 and apocryphal stories found in the " Gospel of the 
 In fancy. ''2 
 
 If such were, indeed, the case,^ it would account 
 to some extent for his unwavering hostility to the 
 doctrine of the divine Sonship, the mystery of the 
 Holy Incarnation of Him whom the Jews crucified, 
 and which would form a constant theme of denial for 
 their unhallowed tongues. The Scriptural doctrine 
 of the Three Persons of the Godhead contained in the 
 Old Testament, and unfolded in the New, is, as 
 might have been anticipated, strongly condemned 
 and repudiated by Mahomet. Thus, " Believe in 
 God and His Apostles, and say not there be three 
 Gods ; forbear this, it will be better for you. God 
 is but one God" (Sura iv. 169); and again, "They are 
 certainly infidels, who say, God is the third of Three ; 
 for there is no God besides one God" (Sura v. 7).* 
 
 It will be well in this place to consider what the 
 teaching of the Koran is regarding the birth, the 
 attributes, the mission, and death of our blessed 
 Lord ; and for this purpose I consider it best to use 
 the words of the book itself. The nineteenth sura, 
 
 ■ Acts iii. 14, 15. 
 
 * Vide Sale's " Koran," pp. 42, 118, notes. 
 
 ' We cannot doubt that many reasons of the strongest kind 
 would induce Mahomet to keep the sources of his information, 
 and the names of his instructors (if such he had), as secret as 
 possible. That he was suspected of having teachers we know. 
 
 * It seems clear that Mahomet had no correct grasp of the 
 Christian doctrine of the tri-unity of the Godhead.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 143 
 
 entitled " Mary" (Maryam), opens with an account 
 of " the mercy of the Lord to Zacharias," and tells of 
 his age and infirmities, his "fearing his nephews," 
 his childless state, his prayers for an heir, who in the 
 person of John is granted him, and how that son 
 was endowed with "wisdom and purity of life." 
 Then is given the " story of Mary, when she retired 
 from her family to a place towards the East — and 
 We, God, sent Gabriel unto her — a messenger of the 
 Lord — to give her a holy Son" (Sura xix. i6 — 19). 
 Another account is, that " The Angels said, O Mary, 
 verily God sendeth thee good tidings, thou shalt bear 
 the JVord, proceeding from Himself ; His name shall 
 be Christ Jesus, the Son of Mary ; but she answered. 
 Lord, how shall I have a son, since I know no man" 
 (Sura iii. 40-42). The account thus continues, " She 
 preserved her virginity, and unto her we breathed of 
 our Spirit, ordaining her and her son for a sign unto 
 all creatures" (Suras xxi. 91, and Ixvii. 12). 
 
 " Wherefore she conceived Him ; and she re- 
 tired aside with Him in her womb to a distant 
 place ; and the pains of childbirth came upon her 
 near the trunk of a palm-tree. She said, Would to 
 God I had died before this, and had become a thing 
 forgotten and lost in oblivion" (Sura xix. 22, 23). 
 But she is comforted by God eats the ripe dates 
 which fall from the tree, and drinks of a rivulet 
 miraculously provided ; and then brings the child 
 to her people, carrying Him on her arm (Sura 
 xix. 28). They accuse her of incontinence, and she 
 makes signs to the infant to answer them, " where- 
 upon the child said. Verily I am the servant of
 
 144 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 God ; ^ He hath given me the book of the Gospel, 
 and hath appointed me a prophet. And He hath 
 made me blessed — and dutiful towards my mother — 
 this is JesuSj the Son of Mary; the Word of Truth, 
 concerning whom they doubt. It is no*- meet for 
 God that He should have any Son; God forbid" 
 (Sura xix. 31-36). 
 
 Little information is given regarding the boyhood 
 and manner of life of Christ. " God," it is stated, 
 "strengthened Him with His Holy Spirit, ^ and 
 taught Him Scripture and wisdom and the law 
 and the Gospel, and appointed Him His apostle to 
 the children of Israel" (Sura iii. 43). The per- 
 formance of certain miracles is attributed to Him, 
 speaking to men in His cradle, making clay birds to 
 fly, giving sight to the blind, life to the dead, and 
 cleansing the lepers ; all done, not by His own 
 power, but " by the permission of God" (Sura iii. 
 4I5 and v. no). 
 
 The child Jesus, in His cradle, is made to utter 
 words which are meant to support the Mahometan 
 cultus, thus " Wheresoever I shall be : God hath 
 commanded me to observe prayer and to give alms 
 so long as I shall live " (Sura xix. 32). The feeding of 
 the multitudes in the wilderness and the institution 
 of the Last Supper are, it would seem, confounded in 
 the Koran : thus, " The apostles said, O Jesus, son of 
 
 ' The first words put into the mouth of the child Jesus are 
 intended to make Him deny His divine Sonship ; and the promi- 
 nent way in \\hich His human nature is indicated in the words 
 " Son of Mary" is doubtless intended to serve the same purpose. 
 
 * Suras ii. 81, t. 109.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. I45 
 
 Mary, is thy Lord able to cause a table to descend 
 from heaven ? we desire to eat thereof, that we may 
 know that thou hast told us the trutli. And Jesus 
 said, O God. our Lord, cause a table to descend unto 
 us from heaven, that the day of its descent may be- 
 come a festival unto us" (Sura v. 112-114). 
 
 \Vith regard to the Death of our blessed Lord, 
 the Koran denies that He was really put to death : thus, 
 " And they " (the Jews) " say. Verily, we have slain 
 Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, the Apostle of God ! 
 Yet they slew Him not, neither crucified Him, but He 
 was represented by one in His likeness ; they did not 
 really kill Him, but God took Him up unto Himself, 
 and God is mighty and wise" (Sura iv. 156). There 
 is a further account of the crucifixion : thus, " And 
 the Jews devised a stratagem against Him (Jesus) ; 
 but God devised a stratagem against them " ; and 
 this passage continues thus : " God said, O Jesus, 
 Verily I will cause thee to die, and I will take thee up 
 unto Me " (Sura iii. 47, 48). These apparently con- 
 tradictory passages have given much trouble to the 
 Mahometan commentators, who explain that " God's 
 stratagem " was in stamping the likeness of Jesus on 
 another person, who was apprehended, and suffered 
 the ignominious death in His stead. The death 
 which He is to suffer will, they say, occur " when He 
 shall return into the world before the Last Day."' 
 
 ' At Medina, in the "Hujrah," or chamber where Mahomet 
 is buried, a vacant tomb is left for " Seyedna Isa-bin-Maryam " 
 (Jesus Christ) at his second coming, where, on the fulfihnent of 
 His mission, He is to be buried. Cf. Burton, "El Med. and 
 El Mec," ii. S9 ; Lane, "Modem Egyptians," i. 93. 
 L 2
 
 146 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 The Saviour, they add, was allowed, after God took 
 Him up, to descend for the purpose of comforting His 
 mother and disciples, and telling them how the Jews 
 had been deceived ! Other explanations are given of 
 His death : that it was a spiritual death to all worldly 
 desires ; or a real one lasting a few hours.^ On this 
 head it should be added that certain heretical 
 Christian sects,^ at the very beginning of Christianity, 
 denied that Christ Himself suffered, but that Simon 
 the Cyrenean, or Judas, was crucified in His place. 
 
 Finally, the Koran, while acknowledging Christ 
 Jesus to be " honourable in this world and in the 
 world to come, and one of those who approach near 
 to the presence of God " (Sura ii. 40), asserts that 
 " He is no other than a servant whom God favoured 
 with the gift of prophecy " (Sura xliii. 59), and " is 
 not to be associated in that worship which is due to 
 God only" (Sura ix. 31). Such, then, is the teaching 
 of the Koran regarding the birth, the life, and the 
 death of our Lord and Saviour. 
 
 It is painful to read such words, but, such as 
 they are, they will give the Christian reader a just 
 conception of Mahomet's claim to inspiration, and 
 will satisfy him that the prophet of Mecca knew 
 nothing of the true nature of that Christianity about 
 which he ventures to write. Though he speaks of our 
 Lord always in terms of the highest respect, and makes 
 mention of certain of His miracles, he had no heart 
 to know the higher and more wondrous miracle of His 
 
 • Conf. Sale's " Koran," p. 43 ; Kasimirski, " Koran, "p. 60, 
 note. 
 
 * The Basilidians, the Cerinthians, and the Carpocratians.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 147 
 
 pure life, and of His love which sought by the death 
 on the Cross " to bring many sons to glory." With 
 the strangest inconsistency he calls Him, " The Word 
 of Truth," yet refuses to listen to the gracious words 
 which fell from His lips ; acknowledges that He was 
 " strengthened by the Spirit of God," yet repudiates 
 the honours which He claims ; and thus we find His 
 divine nature attacked. His precious death denied, 
 and no allusion made to that Redemption which was 
 purchased by His sufiferings on Calvary. 
 
 Vain, however, and illusory are his, and all other 
 human efforts to explain away the clear teaching 
 of Scripture, to rob the Son of Man of His divine 
 honours, and to leave Him but an inferior and dele- 
 gated authority. The eternal purpose of God revealed 
 to man in the Word of Truth will still stand firm and 
 unshaken before such attacks, and vindicate its autho- 
 rity when they shall have all perished under the 
 weight of their own inconsistencies and errors.^ 
 
 ' It need hardly be remarked that repudiation of the divinity 
 of Christ, and the denial of His death, strike directly at the root 
 of our Christian faith. Christ's divinity once set aside, and His 
 mission lowered to that of an Apostle only, room would be left 
 for similar successors, and a plausible justification of Mahomet's 
 pretensions would be thus provided (conf. Bishop Horsley's 
 Sermons, vol. iii. pp. 12, 13). The greatest inconsistency is 
 manifest in the Koran, which, while acknowledging the autho- 
 rity of the Old and New Testaments, and professing only to be 
 a continuation of God's revealed will, yet virtually gives these 
 very Scriptures the lie, by repudiating all the leading dogmas 
 of the Christian faith.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Mahomet's career at Medina. — [a.d. 622-632.] 
 
 We now return to take up the story of the prophet's 
 fortunes at Medina. He remained four days at 
 Coba ; and having satisfied himself that the general en- 
 thusiasm, and the curiosity to see the man whose name 
 was so great in Arabia had lulled the active passions 
 of contending faction, he made his almost triumphal 
 entry into Medina. Seated on his camel, he allowed 
 the animal unchecked to select the spot for his future 
 residence. The place thus chosen was a piece of waste 
 ground within the eastern limits of the city, and near 
 the house of one Abu Ayub,^ under whose roof he re- 
 sided for seven months. His table was amply sup- 
 plied by the voluntary offerings of the Faithful. The 
 Avork of erecting a mosque and suitable dwellings was 
 the first business of the prophet and his followers. 
 The ground, Avhich he bought, was cleared and le- 
 velled, and a temple, some hundred cubits square, 
 arose on the site where now stands the large and 
 beautiful mosque which bears his name.^ 
 
 * This Abu Ayah was afterwards (A.D. 672) killed at the 
 siege of Constantinople, and gave his name to the "Mosque of 
 Ayoub," at the northern end of the Golden Horn. 
 
 ^ For a detailed description of the Masjid-a!-Nabi at Medina, 
 Z7</^ Burton, " El Meccah and El Medinah," vol. ii. chap. xvi.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 1 49 
 
 Round the temple rose, in process of time, apart- 
 ments for his wives as they were gradually added. 
 At first two only were built, one for Sawda, and a 
 second for Ayesha, then in her tenth year, who for the 
 consummation of her nuptials took possession, with 
 unostentatious pomp, of that chamber which was de- 
 stined to be the burial-place of her husband. Regular 
 services were commenced, Mahomet or some vicar 
 appointed by him leading the daily public prayers ; 
 whilst on Friday, at the mid-day office, all the Faithful 
 were expected to be present. 
 
 In his marriage with Ayesha, which took place in 
 the winter of A.D. 622-623, Mahomet gave practical 
 effect to his previous sanction of polygamy, on which 
 the following remarks may be made. It is not appa- 
 rent, from any facts we know, that Mahomet is per- 
 sonally to be blamed for the step he thus took. In 
 the histories of the Old Testament, of which he had 
 been no idle student, he would find numerous ex- 
 amples of its practice by patriarchs and kings, with 
 the tacit approval, certainly without the expressed 
 reprehension, of a higher power ; and though con- 
 demned by the purer teaching of Christianity, we 
 cannot assume that he was aware of this fact. More- 
 over, he found it sanctioned by the example of the 
 Jews, universally the custom in Arabia, and practised by 
 his most devoted followers ; and it may be concluded, 
 either that its practical working failed to impress him 
 with the desirability of interfering with its existence, 
 or, if in any way alive to its evils, that he shrank from 
 the task of setting himself in opposition to this, the 
 most cherished privilege of his pleasure-loving disciples.
 
 150 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 Therefore, though it is to be doubted whether he 
 ever seriously contemplated the practical results of 
 his legislation on this subject, having in the Koran 
 sanctioned the practice of polygamy, he must be held 
 responsible for the long train of degrading conse- 
 quences which have followed the licence thus esta- 
 blished, " which has undoubtedly proved, in its ulti- 
 mate results, one of the greatest and most fearful evils 
 of the Mahometan system." ^ 
 
 It may be well in this place to consider what the 
 teaching of the Koran is on the subject. In the 
 4th sura, entitled " Women," among various direc- 
 tions regarding their years of orphanage, inherit- 
 ances, chastity, and the forbidden degrees, permission 
 is given to the Faithful " to take two, or three, or four, 
 and not more " women as wives (verse 3), and in ad- 
 dition to these as concubines, the slave -girls, " which 
 their right hands possess " (Sura Ixx. 30),-^ that is, 
 purchased or made captive in war. In reality, the 
 number of wves is practically unlimited, as the Koran 
 allows an almost unchecked power of divorce and 
 exchange (Sura iv. 18). The action of the husband, 
 who is expressly stated to be superior to the wife, is 
 
 ' Freeman, "History of the Saracens," p. 53. 
 
 ^ Muir, " Life of Mahomet," ii. 140, note; iii. 305. So long as 
 this unUmited permission of cohabitation with their female slave 
 continues, it cannot be expected that there will be any hearty 
 attempt to put a stop to slaver}-, whatever form it takes, in 
 Mahometan countries. Though Mahomet, in some respects 
 undoubtedly ameliorated the condition of slaves, there is suffi- 
 cient proof that he looked upon it as a permanent institution 
 (cf. Sura xxiv. 33; Muir, iv. 239, 321 ; and Hughes, Notes on 
 Mahommedanism, p. 185).
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 151 
 
 nearly uncontrolled.- He may repudiate his wives 
 \vithout any assigned reason, and without warning ; 
 may, if apprehensive of disobedience, rebuke, imprison, 
 and strike them (Sura iv. 28) ; and against this the 
 dishonoured spouse has almost no means of redress.^ 
 
 Exposed to the tyranny of her husband, and 
 treated as a kind of plaything, — a being formed for 
 lust and labour, to be capriciously flung aside on the 
 least provocation, or in a moment of anger, or for 
 mere dislike, — she is worse than a slave. Such a 
 system is intolerable, indeed, to a feeling heart, and 
 consistent only with that social degradation of the 
 sex which is its inseparable attendant. The very 
 caprice of the husband is encouraged by the permis- 
 sion granted of twice repudiating and twice receiving 
 back the same woman. If he a third time divorce 
 her, she cannot again become his wife till she have 
 married, cohabited with, and been divorced by some 
 other man (Sura ii. 230). 
 
 The majority of Mahometans, constrained by 
 poverty or custom, content themselves with one wife ; 
 and though such marriages may be, and doubtless are, 
 often happy ones, still the wife, under the licence of 
 the Koran, has continually hanging over her head the 
 apprehension of divorce, and this cannot but prove an 
 abiding source of uneasiness to her. However ex- 
 emplary and devoted her conduct, she may at any 
 moment be called upon to quit her home and her 
 children, and see her place occupied by some younger 
 
 ' Lane, " Modern Egyptians," vol. i. it,() et scq. 
 - She can claim the balance of her dowry, generally a ver}' 
 insignificant sum, and maintenance for three months.
 
 152 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 and more favoured stranger. Some Mahometans make 
 a habit of continually changing their wives. We read 
 of young men who have had twenty and thirty wives — 
 a new one every three months; and thus it comes 
 about that women are liable to be indefinitely trans- 
 ferred from one man to another, obliged to accept a 
 husband and a home wherever they can find one, or 
 in case of destitution, to which divorce may have re- 
 duced them, resort to other more degrading means 
 of living. 
 
 Further evils follow this pernicious system, which 
 cannot here be particularly recorded. Enough has 
 been said to show the practical working of the rules 
 of the Koran on the important subject of marriage 
 and divorce — rules which strike at the root of all 
 morality, brutalize man, degrade women, and render 
 the Christian ideal of domestic life an impossibility ; 
 and yet for them is claimed a divine origin, and they 
 are emphatically called " the ordinances of God de- 
 clared to people of understanding " 1 (Sura ii. 230). 
 
 On this subject it may be well to remark that the 
 popular idea of the exclusion of women from the 
 Paradise of Mahomet is quite erroneous. Though no 
 details of the delights in store for them are vouchsafed 
 by the prophet — for on this point he observes a pru- 
 dent reticence — we are informed that " God will lead 
 the believers of both sexes to the gardens of delight."^ 
 
 ' Conf. Dent. xxiv. 3, 4, for the purer and stricter regulations 
 of the Mosaic law of divorce. Conf. Sale, D. P., sec. vi. ; Muir, 
 iii. 300-307. 
 
 ^ Conf. Sura xlviii. 5 ; iv. 123. The reader will call to mind 
 Gibbon's remarks on Mahomet's silence in this particular.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 1 53 
 
 It cannot be imagined that Mahomet's arrival 
 in Medina, and his powerful position there, as the 
 actual prophet and prince over his own sect, and as 
 possessing a dominating authority in the city, proved 
 in all respects acceptable to those who either disbe- 
 lieved his claims, or viewed with jealousy the rising 
 power of the stranger. And so it was that, both 
 among the Jews, who were numerous at Medina, and 
 the Arabs, who still dallied with the old idolatry, ele- 
 ments of antagonism came to light. The "Disaffected,"^ 
 as they are called, are bitterly inveighed against in 
 the Koran ; hell-fire, it is stated, is to be their por- 
 tion; and a whole sura (Ixii.) is devoted to an expo- 
 sition of their lying and their wicked conduct in 
 seeking " to set the inhabitants " against the prophet 
 of God. 
 
 With the Jews, on his first arrival, he made a 
 treaty of alliance, by which the free exercise of their 
 worship, and the possession of their rights and pro- 
 perty was guaranteed ; but it soon became apparent 
 that the two sects could not exist harmoniously side 
 by side. Mahomet's conduct in his dealings with the 
 rival religionists is very instructive. In his earlier 
 inspirations he had spoken of them as the chosen of 
 heaven, and their books as having divine authority, 
 and had, as we have seen, heaped together facts drawn 
 from their sacred canon to illustrate the truth of his 
 mission. He had acknowledged that a strict com- 
 pliance with the Mosaic ritual was compatible with 
 future salvation ; he had fixed upon their holy i)lace 
 
 ' Sura iv. 144. The original ("Munaficun") is by Sale ren. 
 dered by the word "Hypocrites."
 
 154 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 at Jerusalem as the Kibla of his faith ; and in many 
 ways sought to conciliate them and gain their weighty 
 testimony to the truth of his claims : but all had been 
 in vain ; he found that they disbelieved his assertions, 
 mocked at his revelations, and gave out that in their 
 prophetic books no authority for his pretensions was 
 to be found. 
 
 Mahomet was not without resource. He em- 
 ployed his old weapons against them ; accused 
 them of rejecting their Messiah ; asserted that they 
 systematically concealed all the passages foretelling 
 his appearance ; and that on them as on their fathers, 
 who had rejected the preaching of Noah and of 
 Abraham, was fallen a thick darkness, — eyes that 
 would not see, ears that would not hear the latest 
 message of Heaven delivered by his lips. To embit- 
 tered feelings succeeded menacing words ; and the 
 Jews of Medina soon felt the power and hostility of 
 the prophet's arm.- 
 
 Established thus in a position of security, Ma- 
 homet began to cast his eyes abroad upon other 
 scenes. His strength was to go forward, and to find 
 employment for the eager passions of his disciples, 
 who, in the chilly atmosphere of Medina, sighed for a 
 return to their warmer home at Mecca. In the winter 
 of A.D. 622-23, and during the ensuing year, various 
 plundering expeditions, under Hamza, Obeida, and 
 the prophet himself, left Medina, chiefly with the 
 object of intercepting the caravan trade between 
 Mecca and Syria ; and though few prisoners and 
 
 It was about this time that the "Kibla," as above related, 
 was changed from Jerusalem to Mecca.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. I55 
 
 little booty were taken, the Coreish had reason to 
 know that they could no longer reckon on immunity 
 from molestation in their future mercantile expedi- 
 tions. 
 
 In November 623 an expedition of eight of the 
 " Fugitives " was sent to lie in wait in the valley of 
 Nakhia ; and within one of the four sacred months 
 surprised a Meccan convoy. One man was killed, 
 two of tlie Coreish taken prisoners, and the camels 
 with their loads carried off to Medina. " This was 
 the first booty the Mussulmans obtained, the first 
 captives they seized, the first life they took " ; ' and 
 though the attack had been made in the holy month 
 Rajab, which even the Pagan Arabs respected, a 
 convenient revelation justified the supposed desecra- 
 tion, and established that to kill the unbelievers is 
 less grievous than idolatry, and to war in the sacred 
 months than to obstruct the way to the holy temple.- 
 
 Thus as regards the idolaters the scabbard was 
 thrown away from the aggressive sword of Islam, 
 all former words of forbearance cast to the winds. 
 To this period may probably be attributed the 
 Divine command, " to fight against the idolaters 
 until the religion be the Lord's alone" ;■' the fearful 
 are reproved, war encouraged, nay commanded, 
 though it be irksome ; and Paradise guaranteed as 
 the reward of those who fall in the fight.* We shall 
 find, at a later period, how this command was ex- 
 tended to regulate the treatment of Christians and 
 Jews. 
 
 ' Muir, iii. 75. ' Conf. Sura ii. 214. 
 
 •* Sura ii. 189. ■* Sura xlvii. 4-7.
 
 156 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 ■ The affair at Nakhla Avas followed by the cele- 
 brated battle of Badr. In January 624, on the 
 return journey of the Meccan caravan from Syria, 
 Mahomet determined to attempt its capture, and 
 for this purpose set out from Medina with 305 of 
 the " Fugitives " and " Ansar," and encamped by the 
 fountains. Though Abu-Sofian succeeded by forced 
 marches in placing his convoy beyond danger, it was 
 settled that a body of troops, numbering about 950, 
 which, under Abu-Jahl, had been sent from Mecca to 
 his assistance, should advance and measure swords 
 with the Moslems. The battle began with a series of 
 single combats, in which Hamza — the Lion of God — 
 Ali and Obeida encountered and slew Otba, Walid, 
 and Shuiba. The engagement then became general, 
 " the army of the Faithful was borne forward by an 
 enthusiasm which the Coreish were unable to with- 
 stand " ; 1 their line, notwithstanding their superior 
 number, began to waver, and the retreat quickly 
 became an ignominious flight. Forty-nine of the 
 Meccans perished, and an equal number were taken 
 prisoners : on the side of Mahomet fourteen fell. 
 
 Of the prisoners some were slain on the field, and 
 others afterwards put to death in cold blood ; for 
 we learn that on the evening of the battle, in the 
 valley of Otheil, Mahomet sanctioned the slaughter 
 of Nadr ; and two days after that of one Ocba, for 
 the comforting sight of whose blood he returned 
 thanks to Heaven. A justification of these unwar- 
 rantable deeds was subsequently vouchsafed, and is 
 
 ' Muir, iii. 105.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 1 57 
 
 found in the Koran. ^ A dispute regarding the distri- 
 bution of the booty necessitated an especial revela- 
 tion, which established the principle that one-fifth 
 part was to be " for God and his Apostle," and the 
 remainder distributed equally between " those who had 
 fought and those who had stayed under the ensigns." ^ 
 
 Such was the memorable battle of Badr, in- 
 significant, jierh.aps, in the numbers engaged, but 
 stupendous in its ultimate results. The prophet had 
 drawn the sword, and submitted the proof and justi- 
 fication of his claims to its capricious decision, for on 
 its victory or defeat the cause of Islam was to stand 
 or fall.3 
 
 On his return to Medina, Mahomet found his 
 I)Osition much strengthened, and he assumed a dicta- 
 torial tone Avhich demanded unhesitating obedience. 
 We can hardly doubt, too, that the sight of the 
 spoils and the prisoners, whose money ransom was 
 permitted, provided his disciples with proofs of the 
 divinity of Islam as convincing as the laboured argu- 
 ments and measured cadences of the Koran. With 
 the Jews it was different. They were unimpressed with 
 the validity of such mundane reasoning, refused to 
 relinquish the faith of their fathers, and still ridiculed 
 the prophet; and so the angry feelings of the two 
 
 ' Sura viii. 68-76. 
 
 " Sale's note, "Koran," sura viii. p. 139. Also conf. i Sam. 
 XXX. 20-25. The prophet's fifth part was the " Sadacat," "for 
 himself and his family, the orphans, the poor, and the traveller " 
 (Sura viii. 5). 
 
 * The victory is attributed to the direct assistance of God, and 
 it is intimated that 3,000 angels fought for the Moslems (Sura 
 iii. 13, 119).
 
 158 ISLAiM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 sects grew more and more intense ; secret assassi- 
 nations, stimulated by Mahomet, struck them with 
 an undefined terror, showed the dangerous brink on 
 which they stood, and convinced them that a plausible 
 excuse only was wanted for open rupture. 
 
 This soon presented itself. An Arab girl, the 
 wife of a convert, was insulted by a youth of the 
 Beni-Cainucaa, one of the chief Jewish tribes in 
 Medina ; bloodshed followed, and taking advantage 
 of this circumstance, the whole tribe was attacked, 
 proscribed, and banished. Their lands, houses, and 
 goods were confiscated, and divided among the 
 victors. In the course of the same year (A.D. 624) 
 one Kab-ibn-Ashraff, a Jew who had annoyed the 
 Moslems with his verses, was at Mahomet's instiga- 
 tion assassinated under circumstances of the blackest 
 treachery.^ In his domestic relations Mahomet had 
 to mourn the death of his daughter Rockeya. During 
 the winter months he married his fourth wife, Haphsa, 
 the daughter of Omar; and in January, A.D. 625, 
 was born his grandson Hasan, the son of Fatima 
 and Ali. 
 
 At Mecca the tidings of the disastrous defeat 
 at Badr aroused the bitterest feelings of anger, and 
 passionate cries for vengeance arose on every side, 
 and in particular from Hind, the wife of Abu Sofian, 
 whose father, brother, and uncle had fallen. On the 
 opening of the year 625 alarming rumours of an 
 attack on Medina reached the ears of the Prophet, 
 and soon the news was sent him by his uncle Abbas 
 that a force of 3,000 men had taken the northern 
 
 ■ Conf. Muir, iii. 143.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 159 
 
 route. In ten days the Meccan army reached Dzul- 
 Hahfa, four miles south of Medina, and thence 
 striking to the north, encamped to the west of Ohod, 
 an isolated mountain, some three miles north-east 
 of the city, and there began to ravage the fields. On 
 the side of the Moslems, it was at first decided to 
 await the attack within the city ; but bolder counsels 
 prevailed, and Mahomet, clad in armour, led out his 
 army of i,ooo men, and halted for the night. At 
 early da^vn he advanced on Ohod, and occupied the 
 sloping ground at the western side, where his rear 
 was protected by its rising spurs. Here he was aban- 
 doned by Abdallah, chief of the " Hypocrites," with 
 300 of his followers. 
 
 Of the Meccan army, the right was commanded 
 by Khalid, in after days so valiant a champion 
 of the faith he now sought to destroy, the centre, 
 by Abu Sofian, and the left by Ikrema, the son of 
 Abu Jahl, whose death at Badr he thirsted to avenge. 
 The standard was borne by Talha, who had inherited 
 the privilege from his ancestor Abd-al-Dar. The 
 battle, as seems to have been usual at the time, began 
 with a succession of single combats, in which Hamza 
 and Ali slew their opponents, and the engagement then 
 became general. The Meccans were carried away 
 before the fierce onslaught of th.e Moslems ; but the 
 latter pressing too hotly, the fortune of the day was 
 entirely changed by Khalid. The prophet, who had 
 vainly attempted to check the fugitives, was twice 
 wounded and fell, but succeeded in reaching a place 
 of safety among the ravines of Ohod. Seventy-four 
 of the Moslems lay dead on the field ; and among 
 
 M
 
 l6o ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 Others the gallant Hamza, who had been brought 
 lifeless to the ground by a wild negro, whom the fury 
 Hind had, by the promise of freedom, thus engaged 
 to satisfy her revenge. After the fight she gloated 
 over the body of her victim, tore out the heart, and 
 gnawed it with her teeth ! On the evening of the 
 battle the Coreish retreated, and Mahomet, after 
 burying the dead, amidst the wailing of distress, 
 began the homeward march. I have before made 
 mention of the revelation which came to still the 
 murmurs of those who had lost relatives at Ohod. 
 
 During the year 625 various expeditions were 
 sent abroad to propagate the faith and to check 
 hostile movements among neighbouring tribes ; and 
 in these murder and treachery play an important 
 part. From certain political complications Mahomet 
 continued, without any adequate reason, to pick a 
 quarrel with the Jewish tribe of the Beni Nadhir, 
 whose stronghold, Zohara, lay a few miles to the 
 south of Medina. Refusing to listen to any explana- 
 tion, he bid them, in the name of the Lord, go forth 
 from their homes on pain of death. They were obliged 
 to obey his stern mandate and give up their houses 
 and lands, which were forthwith divided among the 
 " Fugitives." The Koran contains a song of praise to 
 God, in which the Prophet records his thankfulness 
 for having been enabled successfully to accomplish 
 the spoliation and banishment of this unoffending 
 people.^ 
 
 I return to the domestic affairs of the prophet. 
 
 ^ Conf. Sura lix. 1-8 ei seq. ; Muir, iii. 208 ; W. Irving, chap, 
 xxi. ; and Sale's notes, ad loc.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER l6l 
 
 In December, 625, he married his fifth wife, Zeinab, 
 daughter of Khozeima, whose husband had fallen at 
 Badr. In January, 626, a sixth, Om-Salma, widow of 
 one of the heroes of Ohod; and six months later 
 (June), Zeinab-bint-Jahsh, the divorced wife of his 
 adopted son Zeid On a certain day, Mahomet 
 entering unexpectedly the house of Zeid, had a 
 momentary glimpse of the charms of his beautiful 
 wife, and uttered a cry of passionate admiration. 
 The circumstance was reported, and the disciple, by 
 an immediate divorce, enabled the prophet to add a 
 new bride to his harem. 
 
 By these marriages — for he had then six living 
 wives — the legal number allowed to the Faithful^ 
 had been overstepped, and, moreover, his alliance 
 A\ith the wafe of his adopted son was considered highly 
 improper, if not incestuous. But Mahomet had an 
 easy and effectual method of silencing present 
 scandal and avoiding further complication by an 
 additional Sura to the Koran; thus: "O Prophet, 
 we have allowed thee wives — and also the slaves 
 which thy right hand possesseth — and any other be- 
 lieving woman, if she give herself, and the Prophet 
 desireth to take her to wife. This is a peculiar privi- 
 lege granted thee above the rest of the believers " 
 (Sura xxxiii. 49— 51). It is impossible to avoid won- 
 dering at the strange credulity of his followers, who, 
 with seemingly undiminished faith, allowed ' him the 
 aid of inspiration as a pander to his personal predi- 
 lections. 
 
 Regarding the fair Zeinab, it was laid down 
 ' Sura iv. 3. 
 M 2
 
 1 62 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 that she was joined to the prophet by the will of 
 Heaven, to show that believers commit no sin in 
 ' marrying the wives of their adopted sons." i The 
 special revelation given forth to sanction this mar- 
 riage is, by the ablest writer on the subject,^ justly 
 stigmatized as an act of " impious effrontery " ; and 
 another author is obliged to confess that his relaxation 
 of the marriage rules in his own favour "is the greatest 
 stain, and an indelible one, on his memory." ^ 
 
 In the same chapter^ certain rules are laid down 
 regarding the conduct to be observed by visitors. 
 Guests and strangers are not to enter his habitations 
 uninvited; they are to use no familiarity, but are 
 quickly to depart ; they are to speak to his wives 
 " from behind a curtain " ; are to give the apostle of 
 God no uneasiness in these particulars ; and, above 
 all, are forbidden " to marry his wives after him at 
 any time, — verily that would be an enormity in the 
 sight of God." 
 
 An expedition (December, 626) to the wells of 
 Muraisi, north of Jiddah, on the seashore, resulted in 
 the defeat of the Beni-Mustalick and the capture of a 
 
 • Sura xxxiii. 37. Zeinab boasted to the other wives of the 
 prophet that /ler marriage alone had been ratified in Heaven. 
 Zeid is the only "companion" mentioned byname in the Koran 
 (Kasimirski, p. 347). - Muir, iii. 230. 
 
 ^ Bosworth Smith, " Mohammed," p. 88. Mr. Smith thinks 
 Mahomet "may have justified himself to his own mind by the 
 Ethiopian marriage not condemned in the case of Moses." He 
 appears to assume that this was a second wife of Moses ; but 
 there is no proof of this, or that Zipporah is not identical with 
 the "Cushite woman" (Forster, " Geog. of Arabia," vol. i. 
 o. 12). ■• Sura xxxiii. 53.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 1 63 
 
 large number of persons. Among the captives was 
 Juweiria, the beautiful daughter of the chief, who, on 
 a question of her ransom, appealed to the prophet, 
 was viewed with eyes of desire, and, after embracing 
 the faith, became his eighth wife. 
 
 The expedition is memorable for the adventure 
 which, for a time, compromised the reputation of 
 Ayesha. By accident she was left behind on the 
 return journey to Medina. On the arrival of the con- 
 voy, she was found absent from her litter, but soon 
 after appeared seated on the camel of one Safwan. 
 Scandal was soon busy in putting the worst con- 
 struction on her conduct. The prophet was distressed 
 at the misadventure which had befallen his best beloved 
 wife, and for a month forsook her society ; after which 
 a revelation established her innocence and restored 
 her to his arms. This circumstance gave rise to the 
 Moslem law regarding adultery, which necessitates 
 the production of four witnesses to substantiate the 
 charge against "women of reputation," and further 
 directs that they who make a folse accusation of this 
 kind are to be beaten with fourscore stripes.^ If 
 convicted, the Koran lays down that wives '• are to 
 be imprisoned in a separate apartment till death re- 
 lease them."- By the Sunnah, the punishment, 
 according to a supposed abrogated passage, was 
 directed to be death by stoning.^ In Egypt, the 
 usual punishment of the offence is drowning. The 
 
 ' Sura xxiv. 4. Mahomet consulted Ali about Ayesha. At 
 first he seemed inclined to suspect her chastity. She never 
 forgave him. ' Sura iv. 19. 
 
 ' Conf. Sale, P. D., sec. 3. Comp. St. Jolin viii. 4-1 1.
 
 164 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 legislation of the Koran in this particular, and as 
 regards murder, theft, mutilation, &c., owing to its 
 cruelty, inconsistency, and inadequacy, has, in many 
 particulars, been neglected, if not altogether set 
 aside, in the more advanced countries where Islam 
 prevails.! Fornication is forbidden, is declared to 
 be wickedness and an evil way,^ and is to be 
 punished, in either sex, by 100 stripes. Marriage 
 with a harlot is forbidden to true believers.^ But 
 however salutary Mahomet may have considered these 
 regulations, the almost unlimited licence in marriage 
 and divorce enables offenders to set them at defiance.^ 
 
 The opening of the year 627 (March) saw the 
 prophet threatened with a formidable danger. Abu 
 Sofian, the chief of Mecca, had engaged a number of 
 Bedouin tribes to assist him in making a united attack 
 on the rising power, and had advanced on Medina with 
 some ten thousand men. The Moslems intrenched 
 and fortified their city, and were content to repel the 
 attack from behind their walls. During a fruitless 
 siege of fifteen days, mutual jealousy and disaffection 
 paralyzed the efforts of the besiegers. A terrific 
 storm which fell on their camp hastened their retreat, 
 and filled them with the apprehension that the very 
 elements were leagued on the side of the apostle of 
 God. 
 
 Then follows a crime memorable for its atro- 
 
 ' FiV/i? Monier Williams, "Indian Wisdom," p. 273. Code 
 of Manu. ' Sura xvii. 34. 
 
 ' Sura xxiv. 3. 
 
 * Vide Lane, " Modern Egyptians," ii. 98, and note. See 
 also i. 141, 409, If/ se^.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 165 
 
 city and for the view it affords us of the sanguinary- 
 principles which, at this time, regulated Mahomet's 
 conduct. On the arrival of the confederates they had 
 found means to win over the Beni Coreitza, a Jewish 
 tribci whose possessions lay exposed to attack, and 
 who had indeed entered into terms of alliance with 
 Mahomet, but whose compact with him "was of a 
 weak and precarious nature." Though their defection, 
 which amounted to little more than neutrality, at 
 such a critical moment, might have warranted Ma- 
 homet in expelling them from their possessions it by no 
 means justified the slaughter which followed. On the 
 retreat of Abu Sofian they were besieged, reduced to 
 extremity, and had to surrender at discretion. Their 
 fate was left to the decision of a chief of the Beni 
 Aws, and by him the men were adjudged to death, 
 and the women and children to slavery. In com- 
 panies of five or six the horror-stricken Jews, to the 
 number of some 800, were led out, and, in Mahomet's 
 presence, butchered in cold blood ! One shudders at 
 the recital of this horrible transaction, and at the 
 picture of the man, who, unmoved to pity, nay more, 
 with fierce denunciation,^ could witness the awful 
 carnage to its end — a deed in its atrocity comparable 
 to the Massacre at Melos,^ and to the act of that 
 sanguinary \vrctch who directed the blood-bath of 
 Stockholm. 
 
 Yet in the Koran this accursed slaughter is ap- 
 plauded, attributed to divine interposition, and pro- 
 nounced consonant with the love and compassion 
 
 ' Muir, iii. 277. * Thucydides, v. 116,
 
 1 66 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 of the All-merciful I^ Muir justly remarks that "the 
 butchery of the Coreitza leaves a dark stain of infamy 
 on the character of Mahomet." ^ Among the cap- 
 tives was a Jewess (Rihana), whose charms had 
 caught his eye. Refusing the position of a wife, she 
 became his slave and concubine, on his return from 
 the spot where he had just witnessed the bleeding 
 corpse of her husband, and the destruction of all her 
 male relatives ! 
 
 The truth is that Mahomet had by this time 
 become deeply, nay irreconcilably hostile to the Jews 
 of Medina. At first indeed he had availed himself 
 of their aid in establishing himself in their midst, but 
 now, when success enabled him to slight their assist- 
 ance, he threw them contemptuously aside, and 
 eagerly availed himself of any plausible excuse for 
 their destruction. In addition, his dark suspicions 
 were aroused that a lingering illness which troubled 
 him was due to certain " Enchantments " they had 
 directed against him. The 113th Sura is a short 
 prayer to God for deliverance from " the mischief of 
 the night when it cometh on, and from the mischief 
 of women blowing on knots, &c."2 We may gather 
 
 ' Sura xxxiii. 22-27; and Sale's note; W. Irving, p. 116. 
 
 ^ Muir, iii. 284. Bosworth Smith (Mohammed, p. 90) calls 
 this act, "in all its accessories, one of cold-blooded and in- 
 human atrocity." 
 
 * In accordance with their prophet's belief in magic, incanta- 
 tions, &c., the use of charms and amulets is universal among 
 Mahometans, to counteract the influence of enchantments, dis- 
 ease, the evil eye, &c. Of these charms, the most potent is a 
 copy of the Koran ; but the Faithful, as a rule, content them- 
 selves with certain verses only, invoking God's protection against
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 1 67 
 
 from this prayer some knowledge of the superstitious 
 fears, and that dread of the Unseen, which formed 
 so curious a feature in the complex character of 
 Mahomet. 
 
 I pass over the remaining events of the year 
 (A.D. 627), which are a repetition of the usual expe- 
 ditions for plunder, for dispersing robber bands, or for 
 repelling the encroachments of other tribes for pas- 
 turage. During this time, we know, assassinations 
 were deliberately planned by Mahomet, and the 
 perpetrators blessed and rewarded; and we also 
 meet with instances at this period of the barbarous 
 mutilation of captives. On this head the Koran 
 directs " that the enemies of God and of his 
 Apostle shall be slain, or crucified, or have their 
 hands and feet cut off, or be banished the land." ' 
 Theft is to be punished thus : " If a man or a woman 
 steal, cut off their hands." ^ The law of " life for life, 
 eye for eye," and that wounds are to be punished with 
 the like,^ is retained in full force. Thus, then, we 
 have the Jewish law of retaliation — abolished by the 
 Christian dispensation '^ — revived in the Koran, and 
 
 the devil. Of these, Suras xii. 64, xv. 7, xxxvii. 7 maybe noted. 
 The first of these is as follows : — " God is the best protector." 
 The texts are written out and enclosed in amulets, and worn 
 on the neck or arm. Bits of the " Kiswa," or silken covering 
 of the Kaaba, which is renewed annually, are considered very 
 efficacious. 
 
 ' Sura V. 37. * Sura v. 42. ^ y^^^ y ^g 
 
 * St. Matthew V. 38, 39. Conf. Lane, "Modern Lg>'ptians," 
 i. 146 : "At El Medinah justice is administered in perfect con- 
 formity with the Shariat, or Holy Law." (Burton, ii. p. 281, 
 note.) See also Sale, "Koran," sura v. p. 87, note.
 
 1 68 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 express sanction given to the barbarous practice of 
 mutilation. 
 
 The recurrence of the holy month, Dzul-Caada, 
 of the next year (Feb. 628), recalled to the mind of 
 Mahomet and of his followers thoughts of the cus- 
 tomary pilgrimage, and of their homes at Mecca, 
 from which they had been excluded for six years. To 
 gratify the wishes of his disciples, and to remind them 
 that the ceremonies of the Kaaba, apart from idolatry, 
 were included in their faith, he determined to lead 
 his followers to the holy shrine. Numbering some 
 1,500 men they left Medina, but, when within two 
 days' march of Mecca, their advance was checked by 
 the Coreish, and Mahomet, turning to the west from 
 Osfan, encamped at Al Hodeibia, on the border of 
 the "Sacred territory."^ At this spot, a treaty, called 
 " the truce of Hodeibia," was concluded, which sti- 
 pulated that all hostilities should cease for ten years, 
 and that for the future the Moslems should have the 
 privilege, unmolested, of pa)dng a yearly visit of three 
 days to the holy shrine. After sacrificing the victims, 
 Mahomet returned to Medina. 
 
 As about this period (A.D. 628) Mahomet sent 
 embassies to certain foreign sovereigns, inviting them 
 and their subjects to embrace Islam, it may be well 
 to consider the political condition, at the time, of 
 the countries bordering on Arabia. 
 
 The royal dynasty of Persia belonged to the race 
 of the Sassanidae, of whom the most illustrious, 
 Chosroes, surnamed Nushirvan, reigned at the time of 
 
 ' The "sacred territory" (Haram) extends to a distance of 
 some seven to ten miles round Mecca.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 1 69 
 
 Mahomet's birth. After the fall of the Emperor 
 Alexander, Persia had been subject in succession to 
 the Macedonian kings of Syria — the Seleucidos — and 
 to the Parthian monarchs ; but, after six centuries of 
 bondage, the foreign yoke was broken, and Persia 
 became subject to kings of indigenous birth. 
 
 Their religion was the Magian creed of Zoroaster, 
 which, though acknowledging only the two great 
 opposing powers of light and darkness, of good and 
 evil, of Ormuzd and Ahriman, had fallen from its 
 original purity, and the sacred fire had become the 
 visible symbol of idolatrous worship. 
 
 Chosroes — called also Khosru Parviz — the Persian 
 King, to avenge the murder (A.D. 602) of his 
 friend Maurice, Emperor of Constantinople, attacked 
 the tyrant Phokas, v;ho had seated himself on the 
 throne, and continued the war against the Byzantine 
 empire for more than twenty years. Heraclius, 
 son of the Exarch of Africa, deposed and slew 
 Phokas ; and after a variety of fortunes totally 
 overthrew the Persians in the decisive victory of 
 Nineveh (A.D. 627). Chosroes was soon after mur- 
 dered by his son and successor Siroes (Feb. 62 S). 
 
 To Siroes and Heraclius ambassadors were sent 
 by Mahomet. The former on receipt of the pro- 
 phet's letter tore it to pieces ; the latter (who at 
 the time was on a pilgrimage from Edessa to Jeru- 
 salem, as a thanksgiving for his victory) received the 
 despatch with much more courtesy, but probably 
 threw it aside, as " the production of some harmless 
 fanatic". ^ 
 
 ' Muir, iv. 53.
 
 170 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 Egypt and Syria had for centuries been portions of 
 the Roman Empire, but, though professing the Chris- 
 tian faith, they had adopted a form of it " aUen from 
 the standard of Roman and Byzantine orthodoxy." ^ 
 In both provinces the Nestorian and Jacobite heresies 
 had taken deep root, and other elements of discord 
 there were, which rendered their loyalty to the cen- 
 tral power weak, and ready to be broken at the ap- 
 proach of the first resolute invader. 
 
 On the arrival of the envoys, Muckonckas, the 
 Roman governor of Egypt, treated them with honour, 
 and sent as presents to the prophet a white mule and 
 two Coptic girls. Of the latter, the fair features and 
 curling hair of Mary captivated the heart of Mahomet, 
 and she became his concubine. In Syria, the em- 
 bassy was treated with contempt by the Christian 
 Prince of Ghassan. In Yemen, which before this 
 time had become a dependency of the Persian Court, 
 better success awaited his ambassadors. The gover- 
 nor, Badsan, who then resided at Sana, freed from 
 his allegiance by the death of Chosroes, signified his 
 adhesion to the prophet. The messengers to the 
 Court of Axum in Abyssinia were well received, a 
 favourable answer returned, and the remaining exiles 
 brought back to Medina.- 
 
 In the autumn of the year (A.D, 628) he set 
 on foot an expedition against Kheibar, a town 100 
 miles to the north of Medina, inhabited chiefly by 
 
 ' Freeman, "The Saracens," p. 20. 
 
 - Among these was Om-Habiba, a widow, the daughter of his 
 arch-enemy, Abu Sofian. She became Mahomet's tenth wife 
 on his return from Kheibar
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 171 
 
 Jews, whose wealth and rich domains promised an 
 abundant harvest of plunder. One by one their 
 fortified villages fell into his hands, and driven at 
 last to extremities they were obliged to give up their 
 citadel — Camuss. Kinana, their chief, was tortured 
 to disclose his wealth, and then beheaded ; and 
 the dark suspicion rests upon the prophet, that the 
 well-known beauty of Safia,^ Kinana's recently mar- 
 ried wife, was the secret cause of her husband's 
 execution. Immediately after his death she was 
 summoned to the prophet's presence, who " cast his 
 mantle round her," and she became his ninth wife. 
 While still at Kheibar Mahomet narrowly escaped 
 being poisoned. A dish of kid had been prepared 
 for him, and though he had eaten only a mouthful 
 before he perceived that it had been tampered with, 
 he felt the effects of the poison to his dying day. 
 
 The advent of the holy month, Dzul-Caada, of 
 the next year (Feb. 629), was eagerly expected by 
 Mahomet and his followers, for then, according to 
 the terms of the truce of Hodeibia, they might, 
 without molestation, visit the holy city, and spend 
 three days in the performance of the accustomed 
 rites. The number of the faithful swelled on the 
 approach to nearly 2,000 men ; and the Coreish 
 thought it best to retire with their forces to the 
 heights overlooking the valley. Seated on his camel 
 
 ^ Sura xliv. 11, is supposed to be directed against his other 
 wives for their mockery of Safia, the Jewess. Mahomet was 
 much attached to her, and bid her retort that " Aaron was her 
 father, Moses her uncle, and Mahomet her husband" (Sale's 
 "Koran," p. 418, note).
 
 172 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 Al Caswa, Avhich eight years before had borne him in 
 his flight from the cave of Thaur a hunted fugitive, 
 the prophet, now surrounded by joyous crowds of 
 disciples, the companions of his exile, approached 
 and saluted the holy shrine. Eagerly did he press 
 forward to the Kaaba, touched with his staff the 
 Black Stone, seven times made the circuit of the holy 
 house, seven times journeyed between Safa and 
 Marwa, sacrificed the victims, and fulfilled all the 
 ceremonies of the lesser pilgrimage. ^ 
 
 While at Mecca he negotiated an alliance with 
 Meimuna, his eleventh and last wife. His mar- 
 riage gained him two most important converts — 
 Khalid, the " Sword of God," who before this had 
 turned the tide of battle at Ohod ; and Amru, 
 destined afterwards to carry to foreign lands the 
 victorious standards of Islam. 
 
 The services of these two important converts 
 were quickly utilized. An envoy of Mahomet to the 
 Christian Prince of Bostra, in Syria, having been 
 slain by the chief of Muta — a village to the south- 
 east of the Dead Sea — a force of 3,000 men under 
 his adopted son Zeid, was sent (Sept. A.D. 629) to 
 exact retribution, and to call the offending tribe to 
 the faith. On the northward m.arch, though they 
 learnt that an overwhelming force of Arabs and 
 Romans — the latter of whom met the Moslems for the 
 first time — was assembling to oppose them, they 
 resolved resolutely to push forward. The result was 
 
 ^ Conf. Muir, iv. chap. xxii. ; Irving, chap, xxvii. For Kaaba 
 conf. Suras ii. i iy-121, xxii. 27-30 ; for Safa and Marvva, Sura ii. 
 153-
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 173 
 
 their disastrous defeat and repulse. Zeid and Jafar, a 
 brother of Ali, fell defending the white banner of the 
 prophet. Khalid, by a series of manoeuvres, succeeded 
 in drawing off the army and conducting it without 
 further loss to Medina. A month later, however, Amru 
 marched unopposed through the lands of the hostile 
 tribes, received their submission, and restored the 
 prestige of Islam on the Syrian frontier. Mahomet 
 deeply felt the loss of Zeid and Jafar, and exhibited 
 the tenderest sympathy for their widows and orphans. 
 
 The defeat at Muta was followed, in the south, 
 by events of the greatest moment to Mahomet 
 Certain smouldering hostilities between tribes in- 
 habiting the neighbourhood of Mecca broke forth 
 about the end of the year. These were judged to be 
 infractions of the treaty (some of these tribes being 
 in league with the Coreish), and were eagerly seized 
 upon by Mahomet as justifying those designs upon 
 Mecca which the success of his arms and the do- 
 minion he possessed over numberless tribes in the 
 north, in the Hejaz, and Najd, now made it easy for 
 him to carry out. 
 
 Having therefore, determined to attack his native 
 city, he announced his intention to his followers, 
 and directed his allies among the Bedouin tribes 
 to join him on the march to Mecca. Although 
 he took every precaution to prevent his preparations 
 becoming known, the news reached the ears of the 
 Coreish, who sent Abu Sofian to deprecate his anger 
 and to induce him to abandon his purpose. Humilia- 
 tion and failure were the only result of this mission. 
 
 On the ist January, A.D. 630, Mahomet's march
 
 174 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 commenced, and after eight days through unfre- 
 quented roads and defiles, the army, swelled to the 
 number of 10,000 men, halted and lighted their camp- 
 fires on the heights of Marr-al-Tzahran, a day's march 
 from the sacred city. The prophet had been joined 
 on his march by his uncle Abbas, and on the night of 
 his arrival Abu Sofian again presented himself and 
 besought an interview. On the morrow it was granted. 
 " Has the time not yet come, O Abu Sofian," cried 
 Mahomet, " for thee to acknowledge that there is but 
 one God, and that I am his Apostle ?" He answered 
 that his heart still felt some hesitancy ; but seeing the 
 threatening sword of Abbas, and knowing that Mecca 
 was at the mercy of the prophet, he repeated the 
 prescribed formula of belief, and was sent to prepare 
 the city for his approach. 
 
 The Moslems made their entry from four differ- 
 ent quarters, and, with the exception of the de- 
 tachment under the command of Khalid, met with 
 no opposition. Seated on Al Caswa, and in the pil- 
 grim garb, the prophet entered the city repeating 
 verses of the Koran. Having approached the Kaaba, 
 he touched the Black Stone and made the seven pre- 
 scribed circuits. The custody of the key (Hijaba) he 
 continued in the family of Othman, a descendant of 
 Abd-al-Dar, and the cup of the well in that of Abbas, 
 in whose family it remains to this day. Without 
 delay orders went forth to sweep away all the idola- 
 trous relics from the Holy House, and Hobal and its 
 fellows were thrown down and destroyed. 
 
 The conduct of Mahomet in the treatment of 
 his native home was marked with much generosity
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 1 75 
 
 and good sense, and places his character in a very 
 favourable light. Some three or four persons only 
 and those guilty of crime, were put to death, and 
 then a general amnesty was proclaimed. Ikrema, son 
 of Abu Jahl, and the fury Hind both experienced his 
 lenity. Parties were sent out to destroy the idols 
 around ; and in the valley of Nakhla, the grove of 
 Al Ozza and its weird priestess were destroyed by 
 Khalid.i 
 
 Another circumstance should be mentioned, as 
 reflecting much credit on the conduct of Mahomet 
 at this time. A number of the Beni Judzima, a tribe 
 professing Islam, had fallen into the hands of Khalid. 
 and having on a former occasion plundered and slain 
 his uncle, he revenged himself by ordering the execu- 
 tion of some of the prisoners. Mahomet, on hearing 
 of the circumstance, called Heaven to witness that he 
 was innocent of the crime, and forthwith sent Ali to 
 make recompense for the murders and to restore the 
 booty. Aroused, it may be, at the news of this un- 
 provoked and wanton slaughter, the great tribe of the 
 Hawazin, in alliance with the Beni Thackif, whose 
 stronghold was at Tayif, the Beni Sad, and other tribes, 
 entered into a league to resist the power which threat- 
 ened to overwhelm the whole peninsula. Assembling 
 with their families and flocks and herds at Autas, a 
 valley between Mecca and Tayif, they encountered 
 the forces sent against them in the narrow defile of 
 Honein (February, A.D. 630). By the sudden- 
 ness of the attack they caused a panic among 
 the Moslems, whose flight was ^vith difficulty stopped 
 
 ' W, Irving, p. 154. 
 
 N
 
 176 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 by the voice and example of Abbas. The result 
 of the conflict, however, was the defeat of the 
 confederate tribes and the capture of their wives, 
 children, and cattle. Mahomet then advanced to 
 attack the strong fortress of Tayif. Once before, it 
 will be remembered, he had visited this idolatrous 
 city and been driven from its walls, and now again 
 the strength of its fortifications and its ample resources 
 enabled it to defy all his efforts. After two weeks the 
 siege was raised ; and having performed the ceremo- 
 nies of the Lesser Pilgrimage, he returned to Medina 
 (March, 630). 
 
 In the distribution of the booty which had been 
 taken, much dissatisfaction was felt. But here, again, 
 the tact and good feeling of the prophet enabled 
 him to silence all disaffection, and to prevail on the 
 army to release the prisoners, at the intercession of 
 the Beni Sad, among whom his childhood had been 
 spent. The victory of Honein and the boastful con- 
 fidence of the Moslems is alluded to in the Koran, 
 thus : " God hath assisted you in many engagements, 
 and at the battle of Honein, when ye pleased your- 
 selves with your multitude, but it was no manner of 
 advantage unto you, — then did ye retreat and turn 
 your backs. Afterwards God sent His security 
 (Shechina) upon His apostle and upon the faithful, 
 and sent down troops of angels which ye saw not " 
 (Sura ix. 25, 26). 
 
 On his return from the conquest of Mecca, Ma- 
 homet, then in his sixtieth year, v/as gladdened by 
 the l)irth of a son by his concubine Mary the Copt. 
 This child of his old age was doubly precious, as,
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. I77 
 
 with the exception of his daughter Fatima and her 
 children, all his other descendants were dead. But 
 from the day of its birth domestic quarrels troubled 
 the peace of his harem. His other wives, jealous of 
 the good fortune of Mary, who was a slave, murmured 
 at the preference shoAvn her, and their whispered 
 complaints soon found occasion for open expression. 
 Entering unexpectedly one day into her private room, 
 Haphsa there surprised Mahomet with Mary, and her 
 indignant feelings found vent in such bitter reproaches 
 and threats of disclosure as induced him to promise 
 that for the future he would separate from the 
 favourite. Discovering that Haphsa, contrary to her 
 promise, had made the circumstance Imown to Ayesha, 
 he separated from them, and soon was granted a 
 divine message, in which Heaven was made to ad- 
 minister a rebuke to his wives, and threaten them 
 with divorce, and to state that the Lord can easily 
 provide the prophet with other wives who would 
 prove better, more pious, and more submissive to his 
 will.i This especial revelation effectually extricated 
 Mahomet from his domestic embroilment, was piously 
 submitted to by his ^vives, accepted by his followers, 
 and is to this day regularly read by the faithful as 
 the word of God ! 
 
 The conquest of Mecca was followed by the 
 gradual submission of Arabia and the acknowledg- 
 ment of the spiritual and temporal supremacy of 
 the prophet throughout the entire Peninsula. In- 
 deed, in the complex system which he had estab- 
 lished, the spiritual and secular functions were 
 
 • Sura Ixvi. 1-15. 
 N 2
 
 178 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 intimately blended and involved in each other, and 
 whilst in his humble home at Medina he retained 
 still the simple manners of his earlier years, which at 
 his time of life he had probably no inclination to alter, 
 he exercised all those regal and sacerdotal powers 
 which the victorious arms of his lieutenants, or the 
 voluntary submission of the most distant provinces of 
 Arabia, had caused to be universally acknowledged. 
 Tax collectors were appointed to receive the pre- 
 scribed offerings or tithes, which generally amounted 
 to " a tenth part of the increase." ^ 
 
 The city of Tayif, as we have above seen, trust- 
 ing to its natural strength, constituted itself a centre 
 of disaffection ; but at last driven to extremities, 
 and seeing that all the neighbouring tribes had one 
 by one submitted, its Chief, after a vain attempt to 
 obtain some relaxation in the rules of Islam, con- 
 sented to the destruction of the adored idol Lat, 
 and adopted the new faith. 
 
 It was during the time of the next yearly 
 pilgrimage^ (March, 631), that Mahomet issued an 
 important command, the cro\\Tiing stone of the 
 system he had raised, which shows at once the power 
 he wielded and the strong hold his doctrines had 
 already taken throughout Arabia. Refusing to be pre- 
 sent himself during the ceremonies of the pilgrimage, 
 he commissioned Ali to announce to the assembled 
 multitudes in the valley of Mina, that at the expira- 
 tion of the four sacred months the prophet would 
 
 ' Muir, iv. 171. 
 
 ' For a detailed account of the ceremonies of the pilgrimage, 
 vide Burton, vol. iii. chap, xxviii.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 179 
 
 hold himself absolved from every obligation or league 
 with idolaters ; that after that year no unbeliever 
 would be allowed to perform the pilgrimage, or to 
 visit the holy places ; and further, he gave direction 
 that either within or without the sacred territory war 
 was to be waged with them, that they were to be 
 killed, besieged, and laid in wait for " wheresoever 
 found." He ordains, however, that if they repent 
 and pay the legal alms they are to be dismissed 
 freely ; ^ but as regards '• those unto whom the 
 Scriptures have been delivered" (Jews and Christians, 
 &c.) "they are to be fought against until they pay 
 tribute by right of subjection, and are reduced low." ^ 
 
 Such, then, is the declared mission of Islam, 
 arrived at by slow though inevitable steps, and now 
 imprinted unchangeably upon its banners. The Jews 
 and Christians, and perhaps the Magians, — " people 
 of the book " — are to be tolerated, but held in subjec- 
 tion, and under tribute ; ^ but for the rest, the sword is 
 not to be sheathed till they are exterminated or submit 
 to the faith which is to become " superior to every 
 other religion." ''' 
 
 About the middle of the year (A.U. 631) a 
 heavy grief fell upon Mahomet in the death of his 
 little son Ibrahim, then about 15 months old. He 
 fondly trusted that this child might be destined to 
 transmit his name to posterity ; but now these hopes 
 were frustrated, ana with a broken heart he followed 
 
 ' Koran, sura ix. 1-5. 
 
 ' Sura ix. 29. 
 
 ^ For its amount, zuW^ Muii, iv. p. 215, note. 
 
 * Koran, sura ix. 35.
 
 l8o ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 the beloved remains to the cemetery of El Bakia.^ 
 No spot more sacred than this is visited by the devout 
 pilgrim to Medina. There lie, with the exception of 
 Khadija, all the prophet's wives, the " Mothers of the 
 Faithful," as they one by one passed away. There in 
 his untimely grave lies Othman, the third Caliph ; 
 and there is seen the sepulchre of Abbas, the 
 ancestor of those mighty princes who, on the ruin of 
 the house of Omeya, held high state in Baghdad. There 
 are the tombs of Halima the prophet's nurse, of three 
 of his daughters, and of the murdered Hasan, his 
 grandson, and there are interred many of the pious 
 dead who are accounted martyrs, princes, and imams 
 in the calendar of Islam. In this ground, then, the 
 little Ibrahim found his last resting-place. 
 
 Few incidents in the life of the prophet, illus- 
 trative of the growth of Islam remain, which need 
 claim our attention. I have endeavoured in what 
 has already been written to give the reader a clear 
 and accurate account of the manner in which his 
 religion was begun, developed, and consummated ; 
 and how in all its wonderful growth it took so deep 
 a colouring from the love, the hatred, and the ambi- 
 tion of Mahomet himself. And it has seemed to me 
 that in showing its intimate association with his own 
 story, I should best present a life-like picture of the 
 mighty spiritual empire which claims him as its 
 founder. 
 
 For a full account of "El Bakia," vide Burton's " El Mec- 
 cah and El Medinah," ii. 301. Fatima is buried in the Hujrah 
 of the mosque at Medina. Halima's intercession with Ma- 
 homet, for his good offices, is invoked at her tomb.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. I»I 
 
 As the approaching shadows of death begin to 
 fall across his path, it is pleasing to notice from 
 many circumstances that the natural magnanimity of 
 his character more distinctly asserts itself, and forms 
 a bright and pleasing contrast with the unscrupulous 
 deeds of his earlier career at Medina. Though 
 abating nothing of his exalted pretension to be the 
 very apostle of God, though claiming for Islam a 
 universal supremacy which was to brook no opposi- 
 tion, and submit to no diminution, he yet exhibits a 
 calm submission to the will of God, and a perfect 
 reliance on His unmerited mercy for admission to the 
 Paradise of the Faithful.^ 
 
 On the return of the sacred month (March A.D. 
 632), Mahomet, accompanied by all his wives, 
 selected his victims, assumed the pilgrim garb, and set 
 out, on what is called " The Valedictory Pilgrimage " 
 to the holy places, from which every trace of the old 
 superstition had been removed, and which, in accor- 
 dance with his orders of the previous year, no 
 idolater was to visit. Approaching the Kaaba by 
 the gate of the Beni Sheyba, he carefully performed 
 all the ceremonies of the " Omra " or " L-esser 
 Pilgrimage," and then proceeded to consummate 
 those of the greater. On the 8th of the holy month 
 Dzul-Hijja, he rode to the Wadi Mina, some three 
 miles east of Mecca, and rested there for the night. 
 Next day passing Mosdalifa, the midway station, he 
 reached in the evening the valley in which stands the 
 granite hill of Arafat. From the "summit he spoke 
 to the pilgrims regarding its sacred precincts, an- 
 ' B. Smith, " Mohammed," p. 103.
 
 l82 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 nounced to them the perfecting of their religion," 
 offered up the prescribed prayers, and hurried back 
 to MosdaHfa for the night. On the loth proceeding 
 to Mina, he cast the accustomed stones, slew the 
 victims brought for sacrifice,^ had his head shaved 
 and his nails pared, ordering the hair, &c., to be 
 burnt; and the ceremonies ended, laid aside the 
 pilgrim garb. At Mina, during his three days' stay, 
 he preached to the pilgrims, called them to witness 
 that he had faithfully fulfilled his mission, and urged 
 them not to depart from the exact observances of the 
 religion which he had appointed. ^ Returning to 
 Mecca, he again went through the ceremonies of the 
 Omra, made the circuit of the temple, drank of the 
 well Zem Zem, prayed in the Kaaba, and thus, having 
 rigorously performed all the ceremonies, that his 
 example might serve as a model for all succeeding 
 time, he returned to Medina.^ 
 
 The excitement and fatigue of his journey to 
 the holy places told sensibly on his health, which 
 for some time had shown indications of increasing 
 infirmity. In the death of Ibrahim he had received 
 a blow which weighed down his spirit ; the poison of 
 Kheibar still rankled in his veins, afflicted him at 
 times with excruciating pam, and bowed him to the 
 
 ' Called "The Ransom." 
 
 * At Mina, Mahomet directed that the months of pilgrimage 
 should be fixed according to the lunar year. 
 
 ^ Conf. Muir, iv. 235 et seq. Also Burton, vol. iii., for de- 
 tails of the pilgrimages. See also •* Chambers's Miscellany," 
 vol. X. No. 148, which gives a condensed account of Burckhardt's 
 visit to Mecca.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 1 83 
 
 grave. His life had been a hard and a stirring one, 
 and now the important affairs of his spiritual and 
 temporal kingdom, and the cares of his large domestic 
 circle, denied him that quiet and seclusion for which 
 he longed. 1 
 
 It was about the end of May (A.D. 632) that 
 he was attacked with a violent fever, which, though 
 abating at times, was the beginning of his last illness. 
 During the course of the malady, one sleepless night, 
 he paid a visit to the cemetery of El Bakia, there 
 remained long in prayer for forgiveness, and for the 
 dead, whose quiet rest he envied, and to whose 
 peaceful state he asserted himself to be hastening. 
 The fever continued for some seven or eight days, 
 and left him but little strength once more to address 
 his followers in the mosque. To them tradition 
 makes him to have announced his approaching dis- 
 solution, and to have told the weeping crowd that 
 from the free choice of life and death, offered him by 
 Heaven, he had selected " to depart and to be near 
 his Lord"; and then commending the refugees of 
 Mecca to the Medina converts, he returned to the 
 
 ' During the year the pretensions of two impostors (among 
 others) claiming the possession of prophetic powers caused him 
 trouble and anxiety. One of these, Maseilama, found his pro- 
 posals "to divide the earth " indignantly rejected by Mahomet, 
 and himself stigmatized as a liar. He and his followers were 
 crushed in the Caliphate of Abu Bekr. The other, Aswad, 
 an Arab of wealth and influence, revolted and overran Najram, 
 took the town of Sana in Yemen, and subdued the whole penin- 
 sula from the Ilejaz to the Persian Gulf. His career was sud- 
 denly brought to an end by assassination, about the time of 
 Mahomet's death.
 
 184 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 room of Ayesha. His illness increasing he deputed 
 Abu Bekr to lead the public prayers, and this was 
 generally understood to intimate, that in the event of 
 his death, he designed him for his successor. 
 
 About the 8th of June he had regained suffi- 
 cient strength to make a final visit to the mosque. 
 Viewing with joy the devotion of his followers, who, 
 on the news of his illness had assembled in crowds, 
 he proclaimed that he had made lawful to them only 
 what God approved, that each one of them must work 
 out his own acceptance with God, inasmuch as he him- 
 self had no power to save them ; and after discharging 
 some small claims, he returned exhausted and faint- 
 ing to Ayesha's room. With his head on her lap he 
 prayed for assistance in his last agonies, and for 
 admission to the companionship of God. Ayesha 
 tried in every way to soothe the sufferings of his last 
 moments. Ejaculatory words at intervals escaped 
 his lips, "Eternity of Paradise!" — "Pardon!" — 
 "The glorious associates on high!" — and then all was 
 still. The prophet of Mecca was dead.^ 
 
 ' Minute details of the death-bed utterances of Mahomet will 
 be found in the larger works of his life. Nearly all rest on 
 tradition subsequently collected, and are more or less open to 
 the suspicion of having been invented, or coloured by the rival 
 sacerdotal and political factions which in a few years convulsed 
 the Caliphate,— Omeyades, Alides, Abbassides, and the party 
 of Ayesha ; Shias and Sunnis seeking by the prophet's utter- 
 ances to support their political pretensions. Conf. Muir, iv. 
 pp. 279, 280 ; W. Irving, pp. 182, 183; Lamartine, " H. deT.," 
 vol, i. p. 268.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Mahomet's teaching at Medina. — [a.d. 622-632.] 
 
 I HAVE still briefly to consider the general teach- 
 ing of the Medina Suras.^ Many of the chapters of 
 this period are spun out to great length, and con- 
 tain repetitions of former revelations which call for no 
 notice. They contain, however, some points which 
 deserve more particular comment. Sura II., the 
 longest in the Koran, contains reference to a great 
 variety of subjects, among which is the institution of 
 the Fast of Ramadhan (Ramazan). On this, the 
 ninth month of the Mahometan year, the Faithful 
 are to fast during the day, from dawn, when there is 
 light enough to distinguish between a white and black 
 thread, till sunset. Certain relaxations are allowed 
 for the sick, and those on a journey, &c. Within the 
 prescribed hours no food or water is to pass the lips ; 
 and as the month is fixed according to the retro- 
 gressive seasons of the lunar year,^ its occurrence 
 during the heats of summer cause it to press with 
 
 • These are as follow : — 113, 114, 2, 47, 57, S, 58, 65, 98, 62, 
 59, 24, 63, 48, 61, 4, 3, 5, 33, 60, 66, 49, 9. VideMuiv, vol. ii. 
 Appendix. 
 
 * Sura ix. 36, 37. Each month retrogrades eleven days, ac- 
 cording to the solar year.
 
 1 86 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 double rigour in the parched regions of Africa, 
 Arabia, and India. Those who have dwelt among 
 the Mahometans will bear testimony to the exemplary 
 and patient manner in which the irksome duties of 
 the fast are fulfilled by those whose doings are open 
 to observation during the prescribed hours. Many, 
 indeed, make a point of keeping it who neglect the 
 appointed prayers. On the believer's proceedings 
 during the night there is no restriction, as regards 
 food, and social domestic intercourse ; ^ and con- 
 sequently it imposes no restraint on indulgence. The 
 reader will not fail to notice how the fasting enjoined 
 by Mahomet differs from the Christian ideal of ab- 
 stinence. The one involves a painful duty made 
 final and meritorious in itself, and the tendency of it 
 is to alternate with the grossest licentiousness ; the 
 other, being merely a means to an end, is wisely left 
 unfettered by such severe restrictions, and, shunning 
 the observation of man, is to be associated with that 
 godly sorrow for sin which worketh repentance. 
 
 The fast of the Ramadhan terminates with the 
 festival of the "Eed-al-Fitr,"^ or "breaking of the 
 fast," kept on the first three days of the tenth month 
 (Shawwal). It is celebrated as a season of general 
 rejoicing and feasting. Certain prescribed religious 
 observances are attended to, visits of congratulation 
 made, and alms given as offerings to the poor. 
 
 The " Eed-al-Zoha,"^ or " day of sacrifice," was 
 established by the prophet at Medina, and was 
 
 • Sura ii. 181-1S3. 
 
 ^ Called by the Turks " Ramazam Beyram." 
 
 ^ Called by the Turks "Koorban Beyram."
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 1 87 
 
 grounded on the ceremonies of the Greater Pilgrim- 
 age. It is celebrated on the tenth of the month 
 Dzul-Hijja, the last of their lunar year, and the day on 
 which the pilgrims return from Arafat to Mina. 
 
 In the first year of his residence at Medina, 
 Mahomet kept, with certain sacrifices, the great 
 " Day of Atonement," in conformity with Jewish 
 practice, but afterwards abandoned it, and substituted 
 a festival of a similar character connected with the 
 Meccan rites.^ It is called " The Greater Festival," 
 and lasts three days. On the first day the faithful 
 should slay a victim if they can aftbrd to do so. The 
 wealthy slay several sheep, and distribute the flesh to 
 the poor. Visits of congratulation and presents are 
 made during its continuance.^ " This feast is the 
 great Muhammadan festival, and is observed wherever 
 Islamism exists; and thus Muhammad, though he 
 ignored entirely the doctrine of the Atonement, has 
 become unwillingly a witness to the grand Christian 
 doctrine, that ' without shedding of blood there is no 
 remission.' "^ 
 
 The two festivals above mentioned were estab- 
 lished by the prophet himself; while that of the 
 " Moharram," — so called from its being kept on the 
 first ten days of the first month of the Moslem year — 
 is a Sunnat fast, but by some supposed to be alluded 
 to in the Koran,* while others apply the allusion there to 
 the " ten nights " differently. The days of this festival 
 are considered eminently blessed, alms are given, and 
 
 ' Muir, vol. iii. pp. 51, 52. ^ Lane, i. 232; ii, 252. 
 
 ^ " Notes on Muhammadanism," pp. no, iii. 
 * Sura Ixxxix. i.
 
 1 88 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 it is kept as a season of rejoicing. The last day — 
 the " Ashura," is considered sacred for a variety of 
 reasons : because that on it Noah left the ark, &c., but 
 its greatest claim to sanctity is, that on it the martyr 
 Hosein, grandson of the prophet, was slain in battle 
 at the Kerbela (A.D. 680). The anniversary of this 
 event is kept, especially by the Shias, with expressions 
 of profound grief.^ In memory of his death, models 
 of his tomb, called " Tazias," are in India buried, and 
 his name invoked. At Cairo the great mosque in 
 which his head is supposed to rest is visited, prayers 
 offered, and his martyrdom commemorated.^ 
 
 Directions are given regarding the pilgrimage 
 to the holy places, — to Mecca, " appointed a 
 place of resort for all mankind,"^ with the minute 
 ceremonies to be performed by the Faithful. It is 
 declared to be a positive "duty towards God, on 
 those who are able to go thither,"* but it does not 
 appear to be absolutely necessary to salvation, though 
 the Sunnah makes it so.^ The orthodox sects also 
 differ in their interpretation of the Koran on this 
 subject.^ Trading is permitted during the pilgrim- 
 
 ' The Shias however keep all the days of the Moharram 
 as a season of lamentation, and commemorate on them the 
 deaths of Ali and Hasan, who, as well as Hosein, are esteemed 
 martyrs. 
 
 ^ There are certain other festivals, of which we may mention, 
 I, Shub-Barat, the "night of record," on which God registers 
 the actions of the coming year, observed on the 15th of the 
 month Shaban. 2. Bara-Wafat, the anniversary of the death 
 of Mahomet, on the 12th of the month Rabi I. 
 
 ' Sura ii. 1 19. * Sura iii. 91. 
 
 * Sale, Pre. Dis., p. 114. ^ Lane, " Mod. Egyp.,"i. 131.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 1 89 
 
 age — an astute provision which, with pious guile, 
 combines in one solemn act the usually antagonistic 
 pursuits of piety and profit ^ 
 
 There can be little doubt that Mahomet 
 associated the pilgrimage to Mecca with some un- 
 defined, though real spiritual advantage. It was hal- 
 lowed in his own earliest associations, venerable as 
 the traditional place of prayer of Abraham ; and 
 having, as he imagined, been purged from all trace 
 of idolatry, he considered that from it, "the first 
 house assigned unto men to worship," ^ the prayers of 
 the pilgrim would ascend with especial acceptance to 
 Heaven. With such views of the inherent sanctity of 
 the spot, we need not be surprised that he included, 
 in the ceremonial observances of his religion, the 
 ancient rites of the pilgrimage, which were associated 
 with the names of their ancestors, Abraham and 
 Ishmael, and from which the grosser forms of 
 idolatry had been swept away. 
 
 By the earnest Mahometan of the present day, 
 the distant journey to Mecca is undertaken as a 
 matter of obedience to the direction of his prophet, 
 and from his belief that such visit is in itself fraught 
 with rich blessing, apart from its effect on his will and 
 character.^ That such is practically believed may be 
 gathered from the fact, that according to the Hanifees, 
 the pilgrimage may be done by deputy, and, according 
 to custom in Morocco even after a person's death. 
 
 ' Sura ii. 194, Com. St. Matt. vi. 24. "^ Sura iii. 90. 
 
 ^ Moslems dying on the Pilgrimage are, ipso facto, considered 
 martjTS. Each step, too, taken by the devotee towards the 
 Kaaba blots out a sin !
 
 IQO ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 Viewed in its practical working, the visit to 
 Mecca, so far from having any effect in spirituaHzing 
 the Hfe, or improving the character of the devotees, 
 exposes them, according to the testimony of an eye- 
 witness, to the most demoraUzing influences. Burck- 
 hardt states that the prevalence of indecent practices 
 at Mecca tends in no small degree to poison the 
 morals of the pilgrims, who have opportunity of 
 witnessing places, the most hallowed in their faith, 
 polluted by the grossest abominations. He also 
 states that he has seen the Kaaba itself made the 
 scene, at nights, of detestable proceedings, which 
 were pursued without shame or censure. The 
 truth indeed is, whatever Mahomet hoped from 
 the institution, that the pilgrimage has become, or 
 rather continues to be, nothing but a superstitious 
 and idolatrous pageant, worthless for the purpose of 
 true religion, and degrading in its ultimate effect on 
 the soul.i 
 
 The use of wine — including all inebriating 
 liquors — lots, and all games of chance, is absolutely 
 forbidden. Thus, " in wine and lots .... there is 
 great sin, and also things of use to men, but their 
 sinfulness is greater than their use."^ And, again, at a 
 later time, and in stronger terms : " wine and lots . . 
 
 1 To the devout and thoughtful Moslem, the ridiculous cere- 
 monies of the Pilgrimage must be in painful contrast with the 
 otherwise decorous externals of his faith. Undoubtedly one of 
 the idolatrous practices of Arabia, it was retained by Mahomet, 
 either because it suited his purpose to do so, or because he did 
 not feel himself strong enough to abolish it, if indeed such an 
 idea ever occurred to him. 
 
 ■ Sura ii. 2i6.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. I9I 
 
 are an abomination of Satan ; therefore avoid them, 
 ... by them Satan seeks to divert you from remem- 
 bering God, and from prayer." i The use of opium, 
 though not mentioned in the Koran, is deemed 
 unlawful." - 
 
 Salvation, according to Mahomet, is to be secured 
 by following God's direction, as contained in the 
 Koran, by believing in the mysteries of the faith, 
 keeping covenants, observing the appointed times of 
 prayer, distributing alms, and having a firm assurance of 
 the life to come, and in performing good works. Such, 
 it is said, are directed by the Lord, and they shall pros- 
 per.^ The joys of Paradise are to be obtained only by 
 the rigid performance of all the observances of the 
 faith ; and the value of the believer's works are to be 
 weighed by a hard taskmaster rather than a loving 
 Father ; the dread of whose displeasure, more than 
 the smile of whose favour, is to be the motive prin- 
 ciple of action. In his earlier teaching at Medina, 
 Mahomet gave utterance to the doctrine that " Jews 
 and Christians and Sabians, whoever believeth in 
 God and the last day " * would be saved ; but the 
 general consensus of orthodox Moslems is, that this 
 passage is entirely abrogated by a later revelation, 
 which expressly declares that " whosoever followeth 
 any other religion than Islam, it shall not be accepted 
 of him, and in the next life he shall be of those who 
 perish." ^ The faithful are repeatedly reminded that 
 
 ' Sura V. 92, 93. 
 
 ' Regarding the practical observance of these injunctions, vide 
 Lane, "Modern Egj'ptians," pp. 130-136. 
 
 * Sura ii. 1-4, * Sura ii. 59. * Sura iii. 79. 
 
 O
 
 192 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 "one soul cannot make satisfaction for another, and 
 that no intercessor will be accepted for any man, nor 
 shall any compensation be received." ^ In these and 
 in other passages of a similar import the idea of an 
 Intercessor or of any Atonement provided for man is 
 quite repudiated. 
 
 Notwithstanding these positive assertions, the deep 
 need of fallen humanity for an Intercessor, as a 
 medium of approach to a holy God, — seen in every 
 nation, and underlying all religions, — influences the 
 practice of the majority of the followers of Islam. 
 Mahomet is made an intercessor, and saints and 
 imams have been established in various places, at 
 whose tombs sacrifices are offered, and whose influ- 
 ence is sought as channels of approach to the All- 
 Merciful Allah.2 
 
 War against infidels, as already related, is com- 
 manded; the prophet is expressly directed to stir 
 up the faithful to its performance, and the pro- 
 mise is held out that superior numbers shall not 
 avail the enemy. In the infancy of Islam it was 
 shown to be God's will that captive prisoners should 
 be cut off; but afterwards their ransom was made 
 lawful.^ 
 
 The forty-seventh chapter directs that the un- 
 
 ' Sura ii. 45. 
 
 "^ Burton, ii. pp. 76-309. Also Lane, " Mod. Egj'p.," i. pp. 79, 
 129, 132, 325 ; ii. pp. 175, 295. Also Freeman, "The Saracens," 
 pp. 62, 71. The teaching of the ancient Hindoo faith includes 
 the doctrine of original sin, and the necessity for regeneration ; 
 gives rules for the expiation of offences, and inculcates the 
 belief in some divine incarnation and the need of a saviour 
 (Monier Williams, " Indian Wisdom," pp. 146, 245, 278,321, et 
 seq.). ^ Sura viii. 66-69.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 1 93 
 
 believers are to be slaughtered till all opposition 
 has ceased, and God's religion reign alone. They 
 who fall in the holy war are to be accounted martyrs, 
 and their reward is Paradise.^ During the four sacred 
 months, — Moharram, Rajab, Dzul Caada, and Dzul 
 Hijja, the first, seventh, eleventh, and twelfth of the 
 Moslem lunar year, — war may be made on infidels 
 and on those who do not acknowledge them to be 
 sacred, otherwise it is to cease while they last.^ 
 Captive women are to be reduced to slavery, and, 
 though already married, may be taken as concubines.^ 
 The Faithful are forbidden to contract friendship with 
 Jews, Christians, and unbelievers.'^ 
 
 Wilful murder is forbidden in the Koran, and 
 its punishment, in the case of the slaughter of a 
 believer, is declared to be "Hell fire for ever."* 
 The law of retaliation is to be enforced for this crime, 
 the free is to die for the free, the slave for the slave ; 
 but the heir of the murdered man — the avenger of 
 blood — may commute the punishment, and " prose- 
 cute the murderer according to what is just," that is, 
 accept a fine ; ^ but he is not, on pain of retaliation, 
 to torture his victim to death, or to exceed what is a 
 fitting punishment.^ Manslaughter is to be expiated 
 by a lesser punishment — freeing a believer from cap- 
 tivity, paying a fine, or fasting two months. Of the 
 punishment for theft I have already spoken. 
 
 ' Sura xlvii. 4-7. '^ Sura ix. 36. Sale, P. D., p. 149. 
 
 ^ Sura iv, 28. * Sura v. 56. 
 
 ^ Sura iv. 95. ^ Sura ii. 173. 
 
 ' Sura xvii. 35. The Moslem code in this particular is much 
 laxer than the Jewish (Numb. xxxv. 31). As to blood revenge, 
 z'/V/^ Lane, "Mod. Egyp.," i. 145. 
 O 2
 
 194 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 In the case of testamentary documents there 
 are to be two witnesses, just men, who, on any dis- 
 pute, are to be examined apart after the evening 
 prayer, and are to give their evidence on oath.^ 
 By the law of the Koran, primogeniture carries 
 no especial privileges, but each son has an equal 
 share in the property of the deceased, and that 
 share is double the portion allotted to a daughter. 
 The testator cannot, it would seem, will away from 
 his family more than one third of his estate, the rest 
 goes to his children, or brothers, or parents, and to 
 his wives in certain fixed proportions. The rule is 
 laid down that men and women ought to have a part 
 of what their parents and kindred leave,^ and this 
 seems to have been worthily designed by Mahomet, 
 to stop the common practice of the pagan Arabs, 
 who would not allow women and children to have 
 any inheritance, giving all the goods of the deceased 
 to those who could go to war.^ 
 
 Almsgiving is a duty enjoined. Alms are of 
 two kinds, legal (Zacat), and voluntary (Sadacat), 
 though this distinction is not always observed. 
 Under the latter head, the prophet's fifth share of 
 all booty taken in war is included.* The former, in 
 the early days of Islam, was collected by officers 
 especially appointed for the purpose, and amounted 
 to about a tenth part of the increase. Alms are 
 directed to be given of the good things which 
 believers receive, without ostentation ; they are said 
 to be noticed by God ; and, if done in secret, that 
 
 ' Sura V. 105. » Sura iv. 8-18. 
 
 ' Lane, "Mod. Egyp.,'" p. 143. * Muir, iv. 155.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 1 95 
 
 they atone for sins, and shall have their reward. ^ 
 The collection of the legal tithes, as at first the 
 ])ractice under the early Caliphs, has now generally 
 ceased in Mahometan countries, other taxes having 
 taken their place, and it is now left to each man's 
 conscience to give what he will. The Caliph Omar II. 
 (of the house of Omeya) said that prayer carried the 
 behever half-way to God, fasting brought him to His 
 door, and that alms gained him admission. Some 
 pretend to give the legal alms during the first ten 
 days of Moharram, and their charity generally takes 
 the form of distributing food to the poor. Alms- 
 giving is practised by many who neglect the other 
 duties of their religion. They look upon it as in- 
 volving a more personal sacrifice, as fraught with 
 more immediate benefit, and as a certain method of 
 securing the prayers and blessings of those whom 
 they relieve. There are, I doubt not, many of the 
 Faithful who do their alms in secret, worthily and 
 acceptably, but the Christian motive for its practice 
 is little known where Islam holds sway. 
 
 Circumcision, though as a rule practised by the 
 Mahometans, is not a positive precept, not being 
 mentioned in the Koran. It was practised by the 
 Arabs before Mahomet's time, and was continued 
 by the Faithful as an Abrahamic rite. It is not uni- 
 versal. Some of the Berbers of Morocco do not use 
 it. Circumcision usually takes place between the sixth 
 and twelfth years.'' 
 
 ' Sura ii. 266-275. 
 
 * Lane, "Mod. Egyp.," i. 82; ii. 278.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 ISLAM. 
 
 It may be proper here to enter somewhat more 
 fully than has been done in the preceding chapters 
 into the meaning of some of the principal terms used 
 in the book, and to enlarge upon some of the divi- 
 sions of Islam. 
 
 The religion founded by Mahomet is called 
 " Islam," 1 a word meaning " the entire surrender of 
 the will to God " ; its professors are called " Mussul- 
 mans," 2 — " those who have surrendered themselves," 
 or " Believers," as opposed to the " Rejectors " of the 
 Divine messengers, who are named " Kafirs," or 
 Mushrikin,'^ that is, " those who associate, are com- 
 panions or sharers, with the Deity." 
 
 Islam is sometimes divided under the two heads 
 of Faith, and Practical Religion. I. Faith (Iman) 
 includes a belief in one God, omnipotent, onmi 
 scient, all-merciful, the author of all good; and in 
 Mahomet as his prophet, expressed in the formula 
 " There is no God but God, and Mahomet is the 
 Prophet of God." It includes, also, a belief in the 
 authority and sufficiency of the Koran,* in angels, 
 genii, and the devil, in the immortality of the soul, 
 the resurrection,* the day of judgment,** and in 
 
 ' Sura iii. 17. ' Sura ii. 122. ' Muir, ii. 147. 
 
 * Sura xvi. 91, and vi. 114. The word Koran (Quran) is 
 derived from the Arabic, Quaraa, to read, and means " the read- 
 ing," or "what ought to be read." It has a variety of other 
 names, " Al Katab," the book ; " Al Moshaf," the volume ; " Al 
 Porkan," the book distinguishing between good and evil, &c. 
 
 * Sura xvii. 52-54. ° Sura vii. 186, 187 ; Ivi. 1-96.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. I97 
 
 God's absolute decree for good and evil.^ II. Prac- 
 tical Religion (Din) consists of five observances : — 
 (i) Recital of the Formula of Belief, (2) Prayer with 
 Ablution, (3) Fasting, (4) Almsgiving, (5) the Pil- 
 grimage. In the above pages I have made more 
 particular mention of these separate articles of faith, 
 and acts of devotion. 
 
 It will be sufficient here to repeat, though every 
 act is supposed to be prefaced with the words, " In 
 the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate " 
 (Bismillah-hir-rahman-nir-rahim), and though in some 
 places the Koran seems to deny the meritorious 
 efficacy of good works, that, in the belief of the 
 orthodox. Paradise is only to be obtained by a 
 strict performance of all the practical duties above 
 enumerated. 
 
 The standard of Moslem orthodoxy is essentially the 
 Koran, and to it primary reference is made ; but, this 
 being found insufficient, as Islam extended its borders, 
 to regulate the complex, social, and political relations 
 of the empire, and the administration of justice in 
 civil and criminal cases, some more extended and 
 discriminating code became necessary. The defi- 
 ciency was supplied by the compilation of the " Sun- 
 nah," or " Traditional Law," which is built upon the 
 sayings and practices of Mahomet, and, in the opinion 
 of the orthodox, is " invested with the force of law, 
 and with some of the authority of inspiration." ^ 
 
 The traditions appear to have remained un- 
 
 Sura XXX. 29 ; 1. 28. 
 
 ' Muir, i. 31. The collections of these traditions are also 
 called "Hadls" (conf. "Notes on Muhammadanism," v. "The 
 Traditions," p. 30).
 
 198 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 recorded for about a century after the death ot 
 Mahomet, when they were formally collected by 
 Omar II., and the work was continued by his suc- 
 cessors. An incredible number of so-called " Tra- 
 ditions," fabricated for the purpose of uphold- 
 ing certain political and sectarian claims, were 
 subsequently rejected, and the Sunnah condensed 
 and promulgated for the guidance of the faithful. 
 " The six standard Sunni collections were com- 
 piled exclusively under the Abbasside caliphs, and 
 the earliest of them partly during the reign of Al 
 Mamun.^ The four canonical collections of the 
 Shias were prepared somewhat later, and are in- 
 comparably less trustworthy than the former, because 
 their paramount object is to build up the divine 
 Imamat, or headship of Ali and his descendants." 2 
 
 In cases where both the Koran and the Sunnah 
 afford no exact precept, the "Rule of Faith" in 
 their dogmatic belief, as well as the decisions of 
 their secular courts, is based upon the teaching of 
 one of the four great Imams, or founders of the 
 orthodox sects, according as one or another of these 
 prevails in any particular country. 
 
 These sects, though all are considered sound 
 in fundamentals, differ in some points of law and 
 religion, and follow the interpretation of the Koran, 
 and the traditions of the four great doctors, Abu 
 Hanifa, Malik, Al Shafei, and Ibn Hambal.^ The 
 
 ' A.D. 814-834. 
 
 ^ Muir, i. 41. The Wahabees receive the "Sunnah," which 
 is acknowledged by the Sunnis, and call themselves, par excel- 
 lence, " People of the Traditions." 
 
 ' The Hanifee school which is considered the most catholic 
 and reasonable, prevails in Turkey, Egypt, and North India. In
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 1 99 
 
 great Sunni sect is divided among the orthodox 
 schools mentioned above, and is so called from 
 its reception of the " Sunnah," as having authority 
 concurrent with and supplementary to the Koran.i 
 
 In this respect it differs essentially from the 
 " Shias," or partisans of the house of Ali, who, 
 adhering to their own traditions, reject the authority 
 of the " Sunnah." These two sects, moreover, have 
 certain observances and matters of belief peculiar to 
 themselves, the chief of which is the Shia doctrine, 
 that the sovereign Imamat, or temporal and spiritual 
 headship over the faithful_ was by divine right vested 
 in Ali and in his descendants, through Hasan and 
 Hosein, the children of Fatima, the daughter of the 
 prophet. And thus the Persian Shias add to the 
 formula of belief, the confession, " Ali is the Caliph 
 of God." 
 
 In Persia the Shia doctrines prevail, and formerly 
 so intense was sectarian hatred, that the Sunni 
 
 Cairo, the inhabitants are either Shafe-ees or Malikees. The 
 Malikee sect is dominant in Morocco and in otlier parts of 
 Africa. The Arabians and the Moslems of Southern India gene- 
 rally follow the teaching of Al Shafei. Very few, except in 
 Arabia, belong to the school of Ibn Hambal. While all admit 
 the leading dogmas of Islam, these schools condescend to dis- 
 pute over imimporlant trivialities, such as the correct method of 
 ablution, the exact position at prayer, &c. Ibn Ilambal was 
 scourged by Motasem Billah, eighth Caliph of Baglidad, for 
 asserting that the Koran was uncreated. There are also num- 
 berless sects called heterodox, being considered heretical in 
 fundamentals {vide Sale, P. D., chap. viii. ). 
 
 ' Each of these sects has its *' oratory," or place of prayer, 
 round the Kaaba and within the sacred enclosure of the " Mas- 
 jid-al-Haram." Each one also (except the Hambalees) has a 
 mufti, or expounder of tlieir particular law, at Mecca.
 
 200 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 Mahometans paid a higher capitation tax there than 
 the infidels. In Turkey the great majority are 
 Sunni. In India the Shias number about one in 
 twenty. The Shias, who reject this name, and call 
 themselves " Adliyah," or the " Society of the Just," 
 are sub-divided into a great variety of minor sects ; 
 but these, whatever their particular views, are united 
 in asserting that the first three Caliphs, Abu Bekr, 
 Omar, and Othman, were usurpers, who had pos- 
 sessed themselves of the rightful and inalienable 
 inheritance of Ali. For this reason, too, they detest 
 the memory of the Omeyade Caliphs, and especially 
 Yezid, whom they accuse of the murder of the 
 martyr Hosein. Of this more particular mention 
 will be hereafter made.^ 
 
 " According to the Shias, the Muslim religion 
 consists of a knowledge of the true Imam, or leader, 
 and the differences amongst themselves with reference 
 to this question have given rise to endless divisions."* 
 The twelve Imams of the Shia sect are, i, Ali; 
 2, Hasan ; 3, Hosein ; 4, Zain-al-Abid-Din, and his 
 eight lineal descendants, the last of whom, the 
 twelfth, was Abu Kasim, or, as he is called, Imam Mahdi. 
 
 ' Freeman, "The Saracens," p. 227. Ilumayun, the " Great 
 Mogul," when driven out of India, was obliged, on pain of 
 death, to adopt the Shia doctrines, by Tamasp, second " Sophi," 
 King of Persia. Aurungzebe was Sunni, and put one of his 
 brothers to death on the pretext that he had adopted the Shia 
 heresy. For an account of the Shia sects vide Sale, P. D., viii. 
 p. 75. And for the chief points of difference between them and 
 the Sunnis, p. 178. See also "Notes on Muhammadanism," 
 xliii., "The Shias," p. 169. 
 
 * "Notes on Muhammadanism," p. 171 et seq.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 20I 
 
 He is supposed by them to be still alive, though 
 concealed from public eye, and is to come again to 
 extinguish all disputes among the true believers. 
 
 Sufi-ism. — In India and Persia, and through- 
 out the East, there has for centuries existed a pan- 
 theistic mysticism which has developed itself chiefly 
 in a search for metaphysical purity, for the illumina- 
 tion of the mind, for calmness of soul, and for the 
 subjugation of the passions, by the exercise of painful 
 austerities, and the adoption of an ascetic life. The 
 adherents of this system believed that the divine 
 nature pervaded all things, and gave its very 
 essence and being to the soul itself, which thus 
 sought to gain a conformity to the Supreme Being, 
 and more and more to sever itself from the 
 things of earth, like a wearied traveller, seeking to 
 terminate the period of its exile from its divine 
 original. From this pantheistic mysticism, akin to 
 the doctrine of the Indian Vedanta, Plato is sup- 
 posed to have derived the germs of some of his teach- 
 ing; and from it the Mahometan Sufis ^ had their 
 origin. The final object of the Sufi devotee is to 
 attain to the light of Heaven, towards which he must 
 press fonvard till perfect knowledge is reached in his 
 union with God, to be consummated, after death, in 
 absorption into the Divine Being. In this spiritual 
 journey of the disciple there are various stages ; he is 
 led up from his natural state, through science, love 
 (Ishaq), seclusion, knowledge, ecstacy, touch, and, 
 lastly, union with God, to final extinction. It should 
 
 * A word derived by some from suf, wool (Arabic), the ma- 
 terial worn by the devotees, or from the Greek ao^og.
 
 202 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 be noticed that the terms love of God, truth, &c., 
 have, in Sufi theology, an especial and mystic mean- 
 ing, very different from their usual acceptation in 
 Christian terminology. Their chief doctrines are 
 taught under the images of wine, love, flowing ring- 
 lets, and intoxication ; and they are supposed to be 
 thus set forth in the Anacreontic verses of Hafiz, the 
 distinguished Sufi poet.^ 
 
 The Wahabees derive their name from Abdul 
 Wahab, the father of Sheikh Muhammad, their founder, 
 who arose about the beginning of the last century, in 
 the province of Najd, in Arabia. The object of the 
 Wahabee movement was to sweep away all later inno- 
 vations, and to return to the original purity of Islam, 
 as based upon the exact teaching of the Koran and 
 the example of Mahomet. The principles of the sect 
 rapidly spread among the Arab tribes, and were 
 adopted by the sovereign princes of Darayeh, in 
 Najd. Impelled by religious zeal and political am- 
 bition, and allured by the prospect of plunder, the 
 Wahabees soon acquired nearly the whole of Arabia, 
 and menaced the neighbouring Pashaliks of Turkey, 
 and Egypt. Mecca and Medina soon fell into their 
 hands, the shrine was despoiled of its rich ornaments, 
 and the pilgrim route to the Kaaba closed for some 
 years. Early in this century (1811), Muhammad Ali, 
 the Pasha of Egypt, at the bidding of the Sultan, set 
 himself to check the progress of this aggressive sect ; 
 and his son Ibrahim Pasha completed the work (18 18) 
 by the total defeat of Abdallah, their leader, who was 
 sent to Constantinople and executed. The chief seat 
 of their power at present is in Eastern Arabia, but 
 
 ' Conf. Hughes, "Notes on Muhammadanism/' p. 162.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 2O3 
 
 followers of the sect exist in most Mahometan 
 countries. The leader of the sect in India was Syud 
 Ahmed, born at Rai Bareli, in Oudh, in 1706.1 
 
 It only remains to notice the Darveshes- or 
 Faqirs.'^ and it will only be possible in our limited 
 space to glance at the principal orders, the lesser 
 being so numerous that D'Ohsson reckons thirty- 
 two. They " are divided into two great classes : the 
 ' Ba-Shara ' (with the law), or those who govern their 
 conduct according to the principles of Islam ; and the 
 ' Be-Shara ' (without the law), or those who do not rule 
 their lives according to the principles of any religious 
 creed, although they call themselves Mussulmans." ■• 
 The former, however, only can properly be so con- 
 sidered. They trace their line of succession from 
 Abu Bekr (Sadiq) and Ali-al-Murtuza, the first and 
 fourth Caliphs, who are said to have founded the 
 orders of faqirs. Some writers have distinguished 
 their minor sects by their dress and religious per- 
 formances ; but this rule does not seem to hold, and 
 it is impossible to become exactly acquainted with 
 their peculiar rules and ceremonies, as, like those of 
 the Freemasons, they are concealed from the unini- 
 
 ' Tlie following particulars of the Wahabec reform need only 
 be added. They reject the decisions of the "four orthodox 
 doctors," and the intercession of saints ; they condemn the 
 excessive reverence paid to Mahomet, and deny his mediation, 
 until the last day. They also disapprove of the ornamenting of 
 tombs, pilgrimages to particular shrines, offerings, &c. 
 
 - From the Persian "dar," a door = beggars from door to 
 door. 
 
 ' From the Arabic " faqir," poor, but used rather as poor in 
 the sight of God than of men. 
 
 * Hughes, " Notes on JNIuhanmiadanism," p. 139.
 
 204 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 tialed. Some of them practise the most severe 
 austerities and mortifications. 
 
 The order which has excited most interest in 
 Europe, being popular in Constantinople, is that of the 
 " Maulevis," or dancing darveshes, whose ceremonies 
 constitute one of the principal sights of that city, and 
 have often been described by travellers and pictured 
 by artists. Their founder was a native of Balkh, in 
 Central Asia, and is said to have exhibited remarkable 
 faith and miraculous power from his infancy. The 
 darveshes or faqirs are either " Murids " (disciples) or 
 " Murshids " (guides), and the places where the latter 
 give their instructions are held sacred, and carefully 
 kept free from pollution. Those faqirs who attain to 
 great sanctity are called "Walis," and the highest rank 
 of these is that of a " Ghaus," such as the Akhund of 
 Swat, on the north-west frontier of India. 
 
 The particular ceremony or act of devotion com- 
 mon to all classes of darveshes is the "Zikr," or 
 repetition of the names of God in many different 
 ways. It is a sort of physical exercise, depending 
 upon the lungs, muscles, and patient practice of the 
 worshipper, and would appear to a Christian the very 
 opposite of rational devotion. There are two classes 
 of Zikr, one which is recited aloud, and the other 
 performed with a low voice or mentally ; and each is 
 divided into several zarbs, or stages. As an instance : 
 the third zarb of the quiet prayer consists in repeating 
 the words " La-il-la-ha " with each exhalation of the 
 breath, and " Il-lal-la-ho"i with each inhalation ; and 
 being performed hundreds, or even thousands of times, 
 it is most exhausting, and proportionately meritorious. 
 ' Combined, these syllables make " Thete is no deity but God."
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 205 
 
 The meditation (Muraqaba) is usually combined 
 with the Zikr, and is founded on favourite verses of 
 the Koran. It must, one would suppose, form a 
 needed rest after so fatiguing an exercise. "The 
 most common form of Zikr is a recital of the ninety- 
 nine names of God, for Muhammad promised those 
 of his followers who recited them a sure entrance into 
 paradise."! To assist this repetition rosaries are used, 
 but not by the Wahabees, who count on their fingers. 
 It has been conjectured that the Mahometans derived 
 the rosary from the Buddhists, and that the Crusaders 
 again took it from them (A.D. i loo). Moulvics declare 
 that the mind is preserved from the intrusion of evil 
 thoughts by the performance of the Zikr ; but it is 
 worthy of remark, that some of those most devoted 
 to its use are the most immoral of men.^ 
 
 Sufficient for the purpose of this manual has 
 been said about the daily and periodical religious 
 duties of the faithful ; and I now pass to a brief 
 consideration of their belief regarding the soul and 
 body after separation. On the occurrence of death — as 
 burial must, as a rule, take place the same day — the 
 necessary preparations are at once begun. The body 
 is washed, wrapped in one or two pieces of cotton 
 cloth, and so carried to the grave, usually a vaulted 
 chamber, with observances and attendants regulated 
 by the wealth of the deceased. 
 
 The Mahometans believe that the soul remains 
 with the body during the first night after burial 
 for the purpose of being interrogated by the two 
 angels, Munkir and Nakir. Laid on the right side, 
 
 ' Hughes, "Notes on Muhamrnadanism," pp. 155. 
 'lb., 154.
 
 206 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 with the sightless eyes turned towards Mecca, the 
 dead awaits the coming of the dread inquisitors. 
 Aroused to a sitting posture and to temporary hfe, he 
 answers their inquiries as to his faith in God and in 
 his prophet regarding the " Book of Directions," the 
 Koran, and whether or not the Kaaba was his Kibla. 
 If the answers be unsatisfactory, they torture and beat 
 the dead about the temples with their iron maces ; if 
 satisfactory, they give him their peace, and bid him 
 sleep on in the protection of God. The examination 
 in the grave is founded on tradition, and is supposed 
 also to be twice alluded to in the Koran, though 
 certain sects deny it altogether. Thus : " How, there- 
 fore, will it be with them (the unbelievers), when the 
 angels shall cause them to die, and shall strike their 
 faces and their backs. "^ 
 
 On the completion of this examination the soul 
 is conveyed to a place called Berzakh,^ or "the 
 Barrier," the Hades of separate spirits, there to remain 
 till reunited to the body. The faithful are, according 
 to their works, in various degrees of happiness. The 
 souls of the prophets are at once admitted to Paradise ; 
 those of martyrs dwell in the crops of green birds, 
 which eat of the fruits and drink the waters of the 
 happy gardens, &c. ] while the souls of the wicked 
 have a foretaste of those torments which, when re- 
 united to their bodies, they are to suffer for ever. 
 
 The general resurrection and judgment, in which 
 
 ' Sura xlvii. 29. See also Sura viii. 52 ; Sale, P. D., sec. iv.; 
 and Lane, ii. chap. xv. At the funeral of the rich in Egypt, a 
 sacrifice, called "the expiation," is offered, generally a buffalo, 
 the flesh of which is given to the poor. 
 
 ^ Suras xxiii. 102 ; xxv. 55.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 207 
 
 are to be included all beings, even as it appears, 
 the brute creation,^ will be announced by the 
 trumpet of the angel " Israfil," when, " the earth 
 shall shine by the light of its Lord, and the book 
 shall be laid open, and every soul shall be fully 
 rewarded according to what it shall have wrought. 
 And the unbelievers shall be driven unto hell by 
 troops, — but those who shall have feared their Lord, 
 shall be conducted by troops towards paradise " 
 (Sura xxxix. 67-73). 
 
 Such is a general outline of the last day, which 
 clearly indicates a belief in individual responsibility, 
 and that the sentence of happiness or misery is regu- 
 lated according to each man's works, which are to be 
 weighed in the just balance " that hangs over Paradise 
 and Hell, and is capacious enough to hold both 
 Heaven and Earth." ^ The judgment being over, the 
 Faithful, and the '•' companions of the left hand," have 
 still one final ordeal to undergo, viz., the passage of 
 the bridge " Al Sirat," which, spanning " the deep 
 abyss of hell," is finer than a hair, and sharper than 
 the edge of a sword. Over it the true Moslems, 
 headed by their prophet, will pass into Paradise, with 
 the fleetness of the wind, whilst the wicked will fall 
 headlong into the gulf beneath.^ The teaching of 
 the Koran regarding heaven and hell has already 
 been noticed. 
 
 ' Sura vi. 38. " There is no kind of beast on earth, nor fowl — 
 bat the same is a people like unto you — unto their Lord shall 
 they return." 
 
 ' Sale, P. D., p. 89. Comp. Sura xxiii. 104, 105. 
 
 ^ This myth of the bridge " Al Sirat" rests on tradition, and 
 was taken from the Magians (conf. Sale, P. D., sec. iv.). 
 P
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE SPREAD OF ISLAM. 
 
 News of the prophet's death soon spread among 
 his disciples. The fiery Omar combated the asser- 
 tion, and maintained that a swoon only had fallen 
 on him, but Abu Bekr, in words of the Koran itself,^ 
 assured the Faithful that from tne common lot of 
 humanity there was no exemption even for the apostle 
 of God. And so Mahomet's body was prepared for 
 the grave, and, clad in the garments in which he died, 
 was buried in Ayesha's chamber, beneath the spot 
 where the angel of death had visited him. 
 
 Abu Bekr, not without some show of opposi- 
 tion on the part of the " Ansar," was elected Caliph 
 or successor of the apostle, having, as was asserted 
 by his supporters, been virtually nominated to the 
 office by Mahomet himself. ^ 
 
 The dignity of Caliph, it should be remem- 
 bered, carried with it the supreme temporal and 
 spiritual authority over the Faithful. Throughout 
 
 ' Sura xxxix. 31 : "Verily, thou, O Mahomet, shalt die." 
 - The Ansar put forward Sad, one of their , number. It was 
 thought by the partizans of Ali that his marriage with Fatima 
 gave him an inlierent right to the succession. This claim, after- 
 wards intensified, divides to the present day the Mahometan 
 world.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 209 
 
 Arabia the deatli of the prophet was followed by a 
 general spirit of insurrection among the Bedouin 
 tribes, who eagerly sought to shake off their allegiance 
 to the new faith ; but in the first year of his reign, 
 Abu Bekr succeeded not only in reducing them to 
 obedience, but also, by the prospect of boundless 
 plunder, and the joys of Paradise, in enlisting their 
 numbers, and in pressing into the service of the faith 
 the irresistible fanaticism of these children of the 
 desert. 
 
 Under Khalid, the province of Irak was overrun, 
 and the city of Ambar, and that of Hira with its 
 Christian population, subjected to tribute. War 
 was declared against Heraclius, and Syria invaded. 
 Khalid was directed to join his troops to those of 
 Abu-Obeida in the valley of the Jordan, and at the 
 battle of Aiznadin the forces of the Byzantine 
 monarchy were totally defeated. At this conjuncture" 
 Abu Bekr died, after a short reign of two years and 
 four months, and Omar, who had been nominated to 
 the dignity by his predecessor, was regarded as 
 Caliph. 1 
 
 Under the Caliph Omar (A.D. 634 — 643) the 
 tide of conquest rolled on. Bostra and Damascus, 
 Antioch and Aleppo fell and became tributary, and 
 Syria was finally subdued. The victory of Yermouk 
 (A.D. 636) gave the invaders entry into Palestine, and 
 Jerusalem surrendered to the Caliph in person. 
 Mounted on his camel, a bag of dates and a skin of 
 
 ' Abu Bekr was a man of the purest character. His friend- 
 ship for Muh'Tnet, and unwavering belief in his mission, are a 
 strong testimony to the sincerity of the prophet. 
 P 2
 
 2IO ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 water by his side — ample provision for his simple 
 wants, — he made his entry into the sacred city. 
 Honourable terms of capitulation were granted to its 
 inhabitants, and the provisions of the treaty faithfully 
 observed. On mount Moriah, the site of the temple 
 of Solomon, he obtained permission to erect " The 
 Dome of the Rock," which, as the Mosque of Omar, 
 bears his name to this day. 
 
 Meanwhile, the great victory of Cadesia (A.D. 
 636), won by his lieutenants over Yesdejird — 
 the last of the Sassanidse, — was followed by the 
 capture of the capitals Ctesiphon and Seleucia ; while 
 the subsequent " victory of victories " on the plain of' 
 Nahavend finally subjected Persia to tribute or the 
 faith. Eygpt, too, on the fall of Memphis and 
 Alexandria (A.D. 640), was wrested from the Roman 
 Empire by Amru, and with part of Libya incorporated 
 "with the caliphate. 
 
 Omar was the first who bore the title of " Prince 
 of the Faithful," and though his empire extended 
 from the Orontes to the Arabian Sea, and from 
 the Caspian to the Nile, he affected no regal state, 
 was the friend and companion of the beggar and 
 the poor, and in his mud palace at Medina was 
 ready to share his meal with the humblest brother in 
 the faith. There is a grand simplicity, and a heroism, 
 in the lives of these early warriors of the crescent 
 which irresistibly strikes the imagination, and places 
 them in noble contrast with the cruel and effeminate 
 despots who soon succeeded them. Omar perished 
 by the hand of a Persian slave (A.D. 643), and ^vith 
 him the golden age of the undivided caliphate begins
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 211 
 
 to pass away. Before his death he confided to six of 
 the chiefs at Medina the selection of a successor, 
 and the choice fell on Othman, who had married in 
 succession two of the daughters of the prophet. 
 
 AH was thus again passed over, but loyally gave 
 in his adherence to the new Caliph, whose lieu- 
 tenants continued to extend and consolidate the 
 empire. The victorious army of the Arabs were 
 carried to the pillars of Hercules, though the north 
 coast of Africa was not totally subdued for sixty years. 
 The coasts of Andalusia were menaced, Cyprus (A.D. 
 647) and Rhodes (A.D. 652) subdued, and Nubia 
 made tributary ; while eastward the great province of 
 Khorassan, which had been invaded by Omar, with 
 its towns of Balkh and Nisabor, was added to the 
 empire of the Caliph. 
 
 Compared with Abu Bekr and Omar, simple 
 and zealous apostles of the faith, the character 
 of Othman showed, in many respects, an infe- 
 riority which weakened his influence, and eventually 
 hastened his death. Though brave and liberal, 
 the weight of seventy years pressed upon him, and 
 his facile disposition inclined him to lend too favour- 
 able an ear to the solicitations of his near relations 
 and personal friends, and this to the prejudice of 
 those whose services gave them the strongest claim to 
 the important offices of the State. Discontent at the 
 favouritism which prevailed became general, rival 
 and ambitious chiefs spread the disaffection, and the 
 tumults which arose ended in the murder of the aged 
 Caliph (A.D. 654). With his violent death begins 
 that long story of bloodshed and treachery which
 
 212 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 henceforth stains the history of Islam ; and which, 
 arising from poHtical ambition, and theological dis- 
 putes regarding de jure and de facto rights, is to this 
 day illustrated by the bitterest sectarian feelings, and 
 not unfrequently by deeds of blood. 
 
 The apparently unanimous voice of the people 
 of Medina raised to the throne, Ali, the nearest 
 relative, and the son-in-law of the Prophet. A large 
 section, indeed, of Mahometans, the Shias, as I have 
 above stated, consider that in him and in his sons 
 Hasan and Hosein — the sole descendants of the 
 Prophet — was vested from the first a divine and in- 
 alienable right to the spiritual and temporal leader- 
 ship of the Faithful. They thus look upon the first 
 three Caliphs as usurpers. The legitimate succession 
 of these three princes is upheld by the great Sunni 
 sect, who differ from their Shia opponents in this, and 
 in other particulars of a more purely doctrinal nature. 
 The Sunnis assert that Mahomet never intended, and 
 in reality took no steps, to establish any hereditary 
 right in his descendants, but left to the Faithful the 
 free choice of their prince and Imam. 
 
 The chivalrous Ali (A.D. 654), the Bayard of the 
 faith, had at length reached the goal of his ambition, 
 but his short reign was an uninterrupted scene of civil 
 war, which stopped the conquests begun by his pre- 
 decessors, and terminated only with his untimely 
 death at the assassin's hand, Amru, Governor of 
 Egypt, Ayesha, the " Mother of the Faithfjl," and 
 Muavia, who ruled in Syria, continued his bitter and 
 successful opponents to the end. 
 
 Muavia, the son of Abu-Sofian and of Hind
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 213 
 
 who owed his fortune and position to Othman, 
 refused to acknowledge Ali as lawful Caliph, called 
 him a "man of blood," and justified his own 
 defection under the pretext that Ali had insti- 
 gated the murder of his predecessor. He further 
 announced his intention of avenging the innocent 
 blood which had been shed, and for this purpose 
 usurped the independent government of the province 
 in which he commanded. He was the first Caliph of 
 the dynasty of the Omeyades, so called from the name 
 of his ancestor, Omeya, the son of Abd-Shams. Four- 
 teen princes of this house reigned at Damascus during 
 the next hundred years (A.D. 654-752); till by the 
 employment of arts similar to those they had used 
 against the family of Ali, their power was under- 
 mined, their race hunted down and nearly exter- 
 minated, and in their place the great house of the 
 Abbassides became rulers of the Eastern caliphate 
 from their seat at Baghdad. Of the Omeyades one 
 prince only, Abd-al-Rahman, escaped the proscrip- 
 tion, and, making his way to Spain, founded the 
 dynasty which continued for three centuries at Cor- 
 dova (A.D. 756-1038). 
 
 On the assassination of Ali (A.D. 660), his son 
 Hasan was acknowledged Caliph in Arabia, and in 
 the province of Babylonia,^ but his pacific dispo- 
 sition induced him, after six months, to surrender his 
 sovereign rights to Muavia, who already reigned in 
 Syria and Egypt. Hasan retired into private life at 
 Medina, employing his time in prayer and almsgiving, 
 and was subsequently poisoned by his wife at the 
 
 ' Irak-Arabi.
 
 214 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 instigation of the tyrant whom his resignation had 
 confirmed on the throne. 
 
 Muavia died in A.D. 679, and was succeeded by his 
 son, Yezid. The latter unsuccessfully laid siege to Con- 
 stantinople, but extended his victories through Khoras- 
 san and Turkestan. The cities of Mecca and Medina 
 had not, however, been consulted regarding the suc- 
 cession of Yezid, and encouraged the general disaffec- 
 tion against him. Hosein, the second son of AH, was 
 induced, especially by his adherents at Cufa, to raise 
 the standard of revolt, and assert his sacred and inalien- 
 able right to the sovereign Imamat over the Faithful. 
 
 There is no event in history more mournful 
 than the story of the martyrdom of the sainted 
 Hosein.i Overtaken on his way from Mecca to join 
 his adherents on the Euphrates, he was surrounded 
 and perished with seventy-two of his nearest relatives. 
 The Shia sect, which pays to Ali and his sons honours 
 not inferior to those given to INIahomet, detests the 
 name of Yezid, keeps, with demonstrations of pas- 
 sionate grief, the festival of Hosein's death, and has 
 made his tomb at the Kerbela a place of pilgrimage 
 hardly inferior to Mecca.^ 
 
 • Conf. Macaulay, " Life of Clive " ; Freeman, "The Sara- 
 cens," p. 89, el seq. 
 
 ^ The head of Hosein was sent to Damascus and interred in 
 succession there and at Ascalon. Finally, it was taken to Cairo 
 by the Fatimite Caliphs, and is reported to rest in the Mosque 
 of the Hasanayn's. At the tomb of Fatima, in El Bakia, her 
 sons are spoken of as "the two moons, the two pearls, the two 
 princes of the youth of paradise." The succession of the twelve 
 Imams or Pontiffs of the Mahometan Church is continued through 
 Ali, surnamed " Zayn-el-Abidin, the sole of the twelve children
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 215 
 
 It was during the reign of Valid I. (A.D. 705-716) 
 the eldest of the four sons of Abd-al-Malik, who 
 in succession became Caliphs of Damascus, that 
 the empire attained its greatest extent. Its north- 
 ward boundaries were Galatia and Georgia. East- 
 ward, Transoxiana received the Mahometan law, 
 " and the germ was planted which was to grow up 
 into the imperial forms of the grand Turk and the 
 great Mogul. "^ In the same year that saw the over- 
 throw of the Gothic monarchy in Spain, the valley 
 of the Indus submitted to the Moslem arms, and the 
 power of the Caliph continued there to the middle of 
 the eighth century. In the west, under Tarik, the 
 Arabs crossed the straits from Ceuta (A.D. 710), and 
 at Xeres, on the Guadalete, overthrew Roderic, the 
 last of the Visigothic kings. In rapid succession 
 Cordova and Toledo, Seville and Valentia, Sara- 
 gossa and the Balearic Isles fell, and with the excep- 
 tion of the fastnesses of the Asturias the whole of 
 Spain submitted to the Moors. Such names as Tarifa, 
 Algeciras, and Gibraltar, still bear testimony to their 
 former dominion there. Their rule, though neces- 
 sarily degrading, was equitable, and the fullest religi- 
 ous toleration was granted. The Jews, in particular, 
 were freed from the cruel persecutions to which 
 they had been subject under Christian rule.^ 
 
 of Hosein, who survived the fatal field of Kerbela" (Burton, ii. 
 pp. 91, 257. Cf. Lane, "Mod. Egyp.," i. 291 eiseq. 324. Also 
 regarding the ceremonies at Cairo of the " Yom Ashoora, " cf. 
 vol. ii. p. 168). 
 
 ' Freeman, " The Saracens," p. 106. 
 
 - Subsequently separate and independent kingdoms were 
 formed at Seville, Saragossa, Valentia, and Toledo. Weakened
 
 2l6 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 Thus the empire founded by the camel-driver 
 of Mecca — the prophet of Islam — had from his 
 humble dwelling at Medina, in less than a century, 
 extended throughout Arabia, Syria, and Egypt, 
 along the coast of Mauritania far into the interior 
 of Africa, and included within its embrace Spain 
 and part of Gaul. Eastward, Persia and Scinde 
 had been subdued, and Transoxiana invaded, and 
 thus the sovereign will of the Commander of the 
 Faithful gave law from the Indus to the Atlantic. 
 But this greatness was not to last. The immense 
 empire contained within itself the seeds of its own 
 dissolution, soon to germinate amidst the ambition 
 of rival princes and the fury of contending sects. 
 The Omeyade dynasty was, as above mentioned, 
 supplanted by that of the house of Abbas, which, 
 during five centuries (A.D. 752 — 1258) gave thirty- 
 seven real or nominal rulers to the Eastern caliphate. 
 
 Abu Giafar, surnamed Al-Manzor, fixed the seat 
 of his power at the new capital of Baghdad. With 
 him the golden age of his dynasty begins. His 
 court became the resort of the learned, and the 
 worthy rival of Cordova in science, literature, and 
 art. The tales of the " Arabian Nights " have made 
 the names of Haroun-al-Raschid, fifth Caliph, and his 
 royal spouse Zobeide, familiar to us as household 
 words. From the reigns of his sons Al Amin, Al 
 Mamun, and Al Motassem, the glory of their 
 house begins to fade away. The ambition of the 
 
 thus by internal division, the Moors had to acknowledge the 
 supremacy of the Castilian kings (1246), and finally confined to 
 the kingdom of Grenada, were driven from Spain (1491).
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 217 
 
 Shia, and other contending sects, and the insolence 
 of the Turkish mercenaries, whom the CaHphs had 
 taken into their pay, introduced universal anarchy, 
 and caused the ruin of the state. 
 
 It is about the middle of the sixth century that 
 history first makes mention of the Turks, whose 
 original haunts were the plains of Central Asia, from 
 the Oxus to the Arctic Circle, and from the borders 
 of China to the Caspian Sea. Their western terri- 
 tories being overrun by the Arabs, they embraced the 
 religion of their conquerors, and subsequently com- 
 posed the body-guard of the Caliphs. In process of 
 time the chiefs of this barbarous soldiery, like the 
 Prsetorians at Rome, and the Janizaries of Stamboul, 
 arrogated to themselves the most important offices in 
 the state, left to their sovereign only a nominal 
 authority, and, during the height of their usurpation, 
 subjected him to indignity, cruelty, and death. 
 
 Harassed thus by civil disorder and sectarian 
 violence, deprived of all power, and often of personal 
 freedom by the chiefs whom he had invited to rid 
 him of his domestic oppressors, the Caliph was 
 unable to check the usurpations of those who, in his 
 name, ruled the provinces of the empire, and whose 
 ambition it was to become the founders of separate 
 and independent dynasties. Thus province after 
 province was lost, and in the end Baghdad, which 
 had been a prey to the raging factions of Sunni 
 and Shia, fell into the hands of the Mogul Hologu, 
 whom the Seyuds of the house of Ali had incited 
 against their sovereign, and the unfortunate Mostad-
 
 2l8 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 hem Billah, the last Caliph of his race, was put to a 
 cruel death. ^ 
 
 But the Turks were destined to play a more im- 
 portant part in other lands, for history undoubtedly 
 proves that the Mahometan conquests would never 
 have spread so far had they not been aided by the 
 vast multitudes of Tartars and Moguls, who lent to 
 Islam their numbers and the enthusiastic heroism of 
 their arms. Without the religion of the prophet to 
 give these wandering hordes a common bond of 
 union, they might still have remained buried in the 
 depths of their primeval solitudes, and never have 
 showed their victorious arms on the Bosphorus and 
 the Danube. 
 
 Othman (the ancestor of the reigning dynasty 
 at Constantinople) was the son of Ortogrul, and 
 grandson of a Turkish emir, who, early in the thir- 
 teenth century, and on the approach of the Mogul 
 Ghengiz Khan, left his home, in Khorassan in search 
 of some safer settlement in Asia Minor. On the 
 march he perished in the Euphrates, but Ortogrul 
 obtained from the Seljuc Sultan of Iconium settle- 
 ments for his followers in the ancient province of 
 Phrygia. His son, Othman, extended his possessions 
 chiefly at the expense of the Greek emperor, and in 
 1299, on the death of his patron, the ruler of 
 Iconium, assumed the title of Sultan. A succes- 
 sion of ten great princes, who reigned over the 
 
 ' A.D. 1258. Consult Freeman, "The Saracens," pp. 123- 
 160. D'Herbelot, voc. Klhalifat, iii. p. 455. The power of 
 Radhi Billah, 20th Caliph, did not extend beyond the walls of 
 Baghdad.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 219 
 
 Ottoman Turks, widely extended their territoiies, and 
 raised tlieir military power to the first rank in 
 Europe. 
 
 In 1328 the seat of the monarchy was fixed at 
 Brussa, under the shadow of Mount Olympus, and Asia 
 Minor was conquered to the Hellespont. Solyman 
 I. first invaded Europe {1355), and Amurath I. took 
 Adrianople (1360), made it his capital, and soon 
 after Macedonia, Albania, and Servia were subdued. 
 Bajazet, his successor (1389), came in contact with 
 the Christians in central Asia, and defeated Sigismond, 
 the king of Bohemia and Hungary, at the great battle 
 of Nicopolis (1396). The onward course of Bajazet 
 was checked by the Mogul Timur, who invaded Asia 
 Minor, and defeated him at the battle of Ancyra 
 (1402). In 1415 Muhammad I. invaded Bavaria, 
 and conquered the Venetians at Salonica. Though 
 the progress of Amurath II. Avas arrested by the 
 fortress of Belgrade on the Danube, and by the valour 
 of Scanderbeg in Epirus, he defeated the Christians 
 at Varna (1444). On the 29th May, 1453, Muham- 
 mad II. overpowered Constantinople, the last bulwark 
 of the Christians in the East, and the noble Con- 
 stantine IX, the last of the race of Paleologus, buried 
 himself under the ruins of the city he could not save. 
 Next followed the conquest of the Morea, and Epirus 
 (1465), and Bosnia and Trebizond were added to his 
 empire. For the next fifty years the Ottoman arms 
 were the terror of Europe. 
 
 Selim I in 15 17, conquered Syria and Palestine 
 and defeated the Mamelook-sultan of Egypt. On 
 his return to Constantinople he brought with him
 
 2 20 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 Motavakkel Billah, the last titular Caliph of the 
 family of Abbas, whom he found at Cairo. From this 
 descendant of Dahir Billah — thirty-fifth Caliph of 
 Baghdad — Selim " procured the cession of his claims, 
 and obtained the right to deem himself the Shadow 
 of God upon earth. Since then the Ottoman Padishah 
 has been held to inherit the rights of Omar 
 and llaroun," i and to be the legitimate Commander 
 of the Faithful, and as such possessed of plenary 
 temporal and spiritual authority over the followers of 
 Mahomet.2 Solyman II, the Magnificent, took Rhodes 
 from the knights of St. John (1522), and on 
 the field of Mohacz (1526) subdued half of Hungary. 
 Central Europe was threatened, and in terror, until 
 the progress of the Moslems was checked before the 
 walls of Vienna (1529). 
 
 From the Persians the city and territory of Baghdad 
 were wrested ; Moldavia was made tributary, and tl e 
 Ottoman fleets swept the Mediterranean. The power 
 of the Ottoman Turks had now reached its culmina- 
 ting point. External conquest had hitherto supplied 
 the sinews of war; but having systematically neglected 
 any attempt to develope the boundless resources of 
 its vast empire, the nation has continued ever 
 smce to sink lower and lower. While surrounding 
 Christian states have rapidly progressed, the Turks 
 
 ' Freeman, "The Saracens," p. 158. Also D'Herbelot's 
 account of Mostanser Billah. 
 
 ^ It should be added that the Persian Shlas repudiate these 
 claims. The Moors also refuse to acknowledge the spiritual 
 supremacy of the Sultan of Turkey, their own sovereign claim- 
 mg to inherit the title of Caliph from the Cordovan princes.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 22 1 
 
 have on the other hand remained absolutely opposed 
 to change and reform ; and in addition, the rapacity 
 of their Sultans, carried out and imitated by extor- 
 tionate pachas, has reduced the country to its present 
 deplorable state. 
 
 A blind belief in inevitable fate, fostered by the 
 national faith, has been a fertile source of evil. 
 Its natural antagonism to liberty of thought and 
 action, and to political progress, has destroyed all 
 true national life, and has rendered reform next to 
 impossible, and made the future hopeless. That the 
 subjugation of alien peoples brought with it any 
 corresponding duties to the conquered, involving the 
 spread of true civilization, good government, and the 
 cultivation of the peaceful arts, seems to have found 
 no place in the thoughts of the Turks. 
 
 Centuries of despotism, with maladministration 
 on every hand, bigoted persecution of its Christian 
 peoples, and oppression of its co-religionists, whose 
 cries were never allowed to disturb the torpid repose 
 of their tyrants, have been followed by their natural 
 and inevitable results. Instead of founding the 
 fabric of the nation's life upon the love of a 
 contented and loyal people, Turkey has systema- 
 tically oppressed and degraded its subjects, and 
 national dishonesty has been followed by national 
 bankruptcy. Its bigotry, tyranny, and brutal vice 
 have left it without friends at home, and without 
 sympathy from abroad ; and though the jealousy of 
 rival states may for a time postpone its fall, there 
 can be little doubt that the time must come when 
 the Mahometan rule will be swept from those fair
 
 222 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 regions in Europe, which have for centuries been 
 blighted by its presence. 
 
 The truth, indeed, is that so long as Maho- 
 metans are true to their own creed, so long will it 
 be impossible for them, when they are the governing 
 power, to grant perfect equality to their subjects of 
 other creeds, or, when they are subjects, to render 
 loyal and hearty obedience to a sovereign professing 
 any antagonistic faith. For it is manifestly pre- 
 posterous for them to profess obedience to, and act 
 contrary to the whole spirit, and to the very letter of 
 their " Book of Directions," the Koran, in which it is 
 laid down that the unbelievers are to be held under 
 tribute, and the Christians to be reduced low.^ 
 
 I have above related how during the reign of 
 Valid I, of Damascus, the province of Scinde was 
 included in the caliphate, and how in the year A.D, 
 750 the invaders were driven out by the Rajpoots. 
 For two hundred and fifty years India was free from 
 Moslem attack. During this period, in the provinces 
 of the crumbling caliphate, numerous dynasties, 
 chiefly of Tartar blood, had successively established 
 themselves westward of the Soliman range, and soon 
 began to lend their hardy valour to the dissemination 
 of their adopted faith. 
 
 In Afghanistan Sebuktegin, once a Turkish slave, 
 founded a vigorous government at Ghuznee, and 
 defeated the Hindoo Rajah of Lahore, who was 
 the first to begin hostilities. His son Mahmoud made 
 those famous incursions into India which are cele- 
 
 > Sura IX. 29.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 223 
 
 bratcd in the history of that country, and annexed 
 the Punjaub to his kingdom. Driven from their 
 capital in Afghanistan by the Ghorian princes, the 
 Ghuznevide dynasty Hngered on for some time in 
 their Indian possessions, till swept away by other 
 powerful invaders (A.D. 1184). 
 
 Under a succession of Pathan princes, who 
 rose to power with the usual circumstances of 
 treachery and murder, the Mahometans established 
 themselves as the dominant power in Hindustan, and 
 penetrated into the Ueccan.^ Though the desolating 
 wave of Mogul invasion had only swept across the 
 north of India under Timur (1398), his descendant 
 Baber subsequently (1526) seated himself on the 
 throne of Delhi, in right of a pretended conquest of 
 his great ancestor. 
 
 Under the descendants of Baber, from Akbar to 
 Arungzebe (1556 — 1707), the empire of the Great 
 Mogul reached its highest power, but during the 
 reigns of their feeble successors it rapidly declined. 
 The plunder of Delhi by Nadir Shah (1738) was a 
 fatal blow to the power of the Great Mogul. It taught 
 the hardy tribes of Rajpoots, Rohillas, Sikhs, Mali- 
 rattas, and the Mahometan viceroys themselves, the 
 weakness of the central power, and all sought to enrich 
 themselves at the expense of their sovereign.^ Alter- 
 nately a puppet in the hands of these nominal subjects, 
 
 ' The Deccan was invaded and subdued by Alla-ul-Din, of the 
 Khilji dynasty, A. D. 1295-1317. 
 
 ' Powerful Mahometan dynasties rose from time to time in 
 India, Kulberga (1351), Bejapore (1489), Moorshedabad, Hy- 
 derabad, in the Deccan (1717), and in Oudh and Mysore (1760). 
 Q
 
 224 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 the wretched prince was exposed to extortion, indignity, 
 and cruelty,^ till at length the fallen heir of Timur 
 found a quiet asylum with the English, whom in after 
 years his descendant sought to destroy. With the 
 recapture of Delhi from the mutineers in 1858, the 
 phantom power of the Great Mogul came to an end. 
 
 Unlike Hindooism, the faith of Mahomet is essen- 
 tially a missionary religion, and successive Afghan, 
 Persian, and Mogul princes have, by promise of mate- 
 rial advantages, successfully allured converts to the 
 faith. Freedom from the fetters of caste, and the 
 social elevation which accompanied the adoption of 
 Islam, induced numbers of Hindoos, chiefly of the 
 lower classes, to adopt the ruling religion. 
 
 Eastward of India the Mahometan faith has 
 spread among the Malays, a people of Asia Vv^ho 
 have adopted the religion and alphabet of the Ara- 
 bians, and intermarried with them, so that they have 
 become separated from the original stock, and form 
 a distinct nation. The first missionaries of Islam 
 reached Malacca and Sumatra in the fourteenth cen- 
 tury, and their teaching spread to Java and the 
 Celebes a century later. The Malays appear first in 
 the thirteenth century in the peninsula of Malacca, 
 where they built a to^\^l of the same name, and they 
 subsequently spread into Sumatra, the Philippines, 
 the Moluccas, &c. Their supremacy in these regions 
 has passed away, chiefly through the working of the 
 feudal system, which has divided them into number- 
 
 ' The Emperor Farokshit {171 5-1 7 19) was assassinated; 
 Ahmed Shah (1748-1754) was blinded and deposed ; and Alum- 
 gir II. (1754-1759) deposed and murdered.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 225 
 
 less independent peoples, and through the successful 
 commercial rivalry of the English and Dutch. In addi 
 tion to the Koran they have various local laws. Slavery 
 is universal among them, and also the use of opium. 
 Here, as elsewhere, the existence of Islam has utterly 
 failed to raise the nation in a moral point of view, 
 and either makes no effort, or is powerless, to mend 
 the licentiousness of manners which universally 
 abounds. 
 
 The Mahometan faith is thus prevalent from 
 Morocco along the north coast of Africa, and south 
 ward irregularly to the equator. It dominates in 
 Egypt and the Turkish empire, in Arabia, Persia, and 
 Turkestan, is powerfully represented in India, and 
 among the Malays, and has found a footing in China. 
 Moreover, we are informed that missionary efforts for 
 its propagation are succeeding in various parts. ^ 
 
 Assuming the population of the world to be 
 in round numbers 1,300 millions, this total, distri- 
 buted according to religious creeds, is probably as 
 follows : — There are 490 millions of Buddhists, and 
 the disciples of Confucius and Taoists ; Christians 
 360 millions, Mahometans 100 millions, other beliefs 
 165 millions.- Of the 100 millions professing Islam 
 there are in India alone some 41 millions, subjects 
 of the Queen of England, who is thus ruler over the 
 largest Mahometan population in the world. That 
 these subjects are a source of strength to the Empire 
 few will be disposed to assert, for, in face of the 
 express directions of the prophet, loyalty becomes a 
 
 ' Bosworth Smith, " Muhammad," pp. 25-42. 
 '^ Moiiier WiUiams, " Indian Wisdom," p. xxxv. note. 
 Q 2
 
 226 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 difficulty, which is doubtless conscientiously felt by 
 many devout Moslems. 
 
 As I have before said, they are commanded to 
 lay the unbeliever under tribute, and they cannot 
 easily reconcile with this the duty of paying tribute to 
 any Caesar whom they regard as an infidel. To those 
 who have no wish to be loyal, a divine justification of 
 their acts is always welcome. Whatever may be the 
 political conjunctions put forward as necessary to 
 justify a crescentade or holy war for the faith, it 
 cannot be denied that the normal condition of Islam 
 is one of missionary aggression by the sword. 
 
 The conditions necessary to render a "Jihad"' 
 or religious war lawful have been variously interpreted 
 by the different sects. The solution of the question 
 seems principally to depend on whether the country 
 in which the Moslems are subjects, is " Dar-ul-Harb," 
 the land of enmity, or " Dar-ul-Islam," the land of 
 Islam. Another condition has been judged by the 
 Sunnis, necessary before the publication of a Jihad, 
 viz., that there should be a probability of victory to 
 their arms. The Shias also add to this, that the 
 armies of the Crescent must be led by the rightful 
 Imlim.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 In the foregoing chapters I have attempted to 
 present as comprehensive an account as my Hmits 
 would allow of Mahomet's life and work, and now 
 must leave to the intelligent reader the task of forming 
 his independent opinion, of the motives which influ- 
 enced his words and his deeds, and of the true value 
 of the system he has given to the world. Towards 
 this object the following remarks may be permitted. 
 
 Though the life and work of the prophet have 
 in many respects so much in common, it may be 
 found possible to judge, according to a different 
 standard, the man and the system which he founded. 
 The one was human, the other claims to be divine ; 
 the one acknowledges himself encompassed with the 
 sins and errors of humanity, the other asserts its title 
 to be the pure word of God ; the one had at length 
 to yield to the summons of the angel of death, the 
 other claims to endure for ever as a direction and 
 blessing to all mankind. 
 
 Mahomet arose in a barbarous country, and Avith 
 no human aid so great as his own indomitable will 
 abolished the outward expression of a cherished 
 idolatry in his native land, bowed to himself the hearts 
 of his countrymen, and finally gave to the world that 
 creed which has exercised so tremendous an influence 
 on its destiny. In the man, no one can fail to see 
 elements of power and human greatness, which com-
 
 228 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 pel our wonder, if not our admiration ; but in that 
 Islam which he founded, history recognizes, in its 
 ultimate effects, one of the greatest evils which have 
 afflicted humanity, arising both from its hostility to the 
 purer faith of Christianity, and also from its essential 
 antagonism to progress, civilization, and the truth. 
 
 Judged by the smallness of the means at his dis 
 posal, and the extent and permanence of the work 
 he accomplished, no name in the world's story shines 
 with a more specious lustre than that of the prophet 
 of Mecca. To the impulse which he gave, numberless 
 dynasties have owed their existence, fair cities and 
 stately palaces and temples have arisen, and wide 
 provinces become obedient to the faith. And be- 
 yond all this, his words ^ have governed the belief 
 of generations, been accepted as their rule in life and 
 their certain guide to the world to come. At a 
 thousand shrines the voices of the Faithful invoke 
 blessing on him, whom they esteem the very prophet 
 of God, the seal of the Apostles, now passed into the 
 highest heaven as their intercessor with the All- 
 merciful Allah.2 Judged by the standard of human re- 
 nown, the glory of what mortal can compare with his ? 
 
 Attempts have been made to show that Ma- 
 homet was a true benefactor to his ovm country- 
 men. It is urged that in place of the gross idol- 
 worship which existed, he gave to Arabia a purer 
 
 ' It is to be remembered that in the belief of a/l the sects, 
 Sunnis, Shias, and Wahabees, the words and example of Ma- 
 homet are considered binding on the true believer. 
 
 ^ The Sunnis believe that their prophet has already received 
 permission from God to intercede for them. The Wahabees are 
 of opinion that this permission will not be granted till the last 
 (day conf. Hughes, "Muhammadanism," p. 179).
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 229 
 
 faith; and we are told that incest, and infanticide, 
 and every trace of idolatry vanished before his burn- 
 ing words.^ That he did through evil and good report, 
 under mockery and persecution, persevere with un- 
 faltering steps in winning his countrymen to a better 
 life and a more spiritual belief, no one can deny, and 
 for this all honour is due to him who dwelt in a light 
 so much brighter than the thick darkness around. 
 
 Yet, while forming a correct judgment of the 
 moral condition of Arabia at the time when he arose, 
 and estimating at their true value the benefits he 
 conferred, we must not neglect to keep before our 
 eyes the clear distinction which exists between evil 
 and degrading practices, which are open to reform, 
 and an imperfect, if not vicious law, intended to be 
 the permanent standard of good and evil. The 
 former can be successfully attacked by the influence 
 of better example, and will disappear before a truer 
 and higher civilization ; but an evil code of ethics, 
 enjoined by the national faith, and accepted, by its 
 appeal to a divine origin, as the final and irrevocable 
 standard of morality, presents an insuperable barrier 
 to the regeneration and progress of a nation. Yet 
 such is the position which the Koran has taken. No 
 force can abrogate its teaching or modify its stern 
 dogmas ; not all the waters of old ocean can wash 
 from the " Preserved Book " those revelations which 
 degrade one-half of our humanity — woman kind,- 
 
 ' Though he did, in some respects, ameliorate the condition 
 of women and children as regards inheritances, &c., Sir W. 
 Muir's opinion is, that woman "possessed more freedom, and 
 exercised a healthier and more legitimate influence under the 
 pre-existing institutions of Arabia" (Life of Mahomet, iii. 305). 
 
 - Sallust has the following remarks regarding the polygamy
 
 230 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 which give their sanction to slavery, and exclude all 
 hope of advancement in morals and in law. 
 
 However much, under the then degraded condition 
 of Arabia, the code of Mahomet was a gift of value, 
 and however much it may have succeeded in banishing 
 thos'^ fiercer vices which naturally accompany igno- 
 rance and barbarism, still can it be forgotten at how 
 dear a price the boon was acquired ? In the place of 
 temporary and remediable evils, which were honoured 
 in the observance only, and did not seek justification 
 by any divine sanction, the nation was delivered 
 captive to the guidance of an unchangeable law, which^ 
 whatever the excellence of some of its precepts, poisons 
 domestic life, stifles honest inquiry, crushes the right 
 of private judgment, has hitherto been found, and is 
 essentially, incompatible with constitutional freedom, 
 and has been followed by that train of national degra- 
 dation and evil which the story of the past and the 
 example of the present show to be the constant, and 
 it would seem the inevitable, attendants wherever 
 Islam holds sway. History indeed but too truly 
 records that the faith of Mahomet is altogether 
 powerless to ennoble or to regenerate a nation. 
 The partial and specious reforms which it may 
 effect are vitiated by the fact that they serve to ex 
 elude the highest ; ;md as the inner life of families, 
 the whole tone of society, and the intellectual and 
 moral standard of a people depend on the principles 
 
 which obtained amongst the ancient Moors and Numidians : — 
 " SinguH pro opibus, quisque quam plurimas uxores ; denas alii 
 .... Ita animus multiludine distrahitur ; nullam pro socia ob- 
 tinet : pariter onines viles sunt " (De Bello Jugurth. ).
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 23 1 
 
 diffused by the ruling religion, it seems, from past 
 experience, hopeless to expect that Islam will ever 
 cease to be, what it has hitherto proved, the most 
 formidable obstacle to the dawn of a j^rogress^ve and 
 enlightened civilization. 
 
 The question of the imposture of Mahomet is 
 one which may best be left to the candid reader, 
 who, from the records of his life, will judge how far 
 he has laid himself open to so grave an imputation. 
 That he was the impostor pictured by some writers is 
 refuted alike by his unwavering belief in the truth of 
 his own mission, by the loyalty and unshaken con- 
 fidence of his companions, who had ample opportuni- 
 ties of forming a right estimate of his sincerity, and 
 finally, by the magnitude of the task which he brought 
 to so successful an issue. No impostor, it may safely 
 be said, could have accomplished so mighty a work. 
 No one unsupported by a living faith in the reality of 
 his commission, in the goodness of his cause, could 
 have maintained the same consistent attitude through 
 long years of adverse fortune, alike in the day of 
 victory and the hour of defeat, in the plenitude of his 
 power and at the moment of death. 
 
 There were indeed times, in his later career at 
 Medina, when it is impossible to avoid the belief that 
 his religious enthusiasm degenerated into culpable 
 self-deception, and the idea of a divine impulse ob- 
 scured the view of his own substantial imposture.^ 
 His early career at Mecca was eminently pure and 
 
 ' The affair of Zeinab, of Mary the Copt, and of his especial 
 marital privileges, detailed in the Koran, are here referred to. 
 On this subject, conf. " Christianity and the Religions of India ' 
 (Kennedy), pp. 214-218.
 
 232 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 decorous, and gained him well-deserved esteem ; and 
 however much his opponents scoffed at the man 
 " whose conversation was about heaven," none could 
 cast in his teeth any charge of depravity. That there 
 was, amidst much that was noble and great, an active 
 moral declension in his character when tried in the 
 furnace of success, it would be vain to deny. But 
 now he has passed away, with all his weakness and 
 frailties, and all his power, his lofty claims and aspira- 
 tions, his earth-born passions and the secret motives 
 which influenced him, and may well be left to the 
 righteous judgment of that day when the secrets of 
 all hearts will be revealed, and when it will be known 
 " who are the Lord's, and who is holy." 
 
 Regarding the system which he inaugurated, I 
 offer the following remarks. The view which we 
 take of Mahometanism will much depend on our 
 assurance of the truth of Christianity in its full and 
 divine meaning. Apply this test to all who have 
 written on the subject, and it will, I venture to 
 think, substantially account for their varying estimate 
 of Islam. Much too, I need hardly say, will depend 
 on our belief in the Atonement by the death of 
 Christ, as the means provided by God for the redemp- 
 tion of mankind ; for in this, as the foundation of 
 our hope, does Christianity differ essentially from the 
 scheme devised by the prophet of Mecca. 
 
 The Koran, as above explained, however much 
 its followers may have departed from its teach- 
 ing, repudiates the idea of any vicarious sacrifice for 
 sin, teaches expressly that each soul must account 
 for itself to God, and denying the truth of the Chris-
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 233 
 
 tian redemption, lays upon each individual the task 
 of atoning for his own sin, of securing pardon, and of 
 rendering himself meet for admission to Paradise. 
 Self-righteousness, the merit of good works, and of a 
 rigid attention to the prescribed formularies and cere- 
 monies of their faith, with God's mercy to supply any 
 possible deficiency, these constitute the scheme of 
 salvation prescribed in Islam. It will be enough to 
 point out how fundamentally this differs from the 
 Christian plan, which, repudiating the merit of the 
 behever's works as in themselves propitiatory, offers 
 the sacrifice of Christ as at once vindicating the 
 demands of justice, fulfilling God's gracious intention 
 towards all mankind, and giving to the sinner, through 
 faith, the comforting assurance of pardon and recon- 
 ciliation.^ 
 
 While recognizing, then, how fundamentally Chris- 
 tianity and Islam differ in the plan they propose for 
 the reconciliation of man with God, it will be well to 
 remember that the one is the eternal purpose of our 
 merciful and all-wise Creator, the other is the natural 
 outcome of the human heart, which clings to the 
 belief that it can do something to help itself and 
 propitiate an offended judge, to whose mercy it looks 
 to effect what is lacking, and to secure its admission 
 to future beatitude. 
 
 ' In conversation on this subject with a rigid Mahometan, he 
 assured me that they had a redeemer, — that the martyr Ilosein 
 died for them at the Kerbela ! The Shias of India represent 
 the deaths of both Hosein and Hasan as expiatory for the sins 
 of men. Hasan was poisoned by his wife at the instigation of 
 Muavia I.
 
 234 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 That this is the practical religion of all, and 
 even of some professing Christians, who prefer the 
 promptings of reason to the teaching of revelation, 
 few will deny ; nor can the fact be hidden that the 
 tendency of all spiritual faiths has been thus to 
 degenerate; for the human heart is naturally prone 
 to seek, by outward acts, to buy acceptance with the 
 being it adores. 
 
 The merit of good works once admitted, other 
 aids to faith, and new means of propitiating heaven 
 are quickly found, and seasons and months and 
 days, nay, particular spots, are believed to have 
 their special efficacy in bearing aloft with acceptance 
 the prayers of the faithful. While the Gospel pre- 
 scribes for the believer's guidance pure and ennobling 
 principles of action, the Koran, with retrogressive 
 legislation, imposes upon those who receive it the 
 galling fetters of a burdensome ritual ; toilsome pil- 
 grimages, severe fastings, ablutions, and the mechani- 
 cal observance of the minutiae of his faith, are sub- 
 stituted for purity of life ; and the divorce of morality 
 and religion soon becomes complete. 
 
 I need hardly remind the reader how impor- 
 tant a place certain months and days and places 
 occupy in Mahomet's scheme, and how necessar}' 
 they are as adjuncts to the due performance of the 
 ceremonies. The prophet of Mecca, whose pro- 
 fessed mission was the extirpation of idolatry, could 
 recognize its existence only in its grosser forms ; and 
 so subtle is its poison, has himself hopelessly fallen 
 into the very sin he so vehemently assails. Thus his 
 pilgrimage to the " Holy House" has especial efficacy
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 235 
 
 if performed under the light of one particular moon ; ^ 
 the prayers of the faithful, to reach the ear of Allah, 
 must be directed towards the one Kibla of their faith ;- 
 and their fasting is then fraught with peculiar merit 
 if performed during the month in which the Koran 
 descended from heaven/' 
 
 The rapid spread and the permanence of Islam 
 are appealed to by Mahometans as certain proofs 
 of its divine origin. While repudiating the vali- 
 dity of this deduction, it must be conceded that 
 it presents enough to satisfy some spiritual want, and 
 clearly points out that its tenets must have been 
 found congenial to the peoples, who, in rapid succes- 
 sion adopted, and still hold to the observances it 
 enjoins, and the licence it allows. "The causes of 
 this new religion's rapid progress are not difficult 
 to be discovered ; Mahomet's law itself was admir- 
 ably adapted to the natural disposition of man, 
 but especially to the manners, opinions, and vices 
 prevalent among the people of the East ; for it was 
 extremely simple, proposing few things to be believed; 
 nor did it enjoin many and difficult duties to be 
 performed, or such as laid severe restraints on the 
 propensities."'* 
 
 If to the above causes we add the powerful 
 argument of the sword, and the wealth and honours 
 which conquest yielded, we shall have ample reasons 
 to account for the triumph of the crescent over the 
 cross in those regions where, in dogma and in practice, 
 a sensuous idolatry and relic worship called itself by 
 
 ' Sura ii. 192. ' Sura ii. 139. ^ Sura ii. 118. 
 
 * Mosheim's Eccl. Hist., book ii. chap. iii. p. 73.
 
 236 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 the name of Christ, and for the extension to distant 
 lands of the arms and faith of Islam. In the religious 
 history of man, indeed, nothing is more obvious than 
 that he has bent his strongest efforts to gain the 
 sanction of religion for those vices to which he is 
 naturally addicted ; and this fact will be found to be 
 the key to the corruption of all true, and to the inven- 
 tion of all false religions. 
 
 Regarding its aggressive action at the present 
 day, the missionaries of Islam (to whose success in 
 various parts a recent Amter refers in terms of undis- 
 guised exultation i) act upon principles, the efficacy 
 of which should awaken no wonder. Converts are 
 expected to use only the prescribed formula of the 
 faith, to acknowledge one God, and Mahomet as 
 His Prophet ; no examination into the nature and 
 ground of their belief is held, outward conformity 
 only is demanded, and time and habit are left to 
 complete the work. No immediate repudiation of 
 old prejudices is required, no intelligent knowledge 
 of their new creed necessary. The worship of visible 
 idols alone is to be abandoned ; but whether the 
 convert know anything of his newly-adopted faith, or 
 whether it serve to produce any practical effect on 
 the will and character, are questions altogether foreign 
 to the object m view. Considering that social eleva- 
 tion follows in the wake of Islam, especially in the 
 case of converts from the ranks of paganism, and that 
 no real sacrifice is demanded, it will cause no wonder 
 that it makes its way where the positive prohibitions 
 of Christianity, and its stern demands for the fruits 
 of a holy and religious life fail to win acceptance. 
 ' Bosworth Smith, "Muhammad," p. 40.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 237 
 
 In proposing self-righteousness as the means of 
 salvation, Islam is admirably adapted to flatter the 
 pride of man, and in this particular especially is it 
 antagonistic to Christianity, which, excluding the 
 merit of man's works, calls for inward holiness, not 
 outside form, and summons the humble, contrite 
 sinner in deep abasement to the foot of the cross as 
 his only hope of pardon, his only source of peace. 
 How difficult a task lies before the herald of the 
 Gospel in proclaiming such an invitation to the self- 
 righteous follower of the prophet need hardly be told. 
 To him the reception of Christianity is compatible 
 alone with the entire repudiation of his revered 
 Koran ; which, though professing to be a continuation 
 of the Old and New Testament revelations, utterly 
 destroys the very foundations of the Christian faith. 
 
 As the inner power and meaning of a religion 
 is dead and barren, in such proportion do outward 
 forms and ritualistic practices offer themselves as 
 specious substitutes, and come to take the place of 
 that inner life which alone represents the fruits ot 
 true religion. The exact ritual and formal observ- 
 ances of Islam have carried with them their own 
 inevitable Nemesis, and thus we find that in the 
 worship of the Faithful formalism and indifference, 
 pedantic scrupulosity and positive disbelief flourish 
 side by side. The minutest change of posture in 
 prayer, the displacement of a single genuflexion, 
 would call for much heavier censure than outward 
 profligacy or absolute neglect.^ 
 
 In conclusion, it may safely be asserted that Maho- 
 met had no true conception of the tremendous respon- 
 
 ' Comp. Farrar, "Life of Christ," i. 374, regarding the Jews.
 
 238 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 sibility he was taking upon himself in arrogating the 
 title of God's inspired ambassador, and in claiming to 
 be the successor of those who in ages past had been the 
 heralds of His will. The Koran claims to be a con- 
 tinuation of the earlier messages of Heaven, and to 
 supplement and develop the teaching of the Law and 
 the Gospel. Assuming such to be the case, we may 
 fairly look to it to afford us clearer views of the 
 •Divine will and attributes, of life and death, of the 
 provision made for man's spiritual and temporal 
 difficulties ; and in it we should find the way made 
 more plain for securing to all mankind their inherent 
 rights of life, liberty, and social and political well- 
 being. Instead of this, darkness and retrogression 
 are engraved on every page of the " Preserved Book," 
 God's universal fatherhood is ignored, and in place 
 of the finished sacrifice, the sinner is bid to plunge 
 into the dark future, trusting in his own righteous- 
 ness ; in his service of the All-merciful the fetters 
 of a minute ritual are substituted for that wor- 
 ship which we are taught is to be in spirit and in 
 truth. Light and darkness are not more opposed 
 than the loving dictates of the Gospel and the venge- 
 ful spirit of the Koran, in which hatred and oppres- 
 sion take the place of love and forgiveness of injuries, 
 and the denunciations of the prophet contrast with 
 the voice of the Good Shepherd, which speaks of 
 peace and good-will to all mankind.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Albas (A1), 43 (n), 50, 131, 15S, 
 
 174, 176, 180, 216, 220. 
 Abhassides (Cali()h of Baghdad), 
 
 99 (n), 184 (n), 198, 213. 
 Abdullah (Father of iM.), 43, 
 
 44. 45- 
 Abdallah (Son of Abu Bekr), 
 
 132. 
 Abdallah (Chief of Hypocrites), 
 
 159. 
 Abd-al-Dar, 42, 159, 174. 
 ,, Malik (Caliph), 215. 
 ,, Miittalil), 43, 44, 46, 
 
 48, 49, 60. 
 ,, Ozza, 42, 57. 
 ,, Rahman (Ibn Avvf), 72. 
 Abd-Kelal, 24. 
 ,, Menaf, 42. 
 ,, Shams, 42, 43, 78, 126, 
 
 213- 
 
 Ablution, 117. 
 
 Abraha, 23, 43, 92. 
 
 Abraham, 34, 39, 44 (n), 56, 62, 
 135. '37- 154, 189. 
 
 Abstinence, 185. 
 
 Abu-Ay lib, 148. 
 „ Bekr, 71, 72, 87, 126, 132, 
 133. '34. '^3. 200; (Ca- 
 liph), 208 ; (Death), 209, 
 2X1. 
 
 Abu-Cobeis (Hill), 46, 85. 
 ,, Gabshan, 38 (n). 
 ,, Manila, 19S. 
 „ Jahl, 77, 83, 124, 156, 159, 
 
 '75- 
 
 ,, Lahab, 43, 73 (n), 76, 79, 
 
 124. 
 ,, Obeida, 209. 
 „ Sofian, 50, 73 (n), 77, 124, 
 156, 158, 159, 164, 165, 
 170 (n), 173, 174, 212. 
 ,, Talib, 43, 48, 49, 51, 57, 
 60, 71, 7S, 82; (Death), 
 123, 124, 126. 
 Alnil-Aas, 78. 
 Abwa, 48, 51. 
 
 Abyssinia, 23, 25, 42, 79, 170. 
 Acaba, 128, 131. 
 Acacias, 133. 
 Ad (Beni), 65. 
 Ada, 83. 
 
 Adam, 33 ; (Peak) 34 (n). 
 Aden (Vide Euai], 6, 12, 24, 
 
 5'- 
 Adler [Dr. Chief Rabbi], 55 (n). 
 Adliyah (The Shias), 200. 
 Adnan, 36. 
 Adrianople, 219. 
 Adultery (Proof of), 163 
 Adzan, 117. 
 .('Elius Gallus, 7, 21. 
 Afghanistan, 222.
 
 >4o 
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 Afghan Princes, 224. 
 
 Africa, 5, li, 169, 1S6, 199 (n), 
 
 211, 225. 
 Afternoon (The), 89. 
 Agar (liagar), 19. 
 Ag-ressive (War), 139, 155. 
 Agony (In Garden), 115. 
 A.hmed Shah (Emp. of Delhi), 
 
 224 (n). 
 Ahriman, 169. 
 Aiznadin (Battle of), 209. 
 Akaba, 8, 51. 
 
 Akbar (Emp. of Delhi), 223. 
 Akhund of Swat, 204. 
 Al-Amin (Title of Mahomet), 56, 
 216. 
 
 ,, Arab-al-Araba, 36. 
 
 ,, Borac, 140. 
 
 ,, Caswa, 172, 174. 
 
 ,, Debaran, 32. 
 
 ,, Fat i hat, 90. 
 
 ,, Forkan (Koran), 196 (n). 
 
 ,, Hajar, in. 
 
 ,, Kadr (Night of), 69, 96. 
 
 ,, Katab (Koran), 196 (n). 
 
 ,, Mamun (Caliph), 198, 216. 
 
 ,, Manzor (Caliph), 216. 
 
 ,, Moshaf (Koran), 196 (n). 
 
 ,, Moshtari, 32. 
 
 „ Motassem (Caliph), 216. 
 
 ,, Muttalib, 42, 43. 
 
 ,, Ozza, 32, 80, 175. 
 
 ,, Sadiq, 71, 203. 
 
 ,, Shafei, 198. 
 
 ,, Shira, 32. 
 
 ,, Sirat (Bridge), 207. 
 
 ,, Zobier, 43, 49. 
 
 ., Zohirah, 32. 
 Albania, 219. 
 Alcoran (Koran), 63. 
 Aleppo, 57, 209. 
 Alexandria and Alexander, 169, 
 
 210. 
 Algeciras, 215. 
 
 Ali (Caliph), 71, 79, 156, 158, 
 159, iJZ, 178, 184 (n), i88(n), 
 
 199, 200, 203, 208, 211, 212, 
 
 213, 217. 
 Alilat (Idd), 31. 
 Allah, 118, 129, 192. 
 Allat. VideZ^f/. 
 AIla-ul-Din (Emp. of Delhi), 
 
 223 (n). 
 All-Merciful, 166. 
 Alms, 144, 186, 194, 197. 
 Alumgir II. (Emp. of Delhi), 
 
 224 (n). 
 Amalekites, 34, 35. 
 Amaziah, 29. 
 
 Amina (Mother of Mahomet), 
 
 44, 45, 46, 47, 72. 
 Amru, 172, 173, 210, 212. 
 Amulets, 167 (n). 
 AmurathI.(SultanofTurks),2i9. 
 Amurath II. (Sultan of Turks), 
 
 219. 
 Anchorites, 25. 
 Ancyra, 219. 
 Andalusia, 211. 
 Angel (of Death), 114. 
 Angels, 32, 113 ; (Koran), 115 ; 
 
 (Bible), 143, 206, 207. 
 Annunciation, 143. 
 Ansars, 131, 208. 
 Antioch, 25, 209. 
 Apes (Men changed into), 137. 
 Apostles, 139, 142, 144, 162, 
 
 167, 174, 181, 228. 
 Arabia(Legends),io7; (Conquest 
 
 of), 177: 
 Arabia, 6, 10, 19, 199 (n). 
 Arabice Emporium (Aden), 6. 
 Arabian Nights, 216. 
 Arafat (Hill of), 34 (n), 39, 44, 
 
 62 (n), i8r, 187. 
 Archangels, 113. 
 Arcam (House of), 75) 84. 
 Arians, 52. 
 Aryat, 23. 
 Arungzebe (Emp. of Delhi), 
 
 200 (n), 223. 
 Asabi, 15.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 241 
 
 Asad, 57. 
 Ascanius, 54 (n). 
 Ashura (Yom), iSS. 
 Assassination, 167, 210,211. 
 
 (n). 
 Asturias, 215. 
 Aswad, 183 (n). 
 Atonement, 60, 232, 233 (n 
 Atonement (Great day of), 
 Augustus (Emp. ), 7- 
 Autas, 175. 
 Aval, 15. 
 
 Aws (15eni), 128, 165. 
 Axum, 25, 170. 
 Ayesha (Wife of Mahomet), 
 
 126, 149, 163, 177, 184, 
 
 212. 
 Ayr (Jebel), 134. 
 Azazil (Angel), 114. 
 Azdites, 36. 
 Azrael (Angel), 114. 
 
 B 
 
 Bab-el-Max DEK, 5. 
 
 Baber (Emperor), 223. 
 
 Babylonia, 213. 
 
 Bacchus, 31. 
 
 Badr (Battle of). Si&q Bedr. 
 
 I'adsan, 170. 
 
 Baghdad, 180, 199 (n), 213 
 
 218. 
 Bahira, 54 ; Bahrein, 10, I 
 Bajazet, 219. 
 Bakia (El), 180, 183. 
 Balance (The), 207. 
 Balearic (Isles), 215. 
 Balkh, 211. 
 Bara-Wafat, iSS (n). 
 ]5araka, 45, 48. 
 Barrier (The), 206. 
 ]3asilidians (Christian Sect 
 
 (n). 
 Baln-Marr, 36. 
 
 224 
 
 187, 
 
 72, 
 
 I 216, 
 5.20. 
 
 ), 146 
 
 Bavaria, 219. 
 
 Bayard (Ali), 212. 
 
 I'eatific Vision, 106. 
 
 liecca, 102. 
 
 Bedouin, 10, 11, 40, 46, 165, 
 
 209. 
 Bedr (Battle of), 77 (n), 78, 
 
 157, 159- 
 Beersheba, 17. 
 Bejapore, 223 (n). 
 Belgrade, 219. 
 Beni-Kedar, 19, 21. 
 
 ,, Khatan, 16. 
 
 ,, Khozaa, 37. 
 
 ,, Nabat, 20. 
 
 ,, Saad, 46. 
 
 ,, Safa, 37. 
 
 ,, Sheyba, 59. 
 
 ,, Thackif, 125. 
 Berbers (The), 195. 
 Berzakh (The Barrier), 206. 
 Birds, 122 ; (Language of), 137. 
 Bir Osfan, 134. 
 Bismillah, &c., 197. 
 Black Stone, 33, 35, 38, 40, 59, 
 
 172, 174. 
 Blood (Forbidden), 140. 
 Bohemia (King of), 219. 
 Book (The Law), 112. 
 Booty (Distribution), 157, 176. 
 Borac (Al), 140. 
 Bosnia, 219. 
 
 Bosphorus (Bosporus), 129, 218. 
 Bostra, 8, 52, 53, 54, 172. 
 Bridge (The, Al Sirat), 207. 
 Brussa, 219. 
 Buddha, 34 (n). 
 Burckhardt, 20 (n), 190, &c. 
 lUirial, 205. 
 
 Burton (Capt.), " El Mecca and 
 El Medinah," 38 (n), 145 (n), 
 148 (n), iSo (n). 
 Byzantine (Monarchs, &C.), 169 
 
 (4), 209. 
 
 R 2
 
 242 
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 Cadesia (l-iattle oO, 210. 
 
 Cadi (Qa/i), 118 (n). 
 
 Cafur (water of), 105. 
 
 Cainucaa (Beni), 158. 
 
 Cairo, 188, 199 (n), 214 (n), 220. 
 
 Caliph, 71, 83, 99 (n), 180, 195, 
 
 198, 199, 208, 209, 211, 212, 
 
 213, 215, 217, 220. 
 Caliphate, 22, 87, 183 (n), 184 
 
 (n), 210, 213, 216, 222. 
 Calvary, 147. 
 Camels, li, 51, 134. 
 Camuss, 171. 
 Canaan, 137. 
 Canneh, 12. 
 Canopus, 32. 
 
 Captives, 103, 163, 192, 193. 
 Caravan trade, II, 12, 41, 51, 
 
 154. 
 Carpocratians, 146 (n). 
 Casim (son of Mahomet), 57, 
 
 71, 78. 
 Caspian Sea, 210, 217. 
 Cave of Thaur, 132, 134, 172. 
 
 ,, Hira, 62, 69. 
 Celebes, 224. 
 
 Ceremonies (of Pilgrimage), 181. 
 Cerinthians, 146 (n). 
 Ceuta, 215. 
 Charity, 138. 
 Charms, 166 (n). 
 Chersonese (of Arabia), 5. 
 Children (Duty to parents), 13S. 
 China, 217, 225. 
 Chosroes (King of Persia), 129, 
 
 169. 
 Christ Jesus, 122, 143, 232. 
 
 Christian (Church), 60; Heaven, 
 
 105 (n); Doctrine, 142. 
 
 ,, Sects, 146. 
 
 Christians, 23, 25, 26, 52, 53 ; in 
 
 Syria, 54, 90 (n), 98, lOO, 
 
 103, 155, 179; Treatment of, 
 
 191. 193 (Christianity), 237, 
 
 238. 
 Chronicles, ig. 
 Chuzestan, 15. 
 Circuit of Kaaba, 140. 
 Circumcision, 195. 
 City (near the Sea), 137 
 Cleavirig (the), 91. 
 Cleopatris (Suez), 7. 
 Climax (Mons), 7 (n). 
 Coba, 134, 1 48. 
 Cod red, 134. 
 
 Collyridians (Christian sect), 52. 
 Companions (of right and left 
 
 hand), 103, 104. 
 Conception (of Mary), 143. 
 Concubines, 103, 166, 170, 193. 
 Confucius, 138. 
 Constantine IX. (Paleologus), 
 
 219. 
 Constantinople, 61, 148 (n), 
 
 169, 202, 204, 214, 218, 219. 
 Constantius (Emp. ), 24. 
 Converts, 76, 128, 130, 236. 
 Copt, 170, 176. 
 Cordova, 213, 216, 220 (n). 
 Coreish, 21, 36, 37, 43. 44, 5°. 
 
 56, 74, 84, 131, 160, 168, 173. 
 Coreitza (Beni), 165, 166. 
 Cornelius Palma, 8. 
 Coss (Bishop), 55. 
 Cross, 129, 237. 
 Ctesiphon, 210. 
 Cufa (Kufa), 214. 
 Cussai (Cosa), 37, 38, 41, 44, 57, 
 
 71. 
 Cyprus, 211. 
 
 D 
 
 Dadena (Dedan), 15. 
 Dahir Billah (Caliph), 220. 
 Damascus (El Sham), 57, 209, 
 
 213, 214 (n), 215, 222. 
 DanubL-. 218, 219. 
 Larayeb, 202.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 243 
 
 Dar-ul-Harb, 226. 
 
 ,, ialain, 226. 
 
 ,, Nadwa, 3S. 
 Darve^hes, 204. 
 Date-pal in, 10. 
 Daughters (of God), 100. 
 David, 121. 
 Dead Sea, 19. 
 Death, 205 ; of Christ, 232. 
 Death of Christ (denied), 145 ; 
 
 (is to die), 145. 
 Decalogue, 55 (n). 
 Deccaii, 22j (n). 
 Defensive War, 139. 
 De jure, 212. 
 Delhi, 223. 
 Deliverer, 127. 
 
 Descendants (of Prophet), 212. 
 Devils composed Koran, no, 
 
 III. 
 D'Herbelot, 33 (n), 63, 99 (n), 
 
 141 (n), et fassim. 
 Dhurra, 11. 
 Din, 197. 
 
 Disaffected (at Medina), 153. 
 Divorce, 150, 161, 164. 
 Drowning, 163. 
 Dryad, 108. 
 Dzul-Caada (Month), 168, 171, 
 
 193- 
 
 Dzul-Halifa, 159. 
 
 Dzul Hijja, 39, 181, 1S7, 193. 
 
 Dzu-Novvas, 23, 25, 103. 
 
 Earthquake (The), 90. 
 Eber, 36. 
 Ebionitcs, 52. 
 Eblis (Devil), 45, 114, 196. 
 Ecclesiastes, S9. 
 Eden (Aden), 34. 
 Edom (Ras), 17; (Jezeret), 17, 
 20, 29. 
 
 Edessa, 169. 
 Eed al Fitr, 186. 
 ,, al Zoha, 186. 
 Efreet (Jinn), 137. 
 Egypt, 7, 12, 18, 21, 137, 163, 
 170, 202, 206 (n), 212, 213,. 
 216, 219, 225. 
 Egyptian's Wile, 137. 
 El l>akia, I So. 
 El llaura, 7 (n). 
 Elephant (The), 23, 44, 92. 
 Embassies (from Mahomet), 169. 
 Enchantments, 166. 
 English (The), 224. 
 Epirus, 219. 
 Erythrsean Sea, 17. 
 Esau, 15, 17. 
 
 Euphrates, 5, 16, 25, 214, 2l8. 
 Eutychians, 52. 
 live, 33. 
 
 Evil Eye, 166 (n). 
 Exarch, 169. 
 Ezekiel, 12, 15 (n). 
 
 Fables (in Koran), 136, 137. 
 Faithful. Vide A/ahoineiafis or 
 
 AIosleDis. 
 Fall of Man, 91. 
 Farokshir (Emperor), 224 (n). 
 Fairar (The Rev. ; '■ Life of 
 
 Christ"), Z2, (n), 55 (n), 237 
 
 (n). 
 Fasting, 185, 197. 
 Fate (Vide FrcJesthtation), 96, 
 
 221. 
 Fatihat (Al), 90. 
 Fatima (Daughter of Mahomet), 
 
 57, 79. 177. 199. 20S (n). 
 Fatima (Wile of Said), 72,83. 
 I'^aiimite (Caliphs), 214 (n). 
 Faqir, 203. 
 
 Feeding (the Multitude), 144. 
 Fchr Coreish, 36, 37.
 
 244 
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 Festival (Greater), 187. 
 
 Fines, 193. 
 
 Fitr (Fed al), 186. 
 
 Flij^ht (of Mahomet), 132, 134. 
 
 Food (Lawful), 140. 
 
 Formula (of Belief), 19S. 
 
 Fornication, 164. 
 
 Forster(the Rev.), "Geography 
 
 of Arabia," 7, 17 (n), 20 (n), 
 
 21 (n), &c. 
 Freeman, "The Saracens," 64 
 
 (n), 129 (n), 150 (n), 170 (n), 
 
 192 (n), 200 (n), 214 (n), 215 
 
 (n), 220 (n). 
 Friday (Moslem Sunday), iiS, 
 
 149. 
 Funeral (Ceremonies), 206. 
 
 Gabriel, 35, 69, 70, 94, 96, 
 
 ii3> 143- 
 Galatia and Galatians, 19, 215. 
 Games (of chance), 190. 
 Gaul, 216. 
 
 Gaza, 12, 20 (n), 43, 45. 
 Genesis, 16, 18. 
 Genii (Jinn), 70, 107, 108, 126, 
 
 137, 196. 
 Genuflexions, 117. 
 Ghassan (Prince of), 170. 
 Ghengiz Khan, 218. 
 Ghorian Princes, 223. 
 Ghoul, 108. 
 Ghuznee, 222. 
 Gibrahar, 215. 
 Gilead, 19. 
 GOD, 103 ; Word of, 107 ; 
 
 Kingdom, I15 ; Unity, 117; 
 
 "Worship of, 136, 139, 142, 
 
 143; Intercession with, 192; 
 
 Decree, 197 ; Merciful, ib. 
 Golden Calf, 137. 
 Good Works, 90, 188, 189 (n), 
 
 191, 194, 207, 234. 
 
 Gospel (of Infancy), 122, 142; 
 
 of Christ, 234. 
 Gothic (Monarchy), 215. 
 Grand Turk, 215. 
 Grave (Moslem), 205. 
 Great Mogul, 200 (n), 215. 
 Greek Emperor, 218. 
 Greeks, 129. 
 Grenada, 216 (n). 
 Guadalete, 215. 
 Guests (to Mahomet), 162. 
 
 H 
 
 Hades, 206. 
 
 Hadhramaut, 9, lO, 12, 51, 132. 
 
 Hafiz, 202. 
 
 Plagar, 18, 19, 20, 34, 39. 
 
 Plaggidah, 121, 141. 
 
 Hajar (Al), iii. 
 
 Halima (Mahomet's nurse), 46, 
 
 180. 
 Hambal (Ibn) Hambalees, 198. 
 Hammceum Littus, 15. 
 Hamza, 43 (n), 77, 82, 84, 
 
 155, 160. 
 Hanifees, 189, 198. 
 Haphsa (Wife of Mahomet), 
 
 86, 158, 177. 
 Haram, 39, 168 (n). 
 
 j Harb, 50, 77. 
 I Harith, 43, 49. 
 i Haroun al Raschid, 216, 220. 
 \ Hasan, 79, 158, 180, 188 (n), 
 199, 200, 212, 213, 233 (n). 
 
 Hashim, 12, 42, 78. 
 
 Havilah, 15, 16, 20. 
 
 Hawazin (Heni), 175. 
 
 Heathen (Nations), 138. 
 
 Heaven, 104, 105, 154, 207. 
 
 Heavenly Stone, 35. 
 
 Hejaz, 7, 12, 36, 37. 
 
 Hfjira (Flight), 22, 78, 80, 
 
 87, 134-
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 245 
 
 Hell, 91, 92, 104, 106, 153, 
 
 193, 207. 
 Hellespont, 219. 
 Heraclius (Emperor), 129, 169, 
 
 209. 
 Hercules (Pillars oQ, 211. 
 Herodotus, 6, 31. 
 Hijaba, 38, 174. 
 Himyarite (Dynasty), 22, 24. 
 Hind, 158, 160, 175, 212. 
 Hindoo (Faith), 192 (n). 
 Hindostan, 138. 
 Hinriuism, 224. 
 Hira, 25, 33, 53, 72. 
 Hira (Cave of), 62, 69. 
 Hobal, 33, 174. 
 Hodeibia, 168, 171. 
 Hologu (Emperor), 217. 
 Holeil, 37. 
 Holy Months, 130. 
 Holy Places, loi, 168, iSr, 182, 
 
 188, 234. 
 Holy Scriptures, 105. 
 Holy Spirit, 143. 
 Holy War, 193, 226. 
 Homerites, 24. 
 Honein, 175. 
 Horeb, 52. 
 
 Horsley's Sermons, 147 (n). 
 Hosein, 79, 1S8 (n), 199, 200, 
 
 212, 214 (n), 233 (n). 
 Hotama (Al), (Hell), 91. 
 Houries, 104, 105. 
 Hud, 135. 
 Hughes (The Rev. T. P.), 98 
 
 (n), 112 (n), 187 (n), 200 (n), 
 
 202 (n), 203 (n), 205 (n), 228 
 
 (n). 
 Hujrah, 145 (n), 180 (n). 
 Humayun (Emperor), 200 (n). 
 Hungary, 219, 220. 
 Husbands (Rights and Power), 
 
 149, 150. 
 Hyderabad (Deccan), 223 (n). 
 Hypocrites, 105 (n), 153 (n), 
 
 159- 
 
 Ibn Hambal, 198. 
 
 Ibrahim (Son of Mahomet), 
 
 179, 182. 
 
 Iconium (Sultans of), 218. 
 Idolatry and Idolaters, 29, 39, 
 
 53. 62, 74, 95, 100, 135, 
 
 137, 140, 168, 169, 179, 181, 
 
 189, 190, 234, 236. 
 Idols. See above. 
 Idumceans and Iduma'a, 17, 24. 
 Ijaza, 37. 
 Ihram (pilgrim departure), 39, 
 
 182. 
 Ikrema, 159, 175. 
 Imam (of Sana), 9, 1 18 (n), 
 
 198, 200, (the twelve Imams), 
 
 212, 214 (n), 226. 
 Imamat, 198, 199, 214. 
 Iman, 196. 
 Inmiortality, 94. 
 Incarnation, 142, 192 (n) 
 India, 51, 222, 223 (n), 224; 
 
 225. 
 Indian Ocean, 5. 
 Indus, 215, 216. 
 Infanticide, 140. 
 Inheritance, 194. 
 Inquisitors (Munkir and Nakir), 
 
 206. 
 Intercessor, 192. 
 Irak, 209, 213 (n) 
 Irving (W, ) "Life of Mahomet," 
 
 54- 
 
 Isaiah, 19. 
 
 Ishmael, 15, 17, 19, 20, 22, 34, 
 35. 36, 39: 41. 44 (»). 189. 
 
 Islam, 12, 41, 71 ; First blood, 
 75 ; House of, 75 ; at Me- 
 dina, 12S ; Sword of, 134; 
 no new religion, 135, 172, 
 175; Object of, 157, 179; 
 Embassies, 169 ; Growth of, 
 
 180, 191, 192 ; Meaning of,
 
 246 
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 196, 197, 199 (n) ; Spread of, 
 208 ; Effect of, 228, et seq. 
 
 Israel, 30. 
 
 Israfil (Anj^el), 114, 207. 
 
 Issue (of God). 100. 
 
 Izafar, 24. 
 
 JABR, 75. 
 Jacob, 137. 
 
 Jacobites (Heresy), 170. 
 Jafar, 173. 
 Janizaries, 217. 
 jebel, 7 (n). 
 
 „ Ared, 8, 9. 
 
 „ Ayr, 134. 
 
 ,, el-Akhdar, 10. 
 
 „ Jyad, 56. 
 
 ,, Kora, 9, 125. 
 
 ,, Shammar, 8, 9. 
 Jeremiah, 22. 
 Jeroboam, 19. 
 Jerome (St.), 20. 
 Jerusalem, 23, lOl, 141, 154, 
 
 209. 
 Jesus, 136 ; account of in Koran, 
 
 142, 144, 
 Jetur, 19. 
 Jews, 22, 23, 24, 41, 90 (n), 
 
 100, loi; History of, I07, 127, 
 
 146, 149, 153, 154, 157, 158, 
 
 166, 171 ; Treatment of, 179, 
 
 191, 193 (n); (in Spain), 215. 
 Jezeret, 5. 
 Jiddah (Port of Mecca), 9, 34 
 
 (n), 59, 79, 162. 
 Jihad (Holy War), 226. 
 job, 31, 137. 
 John, 143. 
 Joktan, 16, 36. 
 Jonah, 121. 
 Jordan, 19, 54, 2vT9. 
 Jorhamite, 36. 
 Joseph, 136, 137. 
 
 Josephus, 20. 
 
 Journey (Night), 140. 
 
 Judas, 146. 
 
 Judgment (Day of), 136, 196, 
 
 207. 
 Judzima (Beni), 175. 
 Jupiter, 32. 
 Juweiria (Wife of Mahomet), 
 
 163. 
 
 K 
 
 Kaaba (at Mecca), 21, 23, 32, 
 
 33. 35, 37, 38, 39, 40, 46, 49, 
 
 51, 58 (Rebuilding) ; 80, loo, 
 
 168, 181, 199 (n). 
 Kab-ibn-Ashraff (Assassination 
 
 of), 1 58. 
 Kadr Al (night of), 69. 
 Kafirs, 196. 
 Kedar, 19, 21. 
 Kedarys, 21. 
 Kelpie, 108. 
 Kennedy (The Rev. J.; 
 
 "Christianity") 1 15 (n), 231 
 
 (n). 
 Kerbela, 1S8, 214 (and n), 233 
 
 (n). 
 Keturah, 15, 16. 
 Khadija, 42 (n), 57, 58, 61, 72 ; 
 
 Death of, 123, 180. 
 Khalid, 159, 172, 173, 174, 175, 
 
 209. 
 Khazraj (Beni), 42, 127, 128. 
 Kheibar, 22, 171, 182. 
 Khilji (Dynasty), 223 (n). 
 Khorassan, 211, 214, 21S. 
 Khosru Parviz, 169. 
 Khozeima ( Beni), 161. 
 Khozaa (Beni), 37. 
 Khutbah, 11 8. 
 Khuweilid, 57. 
 Kibla, loi, el seq., 116, 154, 
 
 206. 
 Kinana, 22, 171.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 247 
 
 Kiswa, 167 (n). 
 
 Kiyada, 38. 
 
 Koorban Beyram, 1S6 (11). 
 
 Koran, 11, 83 ; History of, 86, 
 88, 89; Earliest Suras, spe- 
 cimen of, 89, 93 ; General 
 teaching, 94, 95 ; Second group 
 of Suras, their teaching, 96, d 
 seq. ; Abrogated passages, 98 ; 
 Uncreated, 99 ; Unity of God, 
 99 ; Third group of Suras, 
 1 10, ei scq. ; A confirmation, 
 112 (n) ; Parody of Scripture, 
 120 ; Genii, 126 ; Latest Mec- 
 can Suras, 135, et seq. ; Fables, 
 137 ; Moral Sentiments, 138, 
 139 ; Puerilities, 142 ; Teach- 
 ing regarding Christ, 142; In- 
 consistency of, 147 ; Poly- 
 gamy, 149 ; Booty, 157 ; 
 Honein, 176 ; Release of 
 Mahomet from oath, 177 ; 
 The Medina Suras, 185, et 
 scq. ; Teaching, 196 ; Mean- 
 ing of, 196 (n) ; Sunnah Sup- 
 plementary, 199; Last Judg- 
 ment, 207 ; Effects of teach- 
 ing, 229. 
 
 Kulberga, 223 (n). 
 
 L 
 
 Laban, 29. 
 
 Lahore, 222. 
 
 Lailat-al-Miraj, 140. 
 
 Lane, "Modern Egyptian and 
 Arabian Nights," 98 (n), 108 
 (n), 119 (n), 141 (n), 192 (n), 
 
 2l5.(n)- 
 Lapwing (speaks), 137. 
 Last Day, 94, 191. 
 Lat. Vxdc Aildl, 32, So, 125. 
 Legend, 107. 
 Lepers (healed), 144. 
 Leuke-Kome, 7. 
 
 Lex Talionis, 164, 167, 193. 
 
 Libya, 210. 
 
 Lion of God, 82. 
 
 Livy, 54 (n). 
 
 Liwa, 38. 
 
 Lokman, 119. 
 
 Lord. Vide Christ yc'sus. 
 
 Lote Tree, 140. 
 
 Lunar year, 185. 
 
 Luther, 63. 
 
 M 
 
 Maadd, 36. 
 
 Macedonian Kings, 21, 169. 
 
 Magi and Magians, 45, 115, X29. 
 207 (n). 
 
 Mahdi (Imam), 200. 
 
 MAHOMEr (Muhammad and 
 Mohammad), the Prophet 
 of Mecca : Ancestors, 36 ; 
 Birth, 45 ; Childhood, 48 ; 
 Epileptic fits, 47 ; to Syria, 
 51 ; Ignorance of Christ, 53 ; 
 Al Amin, 56 ; Marriage, 
 57 ; Visions, 58 ; Struggles, 
 59, 61, 62 ; Motives, 66 ; 
 Divine Mission, 67 ; Ga- 
 briel, 69 ; Attempt to Sui- 
 cide, 70 ; Converts, 72, 74 ; 
 Commission to preach, 
 72 ; Repudiates Idols, 74, 
 76, 78, 80 ; Firmness, 82, 
 84 ; The Koran his work, 
 86; Magnanimity, 102; Life 
 at Mecca, 105, no, ii2, 
 123 ; In Peace, 123 ; To 
 Tayif, 125 ; Maltreated there ; 
 125 ; Turn of Fortune, 126, 
 rf scq. ; Pact with Ansars, 
 131 ; Flight, 132, ci scq. ; 
 Last teaching at Mecca, 135 ; 
 Imperfect Knowledge, 139 ; 
 Night Journey, 140 ; Vie\» s 
 of Christ, 143, et scq. ; Ig- 
 norance, 143 ; Life at Medina,
 
 248 
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 148, et seq. ; Treatment of 
 Jews, 153 ; Treachery, 15S ; 
 at Badr, 156 ; at Ohod, 159 ; 
 Marriage with Zeinab, 161 ; 
 Special Marital Privileges, 
 161 ; Sanguinary conduct, 
 165 ; Treatment of Jews, 165 ; 
 Enchantments, 166 ; Pilgrim- 
 age, 168 ; Conquest of Mecca, 
 173, ei seq. ; Last Illness, 
 and Death, 182, 184 ; Inter- 
 cessor, 192 ; Example of, 
 197 ; Will lead Believers to 
 Paradise, 207 ; Estimate of 
 life and death, 227 ; Impos- 
 ture, 231. 
 
 Mahometans and Moslems, 196. 
 
 Mahrattas, 223. 
 
 Makhzum, 59 (n). 
 
 Malacca, 224. 
 
 Malays, 224. 
 
 Malik and Malikees, 198. 
 
 Mamelook (Sultans of Egypt), 
 219. 
 
 Manah (Idol), 32, 80. 
 
 Manslaughter, 193. 
 
 Maracci, d^- 
 
 Mareb, 7 (n). 
 
 Mariaba, "]. 
 
 Marianites, 52. 
 
 Marr-al-Tzahran, 57, 174. 
 
 Marsyaba, 7. 
 
 Martyr, 180, 188, 189 (n), 193, 
 
 233, n- 
 Martyrdom of Hosein, 214. 
 Marwa (Hill of), 38, 172. 
 Mary (the Copt), 170 (n), 176, 
 
 231 (n). 
 Mary (the Virgin), 143. 
 Maseilama, 183 (n). 
 Masjid-al-Nabi (Medina), 148. 
 Massacre of Melos, 165 ; Beni 
 
 Coreitza, 166. 
 Maurice (Emperor), 169. 
 Mauritania, 216. 
 Mecca and Mcccans, 9, 10, 12, 
 
 16, 21, 23, 32, 33, 36, 37, 
 39. 40, 43. 48, 74. 79, 80 ; 
 Antiquity, 102, 127, 129, 132. 
 133, 134, 140, 154 (n), 159; 
 168, 172 ; Conquest by 
 Moslems, 173, 6t seq. ; Rites, 
 187 ; Pilgrimage, 188, 189, 
 199, (n), 202, 214. 
 
 Medina, 9, 21, 22, 42, 45, 
 51, 78, 80, 127, 128; Spread 
 of Islam (the), 128 ; Migra- 
 tion to, 130, 131, 134, 141, 
 153, 157, 159, J^3 5 Siege by 
 Meccans, 166; 170, 182, 186, 
 202, 211, 213, 214. 
 
 Meimuna (wife of Mahomet), 
 172. 
 
 Meisara, 57. 
 
 Melanchthon, 63. 
 
 Mercy (of God), 181. 
 
 Messiah, 127, 154. 
 
 Michael, 114. 
 
 Midianites, 19 ; (of the wood,) 
 
 135- 
 
 Midrash, 141. 
 
 Migration (to Abyssinia), 79; 
 to Medina, 132. 
 
 Mina (Wadi), 39, 41, 178, iSl, 
 187. 
 
 Minna, 10. 
 
 Miracles (asked for), 1 10, ill, 
 112, 122, 144. 
 
 Mishna, 61. 
 
 Missionary work of Islam, 236, 
 
 Moab, 18. 
 
 Mocha, 9. 
 
 Modadh, 35. 
 
 Mohacz (Battle of), 220. 
 
 Moharram, 118, 187, 
 
 Monophysite, 52. 
 
 Moors, 215, 220 (n)j (poly- 
 gamy), 229 (n). 
 
 Moorshedabad, 223 (n). 
 
 Moral sentiments in Koran, 
 13S. 
 
 Moriah (Mount), 210.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 249 
 
 Morocco, 1S9, 195, 225. 
 
 Morrah, 71, 83. 
 
 Mosaic Ritual, 153. 
 
 Mosdalifa, 39, 182. 
 
 Moses, 52, 71, 136; Story of, 
 136, 171 (n). 
 
 Mosques, 118 188; of Omar, 
 210 ; Hasanayn, 214 (n) ; 
 at Medina, 148, 183, 184. 
 
 Mostadhem Billah (Caliph), 
 217. 
 
 Mostanser Billah (Caliph), 220 
 (n). 
 
 Mostaraba, 35. 
 
 Mosul, 75. 
 
 Motasem Billah (Caliph), 199 
 (n). 
 
 Motavakkel Billah (Caliph), 
 99 (n), 220. 
 
 Mothers of the Faithful, 180, 
 212. 
 
 Moulvie, 118 (n), 205. 
 
 Muavia, 212, 213, 214. 
 
 Muckonckas, 170. 
 
 Mueddzin, 117. 
 
 Mufti, 118 (n). 
 
 Muhammad I., Ottoman Sultan, 
 219. 
 
 Muhammad II. , Ottoman Sul- 
 tan, 219. 
 
 Muhammad Ali, of Egypt, 9, 
 202. 
 
 Muir (Sir W., " Life of Maho- 
 met"), 5, 7, 22, 26, 35, 39 (n), 
 44 (n), 53, 58, 61 (n), 65, 66, 
 88, 98, 128, 131, 140, 162, 
 166, 184, (n), 19S. 
 
 Mujiahid, liS (n. ). 
 
 Munaficun (Hypocrites), 153 (n). 
 
 Mundzir III., 25. 
 
 Munkir, 206. 
 
 Muraisi (Wells of), 162. 
 
 Muider (wilful), 160, 164, 193. 
 
 Musab-ibn-Omeir, 128. 
 
 Muscat, 10. 
 
 Mushrikin, 196. 
 
 Mussulman (meaning of), 196. 
 Muta, 173. 
 Mutilation, 164, 167. 
 Mutim, 126. 
 Myos Hormus, 7, 
 Mysore, 223 (n). 
 
 N 
 
 Naaman, 76 (n). 
 
 Nabatheans, 7, 8, 20, 41. 
 
 Nadhir, 160. 
 
 Nadir Shah, 223. 
 
 Nadr, 156. 
 
 Nahavend (Battle of), 210. 
 
 Najd, 9, 10, 16, 134, 173, 202. 
 
 Najran, 9, 23, 25, 57, 103. 
 
 Nakhla, 109, 126, 155. 
 
 Nakir, 206. 
 
 Naufal, 43, 50. 
 
 Nazarenes, 52. 
 
 Nazareth, 122. 
 
 Nebaioth, 19. 
 
 Nebajoth, 19, 21. 
 
 Nephish, 19. 
 
 Nera Kome, 7. 
 
 Nestorian, 23, 25, 54, 170. 
 
 New Jerusalem, 105. 
 
 New Testament, 26, 112 (n), 
 
 115, 141, 147 (n). 
 Nicopolis (Battle of), 219. 
 Night Journey (Miraj), 140. 
 Nile, 6, 210. 
 Nineveh (Battle of), 169. 
 Nisabor, 2 1 1. 
 Noah, 136, 154. 
 Nodab, 19. 
 Noman, 25 ; (V.) 25. 
 Nubia, 211. 
 
 Number of Mahometans, 225. 
 Nushirvan, 168.
 
 250 
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 o 
 
 Obeida, 154. 
 
 Obodas, 7, 21. 
 
 Ocatz (Fair of), 55. 
 
 Ocba, 156. 
 
 Ohod, 134; Battle of, 159, 
 161, 172. 
 
 Old Testament, 120, 139, 141, 
 147 (n), 149. 
 
 Olympus (Mount), 219. 
 
 Oman, 9, 10, 16. 
 
 Omar-ibn-al-Khattab (Caliph), 
 22, 72, 82 ; Conversion, 84, 
 87, 15S, 209, 210, 211, 
 
 Omar II. (ben Abdul Aziz), 195, 
 198. 
 
 Omeya and Omeyades, 43, 50, 
 72 (n), 77, 180, 184 (n), 
 195, 213, 216. 
 
 Om-Habiba (Wife of Mahomet), 
 170 (n). 
 
 Om-Jemil, 73 (n). 
 ,, Kolthuni (Daughter of Ma- 
 homet), 57, 79. 
 ,, Salma (Wife of Mahomet), 
 161. 
 
 Omra (Lesser Pilgrimage), 181. 
 
 Opium (Lawfulness of), 191. 
 
 Ormuzd, 169. 
 
 Orontes, 210. 
 
 Orotal, 31. 
 
 Orthodox Sects, 188, 197, 198. 
 
 Ortogrul, 218. 
 
 Osman (or Othman), 218. 
 
 Ostracism, 84. 
 
 Otba, 79. 
 
 Oteiba, 79. 
 
 Otheil (Valley of), 156. 
 
 Othman - ibn - Affan (Caliph ), 
 72, 79, 87, 174; Death, 21 1; 
 213. 
 
 Othman-ibn-Huweirith, 61 (n). 
 
 Ottoman (Sultans), 219; Mis- 
 rule, 221. 
 ., Turks, 219, 220. 
 
 Oudh, 203, 223 (n). 
 Oxus, 217. 
 
 Paleologus (Constantine IX.) 
 
 219. 
 Palestine, 12, 21, 209, 219. 
 Pathan (Princes of India), 223. 
 Paradise, 34, 35, 67, 103, 104, 
 
 114, 155, 184, 191, 193, 197, 
 
 205, 206, 207, 209. 
 Paran, 18, 19. 
 Parthian (Kings), 169. 
 Pashas (Turkish), 221. 
 Patmos, 105. 
 
 Patriarch, I lo, 137, 149, 
 Paul (St.), 19, 66. 
 People of the book, 179. 
 People of Israel, 112. 
 Persia, 10, 12, 16, 21, 24, 216, 
 
 220. 
 Petra, 6, 8, 20 (n), 21, 24, 40. 
 Pharanitffi, 19. 
 Pharan Oppidum, 19. 
 Pharaoh, 136. 
 Philip, 66. 
 Philippines, 224. 
 Phokas, 169. 
 Phrygia, 218. 
 Pilgrimage and Pilgrims, 37, 38, 
 
 119, 126, 140, 168, 169; 
 
 Lesser, 172, 176, iSi; Greater, 
 
 1S7, 1S8, 189, 190 (n), 197, 
 
 202, 234. 
 Plato, 201. 
 Pledge, 1 28, 131. 
 Pliny. 6, 7. 
 Plunder, 155, 157. 
 Polygamy, 124, 149, 152, 161, 
 
 229 (n). 
 Population, 225. 
 Prayer, 1 18 (n), 1 19; Times of, 
 
 116, 197. 
 Predestination, 96, 97, 221.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 251 
 
 Preserved Book, 99, 229. 
 
 Pretorians, 217. 
 
 Prideaux, 63 (n), 141 (n). 
 
 Primogeniture, 194. 
 
 Prince of Peace, 141. 
 
 Prisoners, 157. 
 
 Prophets, 135, 206. 
 
 Ptolemy, 6. 
 
 Punishment (of Adultery), 163; 
 
 (Theft), 167 ; (Enemies of 
 
 God), 167 ; (Murder), 193 ; 
 
 (Manslaughter), 193. 
 Punjaub, 223. 
 Purification and Purity, 91, 
 
 117. 
 
 Qazi, 118 (n). 
 
 Queen (of Sheba), 137 ; of Eng- 
 land, 225. 
 
 R 
 
 Rabi I. (Month), 188 (n). 
 
 Radhi-Billah (Caliph), 21S (n). 
 
 Rajab (Month), 39, 155, 193. 
 
 Rajpoots, 222, 223. 
 
 Rakaat, 117. 
 
 Ramadhan [Ramazan] (Feast 
 
 of), 69, 185, 186. 
 Redeemer (The), 19, 60. 
 Redemption (The), 92. 
 Red Sea, 5, 6, 8, 18, 134. 
 Regeneration, 192 (n). 
 Regma (Raamah), 15. 
 Religious Creeds (Numbers of), 
 
 225. 
 Reservoirs, 42. 
 Resurrection, 103, 196, 207 (of 
 
 Animals). 
 Retaliation (Law of), 164, 167, 
 
 193- 
 Reuben, 18. 
 Rhodes, 211, 220. 
 Rifada, 38. 
 
 Riliana (Wife of Mahomet), 22, 
 
 166. 
 Rimmon (House of), 76 (n). 
 Ritualism (in Islam), 237, 238. 
 Roba-el-Khaly, 10. 
 Rockeya, 57, 79, 158. 
 Roderic, 215. 
 Rodwell, 87 (n). 
 Rohillas, 223. 
 Rome and Romans, 21, 170, 
 
 172, 217. 
 Rosaries, 1 18, 205. 
 Rostak, 10. 
 Rustum, 120 (n) 
 
 Saad, 72, 75. 
 
 Saba, 32. 
 
 Sabbath (Fishing on), 137. 
 
 Sabellians, 52. 
 
 Sabceans, 24, 31, 191. 
 
 Sacrifices, 39, 44, 60, 140, 168, 
 
 172, 182, 186, 187, 192, 206 
 
 (n), 232. 
 Sad, 176. 
 
 Sadacat, 157 (n), 194. 
 Safa (Hill of), 38, 77, 172. 
 Safia (Wife of Mahomet), 22. 
 Safwan, 163. 
 Sahara, 5- 
 Said-ibn-Zeid, 72. 
 Saints, 192. 
 Salah, HI, 135. 
 Sale, 15 et passim. 
 Sallust (View of Polygamy), 
 
 229 (n). 
 Salm, 42. 
 Salonica, 219. 
 Salvation, 188. 
 Samaritan, 137. 
 Sana, 9, 23, 43, 183 (n). 
 Sand (for Ablution), 117. 
 Saraceni, 6. 
 Saragossa, 215. 
 SassanidK, 168, 2IO.
 
 25^ 
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 Satan, 191. 
 
 Satyr, 108. 
 
 Saul, 18. 
 
 Saviour (The), 53, 115,141, 143, 
 
 Sawda (Wife of Mahomet), 126, 
 
 149. 
 ScenitK, 6. 
 
 Scriptures (The), 136, 139, 144. 
 Sebukte^jin, 222. 
 Seir, 29. 
 Seleucia, 210. 
 Seleucida?, 169. 
 Sehm I., 220. 
 Seljuc (Sultan), 218. 
 Serendib, 34 (n). 
 Sergius, 54. 
 Servius Tullius, 54 (n). 
 Seven Sleepers, 136. 
 Seville, 215 (n). 
 Shaban, 188 (n). 
 Shafei (Al), 198. 
 Shawwal, 186. 
 Sheb (Abu Talib), 85, 122. 
 Sheba, 19, 137. 
 Sheikh-Muhammad, 202. 
 Shem, 29. 
 Shema, 55. 
 Shepherds (at Bethlehem), 115. 
 
 (the Good), 238. 
 Sherif (of Mecca), 62 (n). 
 Sheyba (Beni), iSl. 
 Shia (the Sect), 184 (n), 188 (n), 
 
 199, 200, 212, 214, 220 (n), 
 
 226. 
 Shoaib, 135. 
 Shooting Stars, 109. 
 Shub-Barat, 188 (n). 
 Shur, 18. 
 Sik, 20 (n). 
 Sikhs, 223. 
 Siloah, 34 (n). 
 Simeon, 46. 
 
 Simon the Cyrenian, 146. 
 Sinai, 52. 
 Sirat (Al), 207. 
 Sirius, 32. 
 
 Siroes, 169. 
 
 Slavery, 151, 166, 193, 225, 
 
 230. 
 Social League destroyed, 123. 
 Sodom, 135. 
 Sohail, 32. 
 Solomon, 109, 137. 
 Son of God, 143 ; of Man, 
 
 147. 
 Sonship (Divine), 142. 
 Solar Year, 185 (n). 
 Solyman I., 219; II., 220. 
 Sophi (King), 200 (n). 
 Spain, 213, 215, 216. 
 Spanheim, 63. 
 Spider's Web, 133. 
 Spirit (of God), 144. 
 Stockholm (Blood Bath), 165. 
 Stoning, 163. 
 Strabo, 7. 
 Striking (The), 90. 
 Succession or Successor, 208, 
 
 211, 212. 
 Sufi-ism, 2or. 
 Suheib, 75. 
 Sumatra, 224. 
 Sun and Moon (Worship of), 
 
 30, 31, 32. 
 Sunnah, 163, 188, 197, 198, 199. 
 Sunni (The Sect), 184 (n), 198, 
 
 200, 212, 226, 228 (n). 
 Supper (the Lord's), 106, 144. 
 Sura (see also Koran), 86, 88, 
 
 90. 
 Swine's Flesh, 140. 
 Sword, 139, 155, 172; oflslam, 
 
 179. 
 Syllarus, 7. 
 Syria, S, 12, 21, 36, 40, 53, 
 
 127 (n), 154, 156, 169, 173, 
 
 209, 212, 213. 
 Syud Ahmed, 203. 
 
 Tabernacle (The), iS.
 
 ISLAM AND ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 253 
 
 Talha, 72, 159. 
 
 Talmud, 55 (n), 61, 115, 121, 
 
 141. 
 Tamasp, 200 (n). 
 Tarifa, 215. 
 Tarik, 215. 
 Tartars, 218. 
 Taxes, 178, 195, 200. 
 Tayif, 31 (11), 46, 109, 125, 176, 
 
 178. 
 Taym, "ji. 
 Tazias, 188. 
 Temple (Mecca), 140. 
 Tempter, 1 1 5. 
 Ternli, 29. 
 Territory (The), 93. 
 Testament. See Old Testament 
 
 and New Testament. 
 Thackif (Beni), 125, 175. 
 Thamud (Beni), 65, ill, 135. 
 Thaur (cave of), 132, 134, 172. 
 Theft, 164, 167. 
 Thibet, 5. 
 
 Three Persons (in Trinity), 142. 
 Thucydides, 165 (n). 
 Timur, 219, 223. 
 Tithes, 194. 
 Titus (Emperor), 23. 
 Toledo, 215 (n). 
 Trading (on pilgrimage), 1S8. 
 Tradition, 184 (n), 189, 197, 
 
 19S, 206. 
 Trajan (Emperor), 8, 21. 
 Transoxiana, 215. 
 Trebizond, 219. 
 Tribes (Jewish), 158, 160. 
 Tribute, 179. 
 Trinity, lOO, 14.2 (n). 
 Truce (of Hodeibia), 168. 
 Turkestan, 214, 225. 
 Turkey, 200. 
 Turks, 217, 218, 220; (Tyranny 
 
 of), 221. 
 Two Paths (Koran), 93. 
 Tyh, 20. 
 Tyre, 12. 
 
 U 
 
 Unbelievers, 139, 141. 
 Unitarians and Unity of God, 
 
 99, 100, 117, 137, 142. 
 Urania, 31. 
 Usury, 119. 
 
 Valentia (in Spain), 215. 
 
 Valid I. (Caliph), 215, 222. 
 
 Varna (Battle of), 219. 
 
 Vcdanta (Indian), 201. 
 
 Veil (curtain) for Women, 162. 
 
 Venetians, 219. 
 
 Venus (Worship oQ, 32. 
 
 Vienna (Siege of), 220. 
 
 Virginity (of Mary), 143. 
 
 Visigothic (Kings), 215. 
 
 W 
 
 Waiiabees, 198 (n), 202, 22S 
 
 (n). 
 Wahb, 44. 
 Walid-ibn-al-Magheira, 59 (11), 
 
 73 (")> 77 (")• 
 War (with Infidels), 192, 226 
 
 (Jihad). 
 Waraca, 61, 70. 
 Wilderness, 137. 
 Williams, Dr. Alonier, 107 (n), 
 
 164 (n), 192 (n), 225 (n). 
 Wills, &c., 194. 
 Winds (Solomon), 137. 
 Wine (forbidden), 190. 
 Witnesses (for Adultery), 163, 
 
 194. 
 Wives, 150, 151, 161, iSo, 
 
 193- 
 Women, 150; in Paradise, 152, 
 
 iGi, 167 ; Captives, 193. 
 Word (The), 143 ; of God, 105.
 
 254 
 
 ISLAM ANU ITS FOUNDER. 
 
 Xeres, 215. 
 
 Yam AM A, 10. 
 
 Yathrib (xMedina), 48, 
 
 Yembo, 7 (n), 9. 
 
 Yemen, 6, 8, 21, 23, 25, 33, 
 
 35. 36, 40, 43. 170, 183 (n). 
 Yermouk (Battle of), 209. 
 Yesdejird, 210. 
 Yezid, 214. 
 Yokdah, 59 (n). 
 
 Zacat, 194. 
 
 I Zacharias, 143. 
 
 Zain-al-Abid-Din, 200, 214 (n). 
 
 Zarb, 204. 
 
 Zeid, 61, 71, 125, 161, 173. 
 
 Zeid-ibn-Thabit, 87. 
 
 Zeinab (Dauj;hter of Mahomet), 
 57. 78, 79- 
 
 Zeinab-bint-Jahsh (Wife of Ma- 
 homet), 161, 162, 231 (n). 
 
 Zem Zem, 34, 39 (n), 40, 43, 
 49, 182. 
 
 Zikr, 204. 
 
 Zobeide, 216. 
 
 Zobier, 49, 72. 
 
 Zohal, 33. 
 
 Zohara, 160. 
 
 Zohra, 44. 
 
 Zoroaster, 45, 169. 
 
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