tt ffl ft o fe hH J O CO W C O IP; r 00 .s o +< a 1 s vj Harper's Stereotype Edition. THE LIFE OF MOHAMMED; FOUNDER n . j THE RELIGION OF ISLAM, AND OF THB EMPIRE OF THE SARACENS* REV. GEORGE BUSH, A.M. PRINTED BY /. <$- /. HARPER, 82 CLIFF'ST. Sold by Collins & Hannay, Collins & Co., G. & C. & H. Carvill, White, Gallaher, & White, and O. A. R From HAMAD; praised, highly ce- AHMED. J lebrated, illustrious, glorious. MOSLEM, "j All from the same root, ASLAM; MUSSULMAN, ( signifying to yield up, dedicate, ISLAM, f consecrate entirely to the service ISLAMISM. J of religion. KORAN. From KARA, to read ; the reading, legend, or that which ought to be read. CALIPH. A successor; from the Hebrew CHALAPHJ to be changed, to succeed, to pass round in a revolution. SULTAN. Originally from the Chaldaic SOLTAN ; signifying authority, dominion, principality. VIZIER. An assistant. HADJ. Pilgrimage; HADJI; one who makes the pilgrimage to Mecca. SARACEN. Etymology doubtful ; supposed to be from SARAK, to steal ; a plunderer, a robber. HE JIRA, } The Flight ; applied emphatically to Mo- or > hammed's flight from Mecca to Me- HEJRA. ) dina. See page 106. MUFTI. The principal head of the Mohammedan religion, and the resolver of all doubtful points of the law. An office of great dig- nity in the Turkish empire. IMAM. A kind of priest attached to the mosques, whose duty it is occasionally to expound 10 PREFACE. a passage of the Koran. They, at the same time, usually follow some more lucra tive employment. MOOLLAH. The Moollahs form what is called the Ulema, or body of doctors in theology and jurisprudence, who are entrusted with the guardianship of the laws of the em- pire, and from whose number the Mufti is chosen. EMIR. Lineal descendants of the Prophet him- self, distinguished by wearing turbans of deep sea-green, the colour peculiar to all the race of Mohammed. They have spe- cial immunities on the score of their de- scent, and one of them carries the green standard of the Prophet when the Grand Seignior appears in any public solemnity. PASHA. The title given to the provincial governors. A Pasha is to a province or pashalic, what . the Sultan is to the .empire, except that the judicial power is in the hands of the cadis, the provincial magistrates. The tails of a Pasha are the standards which he is allowed to carry ; one of three tails is one of three standards, which number gives the power of life and death. REIS EFFENDI. This officer may be termed the High Chancellor of the Ottoman empire. He is at the head of a class of attorneys PREFACE. 11 which at this time contains the best informed men of the nation. SERAGLIO. This word is derived from Serai, a term of Persian origin, signifying a palace. It is therefore improperly used as synony mous with Harem, the apartments of the women. The Seraglio is, in strictness of speech, the place where the court of the Grand Seignior is held ; but it so happens that at Constantinople this building includes the imperial Harem within its walls. CRESCENT. The national ensign of the Turks, surmounting the domes and minarets at- tached to their mosques, as the Cross does the churches of the Roman Catholics in Christian countries. This peculiar and universal use of the Crescent is said to have owed its origin to the fact, that at the time of Mohammed's flight from Mecca to Medina the moon was new. Hence the half moon is commemorative of that event. SUBLIME PORTE This title, which is frequently applied to the court, cabinet, or executive department of the Ottoman empire, is de- rived, as the words import, from a lofty arched gateway of splendid construction, forming the principal entrance to the Seraglio or palace. It is a phrase equivalent to " Court of St. James," " Court of St. Cloud," &c. 12 PREFACE. As one grand object continually aimed at by the compiler of the ensuing pages has been to exhibit the Arabian prophet as a signal instrument in the hands of Providence, and to put the whole system of his imposture, with its causes, accompaniments, and effects, where it properly belongs, into the great scheme of the Divine administration of the world, it is hoped that the prophetic investigations of this subject in the Appendix will not be over- looked. The writer is disposed to lay a peculiar, perhaps an unreasonable, stress of estimation upon this portion of the work. Not that he deems the interpretation proposed as infallible, but he is in hopes that this essay towards a right explication may contribute somewhat to inspire a more gene- ral interest in this province of scriptural elucida- tion, and thus to pave the way for the eventual correction of the errors of this and every preceding exposition. No one who admits the truth of reve- lation but will acknowledge that events, which are so overruled in the providence of God as to revo- lutionize a great portion of the civilized and Chris- tian world, are important enough to claim n place in the prophetic developements of futurity ; and if predicted, these predictions, when accomplished, are worthy of being explained. Otherwise, we willingly and culpably forego one of the main ar- guments in favour of the truth and divinity of the inspired oracles. ' CONTENTS. PREFACE * Introduction 17 CHAPTER I. National Descent of the Arabs Proved to be from Ishmael, Son of Abraham 25 CHAPTER n. Birth and Parentage of Mohammed Loses his Parents in early Child- hood Is placed under the Care of his Uncle Abu Taleb Goes into Syria on a trading Expedition 4 with his Uncle at the Age of thirteen Enters tke Service of Cadijah, a Widow of Mecca, whom he afterward marries 33 CHAPTER III. Mohammed forms the Design of palming a new Religion upon the World Difficult to account for this Determination Considerations suggested Retires to the Cave of Hera Announces to Cadijah the Visits of Gabriel with a Portion of the Koran She becomes a Convert His slow Progress in gaming Proselytes Curious Coincidence 45 CHAPTER IV. The Prophet announces his Mission among bis Kindred of the Koreish Meets with a harsh Repulse Begins to declare it in Public View of his fundamental Doctrines His Pretensions respecting the Koran The disdainful Rejection of his Message by his fellow-citizens His consequent Denunciations against them - 56 B 14 CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. Mohammed not discouraged by Opposition The Burden of his Preaching Description of Paradise Error to suppose Women excluded Of Hell Gains some Followers Challenged to work a Miracle His Reply The Koran the grand Miracle of his Religion Judicial Ob- duracy charged uoon the Unbelievers 68 CHAPTER VI. The Koreish exasperated and alarmed by Mohammed's growing Success Commence Persecution Some of his Followers seek safety in Flight New Converts The Koreish form a League against him Abu Taleb and Cadijah die He makes a temporary Retreat from Mecca- Returns and preaches with increased Zeal Some of the Pilgrims from Medina converted 83 CHAPTER VII. The Prophet pretends to have had a Night-journey through the Seven Heavens Description of the memorable Night by an Arabic writer- Account of the Journey His probable Motives in feigning such an xtravagant Fiction 89 CHAPTER Vffl. An Embassy sent to the Prophet from Medina Enters into a League' with them Sends thither a Missionary Another Deputation sent to proffer him an Asylum in that City His Enemies renew their Perse- cutionsDetermines to fly to Medina Incidents on the Way Makes a solemn Entry into the City Apostate Christians supposed to have joined in tendering him the Invitation 101 CHAPTER IX. Fhe prophet now raised to a high Pitch of Dignity Builds a Mosque A Change in the Tone of his Revelations The Faithful now com- manded to fight for the true Religion His first warlike Attempt unsuccessful The Failure compensated in the Second Account of the Battle of Beder This Victory much boasted of Difficulties in the Division of '.lie Spoil Caab, a Jew, assassinated at the Instance of the Prophet 109 CONTENTS. 15 CHAPTER X. Mohammed alters the Kebla Many of his Followers greatly offended thereby Mohammedan Institution of Prayer Appoints the Fast of Ramadan Account of this Ordinance 119 CHAPTER XI. The Koreish undertake a new Expedition against the Prophet The Battle of Ohod Mohammed and his Army entirely defeated His Fol- lowers murmur The Prophet's poor Devices to retrieve the Disgrace incurred in this Action Resolves it mainly into the Doctrine of Pre- destination Wine and Games of Chance forbidden Sophyan, son of Caled, slain War of the Ditch 126 CHAPTER Xn. The Jews the special Objects of Mohammed's Enmity Several Tribes of them reduced to Subjection Undertakes a Pilgrimage to Mecca The Meccans conclude a Truce with him of ten Years His Power and Authority greatly increased Has a Pulpit constructed for his Mosque Goes against Chaibar, a City of the Arab Jews Besieges and takes the City, but is poisoned at an Entertainment by a young Woman Is still able to prosecute his Victories 135 CHAPTER XHI. Mohammed alleges a Breach of Faith on the Part of the Meccans, and marches an Army against them The City surrendered to the Con- querorAbu Sophyan and Al Abbas, the Prophet's Uncle, declare themselves Converts Mecca declared to be Holy Ground- -The neigh- bouring Tribes collect an Army of four thousand Men to arrest the growing Power of the Prophet The Confederates entirely overthrown A rival Prophet arises in the Person of Moseilama Is crushed by Caled 142 CHAPTER XIV. The Religion of the Prophet firmly established The principal Countries subjected by him The effects of the Poison make alarming Inroads upon his Constitution Perceives his End approaching Preaches for the last Time in Public His last Illness and Death The Moslems scarcely persuaded that their Prophet was dead Tumult appeased by Abubeker The Prophet buried at Medina The Story of the hanging Coffin false 150 16 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XV. Reflections upon the extraordinary Career of Mohammed Description Of his Person General View arid Estimate of his Character. ... 156 CHAPTER XVI. Account of the Prophet's Wives Cadijah Ayesha Hafsa Zeinab Safya His Concubines Singular Precepts in the Koran respecting the Wives of Mohammed His comparative Treatment of Jews and Christians Predictions of the Prophet alleged by Mohammedans to be contained in the sacred Scriptures 167 APPENDIX A. Inspired Prophecies respecting Mohammed and Moham- medanism considered 181 APPENDIX B. The Caaba, and the Pilgrimage to Mecca 210 APPENDIX C. The Koran 227 APPENDIX D. Mohammedan Confession of Faith . . 241 APPENDIX E. Account of Authors 250 INTRODUCTION. No revolution recorded in history, if we except that effected by the religion of the Gospel, has in- troduced greater changes into the state of the civil- ized world, than that which has grown out of the rise, progress, and permanence of Mohammedan- ism. The history and character, therefore, of this religion becomes an object of laudable curiosity with every enlightened mind. Considered merely as a department of the general annals of the world, apart from any connexion with the true re- ligion, it furnishes some of the most interesting records of the human race. But when viewed as a part of the great chain of providential and pre- dicted events, designed to have a direct bearing upon the state of the Christian church, through the whole period of its disastrous prevalence, it urges a new and stronger claim upon our attention. By many distinguished writers, who have deeply stu- died its origin, genius, ftnd history, the religion of the Koran is confidently regarded rather as a Christian^ heresy, or the product of a Christian 18 INTRODUCTION. heresy, than as a heathen superstition.* Conse- quently, its fate is involved in that of all false doctrines which have corrupted the Gospel ; and as far as the disclosures of prophecy, or the present posture of the nations of the earth, hold out a hope of the speedy downfall of delusion, and of the establishment of the truth, the eye is naturally turned with deepening interest and anxiety to those regions of the globe where this religion has so long prevailed. But in proportion to the interest inspired in the general subject of Mohammedanism, is that which is felt in the life, character, and actions of its founder. That an obscure individual, sprung from the roving tribes of Arabia, following no higher occupation than that of a caravan-trader, possess- ing no peculiar advantages of mental culture, nor distinguished in the outset by any pre-eminence of power or authority, should yet have been enabled, in spite of numerous obstacles, to found such an extensive empire over the minds, as well as per- sons, of millions of the human race, and that this dominion should have been continued for more than twelve hundred years, presents a phenomenon which increases our wonder the more steadily it is contemplated. * " Hence," says the learned and exemplary Mede, " Mahometanism has frequently been accounted a Christian heresy ; and as it had its origin in Christianity, so to Christ it looks in the end. For, according to the creed of the Mahometans, Jesus re expected to descend to earth, to embrace the religion of Mahomet, to slay Antichrist, and to reign with his saints." The same authority affirms, " that the Mahometans are nearer to Christianity than many of the ancient heretics ; the Cerinthians, Gnostics, and Manichees." INTRODUCTION. 19 It is proposed in the ensuing pages to exhibit the prominent events of the life and fortunes of this remarkable man. It will not, of course, be expected that, at this distance of time and remote- ness of place, a mass of facts entirely new should be communicated to the world. The discreet use of the materials already extant is all that can now be reasonably required or attempted. Yet we are not without hope, that in one aspect, at least, our theme may present itself arrayed in a character of novelty and of unwonted interest ; we mean, in its connexions with Christianity. An enlightened Christian esti- mate of the prophet of Arabia and his religion is, we believe, seldom formed, simply because the sub- ject has seldom been so presented as to afford the means of such an estimate. A brief sketch, there- fore, of the state of Christianity at the time of Mohammed's appearance, especially in that region of the world in which his imposture took its rise, will properly invite the reader's attention at the outset of the work. This will show more clearly the intended providential bearings of the entire fabric of Mohammedan delusion upon the church of Christ ; and, apart from this particular view of it, we are persuaded that an entirely correct or adequate judgment of Islanflsm cannot be formed. 20 INTRODUCTION. State of Christianity in the Sixth Century, particularly in the Eastern Churches. The distinction of Eastern and Western churches, in ecclesiastical history, is founded upon a similar geographical division of the Roman empire under the emperors, into two great departments ; the one including the countries of Asia or the East, which had been subjected to the Roman arms, and the other those of Europe, more properly denominated the West. This distinction became still more common from the days of Constantine, who re- moved the seat of the empire from Rome to Con- stantinople, though the final and complete rupture between the Greek and Latin churches did not oc- cur till the seventh century. Over the largest portion of the Roman empire the Christian religion was early propagated, and for two or three centuries subsisted in a great de- gree of its original simplicity and purity. Flourish- ing churches were planted by the Apostles them- selves in the different provinces of Asia Minor, and along the eastern limits of Europe ; from which " the word sounded out" to the adjacent territories with a multiplying po%er, so that the cause and kingdom of the Redeemer continued to spread long after its first propagators had entered into their rest. But a gradual degeneracy supervened upon the primitive prosperity of the church. During the fourth century " the mystery of iniquity," which had been long before working in secret, INTRODUCTION. 21 began to discover itself more openly, and though the Christians, by the laws of the empire, were ex- empted from persecution, yet from this time for- ward a growing declension and defection among them is to be traced through every subsequent period, till at length, in the seventh century, " the man of sin" became fully revealed, and, according to the predictions of holy writ, took his seat " as God in the temple of God, opposing and exalting himself above all that is called God, or is wor- shipped." It was about the period at which Mo- hammed arose that this fearful apostacy had at- tained its height that " the transgressors had come to the full" and the degree to which the nominal church had departed from the standard of faith, morals, and worship contained in the Scrip- tures, well nigh surpasses belief. Then it was that those foul corruptions and superstitions were in- troduced into the church, which finally grew to such a pitch of enormity as to occasion the sepa- ration of Luther and the other reformers from what they deemed and denominated the communion of Antichrist. At this period it was, that the venera- tion for departed saints and martyrs the idolatrous worship of images and relics the rendering divine honours to the Virgin Mary the doctrine of pur- gatory and the adoration of the Cross, had be- come firmly established ; and thus the lustre of the Gospel suffered a dark eclipse, and the essence of Christianity was lost under a load of jdle and su- perstitious ceremonies. In the eastern parts of the empire, especially 22 INTRODUCTION. Syria and the countries bordering upon Arabia, as well as in some parts of Arabia itself, these evils were aggravated by the numerous sects and here- sies that prevailed, and by the incessant contro- versial wars which they waged with each other. The church was torn to pieces by the furious dis- putes of the Arians, Sabellians, Nestorians, Euty- chians, and Collyridians, by whom the great doc- trines of Christianity were so confounded with metaphysical subtleties and the jargon of schools, that they ceased, in great measure, to be regarded as a rule of life, or as pointing out the only way of salvation. The religion of the Gospel, the blessed source of peace, love, and unity among men, became, by the perverseness of sectaries, a firebrand of burning contention. Council after council was called canon after canon was en- acted prelates were traversing the country in every direction in the prosecution of party pur- poses, resorting to every base art, to obtain the authoritative establishment of their own peculiar tenets, and the condemnation and suppression of those of their adversaries. The contests also for the episcopal office ran so high, particularly in the West, that the opposing parties repeatedly had re* course to violence, and, in one memorable instance, the interior of a Christian church was stained by the blood of a number of the adherents of the rival bishops, who fell victims to their fierce contentions. Yet it is little to be wondered at that these places of preferment should have been so greedily sought after by men of corrupt minds, when we learn, INTRODUCTION. 23 that they opened the direct road to wealth, luxury, and priestly power. Ancient historians represent the bishops of that day, as enriched by the pre- sents of the opulent, as riding abroad in pompous state in chariots and sedans, and surpassing-, in the extravagance of their feasts, the sumptuousness of princes ; while, at the same time, the most barba- rous ignorance was fast overspreading the nations of Christendom, the ecclesiastical orders them- selves not excepted. Among the bishops, the legi- timate instructers and defenders of the church, num- bers were to be found incapable of composing the poor discourses which their office required them to deliver to the people, or of subscribing the decrees which they passed in their councils. The little learning in vogue was chiefly confined to the monks. But they, instead of cultivating science, or diffusing any kind of useful knowledge, squan- dered their time in the study of the fabulous le- gends of pretended saints and martyrs, or in com- posing histories equally fabulous. This woful corruption of doctrine and morals in the clergy was followed, as might be expected, by a very general depravity of the common people ; and though we cannot suppose that God left him- self altogether without witnesses in this dark pe- riod, yet the number of the truly faithful had dwin- dled down to a mere remnant, and the wide-spread- ing defection seemed to call aloud for the judg- ments of heaven. In view of this deplorable state of Christianity, anterior to the appearance of Mo- hammed,, we are prepared to admit at once the 24 INTRODUCTION. justness of the following remarks upon the moral ends designed to be accomplished by Providence in permitting this desolating scourge to, arise at this particular crisis of the world. " At length," says Prideaux, " having wearied the patience and long-sufFerkig of God, he raised up the Saracens to be the instruments of his wrath to punish them for it ; who, taking advantage of the weakness of their power, and the distraction of counsels which their divisions had caused among them, overran, with a terrible devastation, all the eastern provinces of the Roman empire. And having fixed that tyranny over them which hath ever since afflicted those parts of the world, turned every where their churches into mosques, and their worship into a horrid superstition ; and instead of that holy religion which they had abused, forced on them the abominable imposture of Mahomet Thus those once glorious and most flourishing churches, for a punishment of their wickedness, being given up to the insult, ravage, and scorn of the worst of enemies, were on a sudden over- whelmed with so terrible a destruction as hath re- duced them to that low and miserable condition under which they have ever since groaned ; the all-wise providence of God seeming to continue them thus unto this day under the pride and perse- cution of Mahometan tyranny, for no other end but to be an example and warning unto others against the wickedness of separation and divi- sion," LIFE OF MOHAMMED. CHAPTER L National Descent of the ArabsProved to be from hhmael, son 'of t Abraham. IN tracing the genealogy of nations to their pri- mitive founders, the book of Genesis is a docu- ment of inestimable value. With those wno do not hesitate to receive this and the other inspired books of the Scriptures as authentic vouchers for historical facts, the national descent of the Arabs from Ishmael, the son of Abraham, is a point which will not admit of dispute. The fact of this derivation, however, has been seriously brought into question by several skeptical writers, par- ticularly by the celebrated historian of the De- cline and Fall of the Roman Empire. With his usual dexterity of insinuation, he assails the united authority of Scripture history and Arabian tradi- tion, respecting the pedigree of this remarkable people. Yet in no case does he undertake, in a formal manner, to disprove the fact to which he still labours to give the air of a fiction.* A suc- cinct view, therefore, of the testimonies which go to establish the Ishmaelitish origin of the Arab* f * Decline and Fall, ch. 1 c 26 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. may form no unsuitable introduction to the pre- sent work, detailing the life and character of the individual who has done so much towards render- ing the race illustrious. From the narrative of Moses we learn not only the parentage, birth, and settlement of Ishmael in Arabia, but the fact also of a covenant made with Abraham in his behalf, accompanied with a pro- phecy respecting his descendants, singularly ana- logous to the prophetic promise concerning the more favoured seed of Isaac. "And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee ! And God said, Sarah, thy wife, shall bear thee a son indeed ; and thou shalt call his name Isaac : and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly ; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation."* In like manner, it will be recol- lected, the nation of Israel sprung from the twelve sons of Jacob, and was divided into twelve tribes. In a subsequent part of the Mosaic records we find the notice of the incipient fulfilment of this prediction concerning the posterity of Ishmael " And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, according to their generations : The first-born of Ishmael, Nebajoth, and Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam, and Mishma, and Dumah, and Massah, Hadar, and Tema, Jetur, * Genesis, xvii. 1820. LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 27 Naphish, and Kedemah. These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their towns, and by their castles : twelve princes ac- cording to then* nations."* Their geographical residence is clearly ascertained in a subsequent verse. " And they dwelt from Havilah unto Shur, that is before Egypt as thou goest towards Assy- ria."! Havilah and Shur, by the consent of the best sacred geographers, are allowed to have com- posed part of the region between the Euphrates and the Red Sea, denominated Arabia.^ From causes now unknown, the tribes of Nebajoth and Kedar appear to have acquired an ascendency over the rest, so that the whole country is some- times designated from one, sometimes from the other of them, just as the entire nation of Israel is sometimes called Judah from the superior num- bers, power, or influence of that tribe. Among the ancient profane historians also we find the names of Nabitheans and Kedarenes frequently employed as an appellation of the roving inhabit- ants of the Arabian deserts. This testimony is directly confirmed by that of Josephus. After reciting the names of the twelve sons of Ishmael, he adds : u These inhabit all the country extend- ing from the Euphrates to the Red Sea, giving it the name of the Nabatenean region. These are they who have given names to the whole race of the Arabs with their tribes. r $ In the fourth cen- tury, Jerome, in his commentary on Jeremiah, de- * Genesis, xxv. 1316. fVer. 18. J Welis's Sac. Geogr. vol. i. p. 341. $ Ant. Jud. b. i. ch. 12, $4. 28 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. scribes Kedar as a country of the Arabian desert, inhabited by the Ishmaelites, who were then termed Saracens. The same father, in his commentary on Isaiah, again speaks of Kedar as the country of the Saracens, who in Scripture are called Ish- maelites ; and observes of Nebajoth, that he was one of the sons of Ishmael, after whose names the Arabian desert is called. Another source of evidence in relation to the na- tional descent of the Arabs, is their having prac- tised, from time immemorial, the rite of circum- cision. Josephus has a very remarkable passage touching the origin of this rite among the Jews and Arabs, in which he first makes mention of the circumcision of Isaac ; then introduces that of Ishmael ; and states concerning each, as matter of universal and immemorial notoriety, that the Jews and the Arabians severally practised the rite, con- formably with the precedents given them, in the persons of their respective fathers. His words are these : " Now when Sarah had completed her ninetieth, and Abraham his hundredth year, a son (Isaac) is born unto them : whom they forth- with circumcise on the eighth day ; and from him the Jews derive their custom of circumcising children after the same interval. But the Ara- bians administer circumcision at the close of the thirteenth year : for Ishmael, the founder of their nation, the son of Abraham by his concubine, was circumcised at that time of life."* Similar to this is the testimony of Origen, who wrote in the third *4ut. Jud. b. i. ch. 10, 5. LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 29 century of the Christian era. " The natives of Ju- dea," says he, "generally circumcise their children on the eighth day ; but the Ishmaelites who in- habit Arabia universally practise circumcision in the thirteenth year. For this history tells us con- cerning them."* This writer, like Josephus, lived near the spot, and had the best opportunities of ob- taining correct information respecting the Arabians. It is evident, therefore, beyond contradiction, from his words, that the fact of their derivation from Abraham through Ishmael was an established point of historical record, and not of mere tradi- tionary fame, at the period at which he wrote. The direct testimony to the Ishmaelitish ex- traction of the Arabs furnished by the earliest re- cords of the Bible, and confirmed as we see by foreign authorities, is strikingly corroborated by repeated references, bearing upon the same point, in later inspired writers, particularly the prophets. Through the long course of sacred history and prophecy, we meet with reiterated allusions to existing tribes of Arabia, descending from Ishmael, and bearing the names of his several sons, among which those of Nebajoth and Kedar usually predominate. Thus the Prophet Isaiah, in foretelling the future conversion of the Gentiles, makes mention of the " rams of Nebajoth" the eldest, and " all the flocks of Kedar^ the second of the sons of Ishmael; that is, of the Arab tribes descending from these brothers ; a passage which not only affords strong * Orig. Op. torn. ii. p. 16, ed. Bened. C2 30 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. proof of our main position, but conveys also an in- timation of the future in-gathering of the Moham- medan nations into the Christian Church. The same Prophet, in another part of his predictions, notices " the .cities of the wilderness, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit." And again, when de<- aouncing impending calamity upon the land of Ara- bia, he foretells how " all the glory of Kedar shall fail ;" he employs the name of this single tribe as synonymous with that of the entire peninsula. In ihis connexion the words of the Psalmist may be cited : " Wo is me that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar" These words are supposed by some of the Jewish commentators to have been written by David, under the influence of inspiration, as the prophetic plaint of the Christian Church, labouring and groaning, as it has some* iimes done, under the yoke of Mohammedan op- pression. In Jeremiah, also, we find mention of Kedar. He speaks of it as " the wealthy nation that dwelleth without care, which have neither gates nor bars, which .dwell alone." Ezekiel, moreover, prophesies conjointly of " Arabia and all the princes of Kedar" An allusion to Tema, the ninth son of Ishmael, as the name of a warlike people of Arabia, occurs as early as in the book oi Job : " The troops of Tema looked, the compa- nies of Sheba waited for them." Lastly, the tribes sprung from Jetur and Naphish, the tenth and ele* venth sons of Ishmael, are commemorated in the first book of Chronicles, who are there called Ha^ garites, from Hagar, the mother of Ishmael, and LIFE OF MOHAMMEb. 31 of whom a hundred thousand males were taken captives. When to this mass of Scripture evidence of the descent of the Arabs from Ishmael we add the ac- knowledged coincidence between the national cha- racter of this people in every age, and the predicted personal character of their progenitor " And he will be a wild marj. ; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him" and the fact, that the Ishmaelitish origin of thue Arabs has ever been the constant and unvarying tradition of that people themselves, the subject scarcely admits of a more irrefragable proof. There are certainly few landmarks of history more universal or more permanent than the names of countries affixed by original settlers, or flowing from them, and we may as justly question the derivation of Hungary from the Huns, France from the Franks, Turkey from the Turks, or Judea from Judah and the Jews, as those of the several districts of Arabia from the respective sons of Ishmael.* * The argument in thia chapter is condensed from a more ample dis- .cussion of the subject in the Appendix to " Forster's Maoometanisra Unveiled." 32 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. CHAPTER II. Birth and Parentage of Mohammed Loses his Parents in early Child- hood Is placed under the care of his uncle Abu Taleb Goes into Syria on a trading expedition with his uncle at the age of thirteen Enters the service ofCadijah, a widow of Mecca, whom he afterward Mo HAMMED, the Legislator of Arabia, the Founder of the Moslem or Mohammedan religion, and thence dignified by himself and by his followers with the title of Prophet and Apostle of God, was born at Mecca, a city of Arabia, A. D. 569.* His lineage, notwithstanding that many of the earlier Christian writers, under the influence of inveterate prejudice against the prophet and his religion, have represented his origin as base and ignoble, is clearly shown to have been honourable and illustrious ; at least, when rated by the common standard of dis- tinction among his countrymen. The ancient Ara- bians, deriving their pedigree from Ishmael, and inheriting the nomadic habits of their ancestor, had from time immemorial been divided into a number of separate independent tribes, roving at large over the immense sandy regions of which their country is composed, except where here and there a few thousands of them were gathered into cities, and engaged in merchandise. Some of these tribes, * Other authorities place his birth in A. D. 571. The precise year can- uotbe determined with certainty.^ LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 33 from various causes, were more numerous, power- ful, and renowned than others. That of Koreish, from the founder of which Mohammed was in a di- rect line descended, had long been accounted the most noble of them all, and his ancestors, for se- veral generations, had ranked among the princes of Mecca, and the keepers of the keys of the Caaba,* its sacred temple. His father's name was Abdallah, one of the thirteen sons of Abdol Motalleb, the chief personage in his day among the Koreish, and inheriting from his father Hashem the principal place in the government of Mecca, and succeeding him in the custody of the Caaba. This Hashem, the great-grandfather of Mohammed, was the most distinguished name in all the line of his predeces- sors, and from him not only is the appellation of Hashemites bestowed upon the kindred of the pro- phet, but even to this day, the chief magistrate, both at Mecca and Medina, who must always be of the race of Mohammed, is invariably .styled " The Prince of the Hashemites." The name of Mohammed's mother was Amina, whose parentage was traceable also to a distinguished family of the same tribe. Her lot was envied in gaining the hand of the son of Abdol Motalleb, as the surpassing beauty of his person is said to have ravished the hearts of a hundred maidens of Arabia, who were left, by his choice of Amina, to sigh over the wreck of their fondest hopes. Abdallah, though the son of a rich and princely * See Appendix B. 34 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. fkther, was possessed of but little wealth, and as he died while his son was an infant, or, as some say, before he was born, it is probable that that little was seized with the characteristic rapacity of the Arabs, and shared among his twelve surviving bro- thers, the powerful uncles of Mohammed. Al- though the laws of the Koran, in respect to inherit- ances, promulgated by the prophet himself, breathe more of the spirit of equity and kindness ; yet the pagan Arabs, previous to his time, as we learn from Eastern writers, were wont to treat widows and or - phans with great injustice, frequently denying them any share in the inheritances of their fathers and husbands, under the pretence that it ought to be dis- tributed among those only who were able to bear arms, and disposing of widows, even against their own consent, as a part of their husband's posses- sions. . The fatherless Mohammed, accordingly, faring like the rest of his countrymen, received, in the olistribution of the patrimony, no more than five camels and an Ethiopian female slave. The Moslem writers, in order to represent the birth of their pretended prophet as equally marvel- lous with that of Moses or of Christ, the ancient , messengers of God who preceded him, have re- ported a tissue of astonishing prodigies said to have occurred in connexion with that event. If the reader will receive their statements with the same implicit faith with which they seem to be delivered, he must acknowledge, that at the moment when the favoured infant was ushered into the world, a flood of light burst forth with him and illuminated every LIFE OF MOHAMMED, 35 part of Syria ; that the waters of the Lake Sawa were entirely dried up, so that a city was built upon its bottom; that an earthquake threw down four- teen towers of the king of Persia's palace ; that the sacred fire of the Persians was extinguished, and all the evil spirits which had inhabited the moon and stars were expelled together from their celes- tial abodes, nor could they ever after animate idols or deliver oracles on earth. The child also, if we may trust to the same authorities, discovered the most wonderful presages. He was no sooner born than he fell prostrate, in a posture of humble ado- ration, praying devoutly to his Creator, and saying, " God is great ! There is no God but God, and I am his prophet !" By these and many other superna- tural signs, equally astounding, is the prophet's na- tivity said to have been marked. To some of them it would indeed appear that the earlier Christians gave an honest credence ; with this difference, how- ever, between their belief and that of his followers, that while the latter ascribed them without hesita- tion to the hand of God, giving in this manner a gracious attestation to the prophetic character of his servant, the former referred them directly to the agency of the devil, who might naturally be sup- posed, they thought, to work some special won- ders on the present occasion. Upon the narrative of these miraculous phenomena the reader will form his own judgment. They are mentioned in the ab- sence of all authentic information touching the pe- riod and the event in question. Until the facts al- leged are proved, by competent historical testi- 36 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. mony,to have taken place, it is scarcely necessary to call in the aid of divine or diabolical agency to account for them ; as it is much easier to imagine that an imposition or illusion may have been prac- tised upon the first reporters, or that the whole ca- talogue of wonders is a mere fabrication of inte- rested partisans, than that the ordinary course of nature should have been disturbed at this crisis. ) The Arabic biographers of the prophet, more- over, inform us that Abdol Motalleb, his grandfa- ther, the seventh day after the birth of the child, gave a great entertainment, to which he invited the principal men of the Koreish, who, after the repast was over, desired him to give the infant a name. Abdol Motalleb immediately replied " I name this child Mohammed." The Koreish grandees at once expressed their surprise that he did not call his grandson, according to custom, by a name which had belonged to some one of the family. But he persisted in the selection he had made, saying, " May the Most High glorify in Heaven him whom he has created on earth !" alluding to the name Mohammed, which signifies praised or glo* rified. At the early age of two years Mohammed lost his father; and four years after, his mother. The helpless orphan, now cast upon the kindness of his relations, was taken into the house and family of his grandfather, under whose guardian care he re- mained but two years, when the venerable Motalleb himself was also called to pay the debt of nature. In a dying charge, he confided this tender plant of LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 3? the ancient stock of the Koreish to the faithful hands of Abu Taleb, the eldest of his sons and the suc- cessor of his authority. " My dearest, best beloved son" thus history or tradition reports the tenor of his instructions " to thy charge I leave Moham- med, the son of thine own brother, strictly recom- mended, whose natural father the Lord hath been pleased to take to himself, with the intent that this dear child should become ours by adoption ; and much dearer ought he to be unto us than merely an adopted son. Receive him, therefore, at my dying hands, with the same sincere love and tender bow- els With which I deliver him to thy care. Honour, love, and cherish him as much, or even more than if he had sprung from thine own loins ; for all the honour thou showest unto him shall be trebled unto thee. Be more than ordinarily careful in thy treatment towards him, for it will be repaid thee with interest. Give him the preference before thine own children, for he exceedeth them and all man- kind in excellency and perfection. Take notice, that whensoever he calleth upon thee, thou answer him not as an infant, as his tender age may re- quire, but as thou wouldst reply to the most aged and venerable person when he asketh thee any question. Sit not down to thy repasts of any sort soever, either alone or in company, till thy worthy nephew Mohammed is seated at the table before thee ; neither do thou ever offer to taste of any kind of viands, or even to stretch forth thine hand towards the same, until he hath tasted thereof. If thou observest these my injunctions, thy goods D 38 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. shall always increase, and in nowise be dimi- nished."* Whether Abu Taleb recognised in the deposite thus solemnly committed to his trust an object of such high destiny and such profound veneration as his father's language would imply, we are not in- formed ; but there is good evidence that he acted towards his nephew the part of a kind friend and protector, giving him an education, scanty indeed, but equal to that usually received by his country- men. His followers, it is true, in order to magnify their prophet's supernatural gifts, and render the composition of the Koran a greater miracle, gene- rally affirm that he was wholly illiterate, neither able to read or write. In this, indeed, they are au- thorized by the pretensions of Mohammed himself, who says, " Thus have we sent down the book of the Koran unto thee. -Thou couldst not read any book before this ; neither couldst thou write it with thy right hand : then had the gains ay ers justly doubted of the divine original thereof."t " Believe, therefore, in God and his apostle, the illiterate prophet.''^ But in the Koran, a complete fabric of imposture, the last thing we are to expect is an honest adherence to truth. There is abun- dant evidence, from the pages of this spurious re- velation itself, that writing was an art in common use among the Arabs at that time. The following precept concerning bonds puts it beyond question. * Morgan's Mahometaniam Explained, vol.i. p. 50 t Koran, ch. xxix. J Ch. vii. LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 39 u 0, true believers, when ye bind yourselves one to the other in a debt for a certain time, write it down ; and let a writer write between you according to justice, and let not the writer refuse writing ac- cording to what God hath taught him." We learn also that Ali Taleb, the son of Abu Taleb, and cousin of Mohammed, with whom the prophet passed his childhood, afterward became one of his scribes, of whom he had a number employed in making copies of the Koran as its successive portions were revealed to him. How did it happen that Abu Taleb should have had his son instructed in writing, and not his nephew ? The city of Mecca, moreover, being a place of traffic, the merchants must have hourly felt the want of some mode of recording their transactions ; and as we are in- formed that Mohammed himself was for several years engaged in mercantile pursuits before he commenced the propagation of a new religion, it is scarcely supposable that he was unacquainted with the use of letters. Of the infancy, childhood, and youth of the fu- ture prophet no authentic details have reached us. The blank has indeed been copiously supplied by the fabulous legends of his votaries, but as they are utterly void of authority, they will not repay the trouble of transcription. Being destined by his uncle to the profession of a merchant, he was taken, as some affirm, at the age of thirteen, into Syria with Abu Taleb's trading caravan, in order to his being perfected in the business of his intended vocation. Upon the simple circumstance of this journey, the 40 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. superstition of his followers has grafted a series of jniraculous omens all portending his future greatness. Among other things, it is said by his historians, that upon his arriving at Bozrah, a certain man named Boheira, a Nestorian monk, who is thought by Pri- deaux to be otherwise called Sergius, advanced through the crowd collected in the market-place, and, seizing him by the hand, exclaimed, " There will be something wonderful in this boy ; for when he approached he appeared covered with a cloud." He is said to have affirmed also, that the dry trees under which he sat were every where instantly covered with green leaves, which served him for a shade, and that the mystic seal of prophecy was impressed between his shoulders, in the form of a small luminous excrescence. According to others, instead of a bright cloud being the criterion by which his subsequent divine mission was indicated, the mark by which Boheira knew him was the prophetic light which shone upon his face. This miraculous light, according to the traditions of the Mohammedans, was first placed upon Adam, and from him transmitted to each individual in the line of his descendants, who sustained the character of a true prophej;. The hallowed radiance at length rested upon the head of Abraham, from whom it was divided into a twofold emanation, the greater or clearer descending upon Isaac and his seed, the less or obscurer to Ishmael and his posterity. The light in the family of Isaac is represented as having been perpetuated in a constant glow through $ Jong line of inspired messengers and prophets, LIFE OF MOHAMMFjp. 41 among the children of Israel ; but that in the fa- mily of Ishmael is said to have been suppressed, and to have lain hidden through the whole tract of ages, from Ishmael down to the corning of Mo- hammed, in whom the sacred symbol was again re- vived, and now pointed out to Boheira the high des- tiny of him on whose person it appeared. How- ever intrinsically vain and visionary this legend may be deemed, it may, nevertheless, be worth advert- ing to, as affording perhaps, in its remoter sources, a hint of the origin of the halo, which in most of the paintings or engravings of the Saviour is made to encircle his sacred brows. When Abu Taleb was about to return with his caravan to Mecca, Boheira, it is said, again re- peated his solemn premonition, coupled with a charge, respecting the extraordinary youth. " De- part with this child, and take great care that he does not fall into the hands of the Jews ; for your nephew will one day become a very wonderful person." The ^^^h^^t^ai^n^g^^ have laid^ hold of the qajTauve "of this intemew^Mi^ monk, as anordm^a^C!Bw^to'f1^^^ i true origin and authorship oi' the Iterant According to them, this Boheira, alias Sergius, who, they say, was an apos- tate Jew or Christian, instructed Mohammed in the histories and doctrines of the Bible, and that they in concert laid a plan for creating a new religion, a motley compound of Judaism and Christianity, to be carried into execution twenty years afterward ; and that accordingly the monk, rather than Mo* D2 42 &1JE OF MOHAMMED. hammed, is entitled to the credit of the most im^ portant parts of the Koran. Others again, deem- ing it altogether incredible that a youth of thirteen should have conceived the vast idea of forming and propagating a new religion, place this corres- pondence with Sergius at a later period of his life ; that is to say, when he was not far from twenty years of age, at which time he is alleged to have taken a second journey into Syria. But, as we shall see hereafter, the question how far Mohanv med was assisted by others in the composition of the Koran is not susceptible at the present day of a satisfactory solution. The next remarkable event in the life of Mo? hammed is his appearance in the character of a soldier. At the age of fourteen, or, as others say, nearer the age of twenty, he served under his juncle, who commanded the troops of his tribe, the Koreish, in their wars against the rival tribes of the Kenan and the Hawazan. They returned from the expedition victorious, and this circum P stance doubtless tended to render the people of the tribe still more devoted to the uncle and the ner phew, and to acquire for Mohammed a notoriety which he was afterward enabled to turn essentially to his account. From this time to the age of tvyenty-five he ap- pears to have continued in the employ of Abu Taleb, engaged in mercantile pursuits. As he advanced in years there is reason to believe that his personal endowments, which were doubtless of ( a superior order, together with strong native powers LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 43 0f intellect, an acute observation, a ready wit, and pleasing address combined to render him both popular and prominent among his associates. >Such, at least, is the concurrent testimony of all his biographers, and we have no means of invali- dating their statements. It is, however, natural to suppose, that a strong colouring would be put upon every superior quality of a pretended mes- senger of God, sent to restore the true religion to the world, and that he, who was by character a prophet, should be represented by his adherents as a paragon of all external perfections. About this period, by the assistance of his uncle, he was entefed into the service of a rich trading widow of his native city, who had been twice married, and whose name was CADIJAH. In the capacity of factor or agent to this his wealthy employer, he took a second journey of three years into Damascus and the neighbouring regions of Syria, in which he .devoted himself so assiduously to the interests of Cadijah, and managed the trust committed to him so entirely to her satisfaction, that upon his return she rewarded his fidelity with the gift of her hand and her fortune. It may be imagined, that in entering into this alliance, she was probably in- fluenced by the family connexions and the personal attractions of her suitor. But whatever were her motives, the union subsequently appears to have been one of genuine affection on both sides ; Mohammed never forgot the favours he had re- ceived from his benefactress, and never made her repent of having placed her person and her for* 44 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. tune at his absolute disposal. Although Cadijah, at the time of her marriage, was forty, and Mo- hammed not more than twenty-eight, yet till the age of sixty-four, when she died, she enjoyed the undivided affection of her husband ; and that too in a country where polygamy was allowed, and very frequently practised. By her he had eight children, of whom Fatima alone, his eldest daugh- ter, survived him. And such was the prophet's respect to the memory of his wife, that after her death he placed her in the rank of the four per- fect women* LIFE OF MOHAMMED, 45 CHAPTER III, Mohammed forms the design of palming a new Religion upon the world Difficult to account for this determination Considerations suggested Retires to the Cave of Hera Announces to Cadijah the Visits of Gabriel with a portion of the Koran She becomes a Con- vert His slow progress in gaining Proselytes Curious Coin- cidence. BEING now raised by his marriage to an equality with the first citizens of Mecca, Mohammed was enabled to pass the next twelve years of his life in comparative affluence and ease ; and, until the age of forty, nothing remarkable distinguished the history of the future prophet. It is probable that he still followed the occupation of a merchant, as the Arabian nation, like their ancestors the Ish- maelites, have always been greatly addicted to commerce. It was during this interval, however, that he meditated and matured the bold- design of palming a new religion upon the world. This there-? fore becomes, in its results, the most important period in his whole life ; and it is greatly to be regretted, that the policy of the impostor, and the ravages of time, have deprived us of all sources of information, which might afford a satisfactory clew to the real origin of this design. The circum- stances which first suggested it, the peculiar train of reflection which went to cherish it, the ends which he proposed to accomplish by it, together with the r^eal agencies employed in bringing it forward, are 46 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. all matters wrapped in impenetrable mystery; yet these are the very points on which the inquiring mind, intent upon tracing great events to|their pri- mary sources, is most eager for information. At the present day, it is impossible to determine whe- ther Mohammed commenced his career as a de- luded enthusiast or a designing impostor. Those who have most profoundly considered the whole subject of Mohammedanism in its rise, progress, genius, and effects, are, on this point, divided in their opinion. On the one hand, it is supposed by some, that Mohammed was constitutionally addicted to reli- gious contemplation that his native temperament was strongly tinged with enthusiasm and that he might originally have been free from any sinister motive in giving scope to the innate propensities of his character. As the result of his retired spe- culations he might, moreover, it is said, have been sincerely persuaded in his own mind of the grand article of his faith, the unity of God, which in his opinion was violated by all the rest of the world, and, therefore, might have deemed it a meritorious work to endeavour to liberate his countrymen and his race from the bondage of error. Impelled by this motive in the outset, and being aided by a warm imagination, he might at length have come, it is affirmed, as enthusiasts have often done, to the firm conviction, that he was destined by Pro- vidence to be the instrument of a great and glo- rious reformation; and the circumstance of his being accustomed to solitary retirement would na- LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 47 turally cause this persuasion to take a deeper root in his mind. In this manner, it is supposed, his career might have commenced ; but finding himself to have succeeded b'eyond his expectations, and the force of temptation growing with the increase of his popularity and power, his self-love at last overpowered his honesty, ambition took the place of devotion, his designs expanded with his success, and he who had entered upon a pious enterprise as a well-meaning reformer degenerated in the end into a wilful impostor, a gross debauchee, and an unprincipled despot. On the other hand, it is maintained, and we think with more of an air of probability, that his conduct from the very first bears the marks of a deep-laid and systematic design ; that although he might not have anticipated all the results which crowned the undertaking, yet in every step of his progress he acted with a shrewdness and circum- spection very little savouring of the dreams of en- thusiasm ; that the pretended visits of an angel, and his publishing, from time to time, the chapters of the Koran, as a divine revelation, are wholly incon- sistent with the idea of his being merely a deluded fanatic ; and that, at any rate, the discovery of his inability to work a miracle, the grand voucher of a divine messenger, must have been sufficient to dispel the fond illusion from his mind. , Many circumstances, moreover, it is said, may I be adduced, which might have concurred to prompt J and favour the design of this arch imposture. 1. Mohammed's genius was bold and aspiring. 48 tlFE OF MOHAMMED* His family had formerly held the ascendency in rank and power in the city of Mecca, and it was merely his misfortune in having lost his father in infancy, and being left an orphan, that prevented V him from succeeding to the same distinction. It was therefore the dictate of a very obvious prin- ciple of human nature, that he should contrive, if possible, to make the fortune and influence ac- >^ quired by his marriage a step to still higher ho- nours, and to raise himself to the ancient, dignity of his house. 2. He had travellec* much in his own and foreign countries. His journeys would of course bring him acquainted with the tenets of the different sects of the religious world, particu- larly the Jewish and the Christian, which were then predominant, and the latter greatly corrupted and torn to pieces with internal dissensions. Be- ing a sagacious observer of men, he could not fail to perceive that the distracted state of the exist- ing religions had put the Eastern world into a posture extremely favourable to the propagation of a new system. His own countrymen, the people of Arabia, were, indeed, for the most part sunk in idolatry, but the vestiges of a purer faith, derived from patriarchal times, were still lingering among them, to a degree that afforded him the hope of recovering them to a sounder creed. 3. The political state of things at that time was such as signally to favour his project. The Roman empire, on the one hand, and the Persian monarchy on the other, had both become exceedingly en- feebled in the process of a long decline, towards - LIFE OF MOHAMMED* 49 the last stages of which they were now rapidly approaching. The Arabs, on the contrary, were a strong and flourishing people, abounding in num- bers, and inured to hardships. Their being divided into independent tribes presented also advantages for the spread of a new faith which would not have existed had they been consolidated into one government. As Mohammed had considerable op- portunities to acquaint himself with the peculiar situation of these empires ; as he had carefully noted the genius and disposition of the people which com- posed them; and as he possessed a capacity to render every circumstance subservient to his pur- pose, it is contended, that his scheme was much more legitimately the fruit of policy than of piety, and that the pseudo-prophet, instead of being pitied for his delusion, is rather to be reprobated for his base fabrication. After all, it is not improbable that Infinite Wis- dom has so ordered it, that a veil of unpenetrated darkness should rest on the motives of the impos- tor, in order that a special providence may be re- cognised in the rise and establishment of this arch- delusion in the world. In the absence of sufficient human causes to account for the phenomena, we are more readily induced to acknowledge a divine interposition. In the production of events which are overruled in the government of God to operate as penal evils for the punishment of the guilty, reason and revelation both teach us reverently to acknowledge the visitation of the Divine Hand, whoever or whatever may have been the subordi- E 50 LIFE OF MOHAMMED, nate agents, or their motives. " Is there evil int the city, saith the Lord, and I have not done it ?" i. e. the evil of suffering, not of sin. It cannot be doubted that, as a matter of fact, the rise and reign of Mohammedanism has resulted in the infliction of a most terrible scourge upon the apostate churches in the East, and in other portions of Christendom ; and, unless we exclude the Judge of the world from the exercise of his judicial prero- gatives in dealing with his creatures, we cannot err, provided we do not infringe upon man's moral agency, in referring the organ of chastisement to the will of the Most High. The life and actions of Mohammed himself, and his first broaching the religion of the Koran, are but the incipient links in a chain of political revolutions, equal in magnitude and importance to any which appear on the page of history revolutions, from which it would be downright impiety to remove all idea of providential ordainment. If then we acknowledge a peculiar providence in the astonishing success of the Sara- cen arms subsequent to the death of Mohammed, we must acknowledge it also in the origination of that system of religion which brought them under one head, and inspired them to the achievement of such a rapid and splendid series of conquests. The pretended prophet, having at length, after years of deliberation, ripened all his plans, pro- ceeded in the most gradual and cautious manner to put them in execution. He had been, it seems, for some time in the habit of retiring daily to a certain cave in the vicinity of Mecca, called the cave of LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 51 Hera, for the ostensible purpose of spending his time in fasting, prayer, and holy meditation. The important crisis having now arrived, he began to break to his wife, on his return home in the eve- ning, the solemn intelligence of supernatural visions and voices with which he was favoured in his re- tirement. Cadijah, as might be expected, was at first incredulous. She treated his visions as the dreams of a disturbed imagination, or as the delu- sions of the devil.* Mohammed, however, per- sisted in assuring her of the reality of these com- munications, and rising still higher in his demands upon her credulity, at length repeated a passage which he affirmed to be a part of a divine revela- tion, recently conveyed to him by the ministry of the angel Gabriel. The memorable night on which this visit was made by the heavenly mes- senger is called the " night of Al Kadr," or the night of the divine decree, and is greatly celebrated, as it was the same night on which the entire KORAN descended from the seventh to the lowest heaven, to be thence revealed by Gabriel in successive por- tions as occasion might require. The Koran has a whole chapter devoted to the commemoration of this event, entitled Al Kadr. It is as follows : " In the name of the most merciful God. Verily, we sent down the Koran in the night of Al Kadr. And what shall make thee understand how excel- lent the night of Al Kadr is ? This night is better than a thousand months. Therein do the angels * This is the account given by Prideaux. Sale, however, says, u I do not remember to have read in any Eastern author, that Cadijah ever rejected her husband's pretences as delusions, or suspected him of any imposture." Prelim. Disc. a. 5H 52 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. descend, and the spirit Gabriel also, by the per* mission of their Lord, with his decrees concerning every matter. It is peace until the rising of the morn."* On this favoured night, between the 23d and 24th of Ramadan, according to the prophet, the angel appeared to him, in glorious form, to commu- nicate the happy tidings of his mission. The light issuing from his body, if the apostle-elect may be believed, was too dazzling for mortal eyes to be- hold ; he fainted under the splendour ; nor was it till Gabriel had assumed a human form, that he could venture to approach or look upon him. The angel then cried aloud, " O MOHAMMED, THOU ART THE APOSTLE OF GoD, AND I AM THE ANGEL GABRIEL !" " Read !" continued the angel ; the prophet declared that he was unable to read. " Read !" Gabriel again exclaimed, " read, in the name of thy Lord, who hath created all things ; who hath created man of congealed blood. Read, by thy most beneficent Lord, who hath taught the use of the pen ; who teacheth man that which he knoweth not."f The prophet, who professed hitherto to have been illiterate, then read the joy- ful tidings respecting his ministry on earth, when the angel, having accomplished his mission, majes* tically ascended to heaven, and disappeared from his view. When the story of this surprising inter- view with a celestial visitant was related to Cadijah in connexion with the passage repeated, her un- belief, as tradition avers, was wholly overcome, and not only so, but she was wrought by it into a kind of ecstasy, declaring, "By Him in whose * Koran, ch xcvii. * Ch. *cviii LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 53 hands her soul was, that she trusted her husband would indeed one day become the prophet of his nation." In the height of her joy she immediately imparted what she had heard to one Waraka, her cousin, who is supposed by some to have been in the secret, and who, being a Christian, had learned to write in the Hebrew character, and was tole- rably well versed in the Jewish and Christian Scriptures. He unhesitatingly assented to her opinion respecting the divine designation of her husband, and even affirmed, that Mohammed was no other than the great prophet foretold by Moses, the son of Amram. This belief that both the pro- phet and his spurious religion were subjects of in- spired prediction in the Old Testament Scriptures, is studiously inculcated in the Koran. " Thy Lord is the mighty, the merciful. This book is certainly a revelation from the Lord of all crea- tures, which the faithful spirit (Gabriel) hath caused to descend upon thy heart, that thou mightest be a preacher to thy people in the perspicuous Arabic tongue ; and it is borne witness to in the Scriptures of former ages. Was it not a sign unto them that the wise men among the children of Israel knew itr* Having succeeded in gaining over his wife, he persevered in that retired and austere kind of life which tends to beget the reputation of pre-eminent sanctity, and ere long had his servant, Zeid Ebn Hareth, added to the list of proselytes. He re- warded the faith of Zeid by manumitting him from * Koran, ch. xxiii. 54 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. servitude, and it has hence become a standing rule among his followers always to grant their freedom to such of their slaves as embrace the religion of the prophet. Ali, the son of Abu Taleb, Moham- med's cousin, was his next convert, but the impe- tuous youth, disregarding the other two as persons of comparatively little note, used to style himself the first of 'believers. His fourth and most import- ant convert was Abubeker, a powerful citizen of Mecca, by whose influence a number of persons possessed of rank and authority were induced to profess the religion of Islam. These were Oth^ man, Zobair, Saad, Abdorrahman, and Abu Obei^ dah, who afterward became the principal leaders in his armies, and his main instruments in the establishment both of his imposture and of his empire. Four years were spent in the arduous task of winning over these nine individuals to the faith, some of whom were the principal men of the city, and who composed the whole party of his proselytes previously to his beginning to pro-? claim his mission in public. He was now forty* four years of age. It has-been remarked, as somewhat of a striking coincidence, that the period of Mohammed's retiring to the cave of Hera for the purpose of fabricating his imposture corresponds very nearly with the time in which Boniface, bishop of Rome, by virtue of a grant from the tyrant Phocas, first assumed the title of Universal Pastor, and began to lay claim to that spiritual supremacy over the church of Christ, which has ever since been arrogated to themselves by his successors. " And from this LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 55 time," says Prideaux, " both he (the bishop of Rome) and Mohammed having conspired to found themselves an empire in imposture, their followers have been ever since endeavouring by the same methods, that is, those of fire and sword, to pro- pagate it among mankind ; so that Antichrist seems at this time to have set both his feet upon Christen- dom together ; the one in the East, the other in the West, and how much each hath trampled upon the church of Christ, all succeeding ages have abundantly experienced." The agreement of dates here adverted to may be vvorth noticing ; both events having occurred within the first six or eight years of the seventh century ; but we have as yet met with no evidence to convince us of the pro- priety of applying the epithet Antichrist to Mo- hammed. It is, however, the opinion of many Protestant expositors of prophecy, that this appel- lation is properly attributable to that system of ecclesiastical domination so long exercised by the Romish hierarchy, and the continuance of which, it is maintained, is limited by the prophetic term of 1260 years. If, therefore, this predicted period, assigned to the reign of the Roman Antichrist, be dated from near the commencement of the seventh century, we are not very far from the era of great moral changes in the state of the world; and there are reasons to be adduced in a subsequent part of this work, which lead us to believe, that the career of Mohammedanism runs parallel to that of Popery, and that, taking their rise from nearly a common era, they are destined also to synchronise in their fall. 56 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. CHAPTER IV. The Prophet announces his Mission among his kindred qfthe Koreish Meets with a harsh repulse Begins to declare it in public View of his fundamental Doctrines His pretensions respecting the Ko- ran. The disdainful Rejection of his Message by his fellow-citizens His consequent Denunciations against them, THE mission of Mohammed had hitherto been conducted in private. The proselytes he had thus far gained had been won over from among the circle of his immediate friends and connexions. The time had now come, he affirmed, when the Lord commanded him to make his message pub- licly known, beginning with his kindred of the tribe of Koreish. " O thou covered, arise and preach, and magnify thy Lord,"* " And admonish thy more near relations."! To this end he directed AH to prepare a generous entertainment, and in- vite to it the sons and descendants of Abdol Mo- talleb, where, when they were all convened, he would formally divulge to them the solemn fact of his apostolic commission. Some disturbance, oc- casioned by Abu Laheb, caused the company to break up before he had an opportunity of effecting his purpose, which induced him to give them a se- cond invitation on the ensuing day. About forty of them accordingly assembled around his board, when the prophet arose, and thus addressed his * gbran, ch. Ixxiv. t Ch. xxvj. LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 57 wondering guests : " I know no man in the whole peninsula of the Arabs who can propose any thing more excellent to his relations than what I now do to 3^^ I offer you happiness both in this life and in tl^Pkvhich is to come ; God Almighty hath com- manded me to call you unto him ; who therefore among you will be my vizier (assistant), and will become my brother and vicegerent?" General astonishment kept the assembly silent; none of- fered to accept the proffered office till the fiery AH burst forth and declared that he would be the brother and assistant of the prophet. " I," said he, " prophet of God, will be thy vizier ; I my- self will beat out the teeth, pull out the eyes, rip open the bellies, and cut off the legs, of all those who shall dare to oppose thee." The prophet caught the young proselyte in liis arms, exclaim- ing, " This is my brother, my deputy, my succes- sor; show yourselves obedient unto him." At this apparently extravagant command, the whole company burst into laughter, telling Abu Taleb that he must now pay obedience and submission to his own son ! As words weie multiplied, surprise began to give way to indignation, the serious pre- tensions of the prophet were seriously resented, and in the issue the assembly broke up in confu- sion, affording the ardent apostle but slender pros- pects of success among his kinsmen. Undeterred by the failure of his first public at- tempt, Mohammed began to preach still more openly before the people of Mecca. He an- nounced to them that he was commissioned by the 58 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. Almighty to be his prophet on the earth ; to assert the unity of the Divine Being ; to denounce the worship of images ; to recall the people to the true and only religion ; to bear the tidingsj^eara- dise to the believing ; and to threaten the oBf and unbelieving with the terrible vengeance of the Lord. His main doctrine, and that which consti- tutes the distinguishing character of the Koran is, that there is but one God ; that he only is to be worshipped ; and that all idolatry is a foul abomi- nation, to be utterly abolished. The 112th ch. of the Koran, entitled " The Declaration of God's Unity," is held in the most profound veneration by the Mohammedans, and declared, by a tradition of the prophet, to be equal in value to a third part of the whole Koran. It is said to have been re- vealed in answer to the Koreish, who inquired of the apostle concerning the distinguishing attributes of the God whom he invited them to worship. It consists of a single sentence. " 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." In the incessant repetition of this doctrine in the pages of the Koran, the author is aiming not only at the grosser errors of polytheism and idolatry, then common among the Eastern nations, but is levelling a blow also at the fundamental tenet of Christianity, that Jesus Christ is the son of God, " the only begotten of the Father." Like others in other ages, Mohammed could conceive of no jmode of understanding the doctrine of the filia- LIFE OF MOHAMMED* 59 tion of Christ, as held by Christians, which did not directly militate with the truth of the essential unity of the Most High ; and in his view the first- borr^of absurdities was, to affirm in the same bre^R that Christ was the son of God, and yet coequal and coeternal with the Father. The New Testament declarations, therefore, respecting the person and character of the Messiah find no mercy at the hands of the author of the Koran, who either had not the candour or the capacity to dis- criminate beween the doctrine of the Trinity and that of Tritheism. " O ye who have received the Scriptures, exceed not the just bounds in your re- ligion, neither say of God any other than the truth/' i. e. either by rejecting Jesus as the Jews do, or by raising him to an equality with God as do the Christians* " Verily, Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, is the apostle of God, and his word, which he conveyed into Mary, and a spirit pro- ceeding from him. Believe, therefore, in God and his apostles, and a ay not there are three Gods ; forbear this ; it will be better for you. God is but one God* Far be it from him that he should have a son! Unto him belongeth whatsoever is in heaven and on earth ; and he is sufficient unto himself,"* " They are certainly infidels who say, Verily, God is Christ the son of Mary. Whoever shall give a companion unto God, God shall ex- clude him from paradise, and his habitation shall be hell-fire. They are certainly infidels who say God is the third of three : for there is no God be * Koran, ch. iv. 60 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. sides one God. Christ, the son of Mary, is no more than an apostle ; and his mother was a woman of veracity : they both ate food."* " There is no God but he : the curse be on those whom they associate with him in his worship."! With this fundamental article of the Moslem creed, Mohammed connected that of his being, since Moses and Jesus, the only true prophet of God. " We gave unto the children of Israel the book of the law, and wisdom, and prophecy ; and we fed them with good things, and preferred them above all nations : and we gave them plain ordinances concerning the business of religion. Afterward we appointed thee, O Mohammed, to promulgate a law concerning the business of religion : where- fore follow the same, and follow not the desires of those who are ignorant."! The object of his mis* sion, he affirmed, was not so much to deliver to the world an entirely new scheme of religion, as to restore and replant the only true and ancient faith professed by the patriarchs and prophets, from Adam down to Christ. " Thus have we revealed unto thee an Arabic Koran, that thou mayest warn the metropolis of Mecca, and the Arabs who dwell round about it. He hath ordained you the religion which he commanded Noah, and which we have revealed unto thee, O Mohammed, and which we commanded Abraham, and Moses, and Jesus ; say- ing, Observe this religion, and be not divided there- in. Wherefore, invite them to receive the sure faith, and be urgent with them as thou hast been * Koran, ch. v. t Cb. ** t Ch. xl7. LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 61 commanded." This revival and re-establishment of the ancient faith, he taught, was to be effected by purging it of the idolatrous notions of the Arabs, and of the corruptions of the Jews and Christians. For while he admits the fact that the books of the Old and New Testaments were originally written by inspiration, he at the same time maintains, that they have been since so shamefully corrupted by their respective disciples, that the present copies of both are utterly unworthy of credit ; and therefore, he seldom quotes them in the Koran according to the received text. From the following extracts, the reader will perceive how unsparingly the restorer of the primitive faith deals forth his rebukes upon those who had wilfully adulterated and disfigured it. " ye who have received the Scriptures, why do ye clothe truth with vanity, and knowingly hide the truth?- 'And there are certainly some of them who read the Scriptures perversely, that ye may think what they read to be really in the Scrip- tures, yet it is not in the Scriptures; and they say, this is from God ; but it is not from God ; and they speak that which is false concerning God, against their own knowledge."* "Wherefore, because they have broken their covenant, wef have cursed them, and hardened their hearts ; they dislocate the words of the Pentateuch from their places, and have forgotten part of what they were admonished ; * Koran, ch. iii. t The reader will notice that notwithstanding Mohammed's strenuous assertion of God's absolute unity, and his execrations of those who as- cribe to him " associates," yet when he introduces him speaking in the Koran it is usually in the plural number. 62 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. and wilt thou not cease to discover the deceitfiil practices among them, except a few of them?" " O ye who have received the Scriptures, now is our apostle come unto you, to make manifest unto you many things which ye have concealed in the Scriptures."* In the execution of his high behest, he declared himself appointed to promulge a new revelation in successive portions, the aggregate of which was to constitute the Bible of his followers. The ori- ginal or archetype of the Koran, f he taught, was laid up from everlasting in the archives of Heaven, being written on what he termed the preserved ta- ble, near to the throne of God, from which the series of chapters communicated by Gabriel were a tran- script. This pretended gradual mode of revelation Was certainly a master stroke of policy in the im- postor. " The unbelievers say, unless the Koran be sent down to him entire at once, we will not be- lieve. But in this manner have we revealed it that we might confirm thy heait thereby, and we have dictated it gradually by distinct parcels. "J Had the whole volume been published at once, so that a rigid examination could have been instituted into its contents as a whole, and the different parts brought into comparison with each other, glaring inconsistencies would have been easily detected, and objections urged which he would probably have found it impossible to answer. But by pretending to receive his oracles in separate portions, at dif- * Koran, ch. v. f See Appendix C. \ Koran, ch. xxr. LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 63 ferent times, according as his own exigences or those of his followers required, he had a ready way of silencing all cavils, and extricating himself with credit from every difficulty, as nothing forbade the message or mandate of to-day being modified or abrogated by that of to-morrow. In this manner, twenty -three years elapsed before the whole chain of revelations was completed, though the prophet informed his disciples that he had the consolation of seeing the entire Koran, bound in silk and adorned with gold and gems of Paradise, once a year, till, in the last year of his life, he was favoured with the vision twice. A part of these spurious oracles were published at Mecca before his flight, the remainder at Medina after it. The particular mode of publica- tion is said to .have been this : When a new chap- ter had been communicated to the prophet, and was about to be promulgated for the benefit of the world, he first dictated it to his secretary, and then delivered the written paper to his followers, to be read and repeated till it had become firmly im- printed upon their memories, when the paper was again returned to the prophet, who carefully depo- sited it in a chest, called by him " the chest of his apostleship." The hint of this sacred coffer was doubtless taken from the Ark of the Covenant, the holy chest of the Jewish tabernacle, in which the authentic copy of the law was laid up and pre- served. This chest Mohammed left at his death in the care of one of his wives ; and from its con- tents the volume of the Koran was afterward com- piled. The first collection and arrangement pf 64 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. these prophetic relics, more precious than the scat- tered leaves of all the Sybils, was made by Abu- beker, but the whole was afterward revised and new-modelled by Othman, who left the entire vo- lume of the Koran in the order in which we now have it. Mohammed's first reception by the mass of his fellow-citizens of Mecca was scarcely more hope- ful than it had been among his kindred. His al- leged divine messages, especially when they as- sumed a tone of reprehension and reproach towards his countrymen, for their idolatry, obstinacy, and perverseness, were met with indignant scoffs and railings. Some called him a magician and a sor- cerer ; others, a silly retailer of old fables ; and others directly charged him with being a liar and an impostor. The reader will be amused and in- terested by the insertion of a few out of the scores of allusions, with which the Koran abounds, to the profane and contemptuous treatment shown to- wards the prophet at this time. " The Meccans say, O thou, to whom the admonition (the Koran) hath been sent down, thou art certainly possessed with a devil : wouldst not thou have come unto us with an attendance of angels if thou hadst spoken the truth ? Answer, We send not down the angels but on a just occasion."* " Verily I have permitted these Meccans and their fathers to live in prosperity, till the truth should come unto them, and a manifest apostle : but now the truth is come * Koran, ch. vi. LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 65 unto them, they say, this is a piece of sorcery ; and we believe not therein. And they say, Had this Koran been sent down unto some great man in either of the two cities, we would have received it."* " The tune of giving up their account draweth nigh unto the people of Mecca. No admonition cometh unto them from their Lord, but when they hear it they turn it to sport. They say, The Ko- ran is a confused heap of dreams : nay, he hath forged it."f " And the unbelievers say, this Koran is no other than a forgery which he hath contrived ; and other people have assisted him therein : but they utter an unjust thing and a falsehood. They also say, These are fables of the ancients, which he hath caused to be written down ; and they are dic- tated unto him morning and evening. Say, He hath revealed it who knoweth the secrets in hea- ven and earth. And they say, What kind of apostle is this ? He eateth food, and walketh in the streets as we do. The ungodly also say, Ye follow no other than a man who is distracted, "if " When our evident signs are rehearsed unto them, the unbe- lievers say of the truth, This is a manifest piece of sorcery. Will they say, Mohammed hath forged it? Answer, If I have forged it, verily, ye will not obtain for me any favour from God : he well knoweth the injurious language which ye utter concerning it. -I follow no other than what is revealed unto me ; neither am I any more than a public warner." *oran, dLxliii. t Ch. xxi. JCli.xxv. $Ch.xM, F2 66 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. | But these stiff-necked idolaters were plainly taught that they were not to promise themselves impunity in thus pouring contempt upon the testi- mony of an authorized legate of heaven. The Most High himself was brought in confirming by an oath the truth of his prophet's mission. " I swear by that which ye see and that which ye see not, that this is the discourse of an honourable apostle, and not the discourse of a poet: how little do ye believe ! Neither is it the discourse of a soothsayer : how little are ye admonished ! It is a revelation from the Lord of all creatures. If Mohammed had forged any part of these dis- courses concerning us, verily we had taken him by the right hand, and had cut in sunder the vein of his heart ; neither would we have withheld any of you from chastising him. And verily, this book is an admonition unto the pious ; and we well know there are some of you who charge the same with imposture : but it shall surely be an occa- sion of grievous sighing unto the infidels ; for it is the truth of a certainty."* "Because he is an adversary to our signs, I will afflict him with grievous calamities ; for he hath devised contume- lious expressions to ridicule the Koran. May he be cursed ! I will cast him to be burned in hell. And what shall make thee understand what hell is? It leaveth not any thing unconsumed, neither doth it suffer any thing to escape; it searcheth men's flesh ; over the same are nineteen * Koran, ch. Ixix LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 67 angels appointed. We have appointed none but angels to preside over hell-fire."* "Verily we have prepared for the unbelievers chains, and col- lars, and burning fire."f " Verily those who dis- believe our signs we will surely cast out to be broiled in hell-fire : and when their skins shall be well burned, we will give them other skins in ex- change, that they may taste the sharper torment."f * Koran, ch. bodv. t Ch. li JCb.lv. 08 LIFE OP MOHAMMED. CHAPTER V, Jfighammed not discouraged by Opposition The burden of his Preach? ing Description of Paradise Error to suppose Women excluded Of ffell Gains some Followers Challenged to work a Miracle His Reply The Koran the grand Miracle of his Religion Judicial Obduracy charged upon the Unbelievers. BUT no repulses, however rude or rebellious, Operated to deter the prophet from prosecuting his apostolic ministry. No injuries or insults, how^ ever galling, availed to quench that glow of phi* Janthropy, that earnest solicitude for the salvation of his countrymen, for which his divine revela* tions plainly give him credit. " Peradventure, thou afflictest thyself unto death lest the Meccans be- come not true believers."* " Verily, God will cause to err whom he pleaseth, and will direct whom he pleaseth. Let not thy soul, therefore be spent in sighs for their sakes, on account of their obstinacy ; for God well knoweth that which they do."f And it must be acknowledged, that his firnir ness at this stage of his career, in the midst of bitter opposition, opprobrious taunts, and relentless ridicule, has very much the air of having been prompted by a sincere though enthusiastic belief in the truth and rectitude of his cause. The scope of several chapters of the Koran promul- gated at this time leads to the same impression, * JKoran, ch, xxvi. t Ch. x**y. LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 69 They are strikingly hortatory and impassioned in their character, inculcating the being and perfec- tions of the one only God, the vanity of idols, a future resurrection, a day of judgment, a state of rewards and punishments, and the necessity of works of righteousness. The marks of impos- ture are much more discernible upon the pages subsequently revealed, in which the prophet had private ends of a sinister nature to accomplish. But he contented not himself with merely preach- ing in public assemblies, and proclaiming in streets and market-places the solemn and awakening burden of his message. With a zeal worthy of a better cause, and with a perseverance and patience that might serve as a model to a Christian mis- sionary, he backed his public appeals by private addresses, and put in requisition all the arts of per- suasion and proselytism, in which he was so emi- nently skilled. He applied himself in the most insinuating manner to all classes of people ; he was complaisant and liberal to the poor, cultivating their acquaintance and relieving their wants ; the rich and noble he soothed by flattery ; and bore affronts without seeking to avenge them. The effect of this politic management was greatly en- hanced by the peculiar character of those inspired promises and threatenings which he brought to enforce his message. His promises were chiefly of a blissful paradise in another life ; and these he studiously aimed to set forth in colours best calculated to work upon the fancies of a sensitive and sensual race, whose 70 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. minds, in consequence of their national habits, were little susceptible of the images of abstract enjoyment. The notions of a purely intellectual or spiritual happiness pertain to a more cultivated people. The scorching heat of those tropical re- gions, the aridness of the soil, and the consequent lack of a verdant vegetation, made it natural to the Arabs, and other oriental nations, to conceive of the most exquisite scenes of pleasure under the images of rivers of water, cooling drinks, flowery gardens, shaded bowers, and luscious fruits. The magnificence also of many of the Eastern build^ ings, their temples and palaces, with the sumptu- ousness of their dresses, the pomp of processions, and the splendour of courts, would all tend to mingle in their ideas of the highest state of en- joyment an abundance of gold and silver and pre- cious stones treasures for which the East has been famed from time immemorial. Mohammed was well aware that a plenitude of these visible and palpable attractions, to say nothing of grosser sources of pleasure, was an indispensable requi- site in a heaven suited to the temperament of his countrymen. Accordingly, he assures the faith- ful, that they shall enter into delectable gardens, where the rivers flow, some with water, some with wine, some with milk, and some with clarified honey; that there will be fountains and purling streams whose pebbles are rubies and emeralds, their earth of camphire, their beds of musk, and their sides of saffron. In feasting upon the ban- quets of paradise, at one time the most delicious LITE OF MOHAMMED. 71 fruits shall hang dependent from the branches of the trees under which their couches are spread, so that they have only to reach forth their hands to pluck them ; again, they shall be served in dishes of gold filled with every variety of grateful food, and supplied with wine of ambrosial flavour. But the prophet's own glowing pictures of the joys of his promised paradise will do more justice to the subject. " They shall repose on couches, the lin- ings whereof shall be of thick silk interwoven with gold ; and the fruit of the two gardens shall be near at hand to gather. Therein shall receive them beauteous damsels, refraining their eyes from beholding any besides their spouses, having com- plexions like rubies and pearls. Besides these there shall be two other gardens that shall be dressed in eternal verdure. In each of them shall be two fountains pouring forth plenty of water. In each of them shall be fruits, and palm- trees, and pomegranates. Therein shall be agree- able and beauteous damsels, having fine black eyes, and kept in pavilions from public view, whom no man shall have dishonoured before their predestined spouses, nor any genius." " They shall dwell in gardens of delight, reposing on couches adorned with gold and precious stones ; sitting opposite to one another thereon. Youths, which shall continue in their bloom for ever, shall go round about to attend them, with goblets and beakers, and a cup of flowing wine : their heads shall not ache by drinking the same, neither shall their reason be disturbed. 5 ' " Upon them shall be 72 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. garments of fine green silk, and of brocades, and they shall be adorned with bracelets of silver, and their Lord shall give them to drink of a most pure liquor a cup of wine mixed with the water of Zenjebil, a fountain in paradise named Salsabil." " But those who believe and do that which is right, we will bring into gardens watered by rivers, therein shall they remain for ever, and therein shall they enjoy wives free from all infirmities ; and we will lead them into perpetual abodes." 44 For those who fear their Lord will be prepared high apartments in paradise, over which shall be other apartments built ; and rivers shall run be- neath them." " But for the pious is prepared a place of bliss : gardens planted with trees, and vineyards, and damsels of equal age with them- selves, and a full cup."* Such is the Mohammedan paradise, rendered alluring by its gross, carnal, and luxurious cha- racter. It cannot indeed be denied that there are occasional intimations, in the Koran, of some kind of spiritual happiness to be enjoyed by the pious in addition to their corporeal pleasures. " Their prayer therein shall be, Praise be unto thee, O God ! and their salutation therein shall be, Peace I and the end of their prayer shall be, Praise be unto God, the Lord of all creatures."! But it is beyond question, that the main ingredients in the anticipated happiness of the Moslem saints are of a sensual kind, addressed to the inferior principles * Koran, eh. iii. iv. xxxvi. xxxvii. xlin. xhrii. Ixxviii. fClL x. LIFE OF MOHAMMED. ?2l n/ our nature, and making their paradise to dif- fer but little from the Elysium of the heathen, poets. The reader of the Koran will meet with re- peated declarations subversive of the vulgar opi- nion, that the religion of Mohammed denies to women the possession of souls, and excludes them from all participation in the joys of paradise. Whatever may have been imagined or affirmed on this point by some of his more ignorant followers, it is certain that Mohammed himself thought too highly of women to inculcate any such doctrine, as the following passages will evince : " Whoso doeth evil, shall be rewarded for it ; and shall not find any patron or helper besides God ; but whoso doeth good works, whether he be male or female, and is a true believer, they shall be admitted into para- dise, and shall not in the least be unjustly dealt with."* " The reward of these shall be paradise, gardens of eternal abode, which they shall enter, and whoever shall have acted uprightly, of their fathers, and their wives, and their posterity ; and the angels shall go in unto them by every gate, saying, Peace be upon you, because ye have en- dured with patience ; how excellent a reward is paradise !"f If these vivid representations of the future bliss of the faithful were calculated to work strongly upon the passions of his hearers, his denunciations of the fearful torments reserved for unbelievers, * Koran, ch. it. f Ch. xiii. G 74 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. were equally well fitted to produce the same ef- fect. The most revolting images of bodily suf- fering, hunger, thirst, the torture of fire, and the anguish of piercing cold, were summoned up by the preacher to alarm the workers of evil, and to call off the worshippers of idols from their im- piety. " But for the transgressors is prepared an evil receptacle, namely hell : they shall be cast into the same to be burned, and a wretched couch shall it be." "And they who believe not shall have garments of fire fitted unto them : boiling water shall be poured on their heads ; their bow- els shall be dissolved thereby, and also their skins ; and they sh&ll be beaten with maces of iron. So often as they shall endeavour to get out of hell, because of the anguish of their torments, they shall be dragged back into the same ; and their tormentors shall say unto them, Taste ye the pain of burning."* " It shall be said unto them, Go ye into the punishment which ye denied as a false- hood: go ye into the shadow of the smoke of hell, which shall ascend in three columns, and shall not shade you from the heat, neither shall it be of service against the flame ; but it shall cast forth sparks as big as towers, resembling yellow camels in colour."! " Hath the news of the overwhelming day of judgment reached thee? The countenances of some, on that day, shall be cast down ; labouring and toiling ; they shall be cast into a scorching fire to be broiled : they shall * Koran, ch. xvii. t Ch. Ixxviii. LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 75 be given to drink of a boiling fountain : they shall have no food but of dry thorns and thistles ; which shall not fatten neither shall they satisfy hunger." "Is this a better entertainment, or the tree of Al Zaccum 1 How different is the tree Al Zaccum from the abode of Eden! We have planted it for the torment of the wicked. It is a tree which issueth from the bottom of hell : the fruit thereof resembleth the heads of devils ; and the damned shall eat of the same, and shall fill their bellies therewith ; and there shall be given them thereon a mixture of filthy and boiling water to drink : afterward shall they return into hell."* Such was the burden of his exhortations, while he warned the people of the danger of unbelief, and urged them by his eloquence to avoid eter- nal damnation by putting faith in the apostle of God. In addition to these powerful motives, drawn from another world, he was lavish in the menaces of fearful punishments in this life also, if they hearkened not to his voice. For this pur- pose, he set before them the calamities which had overtaken those who, in former times, had refused to listen to the prophets sent among them. " Do they not consider how many generations we have destroyed before them? Other apostles have been laughed to scorn before thee, but the judg- ments which they made a jest of encompassed those who laughed them to scorn. Say, Go through the earth, and behold what has been the * Koran, ch. xxxvii. 76 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. end of those who accused our prophets of impos? ture."* " We have already sent messages unto sundry nations before thee, and we afflicted them with trouble and adversity, that they might humble themselves : yet when the affliction which we sent came upon them, they did not humble them- selves ; but their hearts became hardened, and Satan caused them to find charms in rebellion. And when they had forgotten that concerning which they had been admonished, we suddenly laid hold on them, and behold they were seized with despair ; and the utmost part of the people which had acted wickedly was cut off: praise be unto God, the Lord of all creatures !"f He cited the case of the inhabitants of the old world, who perished in the deluge for not giving heed to the preaching of Noah ; of Sodom, overwhelmed by fire for not receiving the admonition of Lot ; and of the Egyptians, who were buried in the Red Sea for despising Moses. To give still greater effect to his warnings, and ingratiate himself into the favour, as well as to awaken the fears, of his auditors, he took repeated occasions to allege his entire disinterestedness in the work in which he was engaged. He preached because he was com- manded to preach, and not because he intended covertly to make gain of his hearers. He there- fore boldly takes them to witness that he de- manded no compensation for his services. He looked to a higher source for reward. " But we f Koran eh. vi. tph- *i- LIFE OP MOHAMMED. 77 have brought them their admonition ; and they turn aside from their admonition. Dost thou ask of them any maintenance for thy preaching ? since the maintenance of thy Lord is better ; for he is the most bounteous provider."* "We have sent thee to be no other than a bearer of good tidings, and a denouncer of threats. Say, I ask not of you any reward for this my preaching, besides the conversion of him who shall desire to take the way unto his Lord."f As the prophet therefore disclaimed all sinister views in the execution of his office, as he expressly renounced the expect- ancy of any earthly advantage whatever, so he was commanded to divest his mind of all undue anxiety as to the result of his labours of love. " O apostle, let not them grieve thee who hasten to infidelity." " Whoso is wilfully blind, the con- sequence will be to himself. We have not ap- pointed thee a keeper over them : neither a^tf thou a guardian over them." " And be not thou grieved on account of the unbelievers, neither be thou troubled for that which they subtly devise."! It is not therefore to be wondered at that the rousing appeals of the prophet should have taken effect ; that one after another should have listened pondered wavered and yielded especially as the gravity and sanctity of his deportment seem, at this time, to have corresponded with the solemn strain of his expostulations. Such accordingly was the fact. The number of his followers gra * Koran, ch. xxiii t Ch. xlii. ; Ch. xvj, G2 T8 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. dually increased, so that in five years from the commencement of his mission, his party, including himself, amounted to forty. That which operated more than any thing else to disconcert the impostor was the demand re- peatedly made upon him to prove the truth of his mission by working a miracle. " Moses and Je- pus," said his hearers, " and the rest of the pro- phets, according to thine own doctrine, wrought miracles to prove themselves sent of God. Now if thou be a prophet, and greater than any that were before thee, as thou boastest, let us see a miracle from thee also. Do thou make the dead to rise, the dumb to speak, the deaf to hear ; or else cause fountains to spring out of the enrth, and make this place a garden adorned with vines and palm trees, and watered with rivers running through it in divers channels ; or do thou make thee a bouse of gold beautified with jewels and costly*furniture ; or let us see the book which thou allegest to have come down from heaven, or the angel which thou sayest brings it unto thee, and we will believe." This natural and not un- reasonable demand, he had, as we learn from the Koran, several ways of evading. At one time, he tells them he is only a man sent to preach to them the rewards of paradise and the punishments of hell. " The infidels say, unless a sign be sent unto him from his Lord, we will not believe. Thou art commissioned to be a preacher only, and not a worker of miracles."* "Answer, Signs are * Koran, ch.xiii. LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 79 in the power of God alone ; and I am no more than a public preacher. Is it not sufficient for them that we have sent down unto thee the book u Taleb and Cadijah die He makes a temporary Retreat from Mecca Returns and preaches with increased zeal Some of the Pilgrims from Medina converted. THE zeal of the prophet in proclaiming his doc- trines, together with the visible increase of his followers, at length alarmed the fears of the head men of the tribe of Koreish ; and had it not been for the powerful protection of his uncle, Moham- med would doubtless at this time have fallen a victim to the malice of his opponents. The chief men of the tribe warmly solicited Abu Taleb to abandon his nephew, remonstrating against the perilous innovations he was making in the religion of their fathers, and threatening him with an open rupture in case he did not prevail upon him to desist. Their entreaties had so much weight with Abu Taleb, that he earnestly dissuaded his rela- tive from prosecuting his attempted reformation any farther, representing to him in strong terms the danger he would incur both for himself and his friends by persisting in his present course. But the ardent apostle, far from being intimidated by the prospect of opposition, frankly assured his uncle, " That if they should set the sun against him on his right hand, and the moon on his Ieft 7 84 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. yet he would not relinquish his enterprise.'* Abu Taleb, seeing him thus determined, used no far- ther arguments to divert him, but promised to stand by him against all his enemies ; a promise which he faithfully kept till he died, though there is no clear evidence that he ever became a con- vert to the new religion. The Koreish, finding that they could prevail neither by fair words nor by menaces, had re- course to violence. They began to persecute his followers ; and to such a length did they proceed in their injurious treatrrient, that it was no longer safe for them to continue at Mecca. Mohammed therefore gave leave to such of them as had not friends to protect them, to seek refuge elsewhere. Accordingly sixteen of them, among whom was Mohammed's daughter and her husband, fled into Ethiopia. These were afterward followed by several others, who withdrew in successive com- panies, till their number amounted to eighty-three men, and eighteen women, with their children* These refugees were kindly entertained by the king of Ethiopia, who peremptorily refused to deliver them to the emissaries of the Koreish sent to demand them. To these voluntary exiles the prophet perhaps alludes in the following passage : " As for those who have fled from their country for the sake of God, after they had been unjustly persecuted, we will surely provide them an excel- lent habitation in this world, but the reward of the next life shall be greater, if they knew it." * * Koran, ch. xvi. LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 85 In the sixth year of his mission, he had the pleasure of seeing his party strengthened by the conversion of his uncle Hamza, a man of distin- guished valour, and of Omar, a person of equal note in Mecca* who had formerly made himself conspicuous by his virulent opposition to the pro- phet and his claims. This new accession to the rising sect exasperated the Koreish afresh, and in- cited them to measures of still more active perse- cution against the proselytes. But as persecution usually advances the cause which it labours to destroy, so in the present case Islamism made more rapid progress than ever, till the Koreish, maddened with malice, entered into a solemn league or covenant against the Hashemites, and especially the family of the Motalleb, many of whom upheld the impostor, engaging to contract no marriages with them, nor to hold any farther connexion or commerce of any kind ; and, to give it the greater sanction, the compact was reduced to writing and laid up in the Caaba. Upon this the tribe became divided into two factions; the family of Hashem, except one of Mohammed's uncles, putting them- selves under Abu Taleb as their head, and the other party ranging themselves under the standard of Abu Sophyan. This league, however, was of no avail during the lifetime of Abu Taleb. The power of the uncle, who presided in the govern- ment of Mecca, defended the nephew against the designs of his enemies. At length, aboat the close of the seventh year of the mission, Abu Taleb died ; and, a few days after his death, Mo- ll 86 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. hammed was left a widower, by the decease or Cadijah, whose memory has been canonized by the saying of the prophet ; " That among men there had been many perfect, but of women, four only had attained to perfection, viz. Cadijah, his wife ; Fatima, his daughter ; Asia, the wife of Pha- raoh ; and Mary (Miriam), the daughter of Imran and sister of Moses." As to Abu Taleb, though the prophet ever cherished a most grateful sense of the kindness of his early benefactor, yet if the following passage from the Koran has reference, as some of the commentators say, to his uncle, it shows that the dictates of nature in the nephew's breast were thoroughly brought into subjection to the stern precepts of his religion. " It is not allowed unto the prophet, nor those who are true believers, that they pray for idolaters, although they be of kin, after it is become known unto them that they are inhabitants of hell." * This passage, it is said by some, was revealed on account of Abu Taleb, who, upon his death-bed, being pressed by his nephew to speak a word which might enable him to plead his cause before God, that is, to pro- fess Islam, absolutely refused. Mohammed, how- ever, told him that he would not cease to pray for him till . he should be forbidden by God ; such a prohibition, he affirmed, was given him in the words here cited. Others suppose the occasion to have been the prophet's visiting his mother Amina's sepulchre, who also was an infidel, soon after the capture of Mecca. Here, while standing at the * Koran, ch. ix, LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 87 tomb of his parent, he is reported to have burst into tears : and said, " I asked leave of God to visit my mother's tomb, and he granted it me ; but when I asked leave to pray for her, it was denied me." This twofold affliction of the prophet, in the loss of his uncle and his wife on the same year, induced him ever after to call this " The Year of Mourning." The unprotected apostle was now left com- pletely exposed to the atftcks of his enemies, and they failed not to improve their advantage. They redoubled their efforts to crush the pestilent heresy, with its author and abettors, and some of his fol- lowers and friends, seeing the symptoms of a fiercer storm of persecution gathering, forsook the standard of their leader. In this extremity Mo- hammed perceived, that his only chance of safety was hi a temporary retreat from the scene of con- flict. He accordingly withdrew to Tayef, a village situated sixty miles to the East of Mecca, where he had an uncle named Abbas, whose hospitality afforded him a seasonable shelter. Here, how- ever, his stay was short, and his prophetic labours* unavailing. He returned to Mecca, and boldly taking his stand in the precincts of the Caaba, among the crowds of pilgrims who resorted an- nually to this ancient shrine, he preached the gospel of Islam to the multitudinous assemblies. New proselytes again rewarded his labours ; and, among the accessions now made to his party from these pilgrim hordes, were six of the inhabitants of Medina, then called Yatreb, who, on their return 88 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. home began at once to relate to their fellow-citizens the story of their conversion, and to extol, in no measured terms, their new religion and its apostle. This circumstance gave eclat to Mohammed in the city of Medina, and paved the way to a train of events which tended more than any thing else to promote his final success in Arabia. In the mean time, in order to strengthen his interest in Mecca, he married Ayesha, the daughter of Abu- beker, and shortly aftef Sawda, the daughter of Zama. By thus becoming the son-in-law of two of the principal men of his party he secured their patronage to his person and his cause. LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 89 CHAPTER VII. The Prophet pretends to have had a night-journey through the Sewn Heavens Description of the memorable Night by an Arabic writer Account of the Journey His probable Motives in feigning such an extravagant fiction. IT was in the twelfth year of the pretended mis- sion that Mohammed was favoured, according to his own account, with his celebrated night-journey from Mecca to Jerusalem, and from thence to the seventh heaven, under the conduct of the angel Gabriel. In allusion to this the seventeenth chap- ter of the Koran commences thus f " Praise be unto him who transported his servant by night from the sacred temple of Mecca to the farther temple of Jerusalem, the circuit of which we have blessed, that we might show some of our signs ; for God is he who heareth and seeth." This idle and extravagant tale, which is not related' in the Koran, but handed down by tradition, was probably devised by the impostor in order to raise his reputation as a saint, and to put himself more nearly upon a level with Moses, with whom God conversed, face to face, in the holy mount. The story, however, is devoutly believed by the Mussulmans, and one of their writers has given the following highly-wrought description of the memorable night in which it occurred. " In the H2 90 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. darkest, most obscure, and most silent night that the sun ever caused by his absence, since that glorious planet of light was created or had its being; a night in which there was no crowing of cocks to be heard throughout the whole universe, no bark- ings of dogs, no howlings, roarings, or yellings of wild beasts, nor watchings of nocturnal birds ; nay, and not only the feathered and four-footed creatures suspended their customary vociferations and motions, but likewise the waters ceased from their murmurings, the winds from their whistlings, the air from its breathings, the serpents from their hissings, the mountains, valleys, and caverns from their resounding echoes, the earth from its producr tions,'the tender plants from their sproutings, the grass of the field from its verdancy, the waves of the sea from their agitations, and their inhabitants, the fishes, from plying their fins. And indeed upon a night so wonderful it was very requisite, that all the creatures of the Lord's handy-work should cease from their usual movements, and be-r come dumb and motionless, and lend an attentive ear, that they might conceive by means of their ears what their tongues were not capable of ex^ pressing. Nor is any tongue able to express the wonders and mysteries of this night, and should any undertake so unequal a task, there could no- thing be represented but the bare shadow ; since what happened in this miraculous night was infi- nitely the greatest and most stupendous event that ever befell any of the posterity of Adam, either .expressed in any of the sacred writings which LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 91 came down from above, or by signs and figures. From the sublime altitudes of heaven the most glorious seraph of all those which God ever created or produced, the incomparable Gabriel, upon the latter part of the evening of that stupen- dous night, took a hasty and precipitate flight, and descended to this lower world with an unheard- of and wonderful message, the which caused an universal rejoicing on earth, and rilled the seven heavens with a more than ordinary gladness ; and, as the nature of the message both required and inspired joy, he visited the world under the most glorious and beautiful appearance that even imagi- jiation itself is capable of figuring. His whiteness obscured that of the driven snow, and his splen- dour darkened the rays of the noontide sun. His garments were all covered with the richest flowers jn embroidery of celestial fabric, and his many wings were most beautifully expanded, and all in- terspersed with inestimable precious stones. His stature was exceeding tall, and his presence exquisitely awful. Upon his beauteous capa- cious forehead he bore two lines written in cha- racters of dazzling light ; the uppermost consisted of these words, La illak if allah THERE is NO GOD BUT ALLAH ; and in the lowermost line was contained., Mohammed Rasoul Allah -MOHAMMED is GOD'S MESSENGER."* In passing from this poetical prelude, conceived in the true gorgeous style of oriental description, to the meagre and puerile story of the journey it- * Morgan's Mahonjetanism Explained. 92 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. self, we feel at once that the prophet's fancy suffers by comparison with that of his disciple, who could certainly, from the above specimen, have given a vastly more interesting fiction of a celestial tour than the miserable tissue of absurdity which appears in the fabrication of the prophet. Without detail- ing all the particulars of this nocturnal expedition, in which the marvels thickened upon him till he had reached the utmost height of the empyrean, the following outline will afford the reader an idea of its general character. While the prophet was reposing in his bed, with his beloved Ayesha at his side, he was suddenly awakened by the angel Gabriel, who stood before him with seventy pair of expanded wings, whiter than snow and clearer than crystal. The angel informed him that he had come to conduct him to heaven, and directed him to mount an animal that stood ready at the door, and which was between the nature of an ass and a mule. The name of this beast was Alborak, signifying in the Arabic tongue, " The Lightning," from his inconceivable swiftness. His colour was a milky white. As he had, however, remained inactive from the time of Christ to that of Mohammed there having been no prophet in the interval to employ him he now proved so restless and refractory, that Mohammed could not succeed in seating himself on his back till he had promised him a place in paradise. Pacified by this promise, he suffered the prophet quietly to mount, and Gabriel, taking the bridle in his hand, conveyed him from Mecca LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 93 to Jerusalem in the twinkling of eye. When he arrived at the latter place, the departed prophets and saints came forth to meet and to salute him, and to request an interest in his prayers when he came near to the throne of glory. Going out of the temple he found a ladder of light ready fixed for them, and tying Alborak to a rock, he followed Gabriel on the ladder till they reached the first heaven, where admittance was readily granted by the porter, when told by Gabriel that his com- panion was no other than Mohammed, the pro- phet of God. This first heaven, he tells us, was all of pure silver, adorned with stars hanging from it by chains of gold, each of them of the size of a mountain, Here he was met by a de- crepid old man, whom the prophet learned to be our father Adam, and who greatly rejoiced at having so distinguished a son. He saw also in this heaven innumerable angels in the shape of birds, beasts, and men ; but its crowning wonder was a gigantic cock, whose head towered up to the serond heaven, though at the distance of five hundred days journey from the first ! His wings were large in proportion, and were decked with carbuncles and pearls ; and so loud did he crow, whenever the morning dawned, that all creatures on earth, except men and fairies, heard the tre- mendous din. The second heaven was of pure gold, and contained twice as many angels as the former. Among these was one of such vast di- mensions, that the distance between his eyes was equal to the length of seventy thousand days 94 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. journey. Here- he met Noah, who begged the favour of his prayers. Thence he proceeded to the third, where he was accosted by Abraham with the same request. Here he found the Angel of Death, with an immense table before him, 'on which he was writing the names of the human race as they were born, and blotting them out aa their allotted number of days was completed, when they immediately died. At his entrance into the fourth heaven, which was of emerald, he was met by Joseph, the son of Jacob. In the fifth he beheld his honoured predecessor, Moses. In the sixth, which was of carbuncle, he found John the Baptist. In the seventh, made of divine light in- stead of metals or gems, he saw Jesus Christ, whose superior dignity it would seem that he ac- knowledged by requesting an interest in his prayers, whereas in every preceding case the per- sonages mentioned solicited this favour of him. In this heaven the number of angels, which had been increasing through every step of his progress, vastly exceeded that of all the other departments, and among them was one who had seventy thou- sand heads, in every head seventy thousand mouths, in every mouth seventy thousand tongues, in every tongue seventy thousand voices, with which day and night he was incessantly employed praising God! The angel having conducted him thus far, in- formed him, that he was not permitted to attend him any farther in the capacity of guide, but that he must ascend the remainder of the distance to the LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 95 throne of God alone. This he accordingly under- took, and finally accomplished, though with great difficulty, his way lying through waters and snows, and other formidable obstacles, sufficient to daunt the stoutest heart. At length he reached a point where he heard a voice addressing him, saying, " O Mohammed, salute thy Creator." Mounting still higher, he came to a place where he beheld a vast extension of light of such dazzling bright- ness, that the powers of mortal vision were unable to endure it. In the midst of the effulgence was the throne of the Eternal ; on the right side of which was written in luminous Arabic characters ; " There is no God but God, and Mohammed is his prophet." This inscription, he says, he found written on all the gates of the seven- heavens through which he passed. Having approached to within two bow- shots of the Divine presence, he affirmed that he there beheld the Most High seated upon his throne, with a covering of seventy thousand veils before his face, from beneath which he stretched forth his hand and laid it upon the prophet, when a coldness of inconceivable intensity pierced, as he said, to " the very marrow of his back." No injury, however, ensued, and the Al- mighty then condescended to enter into the most familiar converse with his servant, unfolding to him a great many hidden mysteries, making him to understand the whole law, and instructing him fully in the nature of the institutions he was to deliver to mankind. In addition to this he honoured him with several distinctions above the rest of his 96 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. race ; as that he .should be the most perfect of all creatures ; that at the day of judgment he should have the pre-eminence among the risen dead ; that he should be the redeemer of all that believe in him; that he should have the knowledge of all languages ; and, lastly, that the spoils of all whom he should conquer in war should belong to him alone. After receiving these gracious assurances,- he retired from the presence of the Divine Majesty, and, returning, found the angel awaiting him at the f place where they parted, who immediately re- conducted him back, in the same manner in which he came, to Jerusalem and Mecca. Such were the puerile conceptions of the pro- phet. Such the silly rhapsody which he palmed upon the credulity of his followers as the description^ of a most veritable occurrence. The story, however, carried on the face of it such glaring absurdity, that several of his party forsook him at once, and his whole cause came near to being utterly ruined by it. At length Abubeker, the man of greatest influence among the prophet's friends, by professing to give credence to the tale, at once put to shame the in- fidelity of the rest, and extricated his leader from his unhappy dilemma. He boldly vouched for the' prophet's veracity. " If Mohammed affirms it, it is undeniably true, and I will stand by him. I believe every word of it. The Lord's elected cannot lie." This seasonable incident not only retrieved the prophet's credit, but increased it to such a degree, that it made him sure of being able ever after to impose any fiction he pleased upon the 1IFE OF MOHAMMED. 97 easy faith of his disciples. So that this senseless and paltry fable, which at first threatened to blast all the impostor's schemes in the bud, did in fact serve, by a peculiar combination of circumstances, materially to promote his success. Abubeker henceforth had the honorary title of " Faithful Witness" bestowed upon him. We learn from Sale, the English commentator upon the Koran, that it is still somewhat disputed among the Mohammedan doctors, whether their prophet's night-journey was really performed by him corporeally, or whether it was only a dream or a vision. Some think it was no more than a vision, and allege an express tradition of Moawiy ah, one of Mohammed's successors, to that purpose. Others suppose, that he was carried bodily to Jerusalem, but no farther ; and that he thence as- cended to heaven in spirit only. But the received opinion is, that it was no vision, but that he was actually transported in the body to his journey's end; and, if any impossibility be objected, they deem it a sufficient answer to say, that it might easily have been effected by an omnipotent Being. It is by no means improbable that Mohammed had a farther design in forging this extravagant tale than merely to astonish his adherents by the relation of a miraculous adventure. The attentive observer of the distinguishing traits of Islamism will not fail to discover innumerable points of re- semblance between that system and the divinely- revealed religion of the Jews ; and it appears to have been an object studiously aimed at by the I $8 LIFE OF MOHAMMEF. impostor to assimilate himself as much as possible to Moses, and to incorporate as many peculiarities of the Jewish economy into his own fabrication as he could without destroying the simplicity of his creed. This fact is in keeping with what may be asserted in general terms, that the descendants of Ishmael, under a consciousness that the cove- nanted blessings of Jehovah have flowed down in the line of Isaac and Jacob> have ever shown a disposition to imitate what they could not attain. More stiking proofs of this will appear in the sequel. We adduce the observation here as affording a probable clew to the motives of the prophet in feigning this memorable night-journey , Hitherto he had only imparted to his followers the Koran, which, like the books of Moses, may be termed his written law. In making this revelation he had professed himself merely an organ through whom the divine counsels were to be uttered to the race of men. He simply gave forth what was communicated to him through the medium of the angelic messenger, and that without interposing any comments or expositions of his own. Ac- cordingly, when pressed by the cavils of his adver- saries, his usual refuge was to affirm that the Koran was not his book, but God's, and that he alone could give a just interpretation of its meaning, which was in some places to be understood literally, in others allegorically. " There is no God but God, the living, the self-subsisting : he hath sent down unto thee the book of the Koran with truth, confirming that which was revealed before it. LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 99 It is he who hath sent down unto thee the book, wherein are some verses clear to be understood ; they are the foundation of the book ; and others are parabolical. But they whose hearts are per- verse will follow that which is parabolical therein, out of love of schism, and a desire of the inter- pretation thereof; yet none knoweth the interpre- tation thereof except God."* But having by some means become acquainted with the fact, that the Jews, in addition to the written law dictated by God himself, were in possession of another, called the oral law, said to have been given to Moses at the same time with the former on the holy mount ; and from him handed down by tradition from age to age ; understanding, moreover, that this law was accounted of equal authority with the written, while it had its origin solely from certain verbal declarations or dictates of Moses which were pre- served in the memories of those who conversed with him ; the prophet may from this have taken the hint of a similar mode of advancing his autho- rity, and of giving the weight and character of oracles to his private sayings. To this end it is not unlikely that he originated the fabulous legend of his nocturnal travel into the regions of the spheres. He was well aware, that could he once succeed in making it believed that he had been fa- voured to hold this high converse with God in the secret of his presence, and that he had been there fully instructed in the profound mysteries of hea- yen, he could upon this foundation erect just such * Koran, ch, iii. 100 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. a fabric of imposture as he pleased, and impose it upon his credulous followers. Such at any rate was the actual result. From this time forth a peculiar sacredness attached to the most trivial sayings and the most inconsiderable actions of the prophet in every thing that regarded his religion. They were reverently noted during his lifetime, and devoutly collected from traditional reports after his death, and at length brought together in those volumes of traditions, which compose the Sonnah, answering precisely to the oral law of the Jews. And as the Jewish Rabbins employ themselves in collating, digesting, and explaining their ancient traditions, by many of which they make the law of God of none effect, so also among the Moham- medan divines, there are those who devote them- selves to the business of expounding the Sonnah, as containing the sum of their theology, both speculative and practical. It was not without rea- son, therefore, that the impostor was extremely anxious to have this marvellous recital cordially believed, or that he should have introduced the Most High in the Koran confirming the truth of his servant's asseverations. " By the star when it setteth, your companion Mohammed erreth not, nor is he led astray : neither doth he speak of his own will. It is no other than a revelation which hath been revealed unto him. The heart of Moham- med did not falsely represent that which he saw. Will ye therefore dispute with him concerning that which he saw ?"* * Koran, ch. liii. LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 101 CHAPTER VIII. Jin Embassy sent to the Prophet from Medina Enters into a League with them^-Sends thither a Missionary Another Deputation sent to proffer him an Asylum in that City His Enemies renew their Persecutions Determines to fly to Medina Incidents on the way Makes a Solemn Entry into the City Apostate Christians supposed to have joined in tendering him the Invitation. THE fame of Mohammed had now extended be- yond the walls of his native town. While he was opposed, scorned, and derided at Mecca, his repu- tation was growing, and his doctrines secretly spreading at Medina. This city, anciently known by the name of Yatreb, and lying at the northern extremity of the province of Hejaz, about seventy miles from Mecca, had been distinguished by the early introduction of letters, arts, and science ; and its inhabitants, composed of pagan Arabs, here- tical Christians, and Jews, were frequently desig- nated as the people of the book. The two princi- pal tribes which now had possession of the city were the Karejites and the Awsites* between whom a hereditary feud had long subsisted, and the disturbances occasioned by the rivalry of these two tribes were enhanced by the disputes of the religious factions, Jewish and Christian, which dis- tracted all classes of citizens. It has been al- ready observed that several of the inhabitants, in a pilgrimage to the Caaba, had been converted by the preaching of Mohammed, and that on their re- 102 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. turn they had not been slothful in the propagation of their new sentiments. That they were both sincere and successful disciples of the prophet may be inferred from the fact, that on this year, the twelfth of the mission, called the accepted year, twelve men came to Mecca, and took an oath of fidelity to Mohammed at Al Akaba, a hill on the north of that city. The amount of this oath was ; "That they should renounce all idolatry; that they should not steal nor commit fornication, nor kill their children, as the pagan Arabs used to do when they apprehended they should not be able to maintain them ; nor forge calumnies ; and that they should obey the prophet in every thing that was reasonable." When they had solemnly bound themselves to the conditions of the oath, Moham- med sent one of his disciples, named Masab Ebn Omair, to instruct these men fully in the principles and practices of the new religion. Masab's mis- sion was eminently successful. Among the prose- lytes were Osaid Ebn Hodeira, a chief man of the city, and Saad Ebn Moadh, prince of the tribe of Aws ; and scarce a house in the city but numbered one or more converts. If the terms may be aU lowed, the excitement was little short of a Mo^ hammedan revival. The next year, the thirteenth of the mission, Masab returned to Mecca accompanied by se- venty-three men and two women who had pro- fessed Islamism, besides several who were as yet unbelievers. The object of this deputation was Jo proffer to the apostle an asylum or any assist" LIFE OF MOHAMMED. lt)3 ance in their power, as they had learned that, from the strength and malice of his adversaries, he stood in special need of auxiliaries. It was in fact a political association which was proposed to be entered into, " in which we may perceive," says Gibbon, " the first vital spark of the empire of the Saracens." In this secret conference with the prophet, his kinsmen, and his disciples, vows of fealty and of mutual fidelity were pledged by the parties. The deputies from Medina promised, in the name of the city, that if he should be banished, they would " receive him as a confederate, obey him as a leader, and defend him to the last extre- mity, like their wives and children." " But if you are recalled to your country," they asked, " will you not abandon your new allies ?" " All things," replied Mohammed, " are now common between us ; your blood is as my blood ; your ruin as my ruin. We are bound to each other by the ties of honour and interest. I am your friend, and the enemy of your foes." " But if we are killed in your service, what will be our reward ?" " PARA- DISE !" replied the confident apostle. This treaty was then ratified, and they separated, Mohammed having first chosen twelve out of their number, who were to have the same authority among them as the twelve apostles of Christ had among the disciples. Abu Sophyan succeeded Abu Taleb in the go- vernment of Mecca, in whom Mohammed found a mortal enemy to his family, his religion, and him- sel No sooner was he called to the head of the 104 WE OF MOHAMMED. \ state than he determined to exterminate the apostle and his new-fangled heresy. A council of the Koreish and their allies was called, and the death of the impostor decided upon. It was agreed that a man should be chosen out of each of the con- federated tribes for the execution of the project, and that each man should have a blow at him with his sword in order to divide the guilt of the deed, and to baffle the vengeance of the Hashemites ; as it \vas supposed that with their inferior strength they would not dare, in the face of this powerful union, to attempt to avenge their kinsman's blood. The prophet declared that the angel Gabriel had re- vealed to him the atrocious conspiracy, to which he thus alludes some time afterwards : " And call to mind, when the unbelievers plotted against thee that they might either detain thee in bonds, or put thee to death, or expel thee the city; and they plotted against thee ; but God laid a plot against them ; and God is the best layer of plots."* The heavenly minister, however, who disclosed the plot, pointed out no way of defeating it but by a speedy flight. Even this chance of safety had like to have been cut off through the vigilance of his enemies. He was indebted for his escape to the devoted zeal of Ali, who wrapped himself in the green mantle of the prophet, and lying down upon his bed deceived the assassins who had be- sieged the house of his friend. Mohammed, in the mean time, in company with his faithful frientf * Koran, en, Yijj, LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 105 Abubeker, succeeded in getting safely out of the city, and in reaching a cave three miles distant, called the cave of Thor, where the two fugitives concealed themselves three days from their pur- suers. A tradition of his followers states that the assassins, having arrived at the mouth of the cave, were deceived by the nest of a pigeon made at its entrance, and by a web which a spider had fortunately woven across it. Believing this to be sufficient evidence that no human being was within, they desisted from all farther examination. The manifest tokens of divine protection vouchsafed to the prophet on this occasion, afforded him signal encouragement ever after, even in the entire des- titution of human resources. " If ye assist not the prophet, verily God will assist him, as he as- sisted him formerly, when the unbelievers drove him out of Mecca, the second of two (i. e. having only Abubeker with him) ; when they were both in the cave ; when he said unto his companion, Be not grieved, for God is with us. And God sent down his security upon him, and strengthened him with armies which ye saw not."* Leaving the cave after the departure of their enemies, they made their way as rapidly as the perils of their flight would permit towards the city of refuge, where they arrived sixteen days after leaving Mecca. Having halted at Koba, two miles from Medina, he was there met by five hundred of the citizens who had gone forth for the purpose, and * Koran, ch.ix. 106 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. by whom his arrival was greeted with a cordial welcome. The prophet, having mounted a camel, with an umbrella spread over his head, and a tur- ban unfurled instead of a banner, made his public and solemn entry into the city, which was hereaf- ter to be sanctified as the place of his throne. This flight of the apostle of Islamism, called in the Arabic tongue the HE JIRA, or more properly the HEJRA, has become the grand era of all the Mo- hammedan nations, being employed- by them for the same purposes as the year of eur Saviour's birth is throughout the nations of Christendom. It took place A. D. 622, in the fifty-third year of the prophet's age. The waiting adherents of the messenger of truth, composed of those of his friends who had by his orders fled from Mecca a short time before him, and the proselytes of Medina whom he had never seen, now flocked obsequiously about his person, and the distinction henceforth became es- tablished among his followers, of the Mohajerins, or the companions of his flight, and the Ansars, or helpers; familiar appellations for the fugitives of Mecca, and the auxiliaries of Medina. " As for the leaders and the first of the Mohajerin and the Ansars, and those who have followed them in well doing ; God is well pleased with them, and they are well pleased in him ; and he hath prepared them gardens watered by rivers ; they shall re- jnaiu therein for ever ; this shall be great felicity."* * * Koran, ch. ix. LIFE OF MOHAMMEB. 107 At this distance of time it is not possible to de- cide what class of citizens had the principal share 1 in tendering this invitation to the prophet, and granting him such a ready reception. From the following passage, occurring in the first published chapter of the Koran after entering Medina, some writers have inferred that the nominal Christians of that city were the most active agents in intro- ducing the impostor. " Thou shalt surely find the most violent of all men in enmity against the true believers to be the Jews and the idolaters (i. e* pagan Arabs) ; and thou shalt surely find those among them to be the most inclinable to entertain friendship for the true believers who say, We are Christians. This cometh to pass because there are priests among them and monks, and because they are not elated with pride : and when they hear that which hath been sent down unto the apostle read unto them, thou shalt see their eyes overflow with tears because of the truth which they perceive therein ; saying, O Lord, we believe i write us down therefore with those who bear wit- ness to the truth : and what should hinder us from believing in God, and the truth which hath come unto us, and from earnestly desiring that our Lord would introduce us into paradise with the righteous people ?"* This is certainly important as a histo- rical document, and if the inference drawn from it be correct, it affords a melancholy proof of the deep degeneracy of the eastern churches, that they * Koran, ch, ill. 108 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. should be among' the first to embrace the foul im- posture. If that were the fact, it furnishes pal- pable demonstration also, that when men have once began to swerve and deviate from the truth, no limits can be set to the degree of apostacy into which they are liable to fall. A fearful illustration is thus afforded of the law of the divine judg- ments, that where men, under the cloak of a Chris- tian profession, receive not the love of the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness, God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a He, and that too to their inevitable ruin* LIFE OF MOHAMMED* 109 CHAPTER IX. Yke Prophet now raised to a high Pitch of Dignity Builds a Mosque A Change in the Tone of his Revelations The Faithful now com," manded to fight for the true Religion His first war-like Attempt unsuccessful The Failure compensated in the Second Account of the Battle of BederThis Victory much boasted of Difficulties m the Division of the, Spoil Caab, a Jew, assassinated at the Instance of the Prophet. FROM a fugitive Mohammed became a monarch* No sooner had he arrived at Medina than he found himself at the head of an army devoted to his person, obedient to his will, and blind believers in his holy office. He began at once to make ar- rangements for a permanent settlement, and his first business, after giving his daughter Fatima in marriage to Ali, was to erect a dwelling house for himself, and a temple or mosque, adjacent to his own residence, for a place of religious worship, in which he might publicly pray and preach before the people. For he now. in his own person, com- bined the temporal and the religious power ; he was leader of his army, judge of his people, and pastor of his flock. With the change of his fortunes, his doctrines began also to vary. Hitherto he had propagated his religion by the milder arts of arguments and entreaties, and his whole success before leaving Mecca is to be attributed solely to the effect of per- suasion, and not of force. " Wherefore warn thy K 110 J/IFE OF MOHAMMED, people ; for thou art a warner only : thou art not empowered to act with authority over them."* Up to the period of his flight, he had utterly disclaimed the use of any species of coercion in propagating, or of violence in defending, the prin- ciples of his holy faith. In numerous passages of the Koran, published at Mecca, he expressly de- clares that his business was only to preach and admonish ; that he had no authority to compel any one to embrace his religion ; and that whether people believed or disbelieved was no concern of his, but a matter that belonged solely to God. " We have also spoken unto thee, O Mohammed, by revelation, saying, Follow the religion of Abra- ham, who was orthodox, and was no idolater. In- vite men unto the way of thy Lord by wisdom and mild exhortation ; and dispute with them in the most condescending manner : for thy Lord well knoweth him who strayeth from his path, and he well knoweth those who are rightly directed. Wherefore do thou bear opposition with patience ; but thy paHence shall not be practicable unless with God's assistance. And be not thou grieved on account of the unbelievers."! > " Let there be no violence in religion." J Indeed, so far was he from allowing his followers to resort to violence, that he exhorted them to bear with meekness the injuries offered them on account of their faith, and when persecuted himself, chose rather to quit the place of his birth, and retire to a distant village than * Koran, ch, Ixxxviii. f Ch. xvi. |J Ch. ii. LIFE OF MOHAMMED. Ill make any resistance. But this exemplary modera- tion, continued for the space of twelve years, seems to have been owing altogei. r ) his want of power, and the ascendency of hib rnemies ; for no sooner was he enabled, by the assistance of the men of Medina, to withstand his adversaries, than he suddenly " altered his voice," declaring that God had allowed him and his followers to dt themselves by human weapons against the infi- dels ; and as his forces increased, he pretended to have the divine permission to act upon the offensive also, to attack his foes, to root out idolatry at all hazards, and to urge the true faith at the point of the sword. " War is enjoined you against the in- fidels."* " Fight, therefore, against the friends of Satan, for the stratagem of Satan is weak."") " true believers, take your necessary precaution against your enemies, and either go forth to war in separate parties, or go forth all together in a body."J And when the months wherein ye shall not be al- lowed to attack them shall be past, kill the idola- ters wherever ye shall find them, and take them prisoners, and besiege them, and lay wait for them in every convenient place."$ " When ye encoun- ter the unbelievers, strike off their heads until ye have made a great slaughter among them ; and bind them in bonds ; and either give them a free dis- mission afterward, or exact a ransom, until the war shall have laid down its arms."|| "Verily, God hath purchased of the true believers their * Koran, ch. ii. tCh. iv. JIbid, $Ch, ix. II Ch. xlvii. .^ 112 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. souls, and their substance, promising them the en- joyment of paradise on condition that they fight for the cause of God : whether they slay or be slain, the promise for the same is assuredly due by the law, and the gospel, and the Koran."* This fierce, intolerant, and sanguinary spirit will be found to distinguish most of the chapters revealed at Medina, so that it can frequently be determined, from the tone and temper pervading it, without consulting the date, whether the portion was re- vealed before or after the flight. The prophet's followers have faithfully acted up to the spirit of these precepts ; and the terrific announcement at- tending the Moslem arms has been, " The Koran, death, or tribute !" Even to the present day, every other religious sect living under the government of Mohammedan nations is compelled to pay an annual tax as a mulct for their infidelity, and are sure to meet with persecution, if not with death, if they oppose or vilify any of the tenets of the holy prophet. Indeed, every thing like argument or controversy witli the unbelievers, though not abso- lutely forbidden, is far from being countenanced, as we may gather from the following precept to the prophet himself. " Let them not, therefore, dis- pute with thee concerning this matter : but invite them unto thy Lord : for thou followest the right di- rection. But if they enter into debate with thee, God well knoweth that which ye do : God will judge between you on the day of resurrection concerning that wherein ye now ctisagree."t *I&ran, cb. ix, fCh.xxii. LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 113 The prophet was now enabled to put in opera- tion a more effectual system of measures to com- pass his great ends than he had hitherto had pow- er to adopt. He had begun to wield the sword by divine commission, and he was not disposed to let its potency remain unprovedt Yet the first war- like enterprise undertaken under the auspices of the martial apostle, an expedition designed to har- rass the Koreish, was unsuccessful. Having learned that a caravan, the property of the hostile tribe, was on its way from Syria to Mecca, he des- patched his uncle Hamza, with a party of thirty horse to capture it. But the nearer approach of the caravan discovering to the assailants that it was guarded by a body of three hundred men, they deemed it prudent to forbear an attack, and to re- turn quietly to Mecca. The shame of the prophet's failure on this oc- casion was more than compensated by the success of his arms at the battle of Beder, so famous in the Mohammedan annals, which took place the en- suing year. A rich caravan proceeding to Mecca, and guarded by Abu Sophyan with between thirty and forty men, tempted at once the revenge and the cupidity of Mohammed. The spies of the prophet informed him that their rich and apparently easy prey was within his grasp. He advanced with a few followers in pursuit of it ; but before he could overtake the unprotected band, Abu Sophyan had despatched a messenger to his brethren of Mecca for a reinforcement. Roused by the fear of losing their merchandise and their provisions, unless they K 2 OF MOHAMMED. hastened to his relief, a troop of nine hundred and fifty men, among whom were the chief persons of the city, instantly obeyed the summons. Moham- med was posted between the caravan and the ap- proaching succour with only three hundred and thir- teen soldiers, mounted, for the most part, on ca- mels. Of these, seventy-seven were fugitives, the rest auxiliaries. Undismayed by this disparity of force Mohammed determined to try the event of a battle, and risk his fortune, his reputation, and perhaps his life, upon the issue of the contest. The troops were persuaded to engage the superior forces of the enemy, abandoning for the present the tempting prize of Abu Sophyan's wealthy ca- ravan. The prophet animated them by his prayers, and, in the name of the Most High, promised them certain victory. But however assured he might have been of divine assistance, he was careful to omit no human means of securing success, A slight entrenchment was formed to cover the flank of his troops, and a rivulet, flowing past the spot lie had chosen for his encampment, furnished his army with a constant supply of water. When the enemy appeared descending from the hill, Mohammed, al- luding to his own party, exclaimed, " God, if these are destroyed, by whom wilt thou be worshipped on earth? Courage, my children, close your ranks, discharge your arrows, and the day is your own !' r Before the armies, however, could engage, three combatants, Ali, Al Hareth, and Hamza, on the side of the Moslems, jand three of the Koreish, joined in single combat. Tjie Moslem champions were vie* LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 115 torious, and thus gave to both armies a presage of the issue of the coming engagement. At the commencement of the battle, the prophet, together with Abubeker, mounted a kind of throne or pulpit, earnestly asking of God the assistance of Gabriel with three thousand angels ; but when his army appeared to waver, he started from his place of prayer, threw himself upon a horse, and casting a handful of sand into the air, exclaiming, " Con- fusion fill their faces !" rushed upon the ene- my. Fanaticism rendered his followers invincible. The forces of the Koreish were unable to break the ranks or to resist the furious charges of his confiding soldiers. They trembled and fled, leav- ing seventy of their bravest men dead on the field, and seventy prisoners to grace the first victory of the faithful. Of the Moslems, only fourteen were slain, whose names have been handed down to pos- terity, and enrolled among the list of martyrs, whose memory the pious Mussulman is taught to cherish with devout veneration. The dead bodies of the Koreish were stripped, and with a savage barbarity cast into a well ; two of the most obnoxious pri- soners were punished with death, and the ransom of the others fixed at four thousand drams of sil- ver. This sum would compensate, in a measure, for the escape of the booty ; for, notwithstanding the defeat, Abu Sophyan managed to effect a de- cent retreat, and to arrive safely at Mecca with the greater part of the caravan. The spoils how- ever arising from the ransom of the prisoners, and the partial plunder of the caravan, amounted to a 116 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. considerable sum, the division of which had like to have proved fatal to the victors themselves. Foi of the two parties composing the prophet's army the Ansars, or auxiliaries, being the most nume rous, laid claim to the greatest share. The Moha* jerins, from being first in the faith, assumed equal, at least, if not superior, merit to that of their com- rades, and a furious altercation ensued. Moham- med, in order to put an end to the contention, feigned a seasonable revelation from Heaven, in which orders were given him to divide the booty equally, after having deducted a fifth part for the uses of the prophet, and certain specified purposes of charity. " In the name of the most merciful God : They will ask thee concerning the spoils : Answer, The division of the spoils belongeth unto God and the apostle ; therefore, fear God and com- pose the matter amicably among you ; and obey God and his apostle, if ye be true believers." "Know that whenever ye gain any spoils, a fifth part thereof belongeth unto God and to the apostle, and his kindred, and the orphans, and the poor, and the traveller."* The part which the prophet adjudged to himself on this occasion, amounted to several thousand drams, or dirams, of silver ; how much of this sum he allotted to " the poor, the orphans, and the traveller," history gives us no intimation. The success of Mohammed, with his little band of devotees, at the battle of Beder, is frequently alluded to in the Koran in a style of self-satisfied * Koran, cb, viiL LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 117 vaunting and triumph, and is often appealed to by his followers as nothing less than a miraculous at- testation of God himself in favour of the prophet. " Ye have already had a miracle shown you in two armies which attacked each other : one army fought for God's true religion, but the other were infidels ; they saw the faithful twice as many as themselves in their own eyesight ; for God strength- eneth with his help whom he pleaseth."* Besides the miracle of the infidels seeing the Moslem army double to what it was, two others are said to have been wrought on this memorable occasion. 1. The sand or gravel which Mohammed threw into the air is said to have been carried by the power of God with such force against the faces of the enemy that they immediately turned their backs and fled. "And ye slew not those who were slain at Beder yourselves, but God slew them. Neither didst thou, Mohammed, cast the gravel into their eyes, when thou didst seem to cast it ; but God cast it."f 2. We are also taught, that God sent down to the prophet's aid, first a thousand, and af- terwards three thousand angels, having their heads adorned with white and yellow sashes, the ends of which hung down between their shoulders ; and that this troop of celestial auxiliaries, borne upon black and white horses, and headed by Gabriel upon his steed Hiazum, really did all the execution in the defeat of the Koreish, though Mohammed's men fought bravely, and, until better instructed, gave the credit of the victory entirely to themselves, " And * Jtpran, C h. xti. t en. viii. 118 LITE OF MOHAMMED. God had already given you the victory at Beder, when ye were inferior in numbers ; therefore, fear God, that ye may be thankful. When thou saidst, unto the faithful, Is it not enough for you, that your Lord should assist you with three thousand angels, sent down from Heaven. Verily, if ye persevere, and fear God, and your enemies come upon you sud- denly, your Lord will assist you with five thousand angels, distinguished by their horses and attire."* The vindictive spirit of the prophet was strikingly evinced not long after this event by the assassination of Caab, the son of Al-Ashraf, a Jew. This man, having a genius for poetry, and being inveterately opposed to Mohammed, went to Mecca after the battle of Beder, and with a view to excite the Ko- reish to revenge, deplored in touching verses the unhappy fate of those of their brethren who had fallen while valiantly resisting a renegade prophet, with his band of marauders. He afterward returned to Medina, and had the hardihood to recite his poems to the people within the walls of that city. Mohammed was so exceedingly provoked by the audacity of the poet, who must, indeed, have been possessed of the highest phrensy of his tribe to promise himself impunity in these circumstances, that he exclaimed, " Who will deliver me from the son of Al-Ashraf?" A certain namesake of the prophet, Mohammed, the son of Mosalama, a ready tool of his master, replied, " I, O prophet of God, will rid you of him." Caab was soon after mm> dered while entertaining one of the apostle's fol- lowers. * Koran, cb. iU. LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 119 CHAPTER Xv Mohammed alters the Kebla Many of his Followers greatly offended thereby Mohammedan Institution of Prayer Appoints the Fast of Ramadan Account of this Ordinance. ON the second year of the Hejira, Mohammed altered the Kebla for his disciples, that is, the point of the compass towards which they were^to direct their prayers. It was usual among the vota- ries of all the religions of the East to observe some particular point in the heavens towards which they turned their faces when they prayed. The Jews, in whatever part of the world they chanced to be, prayed with their faces towards Jerusalem, the seat of their sacred temple ; the Arabians, towards Mecca, because there was the Caaba, the centre of their worship ; the Sabians, towards the North Star; the Persians, who deified fire and light, to- wards the East, where the Sun, the fountain of Light, arose. " Every sect," says the Koran, " have a certain tract of heaven to which they turn themselves in prayer."* Mohammed, when he first arrived in Medina, deeming the particular point itself a matter of perfect indifference, and with a view probably to ingratiate himself with the Jews, directed his disciples to pray towards Jerusalem, which he used to call the Holy City, the City of * Koran, ch. ii. 120 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. the Prophets, and which he, at one time, intended to have made the grand seat of his worship, and the place of pilgrimage to his followers. But find- ing the Jews too intractable, or that his other con- verts still retained a superstitious regard for the temple of Mecca, for so many ages the place of idolatrous resort, and thinking it would tend to conciliate the inhabitants of that city, if he kept up the sanctity of their temple, he, at the end of six or seven months, repealed his former law regulating the Kebla, and thenceforward required all the faith- ful to offer their supplications with their faces directed towards Mecca. Though not now in ac- tual possession of that city, yet anticipating the time when it would be in the hands of Moslem masters, he fixed upon it as the future " holy city" of his followers. " From what place soever thou comest forth, turn thy face towards the holy temple ; and wherever ye be, thitherward turn your faces, lest men have matter of dispute against you."* This change was indeed an offence to many of his dis- ciples, from its indicating a singular degree of fickleness in a professed prophet, and large num- bers accordingly forsook him altogether on account of it. But his growing aversion to the Jews made him steadfast in the present alteration, to which he thus alludes in the Koran : " The foolish men will say, What hath turned them from their Kebla towards which they formerly prayed ? Say, Unto God belongeth the East and the West : he direct- eth whom he pleaseth in the right way."f " We * Koran, ch. ii. t Ibid. LIFE OF MOHAMMED. \ 31 have seen thee turn about thy face towards heaven with uncertainty ; but we will cause thee to turn thyself towards a Kebla that will please thee* Turn therefore thy face towards the holy temple of Mecca ; and, wherever ye be, turn your faces towards that place."* " Verily, although thou shouldst show unto those to whom the Scripture hath been given all kinds of signs, yet they will not follow thy Kebla, neither shalt thou follow their Kebla ; nor will one part of them follow the Kebla of the other."! The bearing or situation of Mecca, with its holy temple, from any particular region of the Mohammedan world, is pointed out within their mosques by a niche, which governs the direction of their faces ; and without, by the situation of the doors which open into the galleries of the mi- narets. There are also tables calculated for the purpose of readily finding out their Kebla, when they have no other means of ascertaining the right direction. _No_duty enjoined by the Mohammedan creed is more prominent than that of prayer. The prophet himself used to call prayer " the pillar of religion and the key of paradise," and to say that there could be no good in that religion which dispensed with it. He therefore prescribed to his followers five stated seasons in the space of twenty- four hours for the performance of their devotions. 1. In the morning, between daybreak and sunrise. 2. Just after noon, when the sun begins to decline from the meridian. 3. At the middle hour between * Kcrafl, cb. fl. 122 LIFE OF MOHAMMED* noon and sunset. 4. Between sunset and dark* 5. An hour and a half after night has fully closed in. At these times, of which public notice is given by the muezzins, or criers, from the galleries of the minarets attached to the mosques for the Mo- hammedans use no bells every conscientious Moslem engages in this solemn duty, either in a mosque, or by spreading his handkerchief, and kneeling in any clean place upon the ground* Such extreme sacredness do they attach to this part of worship, and with such intensity of spirit do they hold themselves bound to attend upon it, that the most pressing emergency, the bursting out of a fire in their chamber, or the sudden irruption of an armed enemy into their gates or camps is not con- sidered a sufficient warrant for their abruptly break- ing off their prayers. Nay, the very act of cough- ing, spitting, sneezing, or rubbing their skin in consequence of a fly-bite, in the midst of their prayers, renders all the past null and void, and obliges them to begin their devotions anew. In the act of prayer they make use of a great variety of postures and gestures, such as putting their hands one on the other before them, bending their body, kneeling, touching the ground with their foreheads, moving the head from side to side, and several others, among which it is impossible to distinguish those enjoined by Mohammed himself from those which were common among the ancient Arab tribes before he arose. Still it is affirmed by travellers, that, notwithstanding the scrupulous preciseness of the Moslem devotions, no people LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 123 are more deeply tinctured with the pharisaical spirit of ostentation, or love better to pray in the market- places, and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men, and obtain their praise. Among the Turks especially it is said that where- ver they find the greatest concourse of spectators, particularly if they be Christians, there they are ever sure to spread their handkerchiefs, whatever inconveniences may attend the location, and begin their adorations. In these petitions, a very promi- nent object of request is, that God would grant the blessing of dissensions, wars, and tumults to be enkindled among Christians ; and the rumours of such joyful events are hailed as tokens of his gra- cious answers to their prayers. On the same year the prophet introduced into his religion the holy fast of Ramadan, or Rama- zan, so called from its being continued through the whole of this month, which is the ninth in the or- der of the months of the Arabic year. Of this duty Mohammed used to say, it was " the gate of religion," and that " the odour of the mouth of him who fasted is more grateful to God than that of musk." An acceptable fast, according to the Mos- lem doctrine, includes abstinence from food, the restraining all the senses and members from their accustomed gratifications, and the withdrawment of the thoughts from every thing but God. The institution is thus announced in the Koran : " O true believers, a fast is ordained you, as it was or- dained unto those before you, that ye may fear God. A certain number of days shall ye fast ; 124 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. but he among you who shall be sick, or on a jour- ney, shall fast an equal number of other days. And those who can keep it and do not, must re- deem their neglect by maintaining of a poor man. But if ye fast, it will be better for you, if ye knew it. The month of Ramadan shall ye fast, in which the Koran was sent down from Heaven, a direction unto men."* By the law of their religion, there- fore, the disciples of Islam are required to fast, while the sun is above the horizon, during the en- tire month of Ramadan, from the time the new moon first appears, till the appearance of the next new moon. Throughout that period they abstain wholly from the pleasures of the table, the pipe, and the harem ; they neither eat, drink, nor receive any thing into their mouths during the day, till the evening lamps, hung around the minarets, are lighted by the Imam, or priest of the mosque, when they are released from the obligations of abstinence. They then give themselves, without restraint, to the pleasures of the palate, and compensate in full mea- sure/for the penance of the day by the indulgence of the night. This is continued, according to the law of the prophet, " till they can plainly distin- guish a white thread from a black thread by the daybreak,"! when the season of self-denial com- mnces again for the ensuing day. As most of thf Mohammedans, however, are not too scrupu- lous to quell the annoyance of appetite by sleeping away the hours of the day, the observance of the * Koran, ch, ii, LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 125 fast of Ramadan is little more than turning day into night, and night into day. As the Arabic year is lunar, each month in a period of thirty-three years, falls into all the different seasons of the solar year, and consequently the observance of the fast, when the month of Ramadan occurs in summer, is ren- dered* by the length and heat of the days, ex- tremely rigorous and trying ; especially as the poor are still compelled to labour during the day ; and yet are forbidden, upon pain of death, to assuage their thirst by a drop of water. L2 126 X.IFE OF MOHAMMED. CHAPTER XL The Koreish undertake a neiv Expedition against the Prophet TJie Battle of Ohod Mohammed and his Army entirely defeated His fol- lowers murmur The Prophet's poor devices to retrieve the disgrace incurred in this action->-Resolves it mainly into the doctrine of Pre- destination Wine and Games ef chance forlndden Sophyan, son of Caled, slain War of the Ditch. THE resentment of Abu Sophyan and the citi- zens of Mecca, for the loss and the disgrace sus- tained the preceding year, stimulated them to un- dertake a new expedition against the warlike apos- tle. The Koreish accordingly assembled an army of three thousand men under the command of Abu Sophyan, and proceeded to besiege their enemy in the city of Medina. Mohammed, being much in- ferior in numbers to the invading army, determined at first to await and receive their attack within the walls of the city. But the ardour of his men, en- kindled by the recollection of their former success, could not brook restraint ; they clamorously de- manded to be led out to battle ; and he unwisely yielded to their request. Impelled, also, himself, by the same spirit of rash confidence, he unwarily promised them certain victory. The prophetic powers of the apostle were to be estimated by the event. Mohammed, in every encounter, seems to have manifested, in a high degree, the talents of a general. In the present instance his army, eon* LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 127 sisting of about one thousand men, was advantage- ously posted on the declivity of the mountain Ohod, four miles to the north of Medina. Three standards were confided each one to a separate tribe, while the great standard was carried before the prophet, and a chosen band of fifty archers were stationed in the rear, with peremptory orders to remain there till commanded to the attack by Mohammed himself. The Koreish advanced in the form of a crescent ; Caled, the fiercest of the Arabian warriors, led the right wing of the ca- valry ; while Hinda, the wife of Abu Sophyan, ac- companied by fifteen matrons of Mecca, inces- santly sounded timbrels to animate the troops to the approaching conflict. The action commenced by the Moslems charging down the hill, and break- ing through the enemy's ranks. Victory or para- dise was the reward promised by Mohammed to his soldiers, and they strove with frantic enthusi- asm to gain the expected recompense. The line of the enemy was quickly disordered, and an easy victory seemed about to crown the spirit and valour of the Moslem troops. At this moment, the arch- ers in the rear, impelled by the hope of plunder, deserted their station and scattered themselves over the field. The intrepid Caled, seizing the favour- able opportunity, wheeled his cavalry on their flank and rear, and exclaiming aloud, " Mohammed is slain!" charged with such fury upon the disordered ranks of the Moslems, as speedily to turn the fate of the day. The flying report of the death of their leader 90 dispirited the faithful, that they gave way 128 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. in every direction, and the rout soon became gene- ral. Mohammed endeavoured in vain to rally his broken troops ; he fought with desperate valour ; exposed his person where the danger appeared greatest; was wounded in the face by a javelin; had two of his teeth shattered by a stone ; was thrown from his horse ; and would in all probabi- lity have been slain, but for the determined bra- very of a few chosen adherents, who rescued their leader from the throng, and bore him away to a place of safety. The day was utterly lost ; se- venty of his soldiers were slain, among whom was his uncle Hamza ; and his reputation as a prophet and apostle was in imminent peril. His followers murmured at the disastrous issue of the conflict, and had the hardihood to affirm that the prophet had deceived them ; that the will of the Lord had not been revealed to him, since his confident pre- diction of success had been followed by a signal defeat. The prophet, on the other hand, threw the blame on the sins of the people ; the anger of the Lord had fallen upon them in consequence of an overweening conceit of their security, and because he had determined to make tr'al of their sincerity. " After a misfortune hath befallen you at Ohod, do ye say, Whence cometh thus? Answer, This is from yourselves ; for God is almighty, and what happened unto you was certainly by the permis- sion of God, that he might know the faithful and that he might know the ungodly. And we cause these days of different success interchange- ably to succeed each other among men, that God LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 129 might prove those who believe, and might destroy the infidels. Did ye imagine that ye should enter paradise, when as yet God knew not those among you who fought strenuously in his cause ; nor knew those w r ho persevered with patience ? Verily, they among you who turned their backs on the day whereon the two armies met each other at Ohod, Satan caused them to slip for some crime which they had committed."* In order to stifle the mur- murs of those who were overwhelmed with grief at the loss of their friends and relatives, he repre- sented to them, that the time of every man's death is distinctly fixed by the divine decree, and that those who fell in battle could not have avoided their predetermined fate even if they had staid at home ; whereas now they had obtained the glo- rious privilege of dying martyrs for the faith, and were consequently translated to the bliss of para- dise. " O true believers, be not as they who be- lieve not, and said of their brethren when they had journeyed in the land, or had been at war, If they had been with us, those had not died, nor had these been slain : whereas, what befell them was so ordained. No soul can die unless by the permission of God, according to what is written in the book containing the determination of things. Thou shall in no wise reckon those who have been slain at Ohod, in the cause of God, dead : nay, they are sustained alive with their Lord, rejoicing for what God of his favour hath granted them."t With these miserable evasions did he excuse the Koran, eh. iij. t Ibid. 130 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. falsehood of his prediction, and salve over the ignominy of his defeat. This doctrine of fatalism however, took a deep root among his followers, and to this day the Mohammedans are the most stre- nuous sticklers of any people on earth for the doc- trine of absolute unconditional predestination. " No accident," saith the Koran, " happeneth in the earth, nor in your persons, but the same was en- tered in the book of our decrees, before we cre- ated it."* Abu Sophyan, for reasons now inexplicable, did not pursue the advantages he had gained on this .occasion. He merely gave the prophet a chal- lenge to meet him again in the field on the ensu- ing year, which was readily accepted, although somewhat more than a year elapsed before the actual renewal of hostilities. * " We had at the same time the following striking instance of the frivolous appeals to the Deity among the Mohammedans. A man went round the caravan, crying with a loud voice, ' In the name of God, the just, the merciful. My cup is gone from me : it disappeared while I prayed at sunset (and may God grant my evening prayer). To whoever may find the same, may God lengthen out his life, may God augment his pleasures, and may God bring down affairs of business on his head !' This pompous appeal to Heaven, and prayers for good fortune to the finder of the missing utensil, were all powerless, however, in their effect. The lost cup was not found ; and the consolation then assumed was, ' God knows where it is gone ; but it was written in heaven from of old?" Buckingham's Travels in. Mesopotamia, vol. i. p. 281, Lond. 1827. " While this was going on, the author of our calamity [a vessel' had been run aground] was pacing the deck, the picture of terror and inde- cision, calling aloud on Mohammed to assist us out of the danger. Hia yard-arm, and with the other to the neck of his auditor, at the same time imitating the convulsive guggle of strangulation. When called to account for his obstinacy, the pilot gave us an answer in the true spirit of (Mohammedan) predestination; '//"rt is God's pleasure that the ship should go ashore, what business is it of mine P " Keppefs Jour* neyfrom India to England* in 1824, p. 33. LIFE OF MOHAMMEX>. 131 About tliis time, or in the fourth year of the Hejira (A. D. 626), Mohammed prohibited the use of wine and of games of chance to his followers. " They will ask thee of wine and lots. Answer, In both these there is great sin, and also some things of use unto men ; but their sinfulness is greater than their use."* The occasion of this prohibition seems to have been the prophet's wit- nessing their bad effects in producing discord and broils among his disciples. " O true believers, wine and games of chance are an abomination, of the 'work of Satan; therefore avoid them, that ye may prosper. Satan seeketh to sow dissension and hatred among you by means of wine and lots, and to divert you from remembering God, and from prayer ; will ye not, therefore, abstain from them ?" The sins of the past, arising from this source, are graciously remitted on condition of future amend- ment. " In those who believe and do good works, it is no sin that they have tasted wine or gaming before they were forbidden ; if they fear God and believe, and do good works, and shall for the future fear God and believe, and shall persevere to fear him and to do good. Obey God, and obey the apostle, and take heed to yourselves : but if ye turn back, know that the duty of our apostle is only to preach publicly."! Under wine are com- prehended also all kinds of strong and inebriating liquors ; and though Mussulmans of lax and liber- tine principles, and many such there are, will indulge themselves with the forbidden beverage, yet the * Koran, clt JS. f Ck v 132 LIFE OF MOHAMMED, more conscientious scrupulously avoid it, and not only hold it criminal to taste of wine, but also to press grapes for the making of it, to buy or to sell it, or even to maintain themselves with the money arising from the sale of it. Another act of blood stains the fame of Mo- hammed in this part of his history. Being in- formed that Sophy an, the son of Caled, was col- lecting men for the purpose of attacking him, he ordered Abdallah, the son of Onais, surnamed Dhul-Malldhrat, that is, a man ready to undertake any thing, to assassinate his designing foe. Ab- dallah obeyed the prophet's command, and mur dered Sophyan in the valley of Orsa. He imrne diately returned to Mohammed, who, upon hear" ing the success of the enterprise, gave him as a token of his friendship the cane with which he usu ally walked. In the fifth year of the Hejira occurred the war of the ditch, or, as it is otherwise termed, the waf of the nations ; which, but for peculiar circum stances, would probably have resulted in the entira overthrow of the impostor. The Koreish, in coil junction with a number of the neighbouring tribes or nations, many of whom were Jews, assembled an army of ten thousand men, and making common cause against the grand adversary of their ancient religion, advanced to the siege of Medina. On their approach, Mohammed, by the advice of So- liman, or Salman, the Persian,* ordered a deep * This Soliman, otherwise called Suleiman Pauk (i.e. the Pure), has a celebrated tomb erected to his memory near the ruins of the anote&f LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 133 ditch, or intrenchment, to be dug around the city for its security, behind which he remained fortified for near a month. During this period, no other acts of hostility occurred than a few ineffectual attempts to annoy each other by shooting arrows and slinging stones. In the mean time, tradition says, the prophet was busily employed by his arts and emissaries, in corrupting and bringing over to his interest the leading men among the enemy. Having succeeded with several, he employed them in sowing dissensions among the rest; so that at length the camp of the confederates was torn to pieces with divisions, and one party breaking off after another, nearly the whole army was finally dissipated, and the little remnant that remained thrown into confusion and made powerless by the direct visitation of an angry God. For while they Ctesiphon, on the Tigris. It is among the prominent objects of cmv osity to moderr travellers to the East. "From the ruins we went to the tomb of Suleiman Pattk, whose name has superseded that of the builder of this magnificent pile, in giving a name to the district. The tomb is a small building with a dome; the interior, to which they allowed us access, on our pulling off our shoes, was ornamented with arabesque arches, and the sunminding enclosure was used as a cara- vanserai." KeppeVs Journey, p. 82. " After traversing a space within the walls strewed with fragments of burnt brick and pottery, we came in about half an hour to the tornb of Selman Pauk, which is within a short distance of the ruined palace efChosroes. We found here a very comfortable and secure retreat, within a high-walled enclosure of about a hundred pace's square, in the centre of which rose the tomb of the celebrated favourite of Mohammed. This Selman Pauk. or Selman the Pure, was a Persian barber, who, from the fire-worship of his ancestors, became a convert to Islam, under the persuasive eloquence of the great prophet of Medina himself; and after a life of fidelity to the cause he had embraced, was buried here in his native city of Modain (Ctesiphon). The memory of this beloved companion of the great head of their faith is held in great respect by all the Mohammedans of the country ; for, besides the annual feast of the barbers of Bagdad, who, in the month of April visit his tomb as that of a patron saint, there are others who come to it on pilgrimage at all sea- sons of the year." #wcfo#&wn's Travels in Mesopotamia, vol 2, .40ft M 134 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. lay encamped about the city, a remarkable tem- pest, supernaturally excited, benumbed the limbs of the besiegers, blew dust in their faces, extin- guished their fires, overturned their tents, and put their horses in disorder. The angels, moreover, co-operated with the elements in discomfiting the enemy, and by crying "ALLAH ACBAR!" (God is great !) as their invisible legions surrounded the camp, struck them with such a panic, that they were glad to escape with their lives. The prophet was not insensible to the marks of the divine favour vouchsafed him in these illus- trious prodigies, nor did he fail to hold them up to the consolation of his followers on subsequent occasions. " O true believers, remember the fa- vour of God towards you, when armies of infidels came against you, and we sent against them a wind, and hosts of angels which ye saw not."* But, to whatever it were owing, whether to human or hea- venly agency, it is certain that from this time the Koreish gave up all hopes of putting an end to the growing power andkspreading conquests of Mo* hammed. They henceforth undertook no more expeditions against him. * Koran, ch. xxxiii. LIFE OF MOHAMMED 135 CHAPTER XII. The Jews the special objects of Mohammed's Enmity Several Tribes of them reduced to Subjection Undertakes a Pilgrimage to Mecca The Meccans conclude a Truce with him of ten years His Power and Authority greatly increased Has a Pulpit constructed for his Mosque Goes against Chaibar, a City of the Arab Jews Besieges and takes the City, but is poisoned at an Entertainment by a young Woman Is still able to prosecute his Victories. WHATEVER might have been the prophet's early reverence for the city of Jerusalem, and his friend- ship towards the Jews, who, together with the sons of Ishmael, claimed in Abraham a common father, their obstinacy converted his favour into impla- cable hatred ; and to the last moment of his life he pursued that unfortunate people with a rigour of persecution unparalleled in his treatment of other nations. The Jewishjribes of Kainoka, Ko- raidha, and the Nadhirites^g in the vicinity of Medina, were singled out^fie next objects of his warlike attempts ; and as they fell an easy prey to the power of his arms, spoliation, banishment, and death were the several punishments to which he adjudged them, according to the grade of their crime in rejecting a prophet or opposing a con* queror. Our intended limits will not permit us to enu- merate the various battles fought by Mohammed during the five succeeding years, Suffice it to 136 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. *ay, that, according to the computation of some of his biographers, no less than twenty-seven expedi- tions were undertaken, in which he commanded personally,. and in which nine pitched battles were fought. The heart sickens in following a pro- fessed messenger and apostle of God from one scene of blood and carnage to another, making the pretences of religion a cloak to cover the most un- bounded ambition and the vilest sensuality. A mind untrained to a deep sense of the purity and peaceableness of the religion of Jesus may be daz- zled by the glare of a tide of victories, and lose its detestation of the impostor in admirirfg the success of the conqueror. But to one who feels the force of Christian principles, no relief is afforded by the 'view of arduous battles won, of sieges undertaken, or of cities sacked or subjected, by the prowess of a leader whose career is stained like that of the founder of Islam. One or two subsequent expeditions, however, are too important in the prophet's history to be passed over without noticeJfcn the sixth year of the Hejira, with fourteer^^bdred men, he undertook what he declared to b^a peaceful 'pilgrimage to the holy temple of Mecca. The inhabitants were jealous of his intentions; and while he halted several days at Hodeibiya, from whence he des- patched an emissary to announce his intention, they came to a determination to refuse* him admit- tance, and sent him word, that if he entered the city, it must be by forcing his way at the point of the sword. Upon this intelligence, th warlike LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 137 pilgrim called his men together, and it was resolved to attack the city. The Meccans, in the mean time, having more accurately measured their strength, or estimated their policy, and having been, besides, somewhat wrought upon by an unex- pected act of clemency on the part of Mohammed, in pardoning and dismissing eighty prisoners of their fellow-citizens, who had fallen into his hands, altered their purpose of resistance, and sent an ambassador to his camp to confer upon terms of peace. Some umbrage was given to the Moslems by the facility with which their leader waived the title of Apostle of God,* but the result was the concluding of a truce of ten years, in which it was stipulated, that the prophet and his followers should have free access to the city and temple whenever they pleased, during the period of the truce, pro- vided they came unarmed as befitted pilgrims, and ^remained not above three days at a time. In the 48th chapter of the Koran, entitled " The Victory," the prophet thus alludes tolhe events of this ex^ pedition ; " If the unbelievgt Meccans had fought .against you, verily they nad turned their backs ; and they would not have found a patron or pro- tector ; according to the- ordinance of God, which hath been put in execution heretofore against the ee , an nsse a e sou e , , O God ; which Mohammed submitted to, and proceeded to dictate : These are the conditions on which Mohammed, the apostle of God, has made peace with those of Mecca. To this Sohail again objected, saying, If we had acknowledged thee to be the apostle of God, we had not given the? any opposition. Whereupon Mohammed ordered Ali to write as Sohail desired, These are the conditions which Mohammed, the son tat,* bc.Sale'a Koran, vol. 2 p. 384, note. 138 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. opposers of the prophets. It was he who re- strained their hands from you, and your hands from them, in the valley of Mecca." The entrance into Mecca on this occasion is vaunted of by the apostle as the fulfilment of a prophetic dream. " Now hath God in truth verified unto his apostle the vision, wherein he said, Ye shall surely enter the holy temple of Mecca, if God please, in full security." This event tended greatly to confirm the power of Mohammed ; and not long after, he was solemnly inaugurated and invested with -the authority of a king by his principal men. With the royal dignity he associated that of supreme pontiff of his reli- gion, and thus became at once the kirfg and priest of his Moslem followers, whose numbers had by this time swelled to a large amount. So intense had their devotion to their leader now become, that even a hair that had dropped from his head, and the water in which he washed himself, were care- fully collected and preserved, as partaking of superhuman virtue. A deputy, sent from another city of Arabia to Medina to treat with the prophet, beheld with astonishment the blind and unbounded veneration of his votaries. " I have seen," said he, " the Chosroes of Persia, and the Caesar of Rome, but never did I behold a king among his subjects like Mohammed among his companions." With this new addition to his nominal authority, he began to assume more of the pomp and parade due to his rank. After the erection of the mosque at Medina, in which the prophet himself officiated LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 139 as leader of worship, he had for a long time no other convenience in the way of stand, desk, or pulpit, than the trunk of a palm-tree fixed perpendicularly in the ground, on the top of which he was accus- tomed to lean while preaching. This was now become too mean an accommodation, and by the advice of one of his wives he caused a pulpit to be constructed, with a seat and two steps attached to it, which he henceforth made use of instead of the " beam." The beam, however, was loath to be deprived of its honour, and the dealers in the marvellous among his followers say, that it gave an audible groan of regret when the prophet left it. Othman Ebn Affan, when he became Caliph, hung this pulpit with tapestry, and Moawiyah, an- other Caliph, raised it to a greater height by add- ing six steps more, in imitation, doubtless, of the ivory throne of Solomon, and in this form it is said to be preserved and shown at the present day, as a holy relic, in the mosque of Medina. This year he led his army against Chaibar, a city inhabited by Arab Je\y.s, who offering him a manly resistance, he laid siege to the place and carried it by storm. A great miracle is here said to have been performed by Ali, surnamed "The Lion of God." A ponderous gate, which eight men after- ward tried in vain to lift from the ground, was torn by him from its hinges, and used as a buck- ler during the assault !* Mohammed, on entering * " Abu Rafe, the servant of Mohammed, is said to have affirmed that he was an eye-witness of the fact; but who will be witness for Abu Rafe?' GiWm. 140 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. the town, took up his quarters at the house of Hareth, one of the principal inhabitants, and here met with a reception which eventually cost him his life. Zeinab, the daughter of Hareth, while preparing a meal for the conqueror and his attend- ants, inserted a quantity of poison into a shoulder .of mutton which was served up at the table. Ba- shar, a companion of Mohammed, had scarcely began to eat of it, before he was seized with con- vulsions, and died upon the spot. Mohammed, by spitting out the greatest part of what he had taken into his mouth, escaped immediate death, but the effects of the fatal drug had entered his system, and, resisting every effort of medicine to expel or counter- act it, in somewhat more than three years afterward it brought him to his end. If, as the reporters of Mohammed's miracles affirm, the shoulder of mut- ton informed the prophet of its being poisoned, it is certain the intelligence came too late. The seeds of death were henceforth effectually sown in his constitution ; and his own decline ever after kept pace with his growing power. When Zeinab was asked, how she had dared to perpetrate a deed of such unparalleled enormity, she is said to have answered, " that she was determined to make trial of his powers as a prophet : if he were a true prophet," said she, " he would know that the meat was poisoned ; if not, it would be a favour to the world to rid it of such a tyrant." It is not agreed among the Mohammedan writers what was the punishment inflicted upon this second Jael, or whether she suffered any. Some affirm that she jyas pardoned ; others that she was put to death, LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 141 The progress of the prophet's disease was not such as to prevent him from prosecuting that suc- cessful course of conquests in which he was now engaged. The Jews, the constant objects of his vengeance, again tempted his victorious sword. He proceeded against Beder, Watiba, and Selalima ; places which he brought under subjection, permit- ting their inhabitants to retain possession on con- dition of paying him one half the product of their date-trees as an annual tribute. On these terms they remained undisturbed in their towns and vil- lages during the lifetime of the prophet; till at length, in the reign of Omar, who pretended that Mohammed in his last sickness had given him a charge not to permit two religions to coexist in Arabia, they were all expelled from their ancient settlements. 142 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. CHAPTER XIII. Jf ohammed 'alleges a Breach of Faith on the part of the Meccaris, and marches an Army against themThe City surrendered to the Con- queror Abu Sophyan and Al Abba*, the Prophet's Uncle, declare themselves Converts Mecca declared to be Holy Ground The neigh- bouring Tribes collect an Army of four thousand men to arrest the growing power of the Prophet The Confederates entirely overthrown A rival Prophet arises in tJie peYsoii of Moseilama Is crushed by Caled. Two years had scarcely elapsed when Moham- med accused the Meccans of violating the truce, and made their alleged breach of faith a pretence for summoning an army of ten thousand men with a design to make himself master of the city. He was now strong, and his enemies were weak. His superstitious reverence for the city of his birth, and the temple it contained, served to influence his determination for war. The time since the con* eluding of the truce had been skilfully employed in seducing the adherents of the Koreish, and con- verting to his religion, or enticing under his stand* ard, the chief citizens of Mecca. By forced marches he urged his large army rapidly towards the city, and so unexpectedly was the place invested by the Moslem troops, that they had scarcely time to put themselves in a posture of defence before they were driven to such extremities, that the sur- render of the city at discretion, or total destruction, Deemed to be the only alternative. In these cir- LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 143 cumstances the former step was resolved upon$ humiliating as it was, and Abu Sophyan, the former inveterate enemy of Mohammed and his religion, accompanied by Al Abbas, an uncle of the impos- tor, came forth and presented the keys of the city to the conqueror. Nor was this all : they both crowned their submission by bowing to the pro- phetic claims of their new master, and acknowledg- ing him as the apostle of God. This we may suppose was a constrained admission, made under the uplifted scimitar of the furious Omar, and yielded as the price of life. Mohammed, though a conqueror and an impostor, was not habitually cruel ; his anger was directed rather against the gods of his country, than its inhabitants. The chiefs of the Koreish prostrated themselves before him, and earnestly demanded mercy at his hands* " What mercy can you expect from the man you have wronged T exclaimed the prophet. " We confide in the generosity of our kinsman." " You shall not confide in vain," was the generous or politic reply of Mohammed. " Be gone ; you are safe ; you are free*" They were thenceforth left unmolested, and places of honour and trust were still confided to them. On his entry into the city, of which he had now made himself absolute mas- ter with the sacrifice of only three men and twa women, whom he ordered to be executed, he pro* ceeded to purge the Caaba of its three hundred and sixty idols, and to consecrate that temple anew to the purposes of his religion. The apostle again fulfilled the duties of a pilgrim, and a per- 144 LIFE OF MOHAMMED* petual law was enacted, that no unbeliever should dare to set his foot on the territory of the holy city. On the day on which the prophet entered Mecca in triumph, he ordered Belal, his crier, to mo;mt to the top of the temple at noon, and from thence to call the people to prayer for the first time under the new institution. This custom ha been religiously observed in Mohammedan coun- tries from that day to the present ; the crier, who is called muezzin, still giving the people notice of the hour of prayer from the minarets of their mosques. When the news of the conquest of Mecca reached the neighbouring tribes of Arabs, the Ha- wazins, Takifians, and others, hastily assembled a force amounting to about four thousand men, with the design of crushing the usurper before his dan- gerous power had attained to any greater height. Mohammed, appointing a temporary governor of the city, marched out with an army of no less than twelve thousand men, and 'met the enemy in the valley of Honein, three miles from Mecca, on the way to Tayef. The Moslems, seeing them- selves so vastly superior in point of numbers, were inspired with a presumptuous confidence of victory, which had like to have resulted in their ruin. In the first encounter, the confederates rushed upon the faithful with such desperate valour, that they put nearly the whole army to flight, many of them retreating back to the walls of Mecca itself. Mo- hammed, mounted on a white mule, with a few of his faithful followers at his side, boldly maintained LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 145 his ground ; and such was his ardour in this crisis of the conflict, that it was by main force that one of his uncles and a cousin, laying hold of his bridle and stirrup, restrained him from rushing alone into the midst of the enemy. " my bre- thren," he exclaimed, " I am the son of Abdallah ! I am the apostle of truth ! O men, stand fast in the faith ! O God, send down thy succour !" His uncle Abbas, who possessed a Stentorian voice, exerting the utmost strength of his lungs, recalled the flying troops, and gradually rallied them again around the holy standard ; on which the pro- phet, observing with pleasure " that tlje furnace was rekindled," charged with new vigour the ranks of the infidels and idolaters, and finally succeeded in obtaining a complete victory, though not, as ap- pears from the Koran, without the special 1 assist- ance of angels. The giving way in the first in- stance was a mark of the Divine displeasure against the Moslems for their overweening confidence in their superior numbers. " Now hath God assisted you in many engagements, and particularly at the battle of Honein ; when ye pleased yourselves in your multitudes, but it was no manner of advan- tage unto you ; the earth seemed to be too narrow in your precipitate flight : then did ye retreat and turn your backs. Afterward God sent down his security upon his apostle and upon the faithful, and troops of angels which ye saw not."* The remaining part of the year was spent in demolishing the temples and idols of the subject * Koran, ch. ix. N 146 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. Arabs. Saad, Caled, and others of his Moslem chieftains were despatched in various directions over the conquered provinces with orders to wage a war of extermination against the idols of the ancient su- perstition. Tliis pious crusade was crowned with the conversion of many idolaters, as well as with the destruction of the " lying vanities" of their worship, and it is not strange that they should have admitted the doctrine of the divine unity, when the destroying sword of the apostle had cut off all gods but one. The prophet having now become in fact the so- vereign of Arabia, he began, in the ninth year of the Hejira, to meditate the conquest of Syria. He did not live fully to accomplish this design, which was executed by his successors ; but he en- tered upon it, and notwithstanding the expedition was undertaken in the heat of the summer, and the scarcity of water subjected his men to almost intolerable sufferings, yet he succeeded in obtain- ing possession of Tabuc, a town on the confines of the Greek empire, from whence he made a victo- rious descent upon the adjacent territories ofDan- ma and Eyla. Their princes yielded to the des- tiny which now seemed to accompany the arms of the impostor wherever they were turned, and they were henceforth enrolled among his tributaries. This was the last expedition, on which the pro- phet went forth in person. The fame of his power had now become so extensive and imposing, that distant tribes were awed into submission, and sent their emissaries to tender to him the voluntary LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 147 acknowledgment of their homage and fealty. The numerous deputations which for this and other purposes, waited upon Mohammed this year, in- duced him to call it " The Year of Embassies." The close of .this year was distinguished by the prophet's last pilgrimage to Mecca, called, from its being the last, " The Pilgrimage of Valedic- tion." An idea of the amazing increase of his fol- lowers since he last visited Mecca may be formed from the fact, that on this occasion he is said to have been accompanied by one hundred and four- teen thousand Moslems ! Signal success in any enterprise seldom fails to call forth imitators and rivals. Mohammed had now become too powerful to be resisted by force, but not too exalted to be troubled by com- petition. His own example in assuming the sa- cred character of an apostle and prophet, and the brilliant success which had attended him, gave a hint to others of the probable means of advancing themselves to a similar pitch of dignity and do- minion. The spirit of emulation, therefore, raised up a formidable fellow-prophet in the person of Moseilama, called to this day by the followers of Islam, " the lying Moseilama," a descendant of the tribe of Honeifa, and a principal personage in the province of Yemen. This man headed an em- bassy sent by his tribe to Mohammed, in the ninth year of the Hejira, and then professed himself a Moslem; but on his return home, pondering on the nature of the new religion and the character and fortunes of its founder, the sacrilegious suggestion 148 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. occurred to him, that by skilful management he might share with his countryman in the glory of a divine mission ; and accordingly, in the ensuing year, began to put his project in execution. He gave out that he also was a prophet sent of God, having a joint commission with Mohammed to re- call mankind from idolatry to the worship of the true God. He moreover aped his model so closely as to publish written revelations like the Koran, pretended to have been derived from the same source. Having succeeded in gaining a consider- able party from the tribe of Honeifa, he at length began to put himself still more nearly upon a level with the prophet of Medina, and even went so far as to propose to Mohammed a partnership in his spiritual supremacy. His letter commenced thus : " From Moseilama, the apostle of God, to Mo- hammed, the apostle of God. Now let the earth be half mine and half thine." But the latter, feeling himself too firmly established to stand in need of an associate, deigned to return him only the following reply : " From Mohammed, the apostle of God, to Moseilama, the liar. The earth is God's : he giveth the same for inheritance unto such of his servants as he pleaseth ; and the happy issue shall attend those who fear him." During the few months that Mohammed lived after this revolt, Moseilama continued, on the whole, to gain ground, and became, at length, so formidable, as to occasion extreme anxiety to the prophet, now rapidly sinking under the effects of his dis- ease. An expedition under the command of LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 149 Caled, " the Sword of God," was ordered out to suppress the rival sect, headed by the spurious apostle, and the bewildered imagination of Mo- hammed, in his moments of delirium, was fre- quently picturing to itself the results of the engage- ment between his faithful Moslems and these da- ring apostates. The army of Caled returned victorious. Mo- seilama himself and ten thousand of his followers were left dead on the field ; while the rest, con- vinced by the shining evidence of truth that gleamed from the swords of the conquerors, renounced their errors, and fell quietly back into the bosom of the Mohammedan church. Several other insurgents of similar pretences, but of minor consequence, were crushed in like manner in the early stages oi their defection. N2 150 MffP OF MOHAMMED. CHAPTER XIV. The'Religion of the Prophetjlrmly established The principal Countries subjected by him The effects of the Poison make alarming Inroads upon his Constitution Perceives his End approaching Preaches for the lastTime in Public His last Illness and DeathThe Moslems scarcely persuaded that their Prophet was dead Tumult appeased by AbubekerThe Prophet buried at Medina The Story of the hang- ing Coffin false. WE have now reached the period at which the religion of Mohammed may be considered to have become permanently established. The conquest of Mecca and of the Koreish had been, in fact, the signal for the submission of the rest of Arabia ; and though several of the petty tribes offered, for a time, the show of resistance to the prophet's arms, they were all eventually subdued. Between the taking of Mecca and the period of his death, somewhat more than three years elapsed. In that short period he had destroyed the idols of Arabia ; had extended his conquests to the borders of the Greek and Persian empires ; had rendered his name formidable to those once mighty kingdoms ; had tried his arms against the disciplined troops of the former, and defeated them in a desperate en- counter at Muta. His throne was now firmly es- tablished ; and an impulse given to the Arabian na- tions, which induced them to invade, and enabled them to conquer, a large portion of the globe. In- dia, Persia, the Greek empire, the whole of Asia LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 151 Minor, Egypt, Barbary, and Spain, were eventually reduced by their victorious arms. Mohammed himself did not indeed live to see such mighty conquests achieved, but he commenced the train which resulted in this wide-spread dominion, and before his death had established over the whole of Arabia, and some parts of Asia, the religion which he had devised. And now, having arrived at the sixty-third year of his age, and the tenth of the Hejira, A. D. 632, the fatal effects of the poison, which had been so long rankling in his veins, began to discover them- selves more and more sensibly, and to operate with alarming virulence. Day by day he visibly de- clined, and it was evident that his life was hasten- ing to a close. For some time previous to the event, he was conscious of its approach, and is said to have viewed and awaited it with charac- teristic firmness. The third day before his disso- lution, he ordered himself to be carried to the mosque, that he might, for the last time, address his followers, and bestow upon them his parting prayers and benedictions. Being assisted to mount the pulpit, he edified his brethren by the pious tenor of his dying counsels, and in his own ex- ample taught a lesson of humility and penitence, such as we shall scarcely find inculcated in the precepts of the Koran. " If there be any man," said the apostle, " whom I have unjustly scourged, I submit my own back to the lash of retaliation. Have I aspersed the reputation of any Mussulman ? let him proclaim my faults in the face of the con- 152 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. gregation. Has any one been despoiled of his goods ? the little that I possess shall compensate the principal and the interest of the debt." " Yes," replied a voice from the crowd, " thou owest me three drachms of silver." Mohammed heard the complaint, satisfied the demand, and thanked his creditor, that he had accused him in this world rather than at the day of judgment. He then set his slaves at liberty, seventeen men and eleven women ; directed the order of his funeral ; strove to allay the lamentations of his weeping friends, and waited the approach of death. He did not expressly nominate a successor, a step which would have prevented the altercations that afterward came so near to crushing in its infancy the religion and the empire of the Saracens ; but his appointment of Abubeker to supply his place in the function of public prayer and the other ser- vices of the mosque, seemed to intimate indirectly the choice of the prophet. This ancient and faith- ful friend, accordingly, after much contention, be- came the first Caliph of the Saracens,* though his reign was closed by his death at the end of two years. The death of Mohammed was hastened by the force of a burning fever, which deprived him at times of the use of reason. In one of these pa- roxysms of delirium, he demanded pen and paper, that he might compose or dictate a divine book. Omar, who was watching at his side, refused his * Saracen is the name bestowed by the ancient/oragw writers upon the Arabs. They may have tolerated the title, but it is not one of their own imposition or of their liking. LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 153 request, lest the expiring prophet might dictate something which should suspersede the Koran. Others, however, expressed a great desire that the book might be written ; and so warm a dispute arose hi the chamber of the apostle, that he was forced to reprove their unbecoming vehemence. The writing was not performed, and many of his followers have mourned the loss of the sublime re- velations which his dying visions might have be- queathed to them. His favourite wife Ayesha hung over her husband in his last moments, sus- taining his drooping head upon her knee, as he lay stretched upon the carpet, watching with trem- bling anxiety his changing countenance, and lis- tening to the last broken sounds of his voice. His disease, as it drew towards its termination, was at- tended at intervals with most excruciating pains, which he constantly ascribed to the fatal morsel taken at Chaibar ; and as the mother of Bashar, the companion who had died upon the spot from the same cause, stood by his side, he exclaimed, " O mother of Bashar, the cords of my heart are now breaking of the food which I ate with your son at Chaibar." In his conversation with those around him, he mentioned it as a special preroga- tive granted to him, that the angel of death was not allowed to take his soul till he had respect- fully asked of him his permission, and this per- mission he condescendingly granted. Recovering from a swoon into which the violence of his pains . had thrown him, he raised his eyes towards the jroof of the house, and with faltering accents ex- 154 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. claimed, " O God! pardon my sins. Yes, I come among my fellow-labourers on high !" His face was then sprinkled with water, and that by his own feeble hand, when he shortly after expired. The city, and more especially the house, of the prophet, became at once a scene of sorrowful, but confused, lamentation. Some of his followers could not Relieve that he was dead. "How can he be dead, our witness, our intercessor, our me- diator with God ? He is not dead. Like Moses and Jesus he is wrapped in a holy trance, and speedily will he return, to his faithful people." The evidence of sense was disregarded, and Omar, brandishing his scimitar, threatened to strike off the heads of the infidels who should affirm that the prophet was no more. The tumult was at length appeased by the moderation of Abubeker. " Is it Mohammed," said he, " or the God of Moham- med, whom ye worship ? The God of Mohammed liveth for ever, but the apostle was a mortal like ourselves, and, according to his own prediction, he hath experienced the common fate of mortality."* The prophet's remains were deposited at Me- dina, in the very room in which he breathed his last, the floor being removed to make way for his sepulchre, and a simple and unadorned monument some time after erected over them. The house *" Mohammed is no more than an apostle: the other apostles have' already deceased before him : if he die, therefore, or be slain, will yj turn back on your heels ?" Koran, ch. iii. " Verily, thou, O Mohammed, shall die, and they shall die ; and ye shall debate the matter [idolatry] with one another before your Lord at the f resurrection." Ibid., ch. xxxix. LIFE OF MOHAMMED, 155 itself has long since mouldered or been demo- lished, but the place of the prophet's interment is still made conspicuous to the superstitious reve- rence of his disciples. The story of his relics be- ing suspended in the air, by the power of load- stone, in an iron coffin, and that too at Mecca, instead of Medina, is a mere idle fabrication ; as his tomb at the latter place has been visited by millions of pilgrims, and from the authentic ac- counts of travellers who have visited both these holy cities in disguise, we learn that it is- con- structed of plain mason work, fixed without eleva- tion upon the surface of the ground. 156 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. CHAPTER XV. Reflections -upon the extraordinary Career of Mohammed Description, of his Person General View and Estimate of his Character. THUS closed the earthly career of one of the most remarkable men, and of decidedly the most suc- cessful impostor, that ever lived. By the force of a vast ambition, giving direction to native talents of a superior order, he had risen from small begin- nings to the pinnacle of power among the Arab nation, and before his death had commenced one of the greatest revolutions known in the history of man. He laid the foundation of an empire, which, in the short space of eighty years, extended its sway over more kingdoms and countries than Rome had mastered in eight hundred. And when we pass from the political to the religious ascendency which he gained, and consider the rapid growth, the wide diffusion, and the enduring permanence of the Mohammedan imposture, we are still more astonished. Indeed, in this, as in every other in- stance where the fortunes of an individual are entirely disproportioned to the means employed, and surpass all reasonable calculation, we are forced to resolve the problem into the special pro- vidence of God. Nothing short of this could have secured the achievement of such mighty results ; and we must doubtless look upon Mohammedanism LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 157 at the present day as a standing monument of the mysterious wisdom of Jehovah, designed to com- pass ends which are beyond the grasp of human minds, at least till they are accomplished. ^ As to his person, Mohammed, according to his Arabic biographers, was of a middling stature and of a florid complexion. His head was large and well formed ; his hair smooth and of a glossy black ; his eye of the same colour ; and so un- commonly vigorous and robust was his frame, that at the time of his death scarcely any of the marks or infirmities of age had appeared upon him. His features were large, yet regular ; his cheeks full ; his forehead prominent; his eyebrows long and smooch, mutually approaching each other, yet not so as to meet ; and between them was a vein, of which the pulse was quicker and higher than usual whenever he was angry. He had an aquiline nose and a large mouth, with teeth of singular brilliancy and somewhat singular form, as they were pointed like the teeth of a saw, and placed at some distance from each other, though still in beautiful order. When he laughed he discovered them, and they appeared, if tradition may be cre- dited, like hail-stones or little white pearls. Even his laughter is said to have been full of majesty, and in his smile there was such a peculiar contrac- tion of the muscles of the mouth and cheeks, and such an expression given to the countenance, as rendered it irresistibly attractive. In his later years he became corpulent ; but he had always a O 158 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. free, open air, a majestic port, and a most engaging address. The Moslem writers are unbounded in their eu- logy of the prophet's character as a man. Even those of them who treat as it deserves the foolish fiction of his having been taken by two angels in his childhood, his body laid open by a knife, his heart taken out, and pressed, and wrung, till its original corruptions oozed out in the form of large black fetid drops, when it was again replaced, pu- rified and perfect, in his bosom, and the wound miraculously healed, still maintain that his moral qualities were such as to lift him quite out of the grade of the common race of men. But here the history of his life and the pages of the Koran will enable us to make those abatements which, in re- spect to his personal accomplishments, we can only suspect ought to be made. His followers extol his piety, veracity, justice, liberality, humility, and self-denial, in all which they do not scruple to propose him as a perfect pattern to the faithful, His charity, in particular, they say, was so con- spicuous, that he seldom had any money in his house, keeping no more than was just sufficient to maintain his family, and frequently sparing even a part of his own provisions to supply the necessi- ties of the poor. All this may have been so, but in forming our judgment of the exhibition of these moral traits, we cannot forget that he had private ends to answer, and we thus find it impossible to distinguish between the generous impulses of a LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 159 kind and noble heart, and the actings of an inte- rested policy) It is no unusual thing for a strong ruling passion to bring every other passion, even the most opposite and discordant, into harmony and subserviency to its dictates. Ambition will sometimes control avarice, and the love of plea- sure not unfrequently govern both. A man may afford to be just and generous, and to act the part of a very saint, when he has no less a motive be- fore him than to gain the character of a prophet and the power of a monarch. If Mohammed re- ally evinced the virtues of a prophet, he*doubtless had his eye upon " a prophet's rewardr'* But we would not be gratuitously harsh in our judgment of the impostor's moral qualities. {We think it by no means improbable, that his disposition was natu- rally free, open, noble, engaging, perhaps magnani- mous. %We doubt not injustice may have been done by Christian writers to the man in their un- measured detestation of the impostor. But as long as we admit the truth of history, as it relates to Islamism and its founder, it is plain, that if he were originally possessed of praiseworthy attributes, they ceased to distinguish him as he advanced in life ; for his personal degeneracy kept pace with his success, and his delinquencies became more numerous, gross, and glaring, the longer he lived. Of his intellectual endowments, his followers speak in the same strain of high panegyric. His genius, soaring above the need of culture, unaided by the lights of learning, despising books, bore him by its innate strength into the kindred subli- 160 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. mities of prophecy and poetry, and enabled him in the Koran, without models or masters, to speak with an eloquence unparalleled in any human pro- duction. But here it has escaped them, that they praise the prophet at the expense of his oracles ; that whatever credit, on the score of authorship, they give to him, so much they detract from the evidence of its inspiration ; since Mohammed him- self constantly appeals to his revelations as pro- ceeding from an " illiterate prophet," and therefore carrying with them, in their unequalled style, the clearest evidence of being, not a human, but a di- vine composition. On the point, however, of the literary merits of the Koran, and of the mental endowments of its author as evinced by it, the reader will judge for himself. We can more rea- dily assent to their statements when they inform us, that his intellect was acute and sagacious,4his me- mory retentive, his knowledge of human nature, improved as it was by travel and extended inter- course, profound and accurate, and that in the arts of insinuation and address he was without a rival. Neither are we able to gainsay their accounts when they represent him as having been affable, rather than loquacious ; of an even cheerful tem- per ; pleasant and familiar in conversation ; and possessing the art, in a surprising degree, of at- taching his friends and adherents to his person. On the whole, from a candid survey of his life and actions, we may safely pronounce Mohammed f to have been by nature a man of a superior cast I of character, and very considerably in advance of LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 161 the age in which he lived. But the age and the count) y in which he arose and shone were rude and barbarous ; and the standard which would determine him great among the roving tribes of Arabia might have left him little more than a common man in the cultivated climes of Europe. \ Men's characters are moulded as much by their circumstances and fortunes as by their native ge- nius and bias. Under another combination of ac- cidents, the founder of the Moslem faith and of the empire of the Saracens might have sunk to obli- vion with the anonymous millions of his race, as the drops of rain are absorbed into the sands of his native deserts. %His whole history makes it evident, that fanaticism, ambition, and lust were his master-passions ; of which the former appears to have been gradually eradicated by the growing strength of the two last. An enthusiast by nature, he became a hypocrite by policy ; aijd as the vio- lence of his corrupt propensities increased, he scrupled not to. gratify them at the expense of truth, justice, friendship, and humanity. It is right, indeed, in forming our estimate of his con- duct in its most repulsive respects, that we should make allowance for the ignorance, the prejudices, the manners, the laws of the people among whom he lived. A heathen people cannot be fairly judged by the rules of Christian morality. In the mere circumstance of multiplying his wives, he followed the common example of his country- men, with whom polygamy had been, from the earliest ages, a prevailing practice. And so, though 02 162 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. we cannot justify, yet we may in some measure palliate, the murder of Caab and Sophyan, if we supposed the prophet to have viewed them as ene- mies from whom his own life was in jeopardy ; for in this no violence was done to the common senti- ments of the Arab race. Even at the present day, among the prophet's disciples all over the East, no trait is more common or more revolting than recklessness of life, which is doubtless to be ascribed as much to national habits as to a native cruelty or ferocity of disposition. We must, indeed, think but little of the morality of such a people, and must behold with indignation a pretended prophet, while professing to purify tr^T moral code of his countrymen, continuing still in the practice of some of the worst of its tenets. Here, in fact, our hea- viest condemnation falls upon Mohammed. He did not observe those rules of morality which he himself laid down, and which he enforced upon others by such terrible sanctions. No excuse can be offered for the impostor on this score. He abused his claims as a prophet to screen the guilty excesses of his private life, and under the pretence of a special revelation, dispensing him from the laws imposed by his own religion, had the female sex abandoned without reserve to his desires. " O prophet, we have allowed thee thy wives unto whom thou hast given their dower, and also the slaves which thy right hand possesseth, of the booty which God hath granted thee ; and the daughters of thy uncle and the daughters of thy aunts, both on thy father's side and on thy mother's LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 163 side, who have fled with thee from Mecca, and any other believing woman, if she give herself unto the prophet ; in case the prophet desireth to take her to wife. This is a peculiar privilege granted unto thee, above the rest of the true believers."* The exceedingly liberal grant thus made to the prophet on the score of matrimonial privilege may be con- trasted with the allowance made to his followers. " Take in marriage of such women as please you *1 two, three, or four ; and not more. But if ye fear that ye cannot act equitably towards so rqany, marry one only.'-'f Respect to decorum forbids our entering into de- tails relative to this part of Mohammed's conduct and character. But from what has been already adduced, the reader cannot have failed to perceive how completely the prophet's imposture was made an engine for promoting the gratification of sensual passion. One of the grossest instances of his un- hallowed abuse of the claims to which he pre- tended occurs in the hist^y of his intercourse with Mary, an Egyptian slave. The knowledge of his illicit amours with this " possession of his right hand" having come to the ears, or rather to the eyes, of one of his lawful wives, who thereupon reproached him most bitterly for his infidelity, he went so far, in order to pacify her, as to promise with an oath never to be guilty of a repetition of the offence. But the infirmity of nature having not long after triumphed again over the strength of his resolution, he had recourse to his revelations * Koran, ch. xxxiii. t Ch. ir. 164 LIFE OF MOHAMMED to cover the scandal of this shameless lapse. The expedient now resorted to forms one of the black- est stains upon the pages of the Koran, and upon the character of its author. It was nothing less than a pretended absolution of the prophet from the obligation of his oath. " O prophet, why boldest thou that to be prohibited which God hath allowed thee, seeking to please thy wives ; since God is inclined to forgive, and merciful ? God hath allowed you the dissolution of your oaths, and God is your Master."* Here is an alleged dispensa- tion of the prophet, which must be construed as actually legalizing perjury on the part of a pro- fessed messenger of truth ; one too who thus in- structs his followers : " Perform your covenant with God, when ye enter into covenant with him, and violate not your oaths after the ratifica- tion thereof; since ye have made God a witness over you. Verily, God knoweth that which ye do. And be not like unto her who undoeth that which she hath spun, untwisting it after she hath twisted it strongly." " Therefore take not your oaths be- tween you deceitfully, lest your foot slip after it hath been steadfastly fixed, and ye taste evil in this life, and suffer a grievous punishment in the life to come."f This is but too fair a specimen of the general character of the Koran. By far the greater part of its contents were fabricated to answer particular purposes, which he could effect in no other way ; and this was an expedient which never failed. If any new enterprise was to be * Koran, ch. IxvL t Ch. xvi. LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 165 undertaken, any new objections answered, any diffi- culty to be solved, any disturbance among his fol- lowers to be hushed, or any offence to be removed, immediate recourse was had to Gabriel, and a new revelation, precisely adapted to meet the necessi- ties of the case, was granted. As an inevitable consequence, a vast number of variations and con- tradictions, too palpable to be denied, occur in the course of the book. His commentators and dis- ciples acknowledge the fact, but account for it by saying, that whenever a subsequent revelation plainly contradicts a former, the former is to be considered as having been revoked or repealed by the latter ; and above a hundred and fifty verses are enumerated as having been thus set aside* by after-discoveries of the divine will. In this they are countenanced by the words of the impostor himself. " Whatever verse we shall abrogate, or cause thee to forget, we will bring a better than it, or one like unto it."* " When we substitute in the Koran an abrogating verse in lieu of a verse abro- gated (and God best knoweth the fitness of that which he revealeth), the infidels say, Thou art only a forger of these verses : but the greater part of them know not the truth from falsehood."! When this feature of their religion is objected to modern Mohammedans, as it was by Henry Mar- tyn in his controversy with them, they reply, that "this objection is altogether futile; for the pre- cepts of God are always delivered with a special regard to the necessities of his servants. And * Koran, ch.H. t Ch. xvi. 166 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. there can be no doubt that these must vary with the varying exigences of the times in which they are delivered. The divine Lawgiver may here be considered as the spiritual physician of his people ; who, like a temporal physician, prescribes such regimen and medicines as are most likely to suit the wants of his patient."* The pupil here is certainly worthy of the master, when they both agree in teaching, that the grand principles of mo- rality are not eternal and immutable, growing out of the very nature of the relation subsisting between the Creator and his creatures, but are mere arbi- trary rules, subject to be relaxed, modified, or dis- pensed with, as circumstances may dictate. See- ing* that this pitiful device of feigning dispensa- tions and abrogations of particular duties subjects the immutable counsels of the Almighty to the charge of weakness and fickleness, it is surprising that his disciples should have been blinded by so flimsy a disguise ; yet such is evidently the fact. And it adds another proof of the truth of the re- mark, that as there is no error or absurdity in reli- gion too monstrous to be conceived or broached, so there is none too gross to be imposed upon the credulity of others. * J/ee's Translation of H. Martyn's Controversial Tracts. LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 167 CHAPTER XVI. Account of the Prophet's Wives Cadijah Ayesha Hqfsa Zeinab Safyi His Conr.ubines Singular Precepts in the Koran respecting the Wives of Mohammed His comparative Treatment of Jews and Christians Predictions of the Prophet alleged by Mohammedans to be contained in the sacred Scriptures. As the subject of women occupies a prominent place in the Koran, so in a complete history of the prophet's life his numerous wives, of which the number is variously stated from fifteen to twenty- one, form a topic of too much interest to be omitted. During the lifetime of Cadijah, it does not ap- pear that she was ever pained with the sight or suspicion of a rival. After her death, when at length his reputation as a prophet had become es- tablished, and his authority too firmly rooted to be shaken, the restraints which policy had imposed upon passion were gradually thrown ofT, and the most unlimited license in this respect marked his subsequent conduct. His third and best beloved wife was Ayesha, the daughter of Abubeker, whom he married in the first year of the Hejira. Vague rumours of conjugal infidelity have cast a stain upon the cha- racter of Ayesha not entirely effaced even at the present day. They were not believed, however, by the prophet, and the divine acquittal in the twenty-fourth chapter of the Koran has done much 168 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. towards shielding her fame from reproach. u As to the party among you, who have published the falsehood concerning Ayesha every man of them shall be punished according to the injustice of which be hath been guilty ; and he among them who hath undertaken to aggravate the same shall suffer a grievous punishment. Did not the faith- ful men and the faithful women say, This is a mani- fest falsehood ? Have they prpduced four witnesses thereof? Wherefore, since they have not pro- duced the witnesses, they are surely liars in the eight of God. Had it not been for the indulgence of God towards you, and his mercy in this world, and in that which is to come, verily a grievous punishment had been inflicted on you for the ca- lumny which ye have spread ; when ye published that with your tongues, and spoke that with your mouths, of which ye had no knowledge ; and es- teemed it to be light, whereas it was a matter of importance in the sight of God."* Ayesha was married such is the surprising phy- sical precocity peculiar to an eastern climate at the early age of nine ; and survived her husband forty-eight years. Her I/memory is held in great ve- neration by the Moslems, who have bestowed upon her the title of Prophetess, and Mother of the Faith- ful, probably from the circumstance of her being much resorted to after her husband's death, as an expositor of the doubtful points of the law ; an of- fice which she performed by giving the sense which * Kran r en, xiv. LIFE OF MOHAMMED. she had heard the prophet affix to them in his life- time. Her expositions, together with those of Mohammed's first ten converts, form what is called the Sonnah, or the Authentic Traditions, of the professors of Islam, which bear a striking re- semblance to the traditions of the Jews. Ayesha was the inveterate enemy of Ali, the rival candi- date with Abubeker to the honour of being the prophet's successor ; and when at last he attained to that dignity, she appeared in arms against him. Her expedition was indeed unsuccessful, yet she found means, some time after, to excite a defec- tion among Ali's followers, which finally resulted in the rum of himself and his house. Hafsa, the daughter of Omar, was next in fa- vour with the prophet. To her, as being the eldest of his wives, he committed the Chest of his apos- tleship, containing the original copies of his pre- tended revelations, from which the volume of the Koran was composed after his death, by Abubeker. She died at the age of sixty-six. Zeinab, another of his wives, was originally the wife of his servant Zeid ; upon whom, as we learn from the Koran, God had bestowed the grace to become one of the earliest converts to the true faith. The circumstances which led to her be- coming the wife of the prophet, form a story worth relating. Mohammed, having occasion, one day, to call at the house of Zeid upon some matter of business, and not finding him at home, accidentally east his eyes on Zeinab his wife. Being a wo- man of distinguished beauty, the prophet was so P 170 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. smitten with her charms at first sight, that he could not forbear exclaiming, " Praised be God, who turneth the hearts of men as he pleaseth !" and thenceforth became violently in love with her. Zeid, when made acquainted with the circum- stance, was thrown into great perplexity. His af- fection for his wife and his wish to retain her were counterbalanced by his sense of obligation to his master, who had not only freed him from ser- vitude, but had also publicly adopted him as his son and heir, by a religious ceremony at the black stone of the Caaba. Upon mature reflection he determined to part with Zeinab in favour of his be- nefactor, whom he privately acquainted with his intention, at the same time giving out hi public, that he no longer retained any affection for her, in order to pave the way for a divorce. Mohammed, aware of the scandal that would ensue among his people, from his taking to his bed one who stood to him in the relation of a daughter, made a feint of dissuading him from his purpose, and endea- voured to suppress the violence of his passion. But finding the flame which consumed him uncon- querable, a chapter of the Koran came seasonably to his relief, which at once removed all impedi- ments in the way of a union. " And remember, when thou saidst to him unto whom God had been gracious {.V T ieid), and on whom thou also hadst conferred favours, keep thy wife to thyself and fear God ; and thou didst conceal that in thy mind (i. e. thine affection to Zeinab) which God had deter- mined to discover, and didst fear men ; whereas it V. LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 171 was more just that thou shouldst fear God. But when Zeid had determined the matter concerning her, and had resolved to divorce her, we joined her in marriage unto thee, lest a crime should be charged on the true believers in marrying the wives of their adopted sons : and the command of God is to be performed. No crime is to be charged on the prophet as to what God hath allowed him."* Here the Most High is represented not only as sanctioning the marriage, but as conveying a gen- tle rebuke to the prophet, that he should so long have abstained from the enjoyment of this favour out of regard to public sentiment, as though he feared men rather than God! Zeinab hereupon became the wife of this most favoured of mortals, and lived with him in great affection to the time of his death ; always glorying over her associates, that whereas they had been married to Mohammed by their parents and kindred, she had been united to him by God himself, who dwells above the seven heavens ! Another of bis wives, Safya, was a Jewess. Of her nothing remarkable is related, except that she once complained to her husband of being thus re- proached by her companions : " O thou Jewess, the daughter of a Jew and of a Jewess." To which the prophet answered, " Canst thou not say, Aaron is my father, Moses is my uncle, and Mo^ hammed is my husband?" But in reference to these insulting taunts, an admonition was conveyed * Koran, ch. xxxiii. 172 LIFE OF MOHAMMED* to the offenders from a higher source than the pro- phet himself. " true believers, let not men laugh other men to scorn, who peradventure may be better than themselves ; neither let women laugh other women to scorn, who may possibly be bet- ter than themselves. Neither defame one another, nor call one another by opprobious appellations."* In addition to his wives, the harem of the pro- phet contained a number of concubines, among whom Mary, the Egyptian, was his favourite. By her he had a son, Ibrahim (Abraham), who died in infancy, to the unspeakable grief of the prophet and his disciples. He had no children by any of the rest of his wives except Cadijah, who was the mother of eight- four sons and four daughters ; but most of these died in early life, none of them sur- viving their father except Fatima, the wife of Ali, and she only sixty days. The following passages from the Koran evince that not the prophet only was an object of the di- vine care, beneficence, and guidance, but that his wives also shared in the same kind providence, and that whatever instructions or admonitions their frailties might require were graciously bestowed upon them. From an infirmity not uncommon to the sex, they had become, it appears, more devoted to the decoration of their persons than was credit- able for the wives of a holy prophet, and had de- manded of him a larger allowance on the score of dress than he deemed it prudent to grant. They * Koran, ch xlix. LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 173 are thus rebuked : " O prophet, say unto thy wives, If ye seek this present life and the pomp thereof, come, I will make a handsome provision for you, and I will dismiss you with an honourable dismission : but if ye seek God and his apostle, and the life to come, verily God hath prepared for such of you as work righteousness a great re- ward."* " wives of the prophet, ye are not as other women : if ye fear God, be not too com- plaisant in speech, lest he should covet in whose heart is a disease of incontinence ; but speak the speech which is convenient. And sit still in your houses ; and set not out yourselves with the osten- tation of the former time of ignorance, and observe the appointed times of prayer, and give alms ; and obey God and his apostle ; for God desireth only to remove from you the abomination of vanity, since ye are the household of the prophet, and to purify you by a perfect purification.''! The prophet interdicted to all his wives the pri- vilege of marrying again after his death, and though some of them were then young, they scru- pulously obeyed his commarKl, delivered to them, like every thing else in the Koran, in the form of a mandate of heaven, and lived and died in widow- hood. The passage in which this severe edict is found is a curiosity, and will doubtless lead the reader to suspect that it was prompted by a spirit of mean jealousy, the effects of which he aimed to perpetuate when he was no more. It is pre * Koran, ch. xxxiij. t IW /