^ ■ I.- ! .'I , , I :,'■.■ ' i . (^/f %'/ { m,. %. r '-. ] I'- ll ' P I I I i n:y m fa ', J THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES Icr^ci^^ , '8i. 1 H ^l^l/>'^^ EX BIDLIOTHECA FRANC. BABINGER THE MOHAMMEDAN RELIGION EXPLAINED. THE MOHAMMEDAN RELIGION EXPLAINED: WITH AX INTUODUCTORY SKETCH OF ITS PROGRESS, ANI> SUGGESTIONS FOR ITS CONFUTATION. ]'>y J. ]). MACRRIDi:, D.C.L, F.S.A., PRINCIPAL OK MAODALKN HALL, AND Tin; LOlU) AI.MONKIl'.H UEADKB IN AUAUIC IN TUK UNIVKI18ITV OF OXIOUII. EXBIBLIOTHECA FRANC. BABINGCR SEKLKV, JACKSON, AND HAI.MDAV, TLKKT STHKET; AM) I{. SEELEV, HANOVER STREET. I.ONnoN. MDCCCr.VII. V> M WATTS, <110WN OOUUT, TEMPLK liAI! mo h fr TO THE REV. T. V. FRENCH, M.A., LATE rELLOW OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, OXFORD, PRINCIPAL OF TUE CUURCII MISSIONARY COLLEGE AT AGRA. My Dear Friend, While you have been encountering in public, ^vitll " the sword of the Spirit," the arrogant and captious Moslems, I have in the retreat of our University, which you quitted with the noble ambition of extending our Redeemer's sovereignty, completed this view of Islam, with such suggestions as appeared to me best adapted for the confutation of this plausible, yet delusive system, which offers, indeed, to the idolater, a more rational creed, but cannot speak peace to the conscience of an awakened sinner. I therefore naturally dedicate it, not to any person who might take an interest in it as bearing on a subject of theological and historical importance, but to one who has been actively engaged in vindicating the integrity of the Word of God from the objections of Mohammedan disputants. I say completed, for it was begun several years since, but resumed wlien tlie war with Ilussia brought us into a friendly aUiance and close connection witii the Traditionists of the Sultan's dominions, and it now leaves the press when the mutiny of the Beniral armv, excited, it is said, by the bribery of the schismatical division of the Ajlhnvers of the false Prophet, has cndanfa-red the vast and populous empire which l)i\ ine Pro- vidence has entrusted to England. While so occui)ied, the thought never crossed my mind that your efforts for the con- version of Mohammedans and Hrahnn'nists had been so sud- denly and painfully suspended, and you had been compelled, with our other countrymen, to take refuge in the fort of Agra. Indeed, this awful judgment, more ai»[)alling than storm or pestilence, because manifesting in its most revolting features the l'?929S4 wickedness of unrenewed human nature, has taken all by surprise. Happily we do not despond at home or in India, for it has brought us to a throne of grace, to seek mercy and grace for seasonable aid in this hour of need. We have, in- deed, cause to mourn, that for more than the first half of our century of rule the Government of India connected itself with idolatry, and shut out the truth ; and that, even since the renewal of the Charter opened the Company's dominions to Christianity, Missions have not been established and supported with the zeal and energy that might justly have been expected from a nation professing to believe that they are bound to obey their IVIaster's last command to preach the Gospel to every creature. We have, therefore, no services to plead : we can only pray, " O Lord, arise, help us, and deliver us for thy mercy's sake, and — let not the heathen say. Where is now their God?" We are told that the Sepoys are the dupes of political or fanatical Mohammedans, and we are amazed at the infatuation that re- nounces allegiance to over-indulgent masters for bondage to the weak and profligate descendants of their Mogul conquerors. ]\Iay " the Most High, who ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will," in judgment remember mercy, and restore to us in its integrity our Indian empire, and may we now accept it as a sacred trust for the promotion of His glory ! Taughtby experience the folly of reliance on worldly expediency, may we no longer encourage the perusal of the Koran, the Vedas, and the Puranas, and ignore the Bible ! But while our rulers tolerate false religions, may they imbibe the spirit of the Bible, and re-establish our Government on Christian principles, and prove by their measures that these principles regulate their conduct. We know, that in our God's appointed time Islam must, like all false religions, fall, since He has promised his Son the " uttermost parts of the earth for a possession ; " but we cannot hope that a faith which has taken so firm a hold of its professors, and has so moulded their characters, can fall without a struggle. Still the Moslem sovereigns now, instead of endangering, as they did formerly, Europe from the West and from the East, are maintained on their throne by the Ill armies or the forbearance of France and England, and there is scarcely a INfohaniniedan state in any part of the -world which does not exhibit symptoms of internal decay. In India they have shewn that they can with Asiatic cunning con- trive or avail themselves of conspiracies ; but where is the ascetic bigot like Aureng Zeb, round whose banner they can collect ; or the intrepid champion, who, like a second Tippoo, will lead them to a holy war for the extermination of those whom they hate as unbelievers, and as their coriquerors? Above all, we are encouraged by the fact that their prophet has been unfaithful to his assumed mission as the Revealer of the Divine Unity, for he has connected it with the ceremonial Law of IMoses, without any suspicion of its meaning, and has encumbered it with the silly rites of Pagan pilgrimage; so that reformers have sprung up among his adherents, in our own as in former ages, to reduce by arms his religion to a simple Deism. May our God, who " moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform," and controls the political as well as natural storms, cause the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness to break through the black cloud, and enlighten and warm with tiieir full elfulgence the dark realm of Hindustan, which sad experience has now proved to be the habitation of cruelty ! And that you, my dear friend, may be an honoured instrument in this blessed work of briuij-iny both idolaters and Mohannnedans to the acknowledgment of the truth of the Gospel of salvation, is the desire and ])rayer of your fiithfiil fi-ieiid, J. I). MACliKIDE. Oxford, Octuher !.«/, iH-i/. PREFACE. The Cliui'ch Missionary Society, in its origin small as the mustard-seed, has in fifty years expanded into a goodly tree, " whose leaves ' are for the healing of the nations." Com- mencing its operations on the -western coast of Africa, it has now entered the interior, and re- appears on the eastern. It has a settlement among the Red Men of America ; it has con- verted the cannil)als of New Zealand; it is formino; Clmstian villages both in Southern and Northern India ; and has begun to penetrate the compact and densely-pco})led empire of China. During the same period, the ancient Society for Propagating the Gospel, to whom Ave mainly owe the Episcopacy of North America, has put forth new energy ; and having received from the Christian-Knowledge Society the care of llic Danish Mis sion in Tranquebar, has fiourisliing stations in all the Prosi dencies of India, Dissenters, also, of almost every denomina- tion, are actively engaged in spreading over the world the knowledge of salvation tlirf)ugli a crucified Ucdcemcr. A great impression has been made: the liereditary faith of nnil- titudcs has been shaken, and all can boast of converts, wIkj prove their sincerity by their j)iety ;iiid works of Christian love. The wandering savage of the lied Rivci-, the Negro, the haughty Brahmin, and the despised Soodra, followers of Puddh.i, and atheistic Chinese, have all submitted to take upon them the easy yoke of our I-onl. i'.ut there is still throughoiit Asia, and even in the interior of Africa, a religion which condemns polytheism and idolatry as strongly as our own, which in its numbers rivals the true faith, and, assuming to n 2 bo the final revelation of God, subdues the reason, and attracts the affections of its membei's, who realize in their conduct its maxims of resignation to the divine will, in a de- gree wliich is rarely equalled by Christians. Satisfied with his Koran, the professor of Islam condescends not to read tlie Scriptures of the old or the new dispensation, which his book tells him again and again have been corrupted ; and while he iionours Christ as superior to man, he chooses Mohammed for his lawgiver. Abdul ]\Iesseeh, the faithful convert of Corrie, Avho died a presbyter of our Church, ordained by Ileber, stands out as almost a solitary instance. We can boast of hundreds, nay, thousands of converted idolaters, but where are the Moslems ? To satisfy the gainsaying is no doubt far harder than to persuade the ignorant; and while improvement in secular knowledge will cause the Hindu to be ashamed of idolatry, and to renounce it for Atheism, or to discover Uni- tarianism as enveloped in his hereditary belief, it will be hard to convince the Mohammedan, who boasts that he believes only in one God, and thinks that his religion is that of Abraham and of all the Prophets, and even of Jesus himself; accusing us, like our own Unitarians, of exalting Him to a dignity which does not belong to Him, by associating Plim as an equal with the only God. The difficulty, no doubt, is great, for Islam is, in truth, a religion congenial to the unrenewed heart : it has no mysteries to baffle and mortify the intellect ; and in a great degree it gratifies pride, by making man his own saviour, in ascribing merit to good works and to religious ordinances, as fastings and prayers and pilgrimage. Every mission, however, has its peculiar difficulties, and he who has to dispute Avith the Moslem, who A\;ill tuni against him his weajions, pervert- ing passages of the Bible into predictions of his own Prophet, or maintaining that it has been corrupted, may derive comfort from the remarks of one who was placed under trials of an opposite character, and complains of the apathy of those who had no idea even of the existence of God. "No frainnents remain to the Bechuana," writes Moffat, a distinguished Mis- sionary in South Africa of the London Society, " as mementos to the present generation that their ancestors reverenced any beino- m-eater than man. It lias often occurred to me, while perusing the joiunials of Missionaries in India, how very diffe- rent our mode of husbandry is from theirs, though having the same object in view, the gathering of spiritual food into the gamer of our God. Some have thought our difficulties in Africa small compared with theirs. This may be so, but, among years of apparently fruitless laboui', I have often wished to find something by which I could lay hold on the minds of the natives. We have no inquiries after God, no objections raised to exercise our powers in defence ; but every Mohamme- dan reveres Abraham, Moses, and our Lord, and there are false notions of them to remove, and right ideas to introduce." Be the difficulties, however, what they may, and some Missiona- ries, by the constitution of their minds, are more able to grapple with them than others, the attempt has been rarely made. Yet, surely, it is an undertaking most honourable, and, if successful, like the conversion of the Jew, more cfHca- cious in its influence on the heathen. I greatly regret, there- fore, that the Mohammedans have been overlooked. Hitherto, indeed, in the Turkish dominions, where the confession of Christ would have led to martyrdom, the attempt could not have been recommended. But happily the providence of God has now opened the way, since the Sultan has proclaimed liberty of conscience to liis subjects ; and I rejoice to learn that the conclusion of this war will be commemorated in a manner worthy of Christians, by the erection of a IVotestant Jviiglish Church in the cajtital of our ally, and that the Church Mis- sionary Society has already seized the opportunity of forming a Mission to Turkey. Among the Persians, too, though dissent- in" from what is considi-red iIk; (jrthroat body of his countrymen; yet to the Christian he came too late; for to them, not he, but Jesus, is the seal of prophecy, the Speaker who had already explained the will, and declared the nature of the Deity. To reject the Gospel for the Koran is reversing the Apostle's* exhortation. "Leav- ing the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection.''^ We know that Jesus promised that the Paraclete whom lie would send, unlike him who usurped the name, was to euide the Apostles into the lohole truth, and that he was not to oritcinatc any new revelation, but to take of Bis, and shew it unto them. The work of redemption was, as the Saviour with his d^dng voice exclaimed, finished on the cross ; and since He has risen from the grave, and ever liveth to make intercession, no further communication of the divine will is to be expected, or can be desired. Our Lord has left a solemn warning, that before the great and terrible day of His second advent, false Tiruphets should arise, so specious, that if it were possible they would deceive even the elect ; and we may suppose that he who divides with Ilim or another expected Messiah, the alle- giance of all who acknowledge only one God, was in his mind when He said, // another shall come in his own name, him ye tvill receive.] It is as long since as the year 632 of our era that Mohammed went to his account, but his religion remains. It is shorn, indeed, of its triumphs, and instead of endanger- inrr Christendom, is hemmed in by Christian powers on the east and the west, and preserved Jiot so much by its own vitality, as by their forbearance, the result of worldly policy. Still it retains, thougli modified by time and circumstances, the original type which he had impressed upon it. Throughout some of the most interesting regions of the world the scenes of great historic revolutions, including not only those which once » Ileb. vi. 1. t John v. 43. boasted of Clnysostom and Athanasius, Cyprian and Augustine, but tlie Holy Land itself, the crier summons those who have, as they conceive, resigned themselves to God, to his simple ritual, from Belgrade to the Indian Archipelago, from Morocco to Delhi ; and thousands of devoted believers undergo the pri- vation and dangers of voyages and difficult journeys, to per- form at Mecca the pilgrimage Avliich he has enjoined. In Jerusalem itself, while it is only by permission of the Turkit^h authorities that Christians can visit the last short restmg-place of their Lord's body, they and the Jew have been, till the pre- sent year, forbidden to enter the enclosure of the Temple, within which now rises a mosque, second only in sanctity to the Caaba, and venerated as the spot from which the false prophet is said to have begun his journey to heaven. The merits of the conquerors and legislators who have ceased to influence the world, may be discussed Avith philo- sophical indiil'erence, but it is not easy to examine with due impartiality the character of a man who announced himself to be the prophet of God, and has left behind him a book which has been accepted as the final revelation of the divine will by about a third of the human race. Hjs early Christian opponents, beginning with the Byzantine historians load him with every o]iprol>rious epithet, and allow him jio redeeming (|ualities, and bring against him false charges. Some of ahab Abd Allah I Haraza Abbas I Abd Allah Ali Mohammed Abu Alabbas MoliaTiimed Al.saffah, First Abbaside Khalif. 17 Abdalniotlialeb's yoiuiger son but one, Abdallah, celebrated for worth and beauty, married Amina, his equal in person and family. The grandfather called their son Mohammed, that is, the Praised ; so unusual an appellation, that his guests, like the kindred of the father of the Baptist, said, " There is none of thy family called by this name." He was an only child : his father died prematurely, on his return from a commercial journey, and his widow felt his loss so acutely that her health gave way. She often fancied herself visited by spirits, and the nervous temperament and unequal development of her son's faculties were apparently an inheritance from her. He was suckled by a Bedouin woman, as was the custom of the richer mhabitants of ^lecca, that their children might be bred in a healthier climate, and imbibe the genuine Arab pronun- ciation. . When four years old he had a fit, and his nurse refused to keep him, tliinking him possessed by an evil spirit. His mother did not lonn; survive. He then lived under the roof of his m*andfatlier, who on his death consigned him to the care of his eldest son, Abu Thaleb, who succeeded him in the guardianship of the Caaba. He had the same patrimony as his father, five camels, a flock of sheep, and a female slave, but being asked why he did not many, he pleaded his poverty ; and it is said that it was from his unfitness for the concerns of life that he was obliged to kee[) sheep. This was regarded as n dcradinir occui)ation'; but lie afterwards turned it to account, as a sign of his future prophetic office. He accompanied his uncle, in his youth, on a mercantile jounioy to Bosra, where they were entertained by Boheira, a monk, called by the Greeks Sergius, i. e. George, who charged him to take great care of him, for he would grow u[) to be a remarkable person. He is supposed to have been afterwards his assistant in composing the KorJiM ; but this seems to iiic most improbable, for lie lu-ed not go from Mecca, or from his fauiiIy,to procure wiiat know- ledge he had gathered together concerning Judaism and Christianity, since he could associate without suspicion witli many professors of each, and had at home a trustworthy ad- viser, in Waraka, his wife's cousin, who had passed through both, and ^eenH, at least, to have reatl ]»arts of the Scriptiires. ( 18 It was uiulor the same kind luicle that he made liis first cam- paign against a Bedonin tribe. He liad af'terwai'ds, with a partner, dealings in the linen trade, at the fair of Hajasha, in Yemen, and here he formed an acquaintance with the nephew of Khadijah, the rich Avidow of two husbands, who was, like himself, descended from the house of Hasham. His honesty was already so conspicuous, that he had acquired, before his twenty-fifth year, the title of Amin, (the faithful,) and was recommended to her as qualified to carry on her commercial speculations. At the suggestion of the relation who had intro- duced him, she made him presents and doubled his salary. Her regard warmed into love, and notwithstanding their dis- parity of years, twenty-five and forty, and the remonstrances of her father, she oflFered him her hand. It was accepted, and diis gratitude, if not his affection, never allowed her to repent of this seemingly imprudent choice. The nuptials were ac- companied by a splendid feast. Abuthaleb supplied the dowry, and his father-in-law was reconciled to the match. This wealthy and honourable alliance restored him to his original station, and gave to one with his views and feelings the in- estimable benefit of ample leisure. He had been a successful trader, and had become by his marriage a wealthy citizen. This wealth, we may presume,was expended in advancing his design, for at his death he was owner of no more than a hundred sheep, twenty camels, and six goats, which supplied his family with milk. For months he never lighted a fire, and his food was of the coarsest bread ; and though he was abstemious, this mode of life is mentioned by Ayesha as the result of necessity. The intermediate period between his marriage and his de- claring himself tlic messenger of God, which, if fully known, might have determined how far he was an impostor or a self- deceiver, is passed over by all his biographers in silence. We only know that he shewed a decided love of retirement, and that he, like his grandfather, devoted the whole month of Ramadhan to acts of charity and piety, and withdrew, sometimes with his family and sometimes alone^ to Mount Hara, in the vicinity. He had manifested his contemplative turn of mind in early life; and it is said, that when pressed by his young 19 companions to join in their sports, he used to reply, that man was not born for such vain pursuits. Khndijah brought him no less than four sons and fom* daughters. The former all died in infancy ; and, notwithstanding the many wives and con- cubines he had in after life, he had only another child, by Mary, his Egyptian slave, Il)raliani, who did not complete his third year. lie had become dejected and fond of solitude ; he spent his time chiefly in Hara, fasting and praying, and returned only to Mecca for fresh provisions, and to take the sevenfold mysterious circuit of the Caaba. The ' period was favourable to the introduction of a purer and more rational belief. There were Jewish colonies in and near Medina, and individual professors of Judaism and Christianity in Mecca; so that, even if Moham- med had never assumed the Prophet's office. Paganism, in Sjirenger's opinion, could not have much longer continued the religion of Ilcjaz. He quotes, from the earliest biography of tiie false prophet, an account of four men, who, at one of their idol feasts, expressed to one another their dissatisfaction with the national religion. "Our tribe," said one, "is corrupting the religion of Abraham, and are worshipping and walking round a stone, though it can do them neither harm nor good." They separated, and went in search of the true faith. Waraka, the cousin of Khadijali, wIk; had gi*eat influence over Moham- med, became a Christian. Obaidallah, the second, a Moslem, and emigi-atcd to Al)yssinia, where he, too, embraced Christianity. After his conversion he used to say, */ We see, and you attempt to see." His widow, a daugliti'r of Abu Sofian, was aftewards married to Mohammed. Othnian j-ctircd t(j Constantinople, and liecame also a Ciiristian. Zaid, the (bnrth, renounceil idoiati-y, but remained a sceptic. It was reported of him, that wiien very old he would lean iigainst the Caaba, and say, " By him, in whose hand is the soul of Z.iid, ikhh' of you, except myself, follows the religion of Abraham. O Lord, if I knew wlia(. form — /« (Moslem), resigned to God, Resignation. *>**>> (Islam), there- fore, Avhich is derived from the root which signifies mH^ peace, is the distinctive appellation of his creed. It is also called ^J^^ (Aman), the Faith, a word familiar to ourselves, from our adop- tion of Amen into our Liturgy, and the participle i^y^y (Mu- menun), is rendered faithful, or believers. His own claim to belief is l^uilt upon the appearance to him of the angel Gabriel, whom he confounds, like some of tlie Jews, with the Holy Spirit, who brought to him, he said, not at once, but in portions as He needed, written passages of God's word, which, as he was an ignorant prophet, he read to him ; and hence these reve- lations, when collected into a volume, have obtained the name of Koran — reading, that is, what pre-eminently deserves to be read. If, he said, he used to beg Gabriel to read slower, we might suppose that the enthusiast had sunk into the hypocrite. Many verses speak for themselves; but the long chapters which dilate upon Jewish history might have been composed at any time, and he had noAv, certainly, most leisure for the 21 purpose, and, if he had assistants, could employ them with less danger of detection. At length, in the month of abstinence, the night of power jti'iiJ^ '^^ arrived, in which the book, which had been Avritten as a whole in heaven fi'om the creation, begun to be revealed, it is said, to this chosen messenger of God. Undisturbed meditation increased his excitement, and his over- strained brain was occupied with visions. In one of these the angel called on him to read three times, and he refused. At length he continued, in the words of the Koran, xcvi " Read, in the name of thy Lord, the Creator who has created man of congealed blood — read, for thy Lord is most beneficent. It is He who has taught by the pen : it is He who has taught man what he did not know." Sprenger takes this for a command to read the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, whicli were acknowledged by him as revelations ; and certainly it seems strange, if he was unable, how he could imagine that Gabriel used these words. Still it is the general opinion that it means the ])ortion of the Koran then shewn to him, and the great majority hoth of Mohanuncdan writers and of Europeans affirm that he c(juld not read ; relying on his own declaration that he was the prophet of the Ummias, and was himself an Ummi (^J2\), VII. 156. This is commonly translated "illi- txrate;" but others, from the etymology, maintain that it means an Arab, in ojtposition to a Jew or Christian, and some say, called illiterate because tin y had hitherfd no i)rophet. After this aj)pcarance, there is said to have been :in intermission of two years, during which he suHrrcd linllticination of his senses, and several times contemj)lated seif-di-struction. His friends were alaniu-d, jukI cnllcd in (^\orcists, and he himself doubted the soundness of his mind. (Jnce he said to his wife, " I hear a sound and soc a light: I am afraid there are (t.>- gins (spirits) in me:" and again, " I am afraid I am a (^^ ( Krdiin) ;" that is, a soothsayer possessed by Satan, "God," replied Kliadija, " will never permit this, f(^r thou keei)est thy engagements, and assistest thy relatives;" and, according to some, she added, "Thou wilt be the prophet of thy nation." These sounds, as 22 from a clock or u bell, arc cuuineratcd as syiuptunisof epilepsy. In this morbid state of feeling lie is said to have heard a voice, and, on raising his head, beheld Gabriel, who assured him he was the prophet of God. Frightened, he returned home, and called for covering. lie had a fit, and they poured cold water on him ; and when he came to himself he heard those words (lxxiv.), " Oh, thou covered one, arise, and preach, and magnify thy Lord ;" and henceforth, we are told, he received revelations without intermission. Before this supposed reve- lation he had been medically treated on account of the evil eye ; and when the Korjin first descended to him he fell into faint- ing fits, when, after violent shudderings, his e^yes closed, and his mouth foamed. Khadijah offered to bring him to one who would dispossess him of the evil spirit, but he for- bade her. All his visions, however, were not of this painful nature. To Harith ebn Hisham's inquiry, he said the angel often appeared to him in a human form (commonly as his friend Dibla), and sometimes he had a revelation without any appearance. " Many," says an author much used by Weil, "he had innnediately from God, as in his journey to his throne ; many in dreams ; and it was one of his common sayings, that a prophet's dream is a revelation." According to Ayesha, whenever the angel appeared to him^ though extremely cold, perspiration burst forth on his forehead, liis eyes became red, and he would bellow like a young camel. On one of these occasions," says a traditionist, " his shoulder fell upon mine, and I never felt one so heavy." Once the coumiunicator came to him riding on a camel, and he trembled violently, and knelt down. He was angry when gazed upon during these fits. He looked like a drunken man, and they thought he would have died. It is difficult to form a positive judgment on such a person; yet enthusiasm, if at any time it deserted Iiira, seems to have revived, for his conduct, during his last ilhiess, is not that of an hypocrite. To enable the reader to judge for himself, I have endeavoured to exhibit Mohammed as he appears to have been, only adding, that his chai'acter is merely a subject of historical curiosity, for it is 23 the nature of the religion that lie established that is the question of real importance, and that remains the same whether he was an imposter or a dupe. Waraka, who is said to have made translations both of the Pentateuch and the Gospel, assured Khadijah that he must be the prophet predicted ui the former, and she was easily per- suaded to accept as true an interpretation so gratifying to her vajiity and her affection. The boy Ali was the second con- vert ; and Zaid, his slave, who was still young, the third, whom he immediately emancipated, but who was too much attached to him to leave him. The first convert out of his own family was Abubekr, a person of wealth and influence, of his own age, a most important convert, and the one who was to give stability to the system after his death as liis Khalif or successor. Gibbon estimated his most arduous conquests to be those of his wife, his servant, his pupil, and his friend, since he pre- sented himself as a pi'ophet to those who were most conversant with his infirmities as a man. Yet, he continues, Khadijah believed the words and cherished the glory of her husband ; the oljsec[uious and affectionate Zaid was tempted by the prospect of freedom, and the son of Abuthaleb embraced the sentiments of his cousin with the spirit of a youthful hero. Their con- version, however, will not appear, on further consideration, so marvellous, for Mohanuned does not apjieai' in this early stage »»f his course to have shewn any of those infirmities incompatible with his appointment as a ])rophet to his countrymen, and he brouirht them no doctrine which would not bear the scrutinv of their reason, or was offensive to their pride or passions; and, accordino- to the historian's own sketch of the reliy overhearing a passage of thi' Koran. Still, so discouraging was his condition that ho was ex])oscd to contimial insults and violence, to whidi lie patiently sub- mitted, while he permitted his few InlliiWciS, wlinlil lie couId not i>rotect, to seek a refuge. This they founaray> muezzins, (criers) to call them at the hours of ])rayer. From his new residence, Mohammed could retaliate upon his enemies, by intercepting their Syrian trade, upon which they were wholly dependent. An opportunity soon presented itself, for Abu Sofian himself, the keeper of the sacred standard, with no more than thirty or forty followers, was conducting a caravan of a thousand camels. He had escaped the vigilance of Mohammed, but he had learnt that he was awaiting in ambush his return. He despatched therefore a messenger to Mecca, and the citizens were roused by the fear of losing their merchandize to hasten to his assistance. This first army of Moslems ever brought into the field consisted of 313, of whom twenty were fugitives, and they mounted in turn seven camels, but such was their poverty, that only two could appear on horseback. In the vale of Bedr, between Me- dina and Mecca, on the high road from Egypt, Mohammed was informed of the caravan that approached on one sidcj and of the hundred horse and 850 foot of the Koreish, which advanced for its protection on the other. Power was dearer to him than wealth ; a stream and an entrenchment hastily formed covered his troops. " O God ! " he exclaimed, as the enemy de- scended the hills, " if these be destroyed, by whom wilt thou be worshipped : courage, my children : close your ranks, dis- charge your arrows, and the day is your own*" So saying, he withdrew with Abubekr, to a hut which he had formed, and instantly demanded the succour of Gabriel and three thou- sand angels. This retreat secured his personal safety. Gibbon suggests a suspicion of his courage ; Sprenger represents him as of a timorous disposition ; and, contrary to the popular notion of hin), it may at least be said that he did not, except when it was indispensable, take a prominent part in the battles in which he was engaged. The Moslems were hard pressed, and in that critical moment he started from his seat, mounted his horse, and cast a handful of gravel into the air, saying, " Let their faces be covered with confusion." Both armies heard the thunder of his voice : his adherents imagined that they were 37 assisted by angels ; the Koreisli fancied tlieni to be twice as many as tliemselves: they trembled, and, in their panic, fled : seventy of the bravest were slain, and the same number of captives adorned this first victory. His loss was only foiu'- teen. The Koran (viii.) expressly ascribes the victory to the angels. " Ye slew them not, but God slew them ; neither didst thou cast the gravel into their eyes when thou didst cast it, but God cast it, that he might prove the true believers by a gracious trial from himself." The dead bodies were despoiled and insulted, two of the most obnoxious prisoners were put to death, and 4000 drachms of silver, the ransom of the others, compensated in some degree for the escape of the caravan. Abu Sofian in vain explored a new road through the desert, and along the Euphrates : he was overtaken by the diligence of the Moslems, and so great was the prize, that the fifth, set apart for the Prophet, amounted to 20,000 drachms. Resentment stimulated Abu Sofian to collect 3000 men, and his wife, Henda, with fifteen matrons, sounded their timbrels to encourage them with the praises of Hebal, the most po})ular of their deities. The standard of the only God was upheld by near a thousand Moslems, and the disproportion of numbers was not greater than in the victorious field of JJedr. This second battle \vas fought on Mount Ohud, six miles to the north of Medina. The idolaters advanced in a crescent, and the right wing of the cavalry was led by Kli:ilc