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BOHiv'S EXTicA voi.uiyiz:; CONTAIMNli COUx\T GRAMMONT'S MEMOIRS OF THE COURT OF CHARLES THE SECOND, WITH TllK 1$0.itv or cambrjooc. THE FOURTH EDITION, aEVIStll, IMrnuVCP, and EltLAROKD. LONDON: UKNRY G. BORN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 1847. !} M adveiitisemi:nt. Thk Publisher of the Standard LinRAiiY has much sati»f.iction in prcscntlnj^ to his subscribers an improved edition of a book 80 remarkable for curious, original, and instructive matter as Ocki.kv's Histoky of tuv. Saracens. Upon its first publication this work was received by scliolars with marked approbation, as the most complete and authentic account of the Arabian Prophet and his successors wliich h:id yet been given to the world ; and even at tlie i)rc.scnt day, after the lapse of nearly a century, it continues to be regarded as the standard history of this eventful period. The establishment of Islamism is undoubtedly to be num- bered among those stupendous events which have changed tlie face of society in the East ; and is a subject deserving net only of the careful study of the statesman and the divine, a 2 11 ABVEBTISEHEXT. but of all who deliglit to search, patiently and reverently, into the ways of Providence. With the Koran in one hand, and the scimitar in the other, the impetuous and indomitable Arab achieved a series of splendid victories unparalleled in the history of nations ; for in the short space of eighty years that mighty range of Saracenic conquest embraced a wider extent of territory than Rome had mastered in the course of eight hundred. It is evident that a work designed for popular circulation, and which is intended to allure those whom business or indolence may prevent from more laborious reading, requires a nice combination of qualities which do not often meet together in the same intellect — accuracy, judgment, taste, and scholarship — all of which, it will be seen, are exhibited in Ockley's pages. The most unqualified praise has been awarded to the author for the laborious research and unwearied energy displayed under peculiar difficulties, which has resulted in the production of a work at once enriching the literature of our country, and furnishing materials of the highest importance to historians and travellers of every age. Gibbon made considerable use of this work, in his " De- cline and Fall of the Roman Empire," where he speaks of Ockley as " a learned and spii-ited interpreter of Arabian authorities, whose tales and traditions afford an artless picture of the men and the times;"' and in his Autobio- ADVERTISEMENT. lU graphy he describes him as " an original in every sense, who had opened his eyes." Professor Smyth, also, in his recent Lectures on Modem History, recommends "Ockley's curious work as necessary to enable the student to comprehend the character of the Arabians, wliich is there displayed by their own wTitcrs in all its singularities." A ^^Tite^ in the Quarterly Review (Xo. xxix.) likewise adds, that " the History of the Saracens is a splendid instance of success in this most difficult branch of authorship, and will con- siderably overpay a perusal, by the strong moral painting and dramatic vivacity with which the vigorous writer diver- sified and elevated his subjects." The literary character of the work being so well esta- blished, and the last edition having become extremely scarce, the reasons for its republication must be obvious. In pre- paring the present Edition for the Press, it is confidently hoped, that the various improvements introduced throughout, have enhanced its value, and will entitle it to a high degree of popular favour. The entire work is now compressed in a single volume, printed from the third and best edition of 1 757, which appeared in two volumes, 8vo, and it has been enriched with considerable additions in the form of Xotes, from the researches of later writers on Arabian History, particularly Major Price, Burckhardt, Mills, Lane, Dr. Weil, and Don Pascual dc Gayangos. The orthography of the Oriental names, which in the work as left by Ockley was by no means uniform, has, as far as possible, been reduced to the standard ir ADVEKTISEMEXT. now most generally acceptable to English readers. A Memoir of the learned Author, a Table of Contents and Index, have also been added, ■with Chronological Dates of the Christian and Mohammedan years, as "vvell as a Synoptical View of the later portion of Saracenic History not given by Ockley. In a future volume it is intended to give a continuation of Ockley's work, to the extinction of the Bagdad Caliphate, which will be foimd to contain information both interesting and instructive to the general reader. H. G. E. York Strect, March, 1847. CONTENTS. Pafje. Advertisement .......... i Memoir of Oikley vii Author's I'refiice xvi Introduction xxi LiKK OP MoHAMMKD. Il.)m A.I). .S71, died A.D. 63'2. An. Hej.11. . 1 Ancient Anihs^Tlie Ka.-il)n — Birth and family of Mohammed — TnidJtions of hia childhood— M;i.'ries Kadija — Writes the Koran — His mi)«ion — First converts— .Marric-s Ayesha, Hafsa, &c. — Tradi- tions of his ni^ilit-joumey to heaven — rers'-cuted by the Koreish — Fii){ht to Medina — Victory at Beder— Defeat at Ohud — ProliiNits wine — Wiir of tJie Ditch — M;irriiJi Zaiiiab and Juweirah — .Aye.sha's intnpue — Suhmiasion of Mecca — Nearly j)<)i.soned — Bewitcheil by the Jews — His amours with Mary— r;e of Baalbec — Hems Uikcn — Arrestan taken — Biittle of Vermouk — .Siege of Jeru.salem — Omjir's journey — Treaty with the inha))itant.s- — Victories in Persia — Siege of Aleppo — Suc- ccNtfui stratagem of Dnines — \:us\7. tiiken — ."Surrender of Antioch — Omar writes to Heraclius — PIa;;ue in Svria — Ammu's conquests in Egypt — Treacherous surrender of Mi.srah — Alexandria taken, and library burnt — Assassination of Omar— His person and character — His wives. Otiijian. An. Ukj. 23—3.5. a.d. 643—655. . . . . 271 Chosen Caliph by six conimis-sioners — Deposes .Amrou — Moawiyah invades Cypnis— Death of Vezdejinl — Disiffection of the Saracens — Revolt at Cufah— Merwan's ill-ministration — Othnian's palace besieped — His death and character. All An. Hu. :5— 40 a.d. C.i.i— 061 . . . . . 287 Dissensifjns among the Araliians — Ali consents to become Caliph — His embarrajssnieiita — DiMifFection towards him — Revolt of VI CONTENTS. Page. Ayesha — Writes to Cuf;ih — A yesha's letter — Defeatof Ayesha — Dis- turbances in Syria — Revolt of Aloawiyah and Amrou — Skirmislicsat SefFein — Arbitration fruitless— Rebellion of the Separatists — Malec Alashtar poisoned — Assassination of Ali, and conspiracy discovered — Person and character of Ali— His wives — Anecdotes — Shiites and Sonnites — Sentences of Ali . . . . • • .33/ Hasan. An. Hej. 40, 41. a.d. 660, 661 346 Dissensions in the caliphate — Hasan proffers the throne to Jloa- wiyah— Resignation of Hasan — Poisoned An. Hej. 49 — His birth and character. DYNASTY OF THE OMMIADES. An. Hej. 41—132. a.d. GCl— 750. 1. MoAWiVAH I. An. Hej. 41— GO. a.d. 6C1— 679 . . .354 Birtii and descent of Moawiyah — Death of Amrou — Ziyad, the Caliph's brother — Story of — Character and anecdotes of — Execution of Hejer — Siege of Constantinople — Kjiirwan built — Makes Damas- cus his capital — Death of Ziyad — Makes the caliphate hereditary — Death of Ayesha — Death of Moawiyah — His patronage of letters —Anecdotes of — His character — The first Caliph who formed a navy. 2. Yezid I. An. Hej. 60—64. a.d. 679—683 387 Hosein endeavoure to obtain the caliphate — Disaffection at Cufah — Destruction of Hosein's party and his melancholy death — His family — Traditions concerning his head ^Anecdotes of — Revolt of Abdallah, the son of Zobcir- Rebellion at Mecca — Abdallah be- sieged in Mecca — Death of Yezid — His character. 3. Moawiyah II. An. Hej. 64. a.d. 683 430 Deposed after a reign of six weeks — Abdallah the son of Zo- beir proclaimed Caliph ... 434 4. Meuwan I. An. Hej. 64, 65. a.d. 683, 684 ... 435 Proclaimed in Syria — Defeats Abdallah — Marries Yezid's widow — Proceedings at Cufah to revenge Hosein's death — The Cufians march towards Syria — Cut to pieces by ObeidoUah Ziyad — Death of Merwan by poison — His character. 5. Abdalmelik. An. Hej. 65—86. a.d. 684—705 . . . 453 Insurrection of Al Moktar — Death of ObeidoUah — Deatli of Al Moktiir — Murder of Amrou, son of Said — Musab assumes the go- vernment of Cufiih — Expedition against him — His death — Hejaj be- sieges Mecca — Death of Abdallah, the son of Zobeir — Abdalmelik acknowledged Caliph throughout Arabia — Criielty of Hejaj — Insur- rection of Shebib and Salehh at Mosule — Arabian money first coined — Death of Shebib — Anecdotes of Hejaj — His death — Death of Abdalmelik — Stories of — His conquests. End of Ockley's History. MEMOIR OF SIMON OCKLEY. At a time when Oriental studies were at their infancy in this country. Simon Ockley, animated by the illustrious exam- ple of Pocock, and the laborious diligence of Prideaux, devoted his life and his fortune to those novel researches, which necessarily involved both. With that enthusiasm which the ancient votary experienced, and with that patient sufferin}; the modern martyr has endured, he pursued, till he accomplished, tlie useful object of his labours. He perhaps was the first who exhibited to us other heroes than those of Greece and Home ; sages as contemplative, and a people more magnificent even than the iron masters of the world. "^^ Simon Ockley was born at Kxeter in 1078, and was dc- fccndcd from a good family of Great KUingham, in Norfolk, where his father usually resided. After a proper foundation laid in school-learning, he was sent, in 1G93, to Queen's Col- lege in Cambridge, where he soon distinguished himself by great quickness of parts as well as intense ajiplication to literature ; to the oriental languages more particularly, for his uncommon ^kill in which he afterwards became famous. He took, at the usual time, the degrees in arts, and that of bachelor in divinity. Having taken orders also, he was. in 1705. through the interest of Simon Patrick, bishop of Kly, presented by Jesus College, in Cambridge, to the vicarage of Swavosey, in that county; and, in 1711, chosen Arabic pro- fessor of the university. These preferments he held to the day of his death, which happened at Swavesey, Aug. 9, 1720, immaturely to himself, but more so to his family. Ockley had the culture of Oriental learning very much at heart, and the several jjublications whicli he made were intended solely to i)romote it. In 170(i, he printed, at Cam- bridge, a useful little book, entitled, *' Inlroductio ad Linguas Orientales." Prefixed is a dedication to his friend the bishop • D' Israeli's Calamities of Authors. VIU MEMOIR OF SIMON OCKLEY. of Ely, and a preface, addressed to the Juventus Academica, whom he labours to excite by various arguments to the pur- suit of oriental learning; assuring them in general, that no man ever was, or ever will be, tridy great in divinity, without at least some portion of skill in it. There is a chapter in this work, relating to the celebrated controversy between Buxtorf and Capellus, upon the antiquity of the Hebrew points, where Ockley professes to think with Buxtorf, who contended for it : but he afterwards changed his opinion, and went over to Capellus, although he had not any opportunity of publicly declaring it. And indeed it is plain, from his manner of closing that chapter upon the points, that he was then far enough from having any settled persuasion about them. In 1707, he published in I'imo. from the Italian of Leo Modena, a Venetian rabbi, "• The History of the present Jews throughout the World ; being an ample, though succinct, account of their customs, ceremonies, and manner of living at this time:" to which is subjoined a " Supplement concerning the Carraites and Samaritans, from the French of Father Simon." In 1708, a little curious book, entitled "The Im- provement of Human Reason, exhibited in the Life of Ilai Ebn Yokdhan,. written above 500 years ago, by Abu Jaafar Ebn Tophail :'" translated from the Arabic, and illustrated with figures, 8vo. The design of the author, who was a Mohammedan philosopher, is to show, how human reason may, by observation and experience, arrive at the knowledge of natural things, and thence to supernatural, and particularly the knowledge of God and a future state : the design of the translator, to give those who might be unacquainted with it, a specimen of the genius of the Arabian philosophers, and to excite young scholars to the reading of eastern authors. This was the point our rabbi had constantly in view ; and, there- fore, in his '• Oratio Inauguralis," for the professorship, it was with no small pleasure, as we imagine, that he insisted upon the beauty, copiousness, and antiquity, of the Arabic tongue in particular, and upon the use of oriental learning in general ; and that he dwelt upon the praises of Erpenius, Golius, Pccock, Herbelot, and all who had in any way contributed to promote the study of it. In 1713, his name appeared to a little book, with this title " An Account of South-West Bai'bary, containing what is most remarkable in the territories MEMOIR OF SIMON OCKLEY. IX of the king of Fez and Morocco ; written by a person who had been a slave there a considerable time, and published from his authentic manuscript : to which are added, two Letters ; one from the present king of Morocco to Colonel Kirk ; the other to Sir Cloudcsly Shovell, with Sir Cloudesly's answer," &tc., 8vo. While we arc enumerating these small publications of the professor, it will be but proper to mention two sermons : one, '• Upon the Dignity and Authority of the Christian Priest- hood," preached at Ormond Chapel, London, in 1710; another, " Upon the Necessity of Instructing Children in the Scrip- tures," at St. Ives, in Huntingdonshire, 1713. To these we must add a new translation of the second *' Apocryphal Book of lvsdra.s," from the Arabic version of it, as that which wc have in our common Bibles is from the vulgar Latin, 1716. Mr. Whiston, we arc told, was the person who employed him in this translation, upon a strong suspicion, that it must needs make for the Arian cause he was then reviving ; and he, accordingly, published it in one of his volumes of " Primitive Christianity Revived." Ocklcy, however, was firmly of opinion, that it could serve nothing at all to his purpose ; as appears from a printed letter of his to Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Thirlby, in which are the following words : " You shall have my ' Hsdras ' in a little time ; two hundred of which I reserved, when Mr. Whiston reprinted his, purely upon this account, because I was loath that anything with my name to it should be extant only in his heretical volumes. I only stay, till the learned author of the ' History of Montani>m' has finished a dissertation which he has promised me to prefix to that book."* A learned letter of Ockleys to Mr. W. Wotton is printed among the " Miscellaneous Tracts of Mr. Bowyer. 1784." But the most considerable by far of all the professor's per- formances is, '* The History of the Saracens ;" begun from the death of Mohammed, the founder of the Saracenic empire, which happened in 032, and carried down through a succes- sion of caliphs, to 705. Thi.s *• History," which illustrates the religion, rites, customs, and manner of living of that war- like people, is very curious and entertaining; and Ockley was at vast pains in collecting materials from the most authentic • This letter, dated Oct. the 15th, 1712, ia entitled, "An Account of the authority of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, contro- verted between Dr. Grabe and Mr. Whiston." 1712. 8vo. X me:j;oir of simon ocklet. Arabic authors, especially manuscripts, not hitherto published in any European language ; and for that purpose resided a Ion"- time at Oxford, to be near the Bodleian library, where those manuscripts were rcpositcd. It is in 2 vols. 8vo. : the first of which was published in 1708; the second, in 1718: and both were soon after republished. A third edition was printed, in the same size, at Cambridge, in 1757 ; to which is prefixed, *• An Account of the Arabians or Saracens, of the Life of Mohammed, and ti.e Mohammedan Religion, by a learned hand:" that is, by the learned Dr. Long, master of Pembroke hall, in Cambridge. While at Oxford, preparing this work, he sent a letter to his daughter, part of wliich is worth transcribing, as charac- teristic both of him and his labours. " My condition here is this : one of the most useful and necessary authors I have is written in such a wretched hand, that the very reading of it is perfect deciphering. I am forced sometimes to take three or four lines together, and then pull then* all to pieces to find where the words begin and end ; for oftentimes it is so written, that a word is divided as if the former part of it was the end of the foregoing word, and the latter part the beginning of another ; besides innumerable other difficulties known only to those that understand the language. Add to this the pains of abridging, comparing authors, selecting proper materials, and the like, which in a remote and copious language, abound- ing with difficulties sometimes insuperable, make it equivalent at least to the performing of six times so much in Greek and Latin. So that if I continue in the same coui-se in which I am engaged at present, that is, from the time I rise in the morn- ing till I can see no longer at night, I cannot pretend once to entertain the least thought of seeing home till Michaelmas. AVere it not that there is some satisfaction in answering the end of my profession, some in making new discoveries, and some in the hopes of obliging my country with the history of the greatest empire the world ever yet saw, I would sooner do almost anything than submit to the drudgery. " People imagine, that it is only understanding Arabic, and then translating a book out of it, and there is an end of the story : but if ever learning revives among us, posterity will judge better. This Avork of mine (in another way) is almost of as different a uaturc from translating out of the Greek or MEMOIR OF SIMOX OCKLET. XI Latin, as translating a poet from one language to another is different from prose. One comfort I have, that the authors I am concerned with are very good in their kind, and afford me plenty of materials, which will clear up a great many mistakes of modem travellers, who, passing through the eastern coun- tries, without the necessary knowledge of the history and ancient customs of the Mohammedans, pick up little pieces of tradition from the present inhabitants, and deliver them as obscurely as they receive them. One thing pleases me much, that we shall give a very particular account of Ali and Hoseiu, who arc reckoned saints by the Pensians, and whose names you must have met with both in Herbert and Tavernler ; fur the sake of whom there remains that implacable and irre- concilable hatred between the Turks and Persians to this very day, which you may look for in vain in all the English books that have hitherto appeared. It would be a great satis- faction to me, if the autlior I have were complete in all his volumes, that I might bring the history down five or six hundred years : but. ala.s ! of twelve tliat he wrote, we have but two at O.xford, whicli are large quartos, and from whence I take the chief of my materials. " I wish that some public spirit would arise among us, and cause those books to be bought in the cast for us which we want. I should be very willing to lay out my pains for the service of the public. If we could but procure £500 to be judiciously laid out in the ca.st, in such books as I could mention for the public lil^rary at Cambridge, it would be the greatest improvement that could be conceived : but that is a happiness not to be expected in my time. We are all swal- lowed up in politics ; there is no room for letters ; and it is to be feared that the next generation will not only inherit but improve the polite ignorance of the present." Poor Ockley, always a student, and rarely what is called a man of the world, once encountered a literary calamity which frecpicntly occurs when an author finds himself among the vapid triflers and the polished cynics of the fa.shionable circle. Sometliing like a ])atron he found in Harley, the Earl of Oxford, and once had the unlucky honour of dining at the table of my Lord Treasurer. It is probable that Ockley, from retired habits and severe studies, was not at all accomplished in the suaviier in mudo, of which greater geniuses than Ockley Xii MEMOIR OF SIMON OCKLEY. have so surlily despaired. How he behaved we cannot narrate ; probably he delivered himself with as great simplicity at the table of the Lord Treasurer, as on the wrong side of Cambridge Castle gate. The embarrassment this simplicity diew him into, is very fully stated in the following copious apology he addressed to the Earl of Oxford, which we have transcribed from the original ; perhaps it may be a useful memorial to some men of letters as little polished as the learned Ockley : — " Cambridge, July 15, 1714. " My Lord, " I was so struck with horror and amazement two days ago, that I cannot possibly express it. A friend of mine showed me a letter, part of the contents of which were, ' That Pro- fessor Ockley had given such extreme offence by some uncourtly answers to some gentlemen at my Lord Treasurer s table, that it would be in vain to make any further application to him.' " My Lord, it is impossible for me to recollect, at this dis- tance of time. All that I can say is this : that, as on the one side for a man to come to his patron's table with a design to affront either him or his friends, supposes him a perfect natural, a mere idiot ; so on the other side it would be ex- tremely severe, if a person whose education was far distant from the politeness of a court, should, upon the account of an unguarded expression, or some little inadvertency in his behaviour, sufi'er a capital sentence. " Which is my case, if I have forfeited your Lordship's favour ; wliich God forbid ! That man is involved in double ruin that is not only forsaken by his friend; but, which is the unavoidable consequence, exposed to the mahcc and contempt, not only of enemies, but, what is stUl more grievous, of all sorts of fools. " It is not the talent of every well-meaning man to converse with his superiors with due decorum ; for, either when he reflects upon the vast distance of their station above his own, he is struck dumb and almost insensible; or else their conde- scension and .courtly behaviour encourages him to be too familiar. To steer exactly between these two extremes re- quires not only a good intention, but presence of mind, and long custom. MEMOin OF SIMON' OCKLEY. XIU " Anolhcr article in my friend's letter was, ' That somebody had infonned your lordship, that I was a very sot.' "When first I had the honour to be known to your lordship, I could easily foresee that there would be persons enough that would envy me upon that account, and do what in them lay to traduce me. Let Haman enjoy never so much himself, it is all nothinpj, it does him no good, till poor Mordccai is hanged out of his way. " But I never feared the being censured upon that account. Here in the University, I converse with none but persons of the most distinguished reputations both for learning and virtue, and receive from them daily as great marks of respect and esteem, which I should not have, if that imputation were trtie. It is most certain that I do indulge myself the freedom of drinking a cheerful cup, at proper seasons, among my friends ; but no otherwise tlmii is done by thousands of honest men who never forfeit their character by it. And whoever doth no more than so, deserves no more to be called a sot, than a man that cats a hearty meal would be willing to be called a glutton. " As for those detractors, if I have but the least assurance of your lordship's favour, I can very ea-sily despise them. They arc naii consumere fruges. They need not trouble themselves about what otlicr people do ; for whatever they cat and drink, it is only robbing the poor. Resigning myself entirely to your Lordshij)'s goodness and pardon, I conclude this necessary apology with like provocation. That I n-ould bo content he should take my character from any person that had a good one of his own. '* I am, with all submission, " My Lord, " Your Lordship's most obedient, &c. " Simon Ockley." To the honour of the Earl of Oxford, this unlucky piece of awkwardness at table, in giving "uncourtly answers," did not interrupt his regard for the poor oriental student; for several years afterwards the correspondence of Ockley was still accept- able to the Earl* • D'Israeli's Ciilamitiea of Authors. Mv ME'Moir. OT st:mox ocklet. In tlie meantime, Ocklcy was one of those unfortunate per- sons, whom Pierius Valerianus would have recorded, in his book " De infelicitato literatorum." In his " Inaugural Oration," printed in 1711, he calls fortune venefica and noverca, speaks of mordaces curce as things long familiar to him ; and, in Dec. 1717, we find him actually under confinement for debt. In the introduction to the second volume of the first edition of his " Saracenic History," he not only tells us so, but even stoically dates froi.i Cambridge Castle. His biogra- pher thus accounts for his unfortunate situation : — Having married very young, he was encumbered with a family early in life ; his preferment in the church was not answerable to his reputation as a scholar ; his patron, the Earl of Oxford, fell into disgrace when he wanted him most ; and, lastly, he had some share of that common infimiity among the learned, which makes them negligent of economy and a prudential regard to outward things, without which, however, all the wit, and all the learning, in the world, will but serve to ren- der a man the more miserable. If the letters of the widows and children of many of our eminent authors were collected, they would demonstrate the great fact, that the man who is a husband or a father ought not to be an author. They might weary with a monotonous cry, and usually would be dated from the gaol or the garret. I have seen an original letter from the widow of Ockley to the Earl of Oxford, in which she lays before him the deplorable situation of her afliiirs ; the debts of the Professor being beyond what his efiects amounted to, the severity of the cre- ditors would not even sufier the executor to make the best of his effects ; the widow remained destitute of necessaries, incapable of assisting her children. Tlius students have devoted their days to studies worthy of a student. They are public benefactors, yet find no friend in the public, who cannot yet appreciate their value — Ministers of state know it, though they have rarely protected them. Ockley, by letters I have seen, was frequently employed by Bolingbroke to translate letters from the sovereign of Morocco to our court ; yet all the debts for which he was imprisoned in Cambridge Castle did not exceed two hundred pounds. The public interest is concerned in stimulating such enthusiasts; they are men Avho cannot be salaried, who can- MEMOIE OF SIMOX OCKLEY. XV not be created by letters patent ; for they are men ■nho infuse their soul into their studies, and breatlic their fondness for them in their last agonies. Yet such are doomed to feel their life pass away like a painful dream !^' As to the literary character of Ockley, it is certain that he was extremely well i^killcd in all the ancient languages, and particularly the oriental ; so that the very learned Rcland thought it not too much to declare, that he was " vir, si quis alius, harum litorurum pcritus." He was, likewise, very knowing in modern languages, as in the French, Spanish, Italian, &c. and, upon tlie whole, considered as a linguist, we may presume that very few have exceeded him.f • D'lfimeli'n Ciilnmilios of Authors. t For this hiogrnphy, vrhiili is j)rincipally written hy Dr. Heathcote, we nro ind«'btey inspiration from God, delivered to him immediately by the angel Gabriel. For alxjiit two luinilrc(l yoars, little else wiis cared for but war, except what concerned the interpretatinn of the Koran, and the sects and divisions among themsclvi-s which arose therefrom, and daily multiplied. Hut there was as yet no curio^^ity about foreign learning, nor desire of being acfiuaintt^d with the arts and sciences. At last, in .■M Mamoun's reign, who was the twenty-seventh after Mohammed, and w.as inaugurated caliph in the lORfh year of the Hejinih,* learning began to be cultivated to a very great degree, especially mathematics and astronomy. And, in order to promote lejiming and science, that noble caliph spared no cost, either to procure such (jlreek books as were serviceable to that purpose, or to encounge learned men to the study of them. Nor did the 8;igacity and application of that ingenious, penetrating people in the least disiippnint the designs of their munificent benefactor ; their progress in learning, after they had once entered upon it, seeming no less wonderful than that of their conquests ; for in a few years' time they had plenty of translations out of the Greek, not only of mathematicians and astronomers, but also of philos')phers, naturalists, and physicians. And this love of leamini; was not confined to the eastern parts, i>ut diffused thri)Ui;h(iut the whole dominions of the Saracens, being first carried into Africa (where they erected a great many universities), and from thence into .Sp.-un : so that when learning was quite lost in these western parts, it was restored by the Moors, to whom was owing whatever of philosophy w:us understood by the Christians of these times. For Greek was not understood in this part of the world till the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, a.d. 1453, when several learned Greeks escaping with their libraries, .and coming westward, th.at lan.;uaf;e w.as restored ; therefore *he philosophers and schoolmen, before this date, were obliged to content themselves with Latin translations, not only of Averroea, Alfarabius, and ♦ A.D. 813. 6 XVIU PEEFACB. Algazali, and other Mohammedan authors, but alec of Aristotle and other philosophers, which translationa of Greek authors were not made out of the original Greek, but out of Arabic versions. Had the Arabians, after having taken the pains to learn the Greek tongue, applied themselves with as much care to the historians, as they did to the philosophers, and studied Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, and the other m;isters of correct writing which that hmguage furnishtd, we might have expected from them a succession of historijms worthy to write the great actions which were performed among them. But tliey never turned their thouL,ht3 that way, studying the Greek merely for the sake of the sciences, and valuing neither that nor any other language as compared with their own. And, though it must be granted that the Araliic is extremely fine and copious, so as to aHord words sufficiint to express with elegance and propriety every subject, it is, nevertheless, not sutticient of itaelf, any more than any other language, to make a man an author ; there being a manifest difference between language and style, insomuch that a man may WTite the best language in the world, and use the most proper and significant words, and yet not be worth the reading. For bc-aides propriety of expression, a certain justness and exactnc«s (not only with respect to the choice of materials, but to the composition), must shine through the whole ; and this is not to be attained without being well acquainted with the best authors. The greiit esteem which I have for eastern learning niakes me heartily wish that we had not too much cause in this respect to complain of our Arabic historians. For in this way tlay have deprived us of a great dc;d of the pleasure, and sometimes pmtit, which we might otherwise ha\o derived from reading them. They have not sufficient regard to the duo qualifications of an historian, but tell things after n careless manner, often Btufiing their works with many trifling matters, at other times jingling upon words, and, to show the copiousness of their language and variety of expression, spinning out a trifling incident into a long storj'. It is, thctf- fore, a work of difficulty to follow or compile these authors, and yet the t-isk, nevertheless, deserves well to be undertaken, and will abundantly recompense the pains. For in these authors is contained an account of all the most remarkable actions done in the east, and other parts, for above one thousand vcars. During this period, Asia and Africa were the scene of as great achievements ;i9 ever were performed in the times of the Roman empire, to which that of the Saracens was, in many respects, equal. In order to carry out my design, after I had made a draught out of Elmakin, Abulfaragius, and Eutychius, I went to the Bodleian Libnuy, which is, without question, the best funiishcd with oriental manuscripts of ."iny in Europe. Besides a great number of the best authors, purchased by the University of Oxford, out of the libniries of Dr. Hyde, Dr. Huntington, and Dr. Pocock ; not to mention Mr. Samuel Clark's, Gravius's, or Sel- den's, there is in the Bodleian an invaluable collection given by that incomparable prelate and martyr of blessed memory. Archbishop Laud; of whose great virtues it would be superfluous to say anything here, they being so well known and admired by all that know how to set a just value upon learning and piety. PREFACE. xJx But thU prolat4s'B princely munifirr^re nn.l 7«it in restoring oricnUl ^«^'' •■ v-nortlu-mch.n..' ' an excellent collec- *"' authors and m . itje, to apply them- •«■•' • »'"Jy. '•;i"'>«'t, >. ,, . ^.^^jgpj oTcr in sik-iice by iiny one I). .fiimir " But I wiKK-inlly owe lum this ;t, . .c'manu- •cripU of that rc'vcn-nd pn-lalc- liiai 1 loun.i iiu- JK-st copV ol that :iuUior which I h.-iv.. h.T- ^n.l.-iiv.iuri.d to miikc epcak LiikIwIi, aj'id of whoui 1 am nc.» lint. I .1)1 Mohammed Ebn Omar Al Wukidi. As to 'f'^' ' ' ' ' ' "• ■•"•«1 I ti.ivi- not been able to Hnd any authentic mforPiati'.Ti, nor r.uld I, by the diligent leading of him, discover any token by which 1 could gn.' a Dn.li.iiili- •n,-«)i. Thou^jh I cannot ,,.c, it is moel certain that he livwl above two hundriHj v „tcr of fact which he relutea. For pa>;e 313. he m.-ntio:u A; .\l..Ui»tiii, the caliph, whose reign bejpui in the' year of our I^.ni 1133; and, if «<», it i« the same thing ai if he had iivetl six hundn-d year, afl.r. I'.r ^ that lives one thous.ind vear« after any matter of fact, m a, ,,in of it ns he tJuit lives'but at two '"'"■' '■■•-■■'■ •' • ■' :n obliRi-il to take ujwn ■'»« that interna!, he that '■ ■ 1,' to the tint nae of kingdoms and empires ' J^, -■ ' "1 "f '■^^''^ 'V »>eciiise arms take rule of ""• '""' ! iH'forc Icaniin^' can get ^^ ''• ' 't is ailowiKl by all, that "" iVoni time to time, and '^'"' m as authentic. Never *'" ; ' a;;e of Livv, in order to know how tar he mu»'t •>.• n.-, .,unt,-.l a <-.:„[.. tent relator of what wa« done m the reigns of Komiilin ind Numa l'.«iii])!lius. In th«-m> caM^ it is, as ihnt excellent author very will observes : F,ima r^rum i.'arulum fit, uhi rrrUrn .l.-rn,,nt rrtiitla't JuUm, " When a Ion" '",''" * I distance, wo miwt l>e content !*j' the iK-it account we can got." . ' -tio", «nd his readers' satisfjic- tion most, who d.K>s ,„ ever>t!iinR he m«H>tii with, but use, as much c«> • , ,., of the matter will admit. <>ur author, Al Wakidi, has not been w.-mting in this particular. .Some- time, he n.hnn, in a »tory after this manner: " I have been informed bv a ^7' ' '" another place, he says: "We are informed by "!' "• *"" ^""' 't Irom J..nas Kl)n AMallah, who had it from J!"* : ■ ■ ' Ab)ut also sent in bottles, as a great rarity, to most parts of the Moham- medan dominions. A1)dallah, sumamed Al Hafedh, from his great memory, particularly as to the traditions of Mohammed, gave out that he acquired that faculty by drinking large draughts of Zemzem water, to which I believe it is about as efficacious as that of Helicon to the inspiring of a poet." — Side. Mr. Lane, in his notes to the Arabian Nights, tells us, that " The water of this well is believed to possess miraculous virtues, and is there- fore brought away in bottles or flasks by many of the pilgrims, to be used, when occasion may require, as medicine, or to be sprinkled on grave-linen, A bottle of it is a common and acceptable present from a pilgrim, and a guest is sometimes treated with a sip of this holy water." Pitts, an old English traveller, found the water brackish, and says, the pilgrims drink it so inordinately that "they are not only much purged, but their flesh breaks out all in pimples; and this they called the purging of their spirit- ual corruption," A. D. 571. HIS BIETH. 5 closed at a considerable distance by a magnificent colonnade surmounted with small cupolas, and at the four corners there are as many steeples adorned like cupolas, with gilded spires and crescents ; between the pillars of both enclosures hang a number of lamps, which are constantly lighted up at night.* The Kaaba is supported by pillars of aloe- wood, between which hang silver lamps, and a spout of gold carries off the rain-water from the roof. The walls on the outside are hung with a rich covering of black damask, adorned with a band of gold, which is changed every year at the expense of the Turkish emperor, f The Kaaba is properly the temple, but the whole territory of Mecca is held sacred, and distinguished by small turrets, some at seven and others at ten miles' dis- tance from the city. Within these precincts it is not lawful to attack an enemy, or even to hunt or fowl. Mohammed was born at Mecca, an ancient city of Arabia, about the year of om- Lord 571 , for historians do not agree about the precise year. J He was of the tribe of Koreish, the noblest of that part of the country. Arab wTiters make him to be descended in a right line from Ishmael, the son of Abraham ; but do not pretend to any certainty in the remote part of his genealogy ; for our purpose it will be enough to commence much later, but with a well authenticated fact. The great grand- father of Mohammed was Hashem, whose descendants were • Burckhardt, in describing the Kiuiba at the present day, says, " The effect of the whole scene, tiie mysterious drapery, the profusion of gold and silver, the blaze of lamps, and the kneeling multitude, surjiasses any- thing the imaijination could have pictured." t " A new covering for the Kaaba is sent from Cairo every year with the Great caravan of pilgrims : it is carried in procession through that city, and is believed to he one of the chief means of procuring safety to the attendants through their arduous and dangerous journey." — Lane's Arab. Nights, X " The date of the birth of Mohammed is not fixed with precision. It is only known from Oriental authors that he was bom on a Monday, the 10th Heby 1st, the third month of the Mohammedan year; the 40th or 4"2nd of Cosroes Nashirvam, king of Persia; the year 881 of the Seleu- cidan a;ra; the year 1310" of the a-ra of Nabonnassar. This leaves the point undecided between the years 5C9, 570, 371, of Jesus Christ. Seethe Memoir of M, Silv. de Sacy, on divers events in the History of the Arabs before Mohammed, Mem. Acad, des Inscripts. vol. xlvii, pp. 527, 531. St. Martin, vol. ix. p. 59. Dr. Weil decides on A.D. 571. Mohammed died in 63"2, aged G3; but the Arabs reckoned his life by lunar years, which reduces his hfe nearlv to 61." — Milman's Gibbon. 6 lilFE OF MOHAMMED. a. d. 571. from him called Hashemites."^ He managed to obtain the pre- sidency over the Kaaba, and, what went with it, the govern- ment of Mecca, which had been some time in the tribe of the Koreishites.f After his death it went to his son Abda'l Motal- leb, who had thirteen sons, whose names I shall here set down, because we shall meet with some of them in the following history. Abdallah, Hamza, Al Abbas, Abu Taleb, Abu Laheb, Al Gidak, Al Hareth, Jahel, Al Mokawam, Dorar, Al Zobeir, Kelham, Abdal Kaaba. The eldest of them, Abdallah, who, on account of the integrity of his character and the comeli- ness of his person, is said to have been his father's favourite, married Amina, of the tribe also of the Koreishites, by whom he had Mohammed. Ujion the marriage of Abdallah, it is related that no fewer than two hundred young damsels, who were in love with him, died in despair. We should here observe, that the Mohammedan historians are often very extravagant in their accounts of persons and things that have any relation to their prophet. Thus Abulfeda, one of the gravest of them, tells us of four miraculous events that hap- pened at the birth of Mohammed : 1 . That the palace of Cosroes, king of Persia, was so shaken, that fourteen of its towers fell to the ground ; 2. That the sacred fires of the Persians, which had been kept incessantly burning for 1000 years, went out all at once; 3. That the lake Sawa sank; 4. That the river Tigris overflowed its banks. By these prodigies, and by a dream of the high-priest of Persia, which seemed to forebode some impending calamity from Arabia, Cosroes being naturally alarmed, sent for a famous diviner to inform him what they portended ; he received for answer, that fourteen kings and queens should * 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." f Abulfeda informs us that the custody of the Kaaba and presidency of Mecca had been formerly in the possession of the tribe of the Kozaites, till at length they fell into the hands of Abu Gabshan, a weak and silly man, whom Kosa, the grandfather of Hashem, circumvented while in a drunken humour, and bought of him the keys of [the temple and the go- vernment of Mecca for a bottle of wine. A war between the Koreishites and Kozaites was the result, which, however, ended in the defeat of the latter, and the whole possession of Mecca remained to the Koreishites, and was held by Kosa and his posterity in a right line down to Mohammed. A. D. 581. TRADITIONS OP HIS CHILDHOOD. 7 reign in Persia, and that then what was to come to pass would happen. Some legendary writers relate a great many more wonderful things, enough to shock the belief of the most credulous. They may be seen in Maracci.* I shall give only two of them as a sample of the rest : 1 . They assert that Mohammed came into the world surrounded with a light, which not only illuminated the chamber wherein he lay, but also the whole country round about. 2. That as soon as he was bom he fell upon his knees, and bending all except his two fore-fingers, with uplifted hands, and his face turned towards heaven, pronounced distinctly these words, " Allah acbar," &c. that is, " God is great : there is no other God but one, and I am his prophet." Abdallah dying while Mohammed was an infant, or, ac- cording to some, before he was born, he was by his mother put to a Avet-nurse named Halima. Here again we have more miracles, even in Abulfeda. The nurse, who, while this blessed infant was with her, was in greater afiiuence than ever she had been before, was one day put in a great fright by her own son, who came running out of the field, and told her that two men in white had just seized Moham- med, laid him on the ground, and ripped open his belly. Upon this, she and her husband went out to him, and found him upon his legs ; but when she asked him, "WTiat is the matter with you, child ? he confirmed the tale of his belly being cut up. Hearing this, the husband said, I am afraid he has contracted some bad disease ; and Halima herself, who had before been very desirous to keep the child, was now as eager to get rid of him, and carried him home at once to Amina. On being asked what was the reason she had thus changed her mind, the nurse said she was afraid the devil had made some attack upon him ; but the mother re- plied, " Out upon you, why should the devil hurt my child ?" Some authors tell us, that when the angels ripped up Mohammed's belly they took out his heart, and squeezed out of it the black drop, which they believe is the conse- quence of original sin, and the source of all sinful thoughts, being found in the heart of every person descended from Adam, except only the Virgin Mary and her son Jesus. * Refutatio AJcorani, fol. 1698, 8 LIFE OF MOHAMMED, a. d. 584. It is a wonder they did not except Mohammed also, whom they look upon to he the most perfect creature that God ever made ; hut of whom we shall find in the sequel that his heart was not entirely cleansed from the hlack drop. Mohammed's mother dying when he was six years old, he was taken care of by his grandfather, Abda'l Motalleb, who at his death, Avhich happened two years after, left him under the guardianship of his son Abu Taleb. By this uncle, whose business was merchandise, Mohammed was brought up, and at the age of thirteen went with him into Syria. At fourteen he joined his kinsmen in the im- pious war,'* Avhere the Koreishites gained the victory. With Abu Taleb he continued till he was twenty-five, when he became a factor to Kadija, the Avidow of a rich merchant at Mecca, who had left her all his wealth. He managed the affairs of his mistress so well, and so ingratiated himself into her farour, that after keeping him three years in her service, she bestowed on him her hand. The legendary writers, in their account of this circumstance, tell us, Kadija fell in love with Mohammed owing to the wonderful things that befell him in his last journey from Bostra in Syria, of which some were related to her by the slaves who had ac- companied him, and of some she was herself an eye-witness. But that which made the greatest impression on her heart was, that the angel Gabriel carried all the way a cloud over his head, to screen him from the scorching heat of the sun, which in that country is very intense. But surely there was little need of a miracle to induce a widow of forty-five, who had already buried two husbands, to take for a third a young man of twenty-eight, possessed, as Mohammed is said to have been, of a handsome person and agreeable manners.f From the age of thirteen or fourteen to twenty-five very * The Arabs had four months in which it was not lawful to go to war; this war was in one of those months. + " The nuptials of the prophet and his bride were celebrated with great festivity, mirth, music, and dancing ; heaven is said to have been filled \vith unwonted joy, and the whole earth intoxicated with delight. Some Arab writers add, that a voice from the skies pronounced the union happy; that the boys and girls of Paradise were led out on the joyous occasion in their bridal robes; that the hills and valleys capered for glad- ness at the sounds of unearthly music ; and that fragrance was breathed throusrh all nature." A.D. 596. HIS FIEST MAERlAGE. 9 little is related of Mohammed, except a fabulous story of lils being seen when very young by a monk of Bostra in Spia, called Bahira, who foretold his future grandeur. Boulain- villiers, indeed, who has left an unfinished account of his life, has thought fit to fill up the chasm with inventions of his own. He tells us, that during this interval his uncle Abu Taleb prepared him for the wars he was afterwards to be engaged in, by inuring him to hunting and martial exer- cises. Contrary to all history, he makes him twenty when he first travelled into Syria, and carries him to Damascus, to Baalbec, to Elia or Jerusalem, and to the capital of Persia, places which no other writer ever mentions him as visiting. These accounts he pretends to have taken from Arabian authors, but does not name a single authority. In short, Boulainvillicrs* has given to the world, instead of a history, a politico-theological romance founded upon the life of Mo- hammed, whom he supposes, in these imaginary voyages, to have made such observations, and to have furnished his mind with such political ideas as enabled him to form those great designs he afterwards put in execution. The following, however, seems to be the truth of the matter. Raised by his advantageous match with Kadija to an equality with the principal men of the city, he may very naturally have conceived the idea of aiming at the govern- ment of it. And this is the more probable as it belonged to his family, and in a regular succession ought to have come to him; but in consequence of his father and grandfather both dying when he was a minor, it had fallen to his uncle Abu Taleb. From his maiTiage nearly to the time of his pre- tended revelation, all that we hear of him on authority is, that by Kadija he had four sons. Upon the birth of the eldest, who was named Casem, he took, according to the custom of the Arabians, the surname Abu'l Casem, i. e. the father of Casem. His sons all died in their infancy; but his daughters, Fatima, Zainab, Rokaia, and 0mm Colthum, lived to be married, and will be mentioned hereafter, as occa- sion arises. * Gagnier says he could find no historians that verify the account given by Boulainvilliers ; and exposes the bad design he seems to have had in view, in the encomiums he lavishes on the impostor and his false religion. — Pref. au Vie de Mohammed. 10 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. a.d. 6C9. It is probable that he employed himself for some years in the care of his family, and the prosecution of his trade ; con- forming all the while to the idolatrous superstition of his countrymen. By the Christian writers he is said to have been profligate in his morals ; but nothing of the kind, as was to be expected, is mentioned by any Mohammedan author. However this may be, in the thirty-eighth year of his life he began to affect solitude, retiring frequently into a cave of mount Hara, near Mecca, to spend his time in fasting, prayer, and meditation. Here he is supposed to have com- posed so much of the Koran as he first published. Moham- med, who, it is agreed on all hands, could neither read nor write, has evidently borrowed many things from the Old and New Tes- taments, and from the Jewish Talmud. His assistants in the work are said to have been Abdia, the son of Salem, who was a Persian Jew, and a Nestorian monk named Bahira by the eastern, and Sergius by the western writers. From a state- ment we shall presently give from Abulfeda, it seems pro- bable that Waraka was also in the secret, if he did not lend a helping hand. In his Koran, chap. x\'i. the impostor complains that his enemies charged him with being assisted by that Persian Jew, but endeavours to clear himself in these words : " They say, certainly some man teaches him ; he whom they mean speaks a barbarous language ; but the Koran is in the Arabic tongue, full of instruction and eloquence."*'' As for the monk, he is said to have mur- dered him, when he had no further occasion for him. No doubt he took what care he could to conceal his being assisted. Abulfeda, after relating Mohammed's marriage with Kadija, has a digression, wherein he speaks of the pre- fecture of the Kaaba going from Nabet, the son of Ishmael, to the Jorhamites, next to the Kozaites, and from them to the Koreishites. The last pulled down the temple and began to rebuild it. But when the walls were raised up to the height at which the black stone was to be set, a dispute arose as to which of the tribes should have the honour of placing it. The Koreishites being unable to settle the question, Moham- med, who stood by, ordered a garment to be spread upon * See Sale's Koran, chap. xvi. with the Notes thereon. A.D. 611. HIS FIKSX REVELATION. 11 the ground, and the stone to be laid in the middle of it, and then all the tribes together to take hold of it roiind the edges and lift it up. When they had raised it high enough the prophet took the stone and put it into its place. From Abulfeda's manner of relating this transaction, its date is not fixed to this part of his life ; but an Arab writer, cited by Gagnier, says it was done when Mohammed was a little boy. In all probability it is only a fiction, invented to excite a high opinion of his wisdom.* The following account, which is taken verbatim from Abulfeda, is the statement already alluded to. " WTien the apostle of God (whom God blessf ) was forty years old, * Schlegel mentions the circumstance, and says, that at the time the honour fell to the lot of Mohammed, he was a stripling of fifteen. He also states, that at an early age, long before he announced himself as a prophet, his poetry, which far outshone that of his competitors, had raised him to a high degree of honour and consideration. — Phil, of History. In reference to this, we annex the following illustration from Herbelot : Lebid, the most distinguished Arabian poet of the time, and one of the seven whose verses constituted the Moallakat, a series of prizes suspended in the Kaaba, was still an idolater when Mohammed commenced pub- lishing his laws. One of his poems commenced with this verse : " All praise is vain which does not refer to God: and all good which proceeds not from him is but a shadow;" and no other poet could ))e found to com- pete with it. At length, the chapter of the Koran, entitled Barat, was at- tached to a gate in the same temple, and Lebid was so overcome by the verses at the commencement, as to declare that they could only be produced by the inspiration of God, and he immediately em- braced Islamism. When Mohammed was apprised of the conversion of Lebid, the finest genius of his time, he was exceedingly delighted, and re- quested him to answer the invectives and satires of Amilicais and other infidel poets who wrote against the new religion and its followers. Amasi, however, states, that after he had became a Mussulman, he wi'ote on no other subject save the praising of God for his conversion. He is said to have uttered the following sentence on his death-bed : " I am told that all that is new is pleasant; but I find it not so in death, even though it be a novelty." Ben Caschem also attributes to him the following, which is the finest sentence which ever fell from the lips of an Arab: — " All is vain which is not of God." Lebid lived to the age of 140 years, and died in the year 141 of the Hejira. t In the Koran the followers of the impostor are forbidden, when they address him, to call him by his name, Mohammed. This was too familiar; they were therefore commanded to say, prophet, or apostle of God. 12 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. a. d. 611. God sent him to the black and the red (i. e. to all mankind), that by a new law he might abolish the ancient laws. His first entrance upon this prophetic office was by a true night vision ; for the most high God had inspired him with a love of retirement and solitude, so that he spent a month every year in the cave of Mount Hara. "W-Tien the year of his mission was come he went, in the month Ramadan, with some of his family, into the cave. Here, as soon as the night fell wherein the glorious God very greatly honoured him, Gabriel (upon whom be peace) came to him and said, ' Head,' And Avhen the prophet answered, ' I cannot read,' he said again, ' Read : In the name of the Lord who hath created,' &c. reciting the words as far as, ' he taught man what he knew not,' v. 5.* Upon this the prophet, going to the middle of the mountain, and hearing a voice from heaven saying, ' O Mohammed, thou art the apostle of God, and I am Gabriel,' stood still in his place looking upon Gabriel, till at length Gabriel departed, when the prophet also went away. Soon after he came to Kadija, and told her what he had seen ; she said, ' I am very glad of this good news ; I swear by him in Avhose hand the soul of Kadija is, I verily hope you are the prophet of this nation.' And when she had said this she went to her kinsman, Waraka, son of Nawfal. Now Waraka had read the books, and heard many discourses, of Jews and Christians. To him, therefore, Kadija related what the apostle of God had said ; and Waraka replied, ' By the most holy God, and by him in whose hand is the soul of Waraka, what This author never mentions the apostle of God without adding these words, " whom God bless," or the initial letters of these words, " w. G. b." Ge- nerally, indeed, Mohammedan ■\vriters seldom name an angel, or a person whom they regard as a prophet, or as eminent for piety, without adding " peace be to him." * This is generally believed to be the first passage of the Koran re- vealed to Mohammed, though it is the beginning of the ninety-sixth chapter of that book. It runs thus, as divided into verses in Maracci's edition. " 1, Read in the name of the Lord, who hath created. 2. He hath created man of coagulated blood, 3. Read by the most beneficent Lord. 4. Who taught by the pen. 5. Who taught man what he knew not." The rest of the chapter has no connexion with the begiiming, but is taken up in upbraiding and threatening one of his enemies, supposed to be Abu Jehel. AD. 611. CONVERSION OF HIS ■WIFE. 13 you say, Kadija, is true, for the glorious law brought by Moses, the son of Amram, foretold his coming. No doubt he is the prophet of this nation.' Then Kadija returned to the apostle of God, and told him what Waraka had said ; whereupon the apostle of God said a prayer, and went to the Kaaba, and, after compassing it seven times, returned to his own house.* " After this, revelations followed thickly one after another. Kadija was the first of mortals that embraced Islamism,f so that nobody preceded her. In the book called Al Sahih there is a tradition, that the apostle of God said, among men there have been many perfect ; but among women only four : Asia, the wife of Pharaoh ; Mary, daughter of Amram; Kadija, daughter of Cowalled; and Fatima, daughter of Mohammed."]: • Warakah-bin-Na\vfal was a cousin of Kadija. In the days* of igno- rance he learned the Christian religion, translated the gospel into Arabic^ gave himself up to devotion, and opposed the worship of idols. He lived to a great age, and towards the end of his life became blind. — Notes to the Mishcat. t Islam, or Islamism, is said by Prideaux, to signify the Saving religion; by Sale, resigning one's self to God ; by Pocock, obedience to God and his prophet. It also means the Mohammedan world. It is, therefore, of the same acceptation among the Mohammedans, as the words Christianity and Christendom among Christians. Moslem, or Mussulman, is a derivation from Eslam or Islam, and is the common name of Moham- medans, without distinction of sect or opinion. In grammatical accuracy, Moslem is the singular of the word, Mussulman is the dual, and Mussul- minn, the plural. But in conformity with the usages of the best writers, we shall use the words Moslem and JIussuIman in the singular, and Mos- lems and Mussulmans in the plural. Mussulmen is decidedly ^^Tong, and has never been used by any author of note. — Mills. t " The ivickedness of women is a subject upon which the stronger sex among the Arabs, yviih an affected feeling of superior virtue, often dwell in common conversation. Th.-it women are deficient in judgment or good sense is held as a fact not to be disputed even by themselves, as it rests on an assertion of the prophet; but that they possess a superior degree of cun- ning is pronounced equally certain and notorious. Their general depravity is declared to be much greater than that of men. ' I stood,' said the prophet, ' at the gate of Paradise; and, lo, most of its inmates were the poor : and 1 stood at the gate of hell ; and, lo, most of its inmates were women.' In allusion to women, the caliph Omar said, * Consult them, and do the contrary of what they advise.' A truly nrtuous wife is, of course, excepted in this rule: such a person is as much respected by Mussulmans, as she is (at least, according to their own account) rarely met 14 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. a.d. 614. According to this statement, Kadija was the first disciple of Mohammed. Some authors, however, assert that she did not come in so readily as is here related, but for some time rejected the stories he told her as delusions of the devil. Others again say she declared she would not believe except she also should see Gabriel ; but upon her husband telling her she had not virtue enough to see an angel, she was satis- fied, and became a believer. His second convert was his cousin Ali, who had lived with him some time, and was then not above ten or eleven years old. The third was his slave Zaid, to whom he gave his freedom. In imitation of this, it became a law among the Mohammedans to emancipate those of their slaves who should turn to their religion. The fourth convert was Abubeker, one of the most considerable men in Mecca, and whose example was soon followed by 0th- man son of Afian Abdal Rahman son of Aws, Saad son of Abu- Wakas, Zobeir son of Al Awam, and Telha son of Obeidolla, and Abu Obeida. These were some of the principal men of the city, and were afterwards the gene- rals of Mohammed's army, and assisted him in esta- blishing his imposture and his empire. Abulfeda says, " Mohammeil made his converts in secret for three years ; but after this period he was commanded to preach to those of his tribe. Upon this he ordered Ali to invite his kinsmen, about forty in number, to an entertainme at, and to set before with by them. When woman was created, the devil, we are told, was de- lighted, and said, ' Thou art half of my host, and thou art the depository of my secret, and thou art my arrow, with which I shoot, and miss not.' What are termed by us affairs of gallantry were very common among the Pagan Arabs, and are scarcely less so among their I\Ioslem posterity. They are, however, unfrequent among most tribes of Bedawees, and among th . descendants of those tribes not long settled as cultivators. I remember being roused from the quiet that I generally enjoyed in an ancient tomb in which I resided at Thebes, by the cries of a young woman in the neigh- bourhood, whom an Arab was severely beating for an impudent proposal that she had made to him." — Lane's Arab. Nights, vol. i. pp. 38, 39. Thomas Moore has thus wittily versified the above sentiment of Omar : — " Whene'er you're in doubt, said a sage I once knew, 'Twixt two lines of conduct which coiu^e to pursue. Ask a woman's advice, and whate'er she advise. Do the \ ery reverse and you're sure to be wise." AD. 614. HIS riEST CONVEEXS. 15 them a lamb and a large vessel of milk. "VATien they had done eating and drinking, he began to preach ; but being in- terrupted by Abu Laheb, he invited them to a like feast the next day, and when it was over, he harangued them in the following words : ' I do not know any man in Arabia can make you a better present than I now bring you ; I offer you the good both of this world, and of the other life : the great God has commanded me to call you to him. "WTio then will Avill be my vizier (i. e. take part of the burden with me), my brother, my deputy?' When all were silent, Ali said, ' I will; and I will beat out the teeth, pull out the eyes, rip up the bellies, and break the legs of all that oppose you, I will be your vizier over them.' Then the apostle of God em- bracing Ali about the neck, said, 'This is my brother, my ambassador, my deputy, pay him obedience.' At this they all fell a laughing, and said to Abu Talcb, ' You are now to be obedient to your son.* " Mohammed, not at all discouraged by the opposition of his tribe, continued to upbraid them with their idolatry, and the perverseness and infidelity of their ancestors and of their nation. This provoked them to that degree, that they went to Abu Taleb to complain of his nephew, and desired him to interpose, who, however, dismissed them with a civil answer. However, as Mohammed persisted in his purpose, they went to him a second time, and threatened to use force. Upon this, Abu Taleb sent for his nephew and said to him, ' Thus and thus have your countrymen spoken to me ;' but Moham- med imagining his imclc to be against him, replied, ' Uncle, if they could set the sun against me on my right hand, and the moon on my left, I would never drop the affair.' 'Well,' says Abu Taleb, ' tell me what answer I shall give them : as for me,' confirming his words with an oath, 'I will never give you up.' The whole tribe now consulted about banishing all who embraced Islamism ; but Abu Taleb protected his nephew, though he did not come into his new religion." After this, Hamza, another of his uncles, resenting an affront that Abu Jehel, whom he bitterly hated, had offered to Mohammed, became one of his proselytes, as did also Omar, the son of Al Ketabi, another of the principal men of Mecca, and Abu- beker's successor in the Caliphate. Previously to his conver- sion, Omar was violently set against the prophet. At last his 16 LIFE OV MOHAMMED. a.d G17. anger rose to such a height, that having girded on a sword, he went in search of him with an intent to kill him. By the way, he called in at his own sister's, where the twentieth chapter of the Koran was reading. Omar demanded to see the book, and upon his sister's refusal, gave her a violent slap on the face, who then gave it to him, upon his promising to restore it her again. No sooner had he read a little of it, when he cried out, " O how fine is this ! how I reverence it ! I have a great desire to be a believer." He immediately in- quired where Mohammed was to be found, and, being told, went to the apostle, who, taking hold of his clothes and pull- ing him forcibly to him, said, " O son of Al Ketabi, what do you stop at ? \Vhy would you stay till the roof of the house falls upon your head ?" Upon Omar's replying, " I come hither that I may believe in God and his apostle," the apostle gave praise to God, and thus was completed the conversion of Omar. And now, finding he made such progress, the Koreishites cruelly persecuted the followers of Mohammed. On this ac- count he gave leave to as many of them as had no family to hinder it, to leave Mecca, which they did, to the number of eighty-three men and eighteen women, with their little ones. They fled to the king of Ethiopia, to whom the Koreishites sent two persons with a present of skins, desiring him to send back the fugitives. This the king not only refused to do, but, as the Mohammedan writers assert, embraced Islamism himself. In the eighth year of Mohammed's mission, the Koreishites pledged themselves by a written compact not to intermarry with the Hashemites, or to have any dealings with them. This deed was placed in the Kaaba, Avhere, it is said, a worm ate out every Avord of the deed, except the name of God. Upon this the whole tribe held a public meeting, and can- celled the agreement.'* * Some say that the hand of the notary who drew up the ■RTitiTig was dried up as soon as he had finished it. The Mussulman writers, howevet, do not agree amongst themselves about this miracle. Maracci quotes an account in which it is asserted that the name of God was eaten out of the instru- ment, wherever it occurred, every other part of it being perfectly legible; upon which, it was observed, that as God had been averse to the drawing up of the instrument before them, he had taken care that everything re- lating to him in it should be obliterated, and that everything that was the effect of their wickedness should remain. A. D. 619. DEATH OF HIS WIFE AND DNCLE. 17 " In the tenth year of the mission of the prophet died Abu Taleb. Before his death, whilst he was very ill, the apostle of God said to him, 'Uncle, make the profes- sion which will entitle you to happiness at the day of the resurrection ;' and Abu Taleb answered, ' So I would, nephew, if it were not for the disgrace ; for if I should do so, the Koreishites would say I did it for fear of death.' In his last moments he began to move his lips, and Al Abbas, putting his ear close to them, said, ' O nephew, he has repeated the words that you exhorted him to say.' Upon hearing this, the apostle of God said, ' Praised be God who has directed you, dear uncle.' " Very soon after Kadija died also.''"-* AMiereupon, Moham- med, meeting with more and more opposition at Mecca, where Abu Sofian, his mortal enemy, bore the chief sway, took a journey to TaVf, a town about sixty miles east of Mecca, wherein Al Abbas, another of his uncles, often re- sided, to try if he could make any converts there ; but having no success, he returned to Mecca, where his followers were greatly mortified by the repulse he had met with. Mohammed, however, continued his preaching, even, says Abulfeda, at the hazard of his life ; going occasionally among the pilgrims, and calling to them, "O ye of such and such a tribe (which he named), I am the apostle of God, who commands you to serve God, and not to associate any other with him; and to believe and testify that I am a true apostle." One time, being at a place called Alkaba (a mountain north of Mecca), where there were some pilgrims from Yathreb, he addressed them, and made converts of six. These, upon * Of Mohammed's affection for his wife Kadija, Abulfeda relates the following anecdote. His subsequent wife Ayesha one day reproached him with his grief on her account. " Was she not old ?" said Ayesha, with the insolence of blooming beauty ; " has not God given you a younger, a better, and a more l)eautiful wife in her place ?" " More beautiful, truly," said the prophet, " and younger, but not better. There cannot be a bet- ter : she believed in me when men despised me — she relieved my wants when I was poor and persecuted." Mr. Burckhardt informs us that the tomb of Kadija is still remaining, and is regularly visited by hadjys (pil- grims), especially on Friday mornings. It is enclosed by a square wall, and presents no objects of curiosity except the tomb-stone, which has a fine inscription in Cufic characters, containing a passage from the Koran, from the chapter entitled, Souret el Kursy. — Arabia, p. 1/2. C 18 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. A. n. CIS. their return to Yathreb, spread his fame there, and propa- gated Islamism with great success. The chief points of religion which, besides some moral duties, Mahommed first insisted upon were, the unity of God, a resurrection, and a future state of rewards and punishments. The only profession necessary to be made in order to be one of his disciples consisted of these two articles : " There is no God but one," and " Mohammed is his prophet." The former was in opposition, not onlj' directly to all who worship idols, or own a plurality of gods, but indirectly against Christians also, as holding the divinity of our blessed Saviour, and the doctrine of the Trinity. The profession of the second article was the most essential means he could take to bind his followers to swallow everything, how absurd soever, that he should propose to them for belief or practice. Islamism, he declared, Avas not a new religion, but a restoration to its original purity of the ancient religion, taught and practised by the prophets Adam, Abraham, Moses, David, and Jesus. He did indeed purge the religion of the Arabians, which in his time was rank idolatry, from some gross abuses, as Sa- baeism, or the worship of the host of heaven, the worship of idols, and divination. In order, however, to make his new system the more acceptable to his countrjTiien, he retained several of their old superstitious services, such as frequent washing, the pilgrimage to Mecca, with the absurd ceremo- nies appendant to it, of going seven times round the Kaaba, throv/ing stones to drive away the devil. Sec. The fewness of the things he proposed to their profession and belief certainly made it more easy for him to gain prose- lytes. And although the paradise he promised them was, as we shall see hereafter, very gross and sensual, it was nevertheless very well suited to the taste of the people he had to deal with, while, on the other hand, the hell with which he threatened unbelievers was terrible. He may be supposed to have dwelt much on the latter subject, as it is so frequently repeated in the Koran. By his artful, insini;ating address, in which he is said to have exceeded all men living, he surmounted all difficulties that lay in his way. At his first setting out upon his prophetic ofiice, he bore all afii'onts without seeming to resent them ; and when any of his fol- lowers were injured he recommended patience to them, and AD. 619. MAKRIES THKEE AVIVES. 19 for that purpose, it is said, proposed the Christian martyrs for their imitation. He was obliging to every body ; the rich he flattered, the poor he relieved with alms : and by his behaviour appeared the most humane, friendly person in the world, so long as he found it necessary to wear the mask, which we shall hereafter find him, upon occasions, pulling off and throwing aside. In the tenth year of his mission, Mohammed gave his daughter Fatima, then nine years old, in marriage to Ali. The dowry given by Ali upon that occasion was twelve ounces of ostrich plumes (a thing of some value in that country), and a breastplate ; all indeed that he had to give.* In the same year, according to Elmakin (for authors vary as to the precise date of many of his most considerable transac- tions), Mohammed, to strengthen his interest, as well as perhaps to gratify his inclination, married Ayesha, daughter of Abubeker, and Sawda, daughter of Sama.f To these two wives he added, some time after, Hafsa, daughter of Omar. Ayesha was then but seven years old, and therefore this marriage was not consummated till two years after, when she was nine years old, at which age, we are told, women in that country are ripe for marriage. An Arabian author cited by ^Iaracci,J says that Abubeker was very averse to the giving him his daughter so young, but that Mohammed pretended a divine command for it ; whereupon he sent her to him with a basket of dates, and when the girl was alone with him, he stretched out his blessed hand (these are the author's words), and rudely took hold of her clothes ; upon which she looked fiercely at him, and said, " People call you the faithful man,§ but your behaviour to me shows you are a perfidious one." And with these words she got out of his hands, and, composing her clothes, went and complained to her father. The old • It was a custom among the Arabs for the bridegroom t,o make a pre- sent to the father of the bride. t Accdrding to the MLhcat, Sawda was not a favourite wife of Mo- hammed's. Razin sjiys, tliat once when he proposed to divorce her, she said, " Keep me with your wives, and do not divorce me; perad venture I may be of the number of your wives in Paradise; and I give up my tm-n to Ayesha." — Book xiii. chap. x. i Marac. "Vita Mahometis, p. "23. § Abulfeda says he was called Al Amin, "the faithful one," when he was yoimg. c2 20 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. a.d. 621. gentleman, to calm her resentment, told her she was new betrothed to Mohammed, and that made him take liberties with her, as if she had been his wife. THE STOK.Y OF MOHAMMED's ASCENT INTO HEAVEN. The Mohammedan writers are not agreed about the time of this transaction, nor as to the nature of it, whether it were only a vision or a real journey. The most received opinion is, that it was in the twelfth year of his mission ; and the most orthodox belief is, that it was a real journey.* I will give it in the words of Abulfeda, who took his relation out of Al Bokhari. " Hodbaf the son of Kaled said, that Ham- man son of Jahia said, that Cottada had it from Anas the son of Malek the son of Sesa, that the prophet of God gave them a relation of his night-journey to heaven in these words : As I was within the inclosure of the Kaaba (or, as he sometimes told the story, as I lay upon a stone), behold one (Gabriel) came to me with another, and cut me open from the pit of the throat to the groin ; this done, he took out my heart, and presently there was brought near me a golden basin full of the water of faith ; and he washed my heart, stuffed it, and replaced it. Then was brought to me a white beast less than a mule but larger than an ass, I mounted him. and Gabriel went with me till I came to the first heaven of the world, and when he knocked at the door, it was said to him, 'Who is there r' he answered, 'Gabriel;' and ' WTio is with you?' he answered, ' Mohammed;' then it was asked, ' Has the apostle had his mission ?' he replied, ' Yes ;" whereupon the wish was uttered, ' May it be fortunate with him, he will now be very welcome ;' and the door was opened, and behold, there was Adam. Upon this Gabriel said to me, ' This is your father Adam, greet him ;' and I did so, and he returned the greeting, saying, ' May my best son and the best prophet be prosperous.' Then he went up with me to the second heaven, and as he knocked at the door a voice demanded, ' Who is there ?' when he had answered, ' Ga- * According to a tradition from Ayesha, it must have been a dream, for she said he was in bed vfith her all that nijjht. t The author of the book of the most authentic traditions; an account will be given of him hereafter. /.D. 621. HIS NIGHT- JOURNEY. 21 briel,' he was further asked, 'And who is with you?' to which he replied ' Mohammed ;' the voice again inquired, ' Has the apostle had his mission ?' Upon his answering, ' Yes,' I again heard the words, ' May it be fortunate to him, he will now be very welcome ;' and the door was opened, and behold there was Jahia (i. e. John) and Isa (Jesus), and they were cousins-german.'* Gabriel said to me, 'These are Jahia and Isa, greet them,' and I did so, and they greet- ing me in turn, said, ' May our best brother and the best prophet be successful.' " It would be nauseous to an English reader to repeat in the same mannev, as my author does, the knocking at the doors, the same question and answer, and the exchange of greeting, through the following five heavens ; it is sufficient to say that Mohammed being with Gabriel ad- mitted into the third heaven, found Joseph there, Enoch in the fourth heaven, Aaron in the fifth, Moses in the sixth, and Abraham in the seventh ; and that when he was near Moses, Moses wept, and being asked the reason of his weeping, said " It was because a young man, whose mission was posterior to his, would have a greater number of his nation enter into paradise, than he should of his countrymen." " Then," con- tinued the prophet, " I was carried up to the tree Sedra,f beyond which it is not lawful to go. The fruit thereof is as large as the water-pots of Hadjr, and the leaves as big as the ears of an elephant. I saw there also four rivers, and when I asked Gabriel, ' What rivers are these ?' he answered, ' Two of them run within paradise, and quite through it, the other two, which run on the outside of it, are the Nile and the Euphrates.' Then he took me to the house of visitation,;|: into which seventy thousand angels go every day. Here there were set before me three vessels, one of ^\^ne, another of milk, and the third of honey. I drank of the milk, whereupon Gabriel said to me, ' This is the happiest [omen] for thee and thy nation.' " (Another tradition adds, " If you had chosen the wine, your nation would have strayed from the right way.") " Lastly, when I came to the throne of God, I was • Here Mohammed was mistaken, the Virgin Mary and Elizabeth were not sisters. t Or Lotus tree. i This house is the orii^nal whereof a copy was sent down to Adam, as is mentioned before, page 3. 22 LIFE OF MOMAMMED. a.d. 621. ordered to pray fifty times a day. In my return from thence, being near Moses, he asked me what I had been commanded to do ; I told him to pray fifty times a day. ' And are you able,' said he, ' to pray fifty times a day ?' and with an oath he declared, ' I have made the experiment among men, for I have endeavoured to bring the children of Israel to it, but never could compass it. Go back then to your Lord, and beg an abatement for your nation.' So I went back, and he took ofi" ten prayers ; and coming to Moses, he advised me as before, and I went back again and had ten more abated ; then coming to Moses, he repeated the same advice ; I there- fore returned, and was commanded to pray ten times a day ; upon Moses's repeating what he had said before, I went back again, and was commanded to say prayers five times a day ; and when Moses was informed of this last order, he would have had me go back again to my Lord and beg a still further abatement ; I replied, ' I have so often petitioned my Lord that I am ashamed ;' and so saying, I took my leave of him, and prayed for him." The foregoing account of Mohammed's night-journey is modest, in comparison of what some authors give us, who, from other traditions, add many other wonders. Thus they tell us, that the beast Alborac would not let Mohammed mount, till he had promised him a place in paradise ; that then he took him quietly on his back, and in the twinkling of an eye, Gabriel leading him all the way by the bridle, carried him to Jerusalem ; that there a number of the pro- phets and departed saints appearing at the gate of the temple, saluted him, and, attending him into the chief oratory, desired him to pray for them ; that when he came out from thence, there was a ladder of light ready set for them, on which Gabriel and Mohammed went up to the heavens, having first tied Alborac to a ring, where he used to be tied by the prophets who had formerly ridden him. Besides all these wonders, in the first heaven, which was made of pure silver, Mohammed saw the stars hanging from it by chains of gold, (each star being as large as Mount Nobo near Mecca,) and the angels keeping watch and ward in them, that the devils might not come near to listen and hear what was doing in heaven. As he went farther on, he saw a multitude of angels of every variety of shape, which presided over and interceded A.D. C21. HIS NIGHT- JOXJIiXET. 23 for the different kinds of birds and beasts in whose shape they severally appeared. Amongst those of the birds, there was a cock, the angel of the cocks, so large, that his feet standing upon the first heaven, his head reached up to the second, which, at the ordinary rate of travelling upon earth, was at a distance of a five hundred days' journey. This he makes the distance of every one of the seven heavens from the heaven next above it. Other writers are still more extra- vagant, and say, the head of the* cock reached through all the seven heavens, up to the throne of God : that his wings, which arc large in proportion to his height, are decked with carbxincles and pearls : that every morning when God sings a hymn, this cock joins in it, and crows so loud as to be heard by all the creatures uj)on the earth, except men and fairies : and that upon hearing him all the cocks upon earth crow also. In the second heaven, which was all of pure gold, he saw an angel so large that his head reached up to the third heaven. The third heaven was all made of precious stones. There he found Abraham, who recommended him- self to his prayers ; and there also, he saw more angels than in either of the former heavens. One of them was of so prodigious a stature that the distance between his two eyes was equal to the length of a journey of 70,000 days.*" This, Gabriel told him was the angel of death, who had a table before him of an immense bigness, whereon he was con- tinually writing do^vn the names of those who were to be born, and blotting out the names of those who Avere to die. The fourth heaven was all of emerald ; therein he found Joscjih the son of Jacob, who desired him to to pray for him. In this again the number of angels was greater than in the third heaven, and one of them, whose head reached to the fifth heaven, was always weeping for the sins of mankind, and the miseries they thereby bring upon them- selves. The fifth heaven was made of adamant; here he found Moses, who desired his prayers. The sixth heaven was of carbuncle ; here was John the Baptist, who also begged his prayers. In the seventh heaven, which was made * Here Prideaux observes, that the distance between a man's eyes is in proportion to his height, as one to seventy-two. So that the height of this angel must have been four times as much as the height of all the seven heavens, and therefore he could not stand in one of them. 24 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. a.d. 621. of heavenly light, he found Jesus, whose prayers he desu-ed for himself. Here, says Prideaux, Mohammed changes his style, and acknowledges Jesus for his superior ; this Gagnier tJiinks improbable, as he taught Jesus to be no more than a creature, and pretended that he himself was the most perfect .6f all creatures. Perhaps it will solve this difficulty to observe, that this privilege of jDerfection was not yet granted to Mohammed. In this heaven were more angels than in all the rest of the heavens ; and among them one, a very extra- ordinary angel, who had 70,000 heads, and in every head 70,000 mouths, in every mouth 70,000 tongues, and every tongue uttering 70,000 distinct voices, with which he was day and night incessantly praising God. Gabriel having brought him thus far, told him he was not permitted to go any farther, and directed him to ascend the rest of the way by himself. He did so, going through water and snow, and other difficulties, till he heard a voice say, " Mohammed, salute thy Creator." Ascending still higher, he came into a place of such exceeding brightness that his eyes coidd not bear it. Here was placed the throne of the Almighty, on the right side whereof was written, " La Ellah Ellalla, Mohammed resul Ellah." " There is no God but God, Mohammed is the prophet of God." The same in- scriptiisn was also inscribed upon all the gates of the seven heavens. Having approached to the presence of God, as near as within two bow-shots, he saw him, he said, sitting upon his throne, \vith a covering of 70,000 veils upon his face. In token of his favour, God put forth his hand and laid it on him, which was of such exceeding coldness as to pierce to the very marrow of his back : that, after this, God talked familiarly with him, taught him many mysteries, in- strvicted him in the whole of his law, gave him many things in charge concerning his teaching it. Moreover, he bestowed upon him several privileges, as that he should be the most perfect of all creatures ; that, at the day of judgment, he should be advanced above all the rest of mankind, and that he should be the redeemer of all who believed in him. Then, returning to Gabriel, they both went back the same way they had come, passing successively through all the heavens. Upon arriving at Jerusalem, he found Alborac where he had been left tied, and was brought back by him to Mecca in the A.D. C21. MOHAMMEDAN TRADITIONS. 25 same manner as he had been carried from thence, and all this in the tenth part of a night. On his relating this extravagant story to the people the next morning after the night on which he pretended it had ha])pened, it was received by them, as it deserved, by a general shout of derision. Some laughed at it as ridiculous ; others were moved with indignation at his attempting to im- pose upon them with so absurd and impudent a lie, and bade him ascend up to heaven before their eyes, and they woxild believe ; while some even of his disciples were so shocked at so improbable a fiction, that they immediately left him. To prevent, therefore, further defection from him, Abubeker came forward and vouched for the truth of all Mohammed had related ; and upon this account he received from the impostor the title of Assaddick, " the just man." However, as this journey t(j heaven was a great stumbling-block even to his friends, Mohammed does not appear to have thought Abube- ker's asseveration sufficient, for he in two places of the Koran brings God himself to bear witness to the truth of the trans- actions of tliis night. How absurd soever this story seems, Mohammed knew that he would be sure to find his account in it, if he could but once get it believed. It tended to raise his authority among his followers to that height, that they could never reject any doctrine he should afterwards advance, nor refuse obedience to whatever he should think proper to command. And here, in addition to the Koran, or written law, was laid a foundation for an oral law of a like kind to that which the Jews possess, consisting of the traditions of those directions which they say Moses received at the same time with the written law, during his forty days' stay upon mount Sinai, and were by him dictated by word of mouth to those about him. Accordingly the Mohammedans pay as great a regard to many traditions of the sayings and actions of Mohammed, as to the Koran itself.* And as the Jews have several books in which their oral law is recited and explained, so the Mohammedans have their Sunnah, or tradition ; in which the * The Mishcat-ul-Mas4bih, or a collection of the most authentic tra- ditions regarding the actions and sayings of Mohammed, translated from the ori>.;inal Arabic by Capt. A. N. Mathews, was published at Calcutta iu 1809, in two volumes quarto. 26 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. a.d. 621. sayings and doings of Mohammed, in any way referring either to religion or law, are narrated in the manner set down p. 20, from Al Bokhari,'''' being generally carried up from the col- lector of the tradition through several hands to one of Mohammed's intimate companions, who either had the saying ft-om his own mouth, or was an eye-witness of the recorded fact. They have also many commentators upon that Sunnah. We may observe here, that different traditions give different accounts of the places of the prophets, Abraham, Moses, &.c. Gagnier too,f has a much longer relation of the night-journey taken from Abu Horaira, one of the six authors of traditions, J who had every thing from the mouth of ISIohammed himself. The following are some of the principal things mentioned by him, but not given in the other traditions ; 1 . Gabriel is made to appear in the form he was created in, with a complexion white as snow, and white hair finely plaited and hanging in curls about his shoulders, &.c. ; upon his forehead were two plates, on one was written, " There is no God but God ;" on the other, " Mohammed is the apostle of God :" about him he had also ten thousand little perfume-bags full of musk and saffron ; five hundred pair of wings ; and from one wing to the other there was the distance of a journey of five hundred years. 2. Gagnier gives a fuller description of the beast Alborac ; he had the face of a man, with a mane of fine pearls, kc, his very eyes two large emeralds, bright as stars, &;c., while his two large wings were enamelled with pearls and precious stones, and were bordered with light : he had a human soul, and understood what was said, but coidd not speak ; speech, however, was for once given to him, at this time, to enable him to ask Gabriel to intercede with Moham- * This famous doctor was, from Bokhara the place of his birth, or his chief residence, called Al Bokhari. His collection of traditions is ' of the greatest authority of all that have ever been made : he called it Al Sfihih, i. e. " genuine," because he separated the spurious ones from those that were authentic. He says, he has selected 7,275 of the most authentic traditions out of 100,000, all of which he looked upon to be true, hanng rejected 200,000 as being false. — D'Herlelot, Bokhari and Al Sahih. t Vie de Mohammed. j The six persons from whom the most authentic traditions come, are, 1 . Ayesha, the prophet's wife. 2. Abu Horaira, his particular friend. 3. Abu Abbas. 4. Ebn Omar, son of the Caliph Omar. 5. Giaber, son of Abdollas. fi. Anas, son of Malok. A.D. 621. TKADITIOXS OF HIS NIGHT-JOUKN£Y- 27 med, that he might have a place in paradise, which the pro- phet promised him. 3. Gabriel made the prophet stop and alight upon Mount Sinai, and pray, after bowing twice ; where- upon he got up again, and Avent on till he was over Bethle- hem; there he was ordered to alight, and to say the prayer a second time with two bowings. 4. As he went along, he twice heard an earnest call to him to stop ; and after this a young woman finely dressed accosted him, offered her hand, and told him she was entirely at his serAdce : but Alborac continued his pace. Gabriel subsequently told him, that if he had obeyed the first call, his nation would all have become Jews ; if the second, they would have been Christians : and that the woman who tempted him was the world ; and that if he had stopped to answer her, his nation would have chosen the enjoyment of this world in preference to eternal happi- ness, and so have been cast into hell. 5. He met a fine looking old man of the most venerable aspect ; he gave the prophet a tender embrace, by whom it was returned ; Gabriel told him this was Islam. 6. They went to the temple of the resurrection (in Jerusalem), and met there a man Avith three pitchers, one of water, one of milk, the third of wine ; Mohammed, being ordered to choose, drank of the milk ; the consequence of which was that his nation would, to the day of resurrection, be always directed in the right way ; but hearing that if he had drunk it all, none of his nation would ever have gone to hell, he begged he might take the milk again, and drink it all up : but Gabriel said, It is too late, the thing is determined. 7. A ladder Avith steps of gold and precious stones was placed where Jacob's ladder had been formerly set, when he saw the angels going up and down ; on this Gabriel ascended, hugging Mohammed close to his bosom, and covering him with his wings. 8. In the fifth heaven he saw an angel so large that he could have swallowed the seven heavens and seven earths as easily as a pea : and another angel of a most frightful aspect, who was the governor of hell, of which also the prophet had a sight. 9. In the sixth heaven he saw an angel, half snow and half fire ; upon which he prayed him who could join together things so contrary to unite his several believers, in obedience to him. 10. In the seventh heaven the impostor has the impudence to say, he heard God and one of the angels alternately repeat 28 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. A. l>. C21 the profession, " God is one, and Mohammed is his apostle." 11. Gabriel stopped at the tree Sedra, as it was not per- mitted to any angel to go any further ; but, upon Mohammed being frightened at his leaving him, the angel was ordered to conduct him further ; which he did, till he came to a sea of light, where he consigned him to the angel who presided over it : then this angel took him and carried him to another sea of light, where another angel presided, of such a stature, that if every thing created in heaven and earth were put into his hand it would be out as a grain of mustard seed in a large field. Then he was carried to a large black sea, and, going a- shore, passed by several different choirs of angels, till he came to Asraphel, an angel with a million of wings, and a million of heads ; in every head a million of mouths, &.c. This angel supported the throne of God on the nape of his neck. Mohammed, being now commanded to look up, saw upon the throne everything that is contained in heaven and earth, in epitome. 12. Besides the angel of the cocks already mentioned, he also saw angels of such gigantic stature, that the distance from the centre of the earth to the seventh heaven would not equal the height of their ancles. Then he was conducted by a retinue of 70,000 angels within the 70,000 veils ; and, the last veil of the tinity being lifted up, saw 70,000,000 of angels prostrate, adoring the Supreme Being ; besides 70,000 more, who had the care of the veils. Upon this there reigned a profound silence, till a voice ex- claimed, " Mohammed, approach near to the powerful and glorious God :" upon which he advanced, at one step, a journey of five hundi'ed years ; and, the same command being twice repeated, he took two more such steps. At the next moment the ground he stood upon was lifted up, so that he was within the light of his Lord, and was quite absorbed by it and dazzled. Fearing he should be blinded, Mohammed shut his eyes, but God opened the eyes of his heart : and now, being within the veil, he saw vmutterable things without number. The Lord then laid one hand on his breast, and the other upon his shoulder, upon which a cold penetrated into his bowels, but at the same time he was regaled with an inexpressible sweetness, and an odour infinitely delightful. And now, the apostle was admitted to a conversation with his Creator, of A.D. 621. HIS NIGHT-JOUEXET DEBIDED. 29 which I shall notice only the principal points. Seeing a bloody sword suspended, he prayed it might not hang over his nation : and was answered, " I send thee with the sword, but thy nation shall not perish by the sword." Next he begged that some degree of excellence might be given to him, as had been done to other prophets, as Abraham, Moses, Sec, and was answered, there are two chapters in the Koran, which whoever reads shall have everything necessary in this world, and enter into paradise in the life to come : " As for you Mohammed, I have written your name in heaven along with my own: mention is never made of me either in heaven or earth, but you are mentioned also : no crier shall call to prayers without saying, ' God is but one, and Mohammed is the apostle of God ; nor will I accept any prayers if that pro- fession is not made.' " He further desired pardon for his nation, and was promised a pardon for seventy thousand of them ; and upon his beseeching that the number might be in- creased, God took three handfuls of infinitely small dust, and scattered it, indicating thereby that so many Mussulmans would be saved, that none but God alone should be able to tell their number. The first person to whom Mohammed related his night- journey was Al Abbas, who advised him by all means to keep it to himself ; for, said he, if you speak of it in public you will be called a liar, and be otherwise insulted. 0mm Hana, daughter of Abu Taleb, earnestly besought him to the same purpose, and even laid hold of his vest to detain him ; but he, angrily breaking from her, went and declared it in a large company, who received it with much derision. Besides many other taunts, Abu Jehel called out to him, saying, "Moham- med, you say you have been in the temple of Jerusalem, pray give us some description of it ; as for me, I have been in it more than once." Upon this, Mohammed whispered in the ear of Abubeker, that he was quite at a loss what to say ; because it was in the night that he was there. Hearing this, Abubeker was in such a consternation that he fell to the ground ; but Mohammed soon got out of his diflSculty by the help of his friend Gabriel the angel, who, unseen by every body else, held in his view a model of the temple, which en- abled him to answer all questions they put to him as to the number and situation of the doors, lamps, &.c., so exactly and 30 LIFE OF MOHAM:tfED. a.d. 622. according to the truth, as to strike the hearers with astonish- ment. So much may suffice from Abu Horaira, whose tra- dition is accounted of great authority, and by every reader it will doubtless be deemed as credible, at least, as the other from Anas, son of Malek. In the thirteenth year of Mohammed's mission, Musaab son of Omair, with seventy men and eighteen women, be- lievers, and some others not yet converted, came to Mecca, and promised the apostle to meet him at night at a place called Akaba. He went to them accompanied by his uncle Al Abbas, who, though he favoured his nephew's interest, had not yet embraced Islamism. Al Abbas made a speech, wherein he recommended to them to stand by his nephew, whom they had invited to come among them. Mohammed proposed that they should take an oath to defend him as they would their wives and children ; and when they demanded, " What shall we get, if we be killed upon your account?"' he answered, "Paradise." " Stretch out your hand then," said they. Upon his complying, they took the oath and returned to Yathreb. Then the prophet ordered his converts among the people of Mecca, to get away secretly to Yathreb, while he himself should stay at Mecca, till he should receive the divine per- mission to leave it. Abubeker and Ali remained with him. The Koreishites, finding the prophet had thus entered into a league with those of Yathreb, and that his party at Mecca stuck close to him, determined to assassinate him.* Being informed of their designs, he made his escape by throwing, says my author, a handful of dust upon the heads of the in- fidels ; but first having put his own green vest upon Ali, and ordered him to lie down in his place, which he did. The assassins peeped in through a crevice of the door, and seeing the green vest, thought themselves sure of him, till Ali came out in the morning ; and then, finding their mistake, sent out * Tliey aoreed that a man should be chosen out of each of the confe- derated tribes for the execution of their project, and that eacli man should have a blow at him with his sword, in order to divide the guilt of the deed, and to liaffle the vengeance of the Hashemites ; as it was 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 ihad revealed to him this atrocious con- spiracy. — Oreen's Mohammed. ilT.3.1. A.-D. 622. ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE HI3I. S^ parties in pursuit of him. Here Mohammed had a narrow escape. The pursuing party halted before the cave where he and Abubeker had hid themselves. During the three days they had lain hid here, a spider, they tell us, had spun its Aveb over the mouth of the cave, and a pigeon laid two eggs near it.* The sight of these objects convinced their enemies that the cave could not lately have been entered by man, and so they passed on without searching it. As soon as their pursuers had departed, they came out ; and, by the help of a guide, got safe to Yathreb. Here they met with a kind reception, for some of the helpers, eager to entertain him, laid hold of the bridle of his camel ; "Let her go," said he, "she is obstinate :" at last, when she came to a certain place,f she knelt, and the prophet alighting, walked on till he met Abu Ayub one of the helpers, who took his baggage off his camel, and received him into his house.;}: He lived with Abu Ayub till he had built a house of his own, and settled there till his death. From this event the to-svn lost its ancient name — Yathreb, and was called Medinato"! Nabi, " the town of the prophet," and at last, Medina, "the town," by way of eminence ; in the same manner as London is often called the town. This Hejira, or Flight of Mohammed, is the era from which the Mohammedans date all their transactions. § • Others say this was an artful contrivance of a pigeon's nest and a spider's web, so placed by the fugitives as to induce the supposition that the cave was empty. — Green's Mo/ianuned. f Some Christian writers quoted by Prideaux, say, the ground be- longed to two orphans, whom Mohammed \iolently dispossessed, to build a mosque thereon, for the exercise of his new religion ; Gagnier, brings Arab writers that say he bought the ground and paid for it. — Note in Abul- feda, p. b'6. X " The people of Medina, in offering him an asylum, inquired whether, if he were recalled by his countrymen, he would not abandon his new allies ? ' All things,' replied the admirable politician, ' are now common lietween us : yoiu- blood is as my blood, your ruin as my ruin : we are bound to each other by the ties of honour and of interest. I am yoiu- friend, and the enemy of your foes.' ' But,' said his tremljling disciples, 'if we are killed in your service, what will be our reward V ' Paradise,' cried Mohammed. The martial spirit of his hearers was roused, their sensual passions were inflamed, and their faith was confirmed." — Mills. ^ It is the general opinion of our chronologists that the Mussulman era of " The Flight" (in Arabic, " el-Hijrah," more correctly translated " The Emi;^ation,") was Friday, the 16th of July, a.d. 622. — Lane's Modern EffT/plians. 32 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. hej. 2. a. d. 623. Mohammed had hitherto propagated his religion by fair means only. During his stay at Mecca, he had declared his business was only to preach and admonish ; and that Avhether people believed or not was none of his concern. He had hitherto confined himself to the arts of persuasion, promising, on the one hand, the joys of paradise to all who should believe in him, and who should, for the hopes of them, disre- gard the things of this world, and even bear persecution with patience and resignation : and, on the other, deterring his hearers from what he called infidelity, by setting before them both the punishments inflicted in this world upon Pharaoh and others, who despised the warnings of the prophets sent to reclaim them ; and also the torments of hell, which would be their portion in the world to come. Now, however, when he had got a considerable town at his command, and a good number of followers firmly attached to him, he began to sing another note. Gabriel now brings him messages from hea- ven to the effect, that whereas, other prophets had come with miracles and been rejected, he was to take different measures, and propagate Islamismby the sword. And accordingly, within a year after his arrival at Medina, he began what was called the holy war. For this purpose, he first of all instituted a brotherhood, joining his Ansars or helpers, and his Moha- jerins or refugees together in pairs ; he himself taking Ali for his brother. It was in allusion to this, that Ali, afterwards when preaching at Cufa, said, " I am the servant of God, and brother to his apostle." In the second year of the Hejira, Mohammed changed the Kebla of the Mussulman, which before this time had been to- wards Jerusalem, ordering them henceforth to turn towards Mecca, when they prayed.* In the same year, he also ap- pointed the fast of the month Ramadan. Mohammed having now a pretty large congregation at Medina, found it necessary to have some means of calling them to prayers ; for this purpose he was thinking of employing a horn, or some instrument of wood, which should be made to emit a loud sound by being struck upon. But his doubts • This was partly out of aversion to the Jews, his mortal enemies, and partly to please the idolatrous Arabs, whose ancient Kebla was Mecca. See Sale's Koran, chap. ii. Hej. 2. A.D. 623. WAR AT BEDER. 33 were settled this year by a dream of one of his disciples, in which a man appearing to him in a green vest recommended as a better way, that the people should be summoned to prayers by a crier calling out, "Allah acbar, Allah acbar," &c. ; " God is great, God is great, there is but one God, Mohammed is his prophet;* come to prayers, come to prayers." Moham- med approved of the scheme, and this is the very form in use to this day among the Mussulmans ; who, however, in the call to morning prayers, add the words, "Prayer is better than sleep, prayer is better than sleep ;" a sentiment not unworthy the consideration of those who are professors of a better religion. The same year, the apostle sent some of his people to plunder a caravan going to Mecca; which they did, and brought back two prisoners to Medina. This was the first act of hostility committed by the Mussulmans against the idola- ters. The second, was the battle of Bcder. The history of the battle is thus given by Abulfeda : — "The apostle, hearing that a caravan of the Meccans was coming home from Syria, escorted by Abu Sofian at the head of thirty men, placed a number of soldiers in ambuscade to intercept it. Abu So- fian, being informed thereof by his spies, sent word im- mediately to Mecca, whereupon all the principal men, except Abu Laheb, who, however, sent Al Asum son of Hesham in his stead, marched out to his assistance, making in all 950 men, whereof 200 were cavalry. The apostle of God went out against them with 313 men, of whom seventy- seven were refugees from Mecca, the rest being helpers from Medina ; they had with them only two horses and seventy camels, upon which they rode by turns. The apostle en- camped near a well called Beder, from the name of the person who was owner of it, and had a hut made where he and Abubeker sat. As soon as the armies were in sight of each other, three champions came out from among the idola- ters, Otha son of Rabia, his brother Shaiba, and Al Walid Bon of Otha ; against the first of these, the prophet sent Obeidah son of Hareth, Hamza against the second, and Ali against the third : Hamza and Ali slew each his man and * The Persi;ins add these words, "and Ali is the friend of God :" Kouli Khan, having a mind to unite the two different sects, ordered them to be omitted. — Fraser's Life of Kouli Khan,}). 124. D 34 riFE OF MOHAMMED. Hej. 2. a.d 623. then went to the assistance of Obeidah, and having killed his adversary, brought oif Obeidah, who, however, soon after died of a wound in his foot. All this while the apostle continued in his hut in prayer, beating his breast so violently that his cloak fell off his shoulders, and he was suddenly taken with a palpitation of the heart ; soon recovering, however, he comforted Abubeker, telling him God's help was come. Having uttered these words, he forthwith ran out of his hut and encouraged his men, and taking a handful of dust, threw it towards the Koreishites, and said, ' May their faces be con- founded ;' and immediately they fled. After the battle, Abdallah, the son of Masud, brought the head of Abu Jehel to the apostle, who gave thanks to God ; Al As, brother to Abu Jehel, Avas also killed ; Al Abbas also, the prophet's uncle, and Ocail son of Abu Taleb, were taken prisoners. Upon the news of this defeat, Abu Laheb died of grief within a week." Of the Mussulmans died fourteen mart}TS, (for so they call all such as die fighting forlslamism.) The number of idolaters slain was seventy ; among whom my author names some of chief note, Hantala son of Abu Sofian, and Nawfal, brother to Kadija. Ali slew six of the enemy Avith his own hand. The prophet ordered the dead bodies of the enemy to be thrown into a pit, and remained three days upon the field of battle dividing the spoil ; on occasion of which a quarrel arose between the helpers and the refugees, and to quiet them, the 8th chapter of the Koran was brought from heaven. It begins thus, " They will ask thee concerning the spoils : say, The spoils belong to God and his apostle :" and again in the same chapter, " And know that whenever ye gain any, a fifth part belongeth to God, and to the apostle, and his kindred, and the orphans, and the poor." The other four-fifths are to be divided among those who are present at the action. The apostle, Avhen he returned to Safra in his way to Medina, ordered Ali to behead two of his prisoners. The victory at Beder was of great importance to Moham- med : to encourage his men, and to increase the number of his followers, he pretended that two miracles were wrought in his favour, in this, as also in several subsequent battles : — 1st, that God sent his angels to fight on his side, and 2nd, made his army appear to the enemy much greater than it Hej. 2 A.D. 624. WAK WITH THE JEWS. 35 really was. Both these miracles are mentioned in the Koran, chap. viii. Al Abbas said, he was taken prisoner by a man of a prodigious size (an angel, of course) ; no wonder, then, he became a convert. " Ommia, the son of Abu'l Salat, was one of the chief of the unbelievers : being one who could read, he had objected to the mission of the prophet, and was arrived to that pitch of madness, as to hope to be received for an apostle himself. He had been in Syria when the battle was fought, and, as he was returning home, he was sho\\Ti the well into which the carcases of the slain, and among these tsvo of his near relations, had been thro^vn. In token of grief, he cut off the ears of his camel ; and, standing by the well, recited a long elegy, of which the following lines are a part : " Have I not wailed th' heroic sons of nobles, Their wounded bodies and their fractured ribs, In the thick wood as mourns the lonely dove 1 Like her, with me, lament, ye mourning women, With sighs and groans, low sitting on the ground. Aliis ! the peers and princes of the people How fallen, at Beder and Al Kandali ! All night exposed, lie there both old and young, Naked and breathless. Oh, what a change is come to Mecca's vale ! Even sandy desert plains are drenched in tears."* As soon as the Mussulmans returned to Medina, the Korei- shites sent to offer a ransom for their prisoners, which was ac- cepted, and distributed among those who had taken them, according to the quality of the prisoners. Some had 1000 drachms for their share. Those who had only a small or no part of the ransom Mohammed rewarded with donations, so as to content them all. The Jews had many a treaty with Mohammed, and lived peaceably at Medina ; till a Jew, having affronted an Arabian milk-woman, was killed by a Mussulman. In revenge for this, the Jews killed the Mussulman, Avhereupon a general quarrel ensued. The Jews fled to their castles ; but after a siege of fifteen days, were forced to surrender at discretion. Moham- med ordered their hands to be tied behind them, determined to put them all to the sword, and was with great difficulty * Abulfeda, Vit. Moham. d2 36 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. Hej. 3. A.n. (24. prevailed upon to spare their lives, and take all their pro- perty. Kaab, son of Ashraf, was one of the most violent among the Jews against Mohammed. He had been at Mecca, and, with some pathetic verses upon the unhappy fate of those who had fallen at Beder, excited the Meccans to take up arms. Upon his return to Medina, he rehearsed the same verses among the lower sort of people and the women. Mohammed being told of these under-hand practices, said, one day, ""Who will rid me of the son of Ashraf?" Avhen Mo- hammed, son of Mosalama, one of the helpers, answered, " I am the man, O apostle of God, that will do it :" and immedi- ately took with him Salcan son of Salama, and some other Moslems, who were to lie in ambush. In order to decoy Kaab out of his castle, which was a very strong one, Salcan, his foster-brother, went alone to visit him in the dusk of the evening ; and, entering into conversation, told him some little stories of Mohammed, which he knew Avould please him. When he got up to take his leave, Kaab, as he expected, attended him to the gate ; and, continuing tlie conversation, went on with him till he came near the ambuscade, where Mohammed and his companions fell upon him and stabbed him. Abu Sofian, meditating revenge for the defeat at Beder, swore he W'ould neither anoint himself nor come near his women till he was even with Mohammed. Setting out to- Avards Medina with two hundred horse, he posted a party of them near the town, where one of the helpers fell into their hands, and was killed. Mohammed, being informed of it, went out against them, but they all fled ; and, for the greater expedition, threw away some sacks of meal, part of their provision. From which circumstance this was called the meal-war. Abu Sofian, resolving to make another and more effectual eff"ort, got together a body of three thousand men, whereof seven hundred were cuirassiers and two hundred cavalry ; his wife Henda, with a number of women, followed in the rear, beating drums, and lamenting the fate of those slain at Beder, and exciting the idolaters to fight courageously. The apostle would have waited for them in the town, but as his people were eager to advance against the enemy, he set out at once with one thousand men ; but of these one himdred Hej. 3. A.D. 624. BATTLE OF OHUD. 37 turned back, disheartened by the superior numbers of the enemy. He encamped at the foot of Movmt Ohud, having the mountain in his rear. Of his nine hundred men only one hundred had armour on ; and as for horses, there was only one besides that on which he himself rode. Mosaab carried the prophet's standard ; Kaled, son of Al Walid, led the right wing of the idolaters ; Acrema, son of Abu Jehel, the left ; the women kept in the rear, beating their drums. Henda cried out to them, " Courage, ye sons of Abdal Dari ; courage ! smite with all your swords." Mohammed placed fifty archers in his rear, and ordered them to keep their post. Then Hamza fought stoutly, and killed Arta, the standard-bearer of the idolaters ; and as Seba, son of Abdal Uzza, came near him, Hamza struck off his head also ; but was himself immediately after run through with a spear by Wabsha, a slave, who lurked behind a rock with that intent. Then Ebn Kamia slew Mosaab, the apostle's standard-bearer ; and taking him for the prophet cried out, " I have killed Mohammed." When Mosaab was slain the standard was given to Ali. At the beginning of the action, the ]Mussulmans attacked the idolaters so furiously that they gave ground, fell back upon their rear, and threw it into disorder. The archers seeing this, and expecting a complete victory, left their posts, contrary to the express orders that had been given them, and came forward from fear of losing their share of the plunder. In the meantime, Kaled, advancing with his cavalry, fell furiously upon the rear of the Mussulmans, crying aloud at the same time, that Mohammed was slain. This cry, and the find- ing themselves attacked on all sides, threw the Mussulmans into such consternation, that the idolaters made great havoc among them, and were able to press on so near the apostle as to beat him down with a shower of stones and arrows. He was wounded in the lip, and two arrow-heads stuck in his face. Abu Obeidah pulled out first one and then the other ; at each operation one of the apostle's teeth came out. As Sonan Abu Said wiped the blood from off his face, the apostle exclaimed, "• He that touches my blood, and handles it tenderly, shall not have his blood spilt in the fire" (of hell). In this action, it is said, Telhah, whilst he was putting a breast-plate upon Mohammed, received a wound upon his 38 lilFE OF MOHAMMED. Hej. 3. a.d. 624. hand, which maimed it for ever. Omar and Abubeker were also wounded. When the Mussulmans saw Mohammed fall, they concluded he Avas killed, and took to flight ; and even Othman was hurried along by the press of those that fled. In a little time, however, finding Mohammed was alive, a great number of his men returned to the field ; and, after a very obstinate fight, brought him off", and carried him to a neighbouring village. The Mussulmans had seventy men killed, the idolaters lost only twenty-two. The Koreishites had no other fruit of their victory but the gratification of a poor spirit of revenge. Henda, and the women who had fled with her upon the first disorder of the idolaters, now retvirned, and committed great barbarities upon the dead bodies of the apostle's friends. They cut off" their ears and noses, and made bracelets and necklaces of them ; Henda pulled Hamza's liver out of his body, and chewed and swallowed some of it. Abu Sofian, having cut pieces off" the cheeks of Hamza, put them upon the end of his spear, and cried out aloud, " The success of war is uncertain ; after the battle of Beder comes the battle of Ohud ; now, Hobal,*" thy religion is victorious." Notwithstanding this boasting, he decamped the same day. Jannabi ascribes his retreat to a panic ; however that may have been, Abu Sofian sent to propose a truce for a year, which was agreed to. When the enemy were retreated towards Mecca, Moham- med went to the field of battle to look for the body of Hamza. Finding it shamefully mangled, in the manner already related, he ordered it to be wrapped in a black cloak, and then prayed over it, repeating seven times, " Allah acbar," &c. " God is great," &cc. In the same manner he prayed over every one of the martyrs, naming Hamza again with every one of them ; so that Hamza had the prayers said over him seventy-two times. But, as if this were not enough, he * An Aral) of Kossay, named Ammer Ibn Lahay, is said to have first introduced idolatry among his countrymen ; he brought the idol called Hobal, from Hyt in Mesopotamia, and set it up in the Kaaba. It was the Jupiter of the Arabians, and was made of red agate in the form of a man holding in his hand seven arrows without heads or feathers, such as the Arabs use in divination. At a subsequent period the Kaaba was adorned with three hundred and sixty idols, corresponding probably to the days of the Arabian year. — Burckhardfs Arabia, pp. 163, 164. Hej. 4. A.D. 625. PLUNDEKS MEDINA. 39 declared that Gabriel had told him he had been received into the seventh heaven, and welcomed with this eulogium, " Hamza, the lion of God, and the lion of his prophet." The Mussulmans were much chagrined at this defeat. Some expressed a doubt of the prophet being as high in the divine favour as he pretended, since he had suffered such an over- throw by infidels. Others murmured at the loss of their friends and relations. To pacify them he used various argu- ments ; telling them, the sins of some had been the cause of disgrace to all ; that they had been disobedient to orders, in quitting their post for the sake of plunder ; that the devil put it into the minds of those who turned back ; their flight, however, was forgiven, because God is merciful ; that their defeat was intended to try them, and to show them who were believers and who not ; that the event of war is imcertain ; that the enemy had suffered as well as they ; that other prophets before him had been defeated in battle ; tliat death is unavoidable. And here Mohammed's doctrine of fate was of as great service to him as it was afterwards to his suc- cessors, tending as it did to make his people fearless, and desperate in fight. For he taught them, that the time of every man's death is so unalterably fixed, that he cannot die before the appointed hour ; and, when that is come, no caution whatever can prolong his life one moment ;* so that they who were slain in battle would certainly have died at the same time, if they had been at home in their houses ; but, as they now died fighting for the faith, they had thereby gained a crown of martyrdom, and entered immediately into paradise, where they were in perfect bliss with their Lord. In the beginning of the next year, Mohammed, hearing the Asadites had a design against the country about Medina, sent a party of fifty men to ravage their lands, who brought away a great number of sheep, and so many camels that every man had seven for his share. About this time, too, being informed that Sofian, son of Kaled, the Hodhailite, was raising men against him, he ordered Abdallah, son of Onais, a determined bravo, to go and assassinate him. Abdallah having performed this office, was rewarded by Mohammed with his walking-stick, which he carried about with him ever after, and ordered it to be buried with him. • An opinion as ancient as Homer. — Iliad, vi. 487. 40 XIFE OF MOHAMMED. Hej. S. A.D. 626. Mohammed sent also Amru, with an assistant, to Mecca, to assassinate Abu Sofian ; but the object of his visit being discovered, Amru, with his companion, was forced to flee, and returned to Medina without accomplishing his task. This year the prophet had a revelation, commanding him to prohibit wine and games of chance. Some say the pro- hibition was owing to a quarrel occasioned by these things among his followers.* This year also, the people of Edlo and Al-Kara, having sent a deputation to desire the prophet to send some Mussulmans to instruct them in his religion, he sent with them six men, of whom they treacherously massacred three, and took the other three prisoners. Of the prisoners, one was killed at- tempting to make his escape ; the other two were sold to the Koreishites, who put them to a cruel death. In the fifth year of the Hejira, Mohammed, informed by his spies of a design against Medina, surrounded it with a ditch, which was no sooner finished than the Meccans, with Several stories have been told as the occasion of Mohammed's pro- hibiting the drinking of wine. Busbequius says, " Mohammed, making a journey to a friend at noon, entered into his house, where there was a marriage feast ; and sitting down wth the guests, he observed them to be very merry and jovial, kissing and embracing one another, which was attributed to the cheerfulness of their spirits raised by the wine ; so that he blessed it as a sacred thing in being thus an instrument of much love among men. But returning to tlie same house the next day, he beheld another face of things, as gore-blood on the ground, a hand cut off, an arm, foot, and other limbs dismembered, which he was told was the effect of the brawls and fightings occasioned by the wine, which made them mad, and in- flamed them into a fury, thus to destroy one another. Whereon he changed his mind, and turned his former blessing into a ciu-se, and forbade wine ever after to all his disciples." Epist. 3. " This prohibition of wine hindered many of the prophet's contemporaries from embracing his religion. Yet several of the most respectable of the pagan Arabs, like certain of the Jews and early Christians, abstained totally from wine, trom a feeling of its injurious effects upon morals, and, in their climate, upon health ; or, more especially from the fear of being led by it into the commis>ion of foolish and degrading actions. Thus Keys, the son of Asim, being one night overcome with wine, attempted to grasp the moon, and swore that he would not quit the spot where he stood until he had laid hold of it. After leaping several times with the view of doing so, he fell flat upon his face ; and when he recovered his senses, and was acquainted with the cause of his face being bruised, he made a solemn vow to abstain from wine ever after."— iane'i- Arab. Niyhk, vol. i. pp. 217, 218. Hej. S. A.D. 626. "WAR OF THE DITCH. 41 several tribes of Arabs, sat c1o'\\ti before it, to the number of ten thousand men. The appearance of so great a force threw the Mussulmans into a consternation. Some were readj^ to revolt ; and one of them exclaimed aloud, " Yesterday the prophet promised us the wealth of Cosroes and Caesar, and now he is forced to hide himself behind a nasty ditch." In the meantime, Mohammed, skilfully concealing his real con- cern, and setting as good a face upon the matter as he could, marched out with three thousand Mussulmans, and formed his army at a little distance behind the entrenchment. The two armies continued facing each other for twenty days, without any action, except a discharge of arrows on both sides. At length, some champions of the Koreishites, Amru son of Abdud, Acrema son of Abu Jehel, and Nawfal son of Abdallah, coming to the ditch, leaped over it; and, wheeling about between the ditch and the Moslem army, challenged them to fight. Ali readily accepted the challenge, and came forward against his uncle Amru, who said to him, " Nephew, what a pleasure am I now going to have in killing you." Ali replied, " No ; it is I that am to have a much greater pleasure in killing you." Amru immediately alighted, and having hamstrung his horse, advanced towards Ali, who had also dismounted, and was ready to receive him. They immediately engaged, and, in turning about to flank each other, raised such a dust that they could not be distinguished, only the strokes of their swords might be heard. At last, the dust being laid, Ali was seen with his knee upon the breast of his adversary, cutting his throat. Upon this, the other two champions went back as fast as they came. Nawfal, however, in leaping the ditch, got a fall, and being over- whelmed with a shower of stones, cried out, " I had rather die by the sword than thus." Ali hearing him, leaped into the ditch and despatched him. He then pursued after Acrema, and having wounded him with a spear, drove him and his companions back to the army. Here they related what had happened ; which put the rest in such fear, that they were ready to retreat ; and when some of their tents had been overthrown by a storm, and discord had arisen among the allies, the Koreishites, finding themselves forsaken by their auxiliaries, returned to Mecca. Mohammed made a miracle of this retreat ; and published upon it this verse of 42 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. Hej. 5. a.d 626 the Koran, " God sent a storm, and legions of angels, which you did not see."* Upon the prophet's return into the town, while he was lay- ing by his armour and washing himself, Gabriel came and asked him, " Have you laid by your arms? we have not laid by ours ; go and attack them," pointing to the Koraidites, a Jewish tribe confederated against him. "Whereupon, Moham- med went immediately, and besieged them so closely in their castles, that after twenty-five days, they surrendered at dis- cretion. He referred the settlement of the conditions to Saad, son of Moad ; who being wounded by an arrow at the ditch, had wished he might only live to be revenged. Accordingly, he decreed, that all the men, in number between six and seven hundred, should be put to the sword, the women and children sold for slaves, and their goods given to the soldiers for a prey. Mohammed extolled the justice of this sentence, as a divine direction sent down from the seventh heaven, and had it punctually executed. Saad, dying of his wound presently after, Mohammed performed his funeral obsequies, and made an harangue in praise of him. One Salam, a Jew, having been very strenuous in stirring up the people against the prophet, some zealous Casregites desired leave to go and assassinate him. Permission being readily granted, away they went to the Jew's house, and being let in by his wife, vipon their pretending they were come to buy provisions, they murdered him in his bed, and made their escape. Towards the end of this year, Mohammed, going into the house of Zaid,f did not find him at home, but happened to « Tradition says, the prophet successfully employed his arts and emis- saries in producing dissensions in the camp of his confederate enemies ; and the remnant was throwTi into confusion, and made powerless by the direct visitation of an angry God. While they lay encamped about the city, a remarkable tempest, supematurally excited, benumbed the limbs of the besiegers, blew dust in their faces, extinguished 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 in\'isible legions surrounded the camp, struck them with such a panic, that they were glad to escape with their lives. — Green. + This was the emancipated slave who was the thli-d convert of Mo- liammed, see p. 14. Hej. 6. A.D. 627. MAEEIES ZAINAB AXD JUWEIKA. 43 espy his wife Zainab so much in dishabille, as to discover beau- ties enough to touch a heart so amorous as his was. He could not conceal the impression made upon him ; but cried out, " Praised be God, who turneth men's hearts as he pleases !" Zainab heard him, and told it to her husband when he came home. Zaid, who had been greatly obliged to Mohammed, was very desirous to gi-atify him, and offered to divorce his wife. Mohammed pretended to dissuade him from it, but Zaid easily perceiving how little he was in ear- nest, actually divorced her. Mohammed thereupon took her to wife, and celebrated the nuptials with extraordinary mag- nificence, keeping open house upon the occasion. Notwith- standing this step gave great offence to many who could not bring themselves to brook that a prophet should marry his son's wife ; for he had before adopted Zaid for his son. To salve the affair, therefore, he had recourse to his usual ex- pedient : Gabriel brought him a revelation from heaven, in which God commantls him to take the wife of his adopted son, on purpose, that for ever after, believers might have no scruple in marrying the divorced wives or widows of their adopted sons ; wliich the Arabs had before looked upon as unlawful. The apostle is even reproved for fearing men, in this affair, whereas, ho ought to fear God. Koran, chap, xxxiii. In the sixth year he subdued several tribes of the Arabs. Among the captives was a woman of great beauty, named Juweira, whom Mohammed took to wife, and by way of dowry, released all her kindred that were taken prisoners. About the same time a servant of Omar, fighting with one of the helpers, occasioned a quarrel between the help- ers and the refugees ; whereupon, Abdallah, son of Abu Solul, a Medinian unbeliever, reflected upon the refu- gees, as a people that would encroach upon the Medinians, if the latter did not prevent it in time, as now they might easily do. These words being reported to the prophet, Omar, who stood by, would have had him send some one to strike off the head of Abdallah ; but his zeal was checked by the prophet asking, " Will not people say, ' What, may Moham- med put to death those that are with him, as he pleases ?' " Presently after, the son of Abdallah, who had heard of the affair, came in, and said, " O apostle of God, I am told you 44 XIFE OF MOHAMMED. Hej. G. a.d. 627. have some thoughts of condemning my father to death : if that be your intent, command me, and I will immediately bring you his head." So well had this youth, who had embra- ced Islamism, been instructed in the humane doctrine taught in the Koran, chap, xlvii., in these words, " If ye meet with any unbelievers, strike off their heads, until ye have made a great slaughter of them : and bind them in strong bonds : and give them their liberty freely, or take a ransom, until the weapons of war are laid down." The apostle, who well knew when it was for his interest to appear merciful and placable, bade the young man be kind to his father, and not take anything amiss of him. When Mohammed went upon any expedition, it was gene- rally determined by lots which of his wives should go with him ; at this time it fell to Ayesha's lot to accompany him.* Upon their return to Medina, Ayesha was accused of intriguing with one of the officers of the army, and was in great dis- grace for about a month. The prophet was exceedingly chagrined to have his best beloved wife accused of adultery ; but his fondness for her prevailed over his resentment, and she was restored to his favour upon her own protestation of her innocence. This, however, did not quite satisfy the world, nor, indeed, was the prophet's mind perfectly at ease on the subject, until Gabriel brought him a revelation, wherein Aye- sha is declared innocent of the crime laid to her charge ; while those who accuse believers of any crime, without proof, are severely rejjroved, and a command given, that whosoever accuses chaste women, and cannot produce four eye-witnesses, in support of the charge, shall receive eighty stripes. Koran, chap. xxiv. In obedience to this command, all those who had raised this report upon Ayesha were publicly scourged, except Abdallah, son of Abu Solul, who was too considerable a man to be so dealt with, notwithstanding he had been parti- cularly industrious in spreading the scandal.f • Ayesha says, " When Mohammed intended to travel, he would throw up a piece of wood, on which was the name of each, and determine by it which of his wives to take with him."^ — Mishcat, book xiii. chap. 10. •j- The following elucidation of the above circumstance is given by Sale. " Monammed having undertaken an expedition against the tribe of Mostalek, in the sixth yeai of the Hejira, took his wife Ayesha with him. On their return, when they were not far from Medina, the army removing Hej. 6. A.D. 627. A TRUCE WITH MECCA. 45 Mohammed being now increased in power, marched hia army against Mecca, and a battle being fought on the march, wherein neither side gaining the advantage, a tinice was agreed upon for ten years, on the following conditions : — All within Mecca, who were disposed, were to be at liberty to join Mohammed ; and those who had a mind to leave him and return to Mecca, were to be equally free to do so; but, for the future, if any Meccans deserted to him, they should be sent back upon demand ; and that Mohammed or any of the Mussulmans might come to Mecca, provided they came unarmed, and tarried not above three days at a time. Mohammed was now so well confirmed in his power, that he took upon himself the authority of a king; and was, by the chief men of his army, inaugurated under a tree near Medina ; and having, by the truce obtained for his followers, free access to Mecca, he ordained they should henceforward make their pilgrimages thither.*' Among the Arabs it had been an ancient usage to visit the Kaaba once a year, to worship there the heathen deities. Mohammed, therefore, thought it expedient to comply with a custom with which they were pleased, and which, besides, was so beneficial to his native place, by bringing a great concourse of pilgrims to it; that when he afterwards came to be master of Mecca, he enforced the by night, Ayesha, on the road, alighted from her camel, and stepped aside on a private occasion ; but on her return, perceiving she had dropped her necklace, which was of onyxes of Dhafar, she went back to look for it ; and in the meantime her attendants, taking it for granted that she was got into her pavilion, set it again on tJie camel, and led it away. When she came back to the road, and saw her camel was gone, she sat do^vn there, expecting that when she was missed, some would be sent back to fetch her; and in a little time she fell asleep. Early in the morning, Safwan Ehu al Moattel, who had stayed behind to rest himself, coming by, per- ceived somebody asleep, and found it was Ayesha; upon which he awoke her, by t^vice pronouncing with a low voice these words, ' We are God's, and unto him must we return.' Ayesha immediately covered herself with her veil ; and Safwan set her on his own camel, and led her after the army, which they overtook by noon, as they were resting. This accident had like to have ruined Ayesha, whose reputation was publicly called in question, as if she had been guilty of adultery with Safwan." — Sale's Koran, chap. xxiv. note. * He once thought to have ordered the pilgrimage to .Jerusalem; but finding the Jews so inveterate against him, thought it more advisable to oblige the Arabs. 46 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. Hej. 6. a.d. 627. pilgrimage with most of the old ceremonies belonging to it, only taking away the idols, and abolishing this worship. Though he now took upon himself the sovereign command, and the insignia of royalty, he still retained the sacred character of chief pontiff of his religion, and transmitted both these powers to his caliphs or successors, who, for some time, not only ordered all matters of religion, but used, especially upon public occasions, to officiate in praying and preaching' in their mosques. In process of time, this came to be all the autho- rity the caliphs had left, for, about the year of the Hejira, 325, the governors of provinces seized the regal authority, and made themselves kings of their several governments. They continued, indeed, to pay a show of deference to the caliph, who usually resided at Bagdad, whom, however, they occasionally deposed. At this present time, most Moham- medan princes have a person in their respective dominions who bears this sacred character, and is called the mufti in Turkey, and in Persia the sadre. He is often appealed to as the interpreter of the law ; but, as a tool of state, usually gives such judgment as he knows will be most acceptable to his prince. Mohammed used at first, when preaching in his mosque at Medina, to lean upon a post of a palm-tree driven into the ground ; bvit being now invested with greater dignity, by the advice of one of his wives, he had a pulpit built, which had two steps up to it, and a seat within, "When Othman was caliph, he hung it with tapestry, and Moawiyah raised it six steps higher, that he might be heard when he sat do^v^l, as he was forced to do, being A-ery fat and heavy ; whereas his predecessors all used to stand. Mohammed had now a dream, that he held in his hand the key of the Kaaba, and that he and his men made the circuits round it, and performed all the ceremonies of the pilgrimage. Having told his dream next morning, he and his followers were all in high spirits upon it, taking it for an omen that they should shortly be masters of Mecca. Accordingly, great preparations were made for an expeditioa to this city. The prophet gave it out that his only intent was to make the pil- grimage. He provided seventy camels for the sacrifice, which were conducted by 700 men, ten to each camel ; as, however, he apprehended opposition from the Koreishites, he took Hej. C. A.D. 627. MAECHES AGAINST MECCA. 47 with him his best troops, to the number of 1400 men, besides an incredible number of wandering Arabs from all parts. The Koreishites, alarmed at the march of the Mussulmans, got together a considerable force, and encamped about six miles from Mecca. Mohammed continued his march, but finding, by his spies, the enemy had posted their men, so as to stop the passes in his feints and counter-marches, came to a place where his camel fell upon her knees. The people said she was restive, but the prophet took it for a divine intimation that he should not proceed any farther in his intended expe- dition, but wait with resignation till the appointed time. He therefore turned back, and encamped without the sacred territory, at Hodaibia. The Koreishites sent three several messengers, the two last men of consequence, to demand what was his intention in coming thither. He answered, that it was purely out of a devout wish to A'isit the sacred house ; and not with any hostile design. Mohammed also sent one of his own men to give them the same assurance ; but the Koreishites cut the legs of his camel, and would also have killed the man, had not the Ahabishites interposed and helped him to escape. Upon this, he wished Omar to go upon the same errand ; but he excused himself, as not being upon good terms with the Koreishites. At last, Othman was sent ; who delivered his message, and was coming away, when they told him he might, if he wished, make his circuits round the Kaaba. But \ipon his replying he would not do so until the apostle of God had first performed his vow to make the holy circuits, they wiere so greatly provoked, that they laid him in irons. In the Mussulman army it was reported that he was killed, at which Mohammed was much afflicted, and said aloud, "We will not stir from hence till we have given battle to the enemy." Thereupon, the whole army took an oath of obedience and fealty to the prophet, who, on his part, by the ceremony of clapping his hand one against the other, took an oath to stand by them as long as there was one of them left. The Koreishites sent a party of eighty men towards the camp of the Mussulmans to beat up their quarters. Being discovered by the sentinels, they were surrounded, taken pri- soners, and brought before Mohammed ; who, thinking it proper at that time to be generous, released them. In return, 48 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. HeJ. 6. a.d. 627. Sohail son of Amru was sent to him with, proposals of peace, which he agreed to accept. In wording the treaty, however, Ah had written, " Articles agreed upon between Mohammed the apostle of God, and Sohail son of Amru;" to this title Sohail objected, saying, " If I owned you for an apostle of God, I should be to blame to oppose you ; write, therefore, your own name and your father's." Mohammed being in no con- dition to dispute the matter, bade Ali blot out the objection- able words, but he bluntly swore he would not so dishonour his glorious title. Upon this, Mohammed took the pen and blotted out the words himself, writing instead of them, son of Abdallah. This, my author says, was one of his miracles ; for he never had learned to write. While they were drawing up the treaty, Abu Jandal, son of Sohail, who had embraced Islamism, and been confined by his father at Mecca, got loose, and came among the Mussulmans ; and being discovered, was reclaimed by his father, in virtue of the articles. Sohail beat his son severely for this elopement ; but Mohammed exhorted the young man to have patience, for God would soon give liberty and prosperity to him and all Mussulmans in his condition. Mohammed's men were greatly disgusted at the disappoint- ment they had met with ; for, from his dream and the pro- mises he had made them, they had expected nothing less than a complete victory ; whereas, after a great deal of fatigue, they were now forced to be content with what they could not but regard as a dishonourable peace. Mohammed had encamped without the precincts of Mecca, but so near the sacred territory, that he went thereon to say hia prayers. He gave the word of command to his people, " Slay the victims and shave your heads ;" but nobody stirred to do as he had bidden them. Upon his telling this to his wife Omm-Salama, she thus advised him : "Go among them, and say nothing to any body, but slay your camels and make your sacrifice; and send for your barber and shave your head:" he did so, and all his people immediately followed his ex- ample. The apostle having cried out, " God be merciful to the shaved heads ;" they answered, " And to the shaved beards too, O apostle of God :" he repeated his prayer, and they repeated their response. ^ Mohammed, pretending he had a divine promise of a great booty, returned to Medina ; and, having concluded a peace Htfj. 7. A.D. 628. NEAKLY POISONED. 49 for ten years with the Koreishites, was the better enabled to attack the Jews, his irreconcilable enemies. Accordingly, he went to Khaibar, a strong town about six days' journey north- east of Medina, and took that and several other strong places, whereto the Jews had retired, and carried a vast deal of treasure ; this all fell into the hands of the Mussulmans. Being entertained at Khaibar, a young Jewess, to try, as she after- wards said, whether he were a prophet or not, poisoned a shoulder of mutton, a joint Mohammed was particularly fond of. One of those who partook of it at the table, named Basher, died upon the spot ; but Mohammed, finding it taste disagreeable, spat it out, saying, " This mutton tells me it is poisoned." The miracle-mongers improve this story, by making the shoulder of mutton speak to him ; but if it did, it spoke too late, for he had already swallowed some of it ; and, of the effects of that morsel he complained in his last illness, of which he died three years after. In this year, Jannabi* mentions Mohammed's being be- witched by the Jews. Having made a waxen image of him, they hid it in a well, together with a comb and a tuft of hair tied in eleven knots. The prophet fell into a very wasting condition, till he had a dream that informed him where these implements of witchcraft were, and accordingly had them taken away. In order to untie the knots, Gabriel read to him the two last chapters of the Koran, consisting of eleven verses ; each verse untied a knot, and, when all were un- tied, he recovered. f • Gagnier, Vie de Mohammed, v. 2, p. 43. Sale on the Koran, p. 508. t " An implicit ))elief in magic is entertained by almost all Mussulmana; and he among them, who denies its truth, they regard as a free-thinker, or an infidel. Some are of opinion that it ceased on the mission of Moham- med; but these are comparatively few. Many of the most learned Mus- sulmans, to the present age, have deeply studied it ; and a much greater number of persons of inferior education (particularly schoolmasters) have, more or less, devoted their time and talents to the pursuit of this know- ledge. Recourse is had to it for the discovery of hidden treasures, for alchymical purposes, for the acquisition of the knowledge of futurity, to procure offspring, to obtain the affection of a beloved object, to effect cures, to guard against the influence of the evil eye, to afflict or kill an enemy or a rival, and to attain various other objects of desire. Babil, or Babel, is regarded by the Mussulmans as the fountain head of the science of magic, which was, and, as most think, still is, taught there to mankind by two fallen angels, named Haroot and Maroot, who are there suspended 50 LirE OF MOHAMMED. Hej. 8. a.d. 629. This year Mohammed had a seal made with this inscrip- tion, " Mohammed, the apostle of God." This was to seal his letters, which he now took upon him to write to divers princes, inviting them to Islamism. His first letter to this effect was sent to Badham, viceroy of Yemen, to be forwarded to Cosroes, king of Persia. Cosroes tore the letter, and ordered Badham to restore the prophet to his right mind, or send him his head. Cosroes was presently after murdered by his son Siroes ; Badham with his people turned Mussulmans, and Mohammed continued hiixi in his government. by the feet in a great pit closed by a mass of rock." — Lane's Arab, Nights, vol. i. pp. 66,218. " From another fable of these two magicians, we are told that the angels in heaven, expressing their surprise at the wickedness of the sons of Adam, after prophets had been sent to them with divine commissions, God bid them choose two out of their own number, to be sent down to be judges on earth. Whereupon they pitched upon Haroot and Maroot, who executed their office with integrity for some time, in the proxince of Baby- lon ; but whilst they were there, Zohara, or the planet Venus, descended, and appeared before them in the shape of a beautiful woman, bringing a complaint against her husband. As soon as they saw her they fell in love with her, whereupon she invited them to dinner, and set wine before them, which God had forbidden them to drink. At length, being tempted by the liquor to transgress the divine command, they became drunk, and endeavoiu-ed to prevail on her to satisfy their desires ; to which she pro- mised to consent upon condition that one of them should first carry her to heaven, and the other bring her back again. They immediately agreed to do so, but directly the woman reached heaven she declared to God the whole matter, and as a reward for her chastity she was made the morning star. The guilty angels were allowed to choose whether they would be punished in this life or in the other ; and upon their choosing the former, they were hung up by the feet by an iron chain in a certain pit near Babylon, where they are to continue suffering the punishment of their transgression until the day of judgment. By the same tradition we also learn, that if a man has a fancy to learn magic, he may go to them and hear their voice, but cannot see them." — See Sale's Koran, chap. ii. and notes. Prideaux's Life of Moham. &c. Lane says, " that the celebi-ated traditionist, Mujahid, is related to have visited these two angels under the guidance of a Jew. Having removed the mass of rock from the mouth of the pit, or well, they entered. Mujahid had been previously charged by the Jew not to mention the name of God in their presence ; but when he beheld them, resembling in size two huge mountains, and suspended upside down, with irons attached to their hands and knees, he could not refrain from uttering the forbidden name, where- upon the two angels became so violently agitated, that they almost broke the irons which confined them, and Mujahid and his guide fled in con- sternation." — Lane's Arab. Nights, vol. i. p. 214. Hej. 8. A.D. 629. HIS XETTERS TO ROYALTY. 51 He also sent a letter of the same ptirport to the Roman emperor, Heraclius. Heraclius received the letter respect- fully, and made some valuable presents to the messenger. He sent another to Makawkas, viceroy of Egypt, who returned in answer, he would consider of the proposals, and sent, among other presents, two young maidens. One of these, named, Mary, of fifteen years of age, Mohammed debauched. This greatly offended two of his wives, Hafsa and Ayesha, and to pacify them he promised, upon oath, to do so no more. But he was soon taken again by them transgressing in the same way. And now, that he might not stand in awe of his wives any longer, down comes a revelation which is recorded in the sixty-sixth chapter of the Koran, releasing the prophet from his oath, and allowing him to have concu- bines, if he wished.* And the two wives of Mohammed, who, upon the quarrel about Mary, had gone home to their fathers, being threatened in the same chapter with a divorce, were glad to send their fathers to him to make their peace with him, and obtain his permission for their return. They were fain to come and submit to live with him upon his own terms. Mohammed sent letters at the same time to the king of Ethiopia, who had before professed Islamism, and now in his answer repeated his profession of it. He Avrote to two other Arabian princes, who sent him disagreeable answers, which provoked him to curse them. He sent also to Al Mondar, king of Bahrain, who came into his religion, and afterwards routed the Persians, and made a great slaughter of them. And now all the Arabians of Bahrain had become converts to his religion. Among the captives taken at Khaibar, was Safia, betrothed to the son of Kenana, the king of the Jews. Mohammed took the former to wife, and put Kenana to the torture, to make him discover his treasure. In the action at Khaibar, it * Thomas Moore, the poet, thus alludes to the circumstance in Lalla Rookh :— " And here Mohammed, bom for love and guile, For^^ets the Koran in his Mary's smile ; Then beckons some kind angel from above. With a new text to consecrate their love !" Veiled Prophet qf Klwrassan. % 2 52 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. Hej. 8. a.d. 629. is said, Ali, having his buckler struck out of his hand, took one of the gates off its hinges, and used it for a buckler, till the place was taken. The narrator of this story asserts that he and seven men tried to stir the gate, and were not able. One of the articles of the peace being, that any Mussulman might be permitted to perform his pilgrimage at Mecca, the prophet went to that city to complete the visitation of the holy places, which he could not do as he intended when at Hodaiba. Hearing, upon this occasion, the Meccans talking of his being weakened by the long marches he had made, to show the contrary, in going round the Kaaba seven times, he went the first three rounds in a brisk trot, shaking his shoulders the while, but performed the four last circuits in a common walking pace. This is the reason why Mussulmans always perform seven circuits round the Kaaba in a similar manner. In the eighth year of the Hejira, Kaled son of Al Walid, Amru son of Al As, and Othman son of Telha, who presided over the Kaaba, became Mussulmans ; this was a considerable addition to Mohammed's power and interest. The same year Mohammed, having sent a letter to the governor of Bostra in Syria, as he had to others, and his messenger being slain there, sent Zaid, son of Hareth, with three thousand men to Muta in Syria, against the Roman army, which, with their allies, made a body of nearly one hundred thousand men. Zaid being slain, the command fell to Jaafar, and, upon his death, to Abdallah son of Rawahas, who was also killed.* There- * " The death of Jaafar was heroic and memorable; he lost his right hand, he shifted the standard to his left, the left was severed from his body, he embraced the standard with his bleeding stumps, till he was transfixed to the ground with tifty honourable wounds. ' Advance,' cried Abdallah, who stepped into the vacant place, ' advance with confidence ; either vic- tory or paradise is our own.' The lance of a Roman decided the alter- native ; but the falling standard was rescued by Kaled, the proselyte of Mecca; nine swords were broken in his hand ; and his valour withstood and repulsed the superior numbers of the Christians. To console the afflicted relatives of his kinsman Jaafar, Mohammed represented that, in paradise, in exchange for the arms he had lost, he had been furnished with a pair of wings, resplendent with the blushing glories of the ruby, and with which he was become the inseparal)le companion of the archangel Gabriel, in his volitations throu:;h the regions of eternal bliss. Hence, ^n the catalogue of the martyrs, he has been denominated Jaaffer teyaur, the winged Jaaffer." — Milman's Gibbon, chap. 1. Hej. 8. A.D. 629. SUBDUES MECCA.. 53 upon the Mussulmans unanimously chose Kaled for their leader, who defeated the enemy, and returned to Medina with a con- siderable booty, on which account Mohammed gave him the title of the " Sword of God." The same year the Koreishites assisted some of their allies against the Kozaites, who were in alliance with Mohammed. This the latter resented as an infraction of the peace. Abu Sofian was sent to try to make up matters, but IMohammed would not vouchsafe to receive his explanation. But having made his preparation to fall upon them before they could be prepared to receive him, he advanced upon Mecca with about ten thousand men. Abu Sofian having come out of the town in the evening to reconnoitre, he fell in with Al Abbas, Avho, out of friendship to his countrymen, had ridden from the army with the hope of meeting seme straggling Meccans whom he might send back with the news of Mohammed's approacli, and advise the Meccans to surrender. Al Abbas, recognizing Abu Sofian's voice, called to him, and advised him to get up behind him, and go with him, and in all haste make his submission to Mohammed. This he did, and, to save his life, professed Islamism, and was afterwards as zeal- ous in propagating as he had hitherto been in opposing it. Mohammed had given orders to his men to enter Mecca peaceably, but Kaled meeting with a party who discharged some arrows at him, fell upon them, and slew twenty-eight of them. Mohammed sent one of his helpers to bid him desist from the slaughter ; but the messenger delivered quite the contrary order, commanding him to show them no mercy. Afterwards, when Mohammed said to the helper, " Did not I bid you tell Kaled not to kill any body in Mecca ?" " It is true," said the helper, " and I would have done as you directed me, but God would have it otherwise, and God's will was done." When all was quiet, Mohammed went to the Kaaba, and rode round it upon his camel seven times, and touched with his cane a corner of the black stone with great reverence. Having alighted, he went into the Kaaba, where he found images of angels, and a figure of Abraham holding in his hand a bundle of arrows, which had been made use of for deciding things by lot. All these, as well as three liundred and sixty idols which stood on the outside of the Kaaba, he 54 XIFE OF MOHAMMED. Hej. 8. a.d. 629. caused to be thrown down and broken in pieces. As he entered the Kaaba, he cried with aloud voice, "Allah acbar," seven times, turning round to all the sides of the Kaaba. He also appointed it to be the Kebla, or place toward which the Mussulmans should turn themselves when they pray. Remount- ing his camel, he now rode once more seven times round the Kaaba, and again alighting, bowed himself twice before it. He next visited the well Zemzem, and from thence passed to the station of Abraham. Here he stopped a while, and ordering a pail of water to be brought from the Zemzem, he drank several large draughts, and then made the holy wash- ing called wodhu. Immediately all his followers imitated his example, purifying themselves and washing their faces. After this, Mohammed, standing at the door of the Kaaba, made an harangue to the following effect : " There is no other god but God, who has fulfilled his promise to his servant, and who alone has put to flight his enemies, and put imder my feet every thing that is visible ; men, animals, goods, riches, except only the government of the Kaaba and the keeping of the cup for the pilgrims to drink out of. As for you, O ye Koreishites, God hath taken from you the pride of paganism, which caused you to worship as deities our fathers Abraham and Ishmael, though they were men de- scended from Adam, who was created out of the earth." Having a mind to bestow on one of his own friends the prefec- ture of the Kaaba, he took the keys of it from Othman the son of Telha, and was about to give them to Al Abbas, who had asked for them, when a direction came to him from heaven, in these words, " Give the charge to whom it belongs." "Whereupon he returned the keys by Ali to Othman, who, being agreeably surprised, thanked Mohammed, and made a new profession of his faith. The pilgrim's cup, however, he consigned to the care of Al Abbas, in whose family it became hereditary. The people of Mecca were next summoned to the hill Al Safa, to witness Mohammed's inauguration. The prophet having first taken an oath to them, the men first, and then the women, bound themselves by oath to be faithful and obedient to whatsoever he should command them. After this, he summoned an extraordinary assembly, in which it was de- creed, that Mecca should be henceforward an asylum or Hej. 8. A.D. 629. SIATTGHTEE OF THE JODHAMITES. 55 inviolable sanctuary, within which, it should be unlawful to shed the blood of man, or even to fell a tree. After telling the Meccans they were his slaves by conquest, he pardoned and declared them free, with the exception of eleven men and six women, whom, as his most inveterate enemies, he proscribed, ordering his followers to kill them wherever they should find them. Most of them obtained their pardon by embracing Islamism, and were ever after, the most zealous of Mussulmans. One of these, Abdallah, who had greatly offended Mohammed, was brought to him by Othman, upon whose intercession Mohammed pardoned him. Before he granted his pardon, he maintained a long silence, in ex- pectation, as he afterwards owned, that some of those about him would fall upon Abdallah and kill him. Of the women, three embraced Islamism, and were pardoned, the rest were put to death ; one being crucified. Mohammed now sent out Kaled and others, to destroy the idols which were still retained by some of the tribes ; and to invite them to Islamism. Kaled executed his commission with great brutality. The Jodhamites had formerly robbed and murdered Kaled's uncle as he journeyed from Arabia Felix. Kaled having proposed Islamism to them, they cried out, " they professed Sabaeism." This was what he wanted. He immediately fell upon them, killing some, and making others prisoners : of these, he distributed some among his men, and reserved others for himself. As for the latter, having tied their hands behind them, he put them all to the sword. On hearing of this slaughter, Mohammed lifted up his eyes, and protested his innocence of this murder ; and immediately sent Ali with a sum of money to make satisfaction for the blood- shed ; and to restore the plunder. Ali paid to the surviving Jodhamites as much as they demanded, and generously di- vided the overplus among them. This action Mohammed applauded ; and afterwards reproved Kaled for his cruelty. Upon the conquest of Mecca, many of the tribes of the Arabs came and submitted to Mohammed ; but the Hawa- zanites, the Thakishites, and part of the Saadites, assembled to the number of 4000 effective men, besides women and child- ren, to oppose him. He went against them at the head of 12,000 fighting men. At the first onset, the Mussulmans being received with a thick shower of arrows, were put to flight ; 56 LIFE or MOHAMMED. Hoj. 8. a.d. 629. but Mohammed, with great courage, rallied his men, and finally obtained the victory. Among the captives there was one who said she was the daughter of Mohammed's nurse. The prophet, being satisfied by some mark of the truth of her pretensions, held out his cloak towards her, in token of his good will, and giving her leave to return home, furnished her liberally for her journey. The next considerable action was the siege of TaYf, a town sixty miles east from Mecca. The Mussulmans set down before it ; and, having made several breaches -with their engines, marched resolutely up to them ; but were vigorously repulsed by the besieged. Mohammed, having by an herald proclaimed liberty to all the slaves who should come over to him, twenty-three deserted, to each of whom he assigned a Mussulman for a comrade. So inconsider- able a defection did not in the least abate the courage of the besieged ; so that the prophet began to despair of reducing the place, and, after a dream, which Abubeker interpreted unfavourably to the attempt, determined to raise the siege. His men, however, on being ordered to prepare for a retreat, began to murmur ; whereupon, he commanded them to be ready for an assault the next day. The assault being made, the assailants were beaten back with great loss. To console them in their retreat, the prophet smiled, and said, " We will come here again, if it please God." When the army reached Jesana, where all the booty taken from the Hawazanites had been left, a deputation arrived from that tribe, to beg it might be restored. The prophet having given them their option, between the captives or their goods, they chose to have their wives and children again. Their goods being divided among the Mussulmans, Mohammed, in order to indemnify those who had been obliged to give up their slaves, gave up his own share of the plunder, and divided it among them. To Malec, however, son of Awf, the general of the Hawazanites, he in- timated, that if he would embrace Islamism, he should have all his goods as well as his family, and a present of 100 camels besides. By this promise, Malec was brought over to be so good a Mussulman, that he had the command given him of all his countrymen who should at any time be converts ; and was very serviceable against the Thakishites. The prophet, after this, made a holy visit to Mecca, where he appointed Otab, son of Osaid, governor, though not quite Hej. 9. A.D. G30. ATTACKS THE KOMANS AND SYRIANS. 57 twenty years of age ; Maad, son of Jabal, Imam, or chief priest, to teach the people Islamism ; and direct them in solemn- izing the pilgrimage. Upon his return to Medina, his concu- bine, Mary, brought him a son, whom he named Ibrahim ; celebrating his birth with a great feast. The child, however, lived but fifteen months. In the ninth year of the Hejira, envoys from all parts of Arabia, came to ]\Iohammed at Medina, to declare the readi- ness of their several tribes to profess his religion. At this time also, Kaab, son of Zohair, who had been proscribed for writing some satirical verses upon Mohammed, came and made his peace, with a poem in his praise. It began thus : — " Now does my happiness draw near ; Th' accepted day is in my view :" Besides granting his pardon, Mohammed gave him his cloak off his back ; which precious relic was purchased of his family by Moawiyah the caliph, at a high price, by whose successors it was worn on all solemn occasions, down to the irruption of the Tartars, in the year of the Hejira 656. The same year, Mohammed, with an army of 30,000 men, marched towards Syria, to a place called Taouc, against the Romans and Syrians, who were making preparation against him ; but, upon his approach, retreated. The Mussulmans, in their march back towards Medina, took several forts of the Christian Arabs, and made them tributaries. Upon his return to Medina, the Thakishites, having been blockaded in the Ta'if by the Mussulman tribes, sent deputies offering to embrace Islamism, upon condition of being allowed to retain a little longer an idol to which their people were bigotedly attached. When Mohammed insisted upon its being immediately de- molished ; they desired to be at least excused from using the Mussulman' prayers, but to this he answered very justly, " That a religion without prayers was good for nothing." At last they submitted absolutely. During the same year, Mohammed sent Abubeker to Mecca, to perform the pilgrimage, and sacrifice in his be- half twenty camels. Presently afterwards, he sent Ali to publish the ninth chapter of the Koran, which, though so placed in the present confused copy, is generally supposed 58 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. IIcj. 10. a.d. 631. to have been the last that was revealed. It is called Barat, or Immunity ; the purport of it is, that the associators with whom Mohammed had made a treaty, must, after four months' liberty of conscience, either embrace Islamism, or pay tribute. The command runs thus : — " When those holy months are expired, kill the idolaters wherever ye shall find them." Afterwards come these words, " If they repent, and observe the times of prayer and give alms, they are to be looked upon as your brethren in religion." Thus we find the impostor, who at first pretended only to persuade, as soon as he thought himself sufllciently strong to compel men into his religion, declaring it not only lawful, but necessary to make converts by force of arms. For the publication of this doctrine, he could not have found a fitter instrument than his vizir Ali. The same chapter also orders, " That nobody should, not having on the sacred habit, perform the holy circuits round the Kaaba ; and that no idolater should make the pilgrimage to Mecca." In consequence, no person ex- cept a Mohammedan may approach the Kaaba, on pain of death. The foUoAving account of Mohammed's farewell pilgrimage, is from Jaber, son of Abdallah,* Avho was one of the com- pany : — " The apostle of God had not made the pilgrim- age for nine years ; (for when he conquered Mecca he only made a visitation.) In the tenth year of the Hejira, he publicly proclaimed his intention to perform the pilgrimage, whereupon, a prodigious multitude of people (some make the number near 100,000) flocked from all parts to Medina. Our chief desire was to follow the apostle of God, and imitate him. When we came to Dhul Holaifa,f the apostle of God prayed in the mosque there ; then mounting his camel, he rode hastily to the plain Baida, where he began to praise God in the form that professes, his unity, saying, ' Here I am, O God, ready to obey thee, thou hast no ♦ Gagnier, Note in Abulfeda, p. 130. + There are different places where the pilgrims from various parts put off their clothes, and put on the sacred habit ; which, being a penitential one, consists, according to Sale, of two coarse woollen ivrappers. Bobovius, however, saj's, " It is made like a surplice ;" if so, it is only one large wrapper, for it must not be sewed. — Vide Pocock, Spec. Hist. Arab. p. 31G. Hej.lO. A.D. 631. HIS LAST PILGKIMAGE. 59 partner,' &c. When he came to the Kaaba, he kissed the corner of the black stone, went sei^en times round, — three times in a trot, four times walking, — then went to the station of Abraham, and coming again to the black stone, reverently kissed it. Afterwards he went through the gate of the sons of Madhumi to the hill Safa, and went up it, till he could see the Kaaba ; when, turning towards the Kebla, he professed again the unity of God ; saying, ' There is no God but one, his is the kingdom, to him be praises, he is powerful above every thing,' &.c. After this profession he went down towards the hill Merwan, I following him all the way through the valley ; he then ascended the hill slowly till he came to the top of Merwan ; from thence he ascended mount Arafa. It being towards the going down of the sun, he preached here till sunset; then going to Mosdalefa, between Arafa and the valley of Mena, he made the evening and the late prayers, with two calls to prayer, and two risings up. Then he lay down till the dawn, and having made the morning prayer, went to the inclosure of the Kaaba, where he remained standing till it grew very light. Hence he proceeded hastily, before the sun was up, to the valley of Mena ; where, throwing up seven stones, he repeated at each throw, ' God is great,' kc. Leaving now the valley, he went to the place of sacrifice. Having made free sixty-three slaves, he slew sixty-three victims * with his own hand, being then sixty-three years old ; and then ordered Ali to sacrifice as many more victims as would make up the number to lOO.f The next thing the apostle did was to shave his head, beginning on the right side of it, and finish- ing it on the left. His hair,'as he cut it off, he cast upon a tree, that the wind might scatter it among the people. Kaled was fortunate enough to catch a part of the forelock, which he fixed upon his turban ; the virtue whereof he experienced in every battle he afterwards fought. The limbs of the vic- • Mohammed's victims were camels : Jannabi apud Gagnier, Vie de Mohammed, vol. ii. p. 265 ; they may, however, be sheep or goats, but in this case they must be male ; if camels or kine, female. — Sale, Prelim. Dis. p. 120. t Ludovicus Patricius Romanus, who, feigning himself a Mussulman, was present at a pilgrimage, says, " The remains of the sacrificed sheep, after those who furnished them had eaten, were given to the poor, who usually assembled here in great numbers." — Lib. 1. cap. 13. 60 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. Hej. 11. a.d. 632. tims being now boiled, the apostle sat down wdth no other companion but Ali, to eat some of the flesh, and drink some of the broth. The repast being over, he mounted his camel again and rode to the Kaaba ; where he made the noon-tide prayer, and drank seven large draughts of the well Zemzem, made seven circuits round the Kaaba, and concluded his career between the hills Safa and Merwan. " The ninth day of the feast, he went to perform his devo- tions on mount Ai-afa. This hill, situated about a mile from Mecca, is held in great veneration by the Mussulmans, as a place very proper for penitence. Its fitness in this respect is accounted for by a tradition, that Adam and Eve, on being banished out of paradise, in order to do penance for their transgression, were parted from each other ; and after a separation of six score years, met again upon this mountain." At the conclusion of this farewell pilgrimage, as it was called, being the last he ever made, Mohammed reformed the calendar in two points. 1. In the first place, he appointed the year to be exactly lunar, consisting of twelve lunar months, whereas, before, in order to reduce the lunar to the solar year, they used to make every third year consist of thirteen months. And secondly, whereas the ancient Arab- ians held four months sacred, wherein it Avas unlawful to commit any act of hostility, he took away that prohibition, by this command, " attack the idolaters in all the months of the year, as they attack you in all." Koran, chap. ix. In the 11th year of the Hejira there arrived an ambassage from Arabia Felix, consisting of about one hundred who had embraced Islamism. The same year, Mohammed ordered Osa- ma to go to the place where Zaid his father was slain at the battle of Muta, to revenge his death. This was the last ex- pedition he ever ordered, for, being taken ill two days after, he died within thirteen days. The beginning of his sickness was a slow fever, which made him delirious. In his frenzy he called for pen, ink, and paper, and said, " He would write a book that should keep them from erring after his death." But Omar opposed it, saying the Koran is sufficient, and that the prophet, through the greatness of his malady, knew not what he said. Others, however, expressing a desire that he would write ; a contention arose, which so disturbed Moham- med that he bade them all be gone. During his illness, he com- Hej. 11. A.D. 632. HIS DEATH. 61 plained of the poisoned meat he had swallowed at Khaibar. Some say, when he was dying, Gabriel told him the angel of death, who never before had been, nor would ever again be so cere- monious towards any body, was waiting for his permission to come in. As soon as Mohammed had answered, " I give him leave ;" the angel of death entered, and complimented the prophet, telling him, God was very desirous to have him, but had commanded he should take his soul- or leave it, just as he himself should please to order : Mohammed replied, " Take it, then." [According to the testimony of all the Eastern authors, Mohammed died on Monday the 12th Reby 1st, in the year 11 of the Hejira, which answers in reality to the 8th June, 632, a.d.*] On his death, there was great confusion among his fol- lowers : some said, " He was not dead, but only taken away for a season, and would return again as Jesus did ;" and called out, " Do not bury the apostle of God, for he is not dead." Omar was so strongly of this opinion, that he drew his sword, and swore he would cut anj^ body in pieces who should say the prophet was dead. Abubcker, however, came in and said, " iJo you worship Mohammed, or the God of Moham- med ? the God of Mohammed is immortal ; but as for Mohammed he is certainly dead :" he then proved, by several places in the Koran, that Mohammed was to die as well as other men ; and not to return to life till the general resurrec- tion. From this it is plain, that it is only a vulgar error to sup- pose the Mussulmans look for Mohammed's return upon earth. This dispute was no sooner settled, than another and more * " The mortal disease of the prophet was a bilious fever of fourteen days, which deprived him by intervals of the use of his reason. As soon as he was conscious of his danger, he edified his brethren by the humility of his penitence or his virtue. ' If there be any man,' said the prophet from the pulpit, ' whom I have unjustly scourged, I submit my own back to tlie lash of retaliation. Have I aspersed the reputation of a Mussulman ? let him proclaim my faults in the face of the congregation. Has any one been despoiled of his goods I the little that I possess shall compensjite the principal and interest of the debt.' ' Yes,' replied a voice from the crowd, ' I am entitled to three drachms of silver.' Mohammed heard, and satisfied the demand with interest, thanking, at the time, his creditor for hav- ing accused him in this world, rather than at the day of judgment. ' God,' he added, 'offers to mankind the enjoyment either of this world, or of the world come. I prefer eternal to temporal felicity.' " — Abulfeda. 62 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. Hej. 11. a.d. 632. violent contest arose about his burial. The refugees, who had accompanied him in his flight from Mecca, wished him to be buried there, in the place of his birth ; the helpers or Medinians were for burying him at Medina, where he in his flight had been so kindly received. The dispute ran so high, that they were near coming to blows ; when Abubeker put an end to it, by declaring, he had often heard Mohammed say, that prophets should be buried in the place where they died. Accordingly, his grave was dug under the bed whereon he lay, in the chamber of Ayesha. The Arabian writers are very particular to tell us every thing about the washing, and embalming his body ; who dug his grave, who put him in, &c.* The person of Mohammed is minutely described by them. He was of a middle stature, had a large head, thick beard, black eyes, hooked nose, wide mouth, a thick neck, flowing hair. They also tell us that what was called the seal of his apostleship, a hairy mole between his shoulders, as large as a pigeon's egg, disappeared at his death. Its disappear- ance seems to have convinced those who would not before believe it, that he was really dead. His intimate companion Abu Horaira said, he never saw a more beautiful man than the prophet. He was so reverenced by his bigoted disciples, they would gather his spittle up and swalloAV it. The same writers extol Mohammed as a man of fine parts, and a strong memory, of few words, of a cheerful aspect, affable and complaisant in his behaviour. They also celebrate his justice, clemency, generosity, modesty, abstinence, and humi- lity. As an instance of the last virtue, they tell us he mended his own clothes and shoes. However, to judge of him by his actions as related by these same writers, we cannot help con- cluding, that he was a very subtle and crafty man, who put on * Gagnier, Note in Abulfeda, p. 140. and Vie de Mahom. vol. ii. p. 299. There are many ridiculous stories told of Mohammed, which being notoriously fabulous, are not introduced here. Two of the most popular are : That a tame pigeon used to whisper in his ear the commands of God. [The pigeon is said to have been taught to come and peck some grains of rice out of Mohammed's ear, to induce people to think that he then received by the ministry of an angel, the several articles of the Koran.] The other is, that after his death he was buried at Medina, and his coffin suspended by divine agency or magnetic power, between the ceiling and floor of the temple. Hej. 11. A.D. 632. HIS GENERAL CHAEACTER. 63 the appearance only of those good qualities ; while the govern- ing principles of his soul were ambition and lust. For we see him, as soon as he found himself strong enough to act upon the offensive, plundering caravans ; and, under a pre- tence of fighting for the true religion, attacking, murdering, enslaving, and making tributaries of his neighbours, in order to aggrandize and enrich himself and his greedy followers : and without scruple making use of assassination to cut off those who opposed him. Of his lustful disposition, we have a sufficient proof, in the peculiar privileges he claimed to himself, of having as many wives as he pleased, and of whom he chose, even though they were within forbidden degrees of affinity. The authors who give him the smallest number of wives, own that he had fifteen ; whereas the Koran allows no Mussulman more than four.*' As for himself, Mo- hammed had no shame in avowing that his chief pleasures were perfumes and women. • Dr. Weil informs us in his Life of Mohammed, that according to the most authentic accounts, Mohammed left nine wives, for Kadija and Zainab had died before him; but others are mentioned in traditions, from whom he was either separated soon after marriage or before consummation. From Asma-bint-Numan, he refrained, because she was leprous; and from Amra-bint-Yezid, because when he was about to emljrace her, she ex- claimed, " I Uikc mj' refuge in God in preference to thee;" for it seems she had been so recently converted to Islamism, that the approach of Mohammed made her shudder. The prophet replied to this speech by saying, " He who flies to God finds protection," and immediately returned her to her friends. Gagnier makes an incorrect statement in reference to this circumstance, for he tells us that the separation was caused by Amra's relapsing into idolatry, for which the prophet detesting her, sent her home, and afterwards said, " God, who protects me from evil, preserved me from her." Another writer tells us, that her extreme beauty attracted the jea- lousy of Mohammed's other wives, and they accordingly persuaded her to offer a long opposition to his advances, and to call God to her aid, pretend- ing that this Avould increase the love of her husband, though they well knew that he excessively disliked such conduct. Abulfeda reckons alto- gether fifteen wives, four of whom, however, never shared connubial rites. Another writer says, that the apostle paid his addresses to thirty women, but with seven of these no marriage contract took place, and he only asso- ciated with twelve of the remainder. Mention is also made of one named Kuteila, who was brought from Hadramaut, by her brother, but did not reach Medina till after the death of Mohammed. Kuteila afterM-ards mar- ried a son of Abu Djahl's, and this being told to Abubeker, he was going to bum the house over her head, on account of the prophet having pro- 64 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. Hej. 11. a.d. 632, The Koran is held by the Mohammedans in the greatest veneration. The book must not be touched by any body but a Mussulman ; nor even by a believer, except he be free from pollution. Whether the Koran be created or uncreated, has been the subject of a controversy fruitful of the most violent persecutions. The orthodox opinion is, that the original has been written from all eternity on the preserved table. Of this they believe, a complete transcript was brought down to the lower heaven (that of the moon), by the angel Gabriel : and thence taken and shown to Mohammed, once every year of his mission ; and twice in the last year of his life. They assert, however, that it Avas only piece-meal, that the several parts were revealed by the angel to the prophet, and that he immediately dictated what had been revealed to his secretary, who wrote it down. Each part, as soon as it was thus copied out, was communicated to his disciples, to get by heart ; and was afterwards deposited in what he called the chest of his apostleship. This chest the prophet left in the custody of his wife Hafsa. How the present book was compiled, partly out of these detached scraps, and partly out of the memories of his companions, may be seen in our author at the end of the reign of Abubeker. When we consider the way in which the Koran was com- piled, we cannot wonder that it is so incoherent a piece as we find it. The book is divided into chapters ; of these some are very long ; others again, especially a few towards the end, very short. Each chapter has a title prefixed, taken from the first word, or from some one particular thing mentioned in it, rarely from the subject matter of it; for if a chapter be of any length, it usually runs into various subjects that have no connexion with each other. A celebrated commentator divides the contents of the Koran into three general heads: 1. Precepts or directions, relating either to religion, as prayers, fasting, pilgrimages ; or to civil polity, as marriages, inheritances, judicatures. 2. Histories — whereof some are hibited his wives from marrying after his death. Omar, however, preserved her, by telling Abubeker that she did not belong to the " mothers of the faithful," as the ambassador of God had never received her. Beside these wives, Mohammed lived with four female slaves. Two of these Makaw- kas sent him; one was a captive in war, and the other was given him by his wife Zainab. Hej 11. A. D. 632. THE KORAN. 65 taken from tlie scriptures, but falsified with fabulous addi- tions ; others are wholly false, having no foundation in fact. 3. Admonitions : under which head are comprised exhorta- tions to receive Islamism ; to fight for it, to practise its pre- cepts, prayer, alms, &.c. ; the moral duties, such as justice, temperance, &c., promises of everlasting felicity to the obe- dient, dissuasives from sin, threatenings of the punishments of hell to the unbelieving and disobedient. Many of the threatenings are levelled against particular persons, and those sometimes of Mohammed's own family, who had opposed him in propagating his religion. In the Koran, God is brought in saying, " We have given you a book." By this it appears that the impostor published early, in writing, some of his principal doctrines, as also some of his historical relations. Thus, in his Life, p. 16, we find, his disciples reading the twentieth chapter of the Koran, before his flight from Mecca ; after which he pre- tended many of the revelations in other chapters were brought to him. Undoubtedly, all those said to be revealed at Me- dina must be posterior to what he had then published at Mecca ; because he had not yet been at Medina. Many parts of the Koran he declared were brought to him by the angel Gabriel, on special occasions, of which we have already met with several instances in his biography. Accordingly, the commentators on the Koran often explain passages in it by relating the occasion on which they were first revealed. Without such a key, many of them would be perfectly unintelligible. There are several contradictions in the Koran. To recon- cile these, the Mussulman doctors have invented the doctrine of abrogation, i. e. that what was revealed at one time was revoked by a new revelation. A great deal of it is so absurd, trifling, and full of tautology, that it requires no little patience to read much of it at a time. Notwithstanding, the Koran is cried up by the Mussulmans, as inimitable ; and in the seven- teenth chapter of the Koran, Mohammed is commanded to say, " Verily if men and genii were purposely assembled, that they might produce any thing like the Koran, they could not produce any thing like unto it, though they assisted one another." Accordingly, when the impostor was called upon, as he often was, to work miracles in proof of his divine mis- F 66 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. Hcj. 11. a. d. 632. sion, he excused himself by various pretences, and appealed to the Koran as a standing miracle.* Each chapter of the Koran is divided into verses, that is, lines of different length, terminated with the same letter, so as to make a different * Mirza Ibrahim (translated by Lee) states, however, that the miracles recorded o£ Mohammed almost exceed enumeration. " Some of the doc- tors of Islamism have computed them at four thousand four hundred and fifty, whilst others have held that the more remarkable ones were not fewer than a thousand, some of which are almost universally accredited: as his dividing the moon into two parts ; the singing of the gravel in his hand ; the flowing of the water from between his fingers ; the animals ad- dressing him, and complaining before him ; his satisfying a great mul- titude with a small quantity of food, and many others. The miracle of the speaking of the moon is thus related by Gagnier : — On one occa- sion Mohammed accepted a challenge to bring the moon from heaven in presence of the whole assembly. Upon uttering his command, that lu- minary, full-orbed, though but five days old, leaped from the firmament, and, bounding through the air, alighted on the top of the Kaaba, after having encircled it by seven distinct evolutions. She is said to have paid rever- ence to the prophet, addressing him in elegant Arabic, in set phrase of encomium, and concluding with the formula of the Mussulman faith. This done, the moon is said to have descended from the Kaaba, to have entered the right sleeve of Mohammed's mantle, and made its exit by the left. After having traversed every part of his flowing robe, the planet separated into two parts, as it mounted to the air. Then these parts re- united in one round and luminous orb, as before." The following very elaborate miracle is detailed in the Book of Aga Acber, as translated by Professor Lee : — " On a certain day, four com- panies of Pagans suddenly surrounded Mohammed, and called upon him for miracles. The first asked for one like the deluge ; the second, for a sign like that of Moses, who suspended Mount Sinai over the heads of his followers ; the third, for a miracle like Abraham's, who was throAvn in the fire and escaped unscorched ; whilst the fourth begged for one like those of Jesus, who told what people had eaten or laid up in their houses. The prophet replied that the Koran was sufiicient to confinn God's judgment against unbelievers, and added that he could not exceed the commission he had received from above. Suddenly Gabriel descended and promised him that God would accede to the wishes of the pagans. Accordingly, in obedience to his directions, Mohammed told the first company to proceed to the foot of Mount Kabis, where they should see the miracle of Noah ; and when they found themselves in danger, they were to betake themselves to Ali and his two sons Hasan and Hosein, who would appear for their deli- verance. The second, he desired to go to the plain of Mecca, where they should see the fire of Abraham ; and if that affected them, they were to pray to a woman who would appear in the air. The third he di- rected to go to Kaaba, where they should behold the miracle of Moses, ■whilst Hamza would preserve them ; and the fourth he persuaded to Hej.ll. A.D 632. MOHAMMEDAN EEIilGION. 67 rhyme, but without any regard to the measure of the syl- lables. The Mohammedan religion consists of two parts, faith and practice. Faith they divide into six articles: 1. A remain with him and Gabriel to hear the relations of their friends. Upon this communication three of the companies immediately dispersed. The first hastened to the foot of Mount Kabis, where suddenly several fountains boiled up under their feet, the rain fell in torrents, thouc^h the sky was cloudless, and the water soon rose to their chin. The affrighted pagans ascended the mountains, but the flood reached them there, and they mo- mentarily expected drowning, when Ali and his sons appeared on the sur- face of the waters, and placed them in a place of safety. The delu3:e disappeared, and they returned to Mohammed, and entering his presence, they acknowledged the divinity of his mission, and embraced Islamism. In the meantime, the second company had departed for the plain of Mecca, which they had scarcely reached before the heavens were cleft asunder and the fire came down. The earth then opened, and clouds of flame ascended and spread till the whole world seemed enveloped. Every moment they expected to be consumed, when the form of Fatima appeared in the air, and letting down her veil, she directed them to hold by its slender threads, and upon obeying her commands, they were instantly borne away, and at length, let do^vn in the court-yards of their own houses ; whereupon they also returned to Mohammed and embraced his religion. In the same manner, the third company had betaken themselves to the Kaaba, and sat beneath its sha