54

I am a man like you, but I speak from inspiration,"

Ci In eating, dress, repose, affliction, health, sick-
44 ness, wounds, in life and death, his condition was
*-' that of mankind: thus, some teeth of the vener-
" able were knocked out,l and in his last malady
" he was exceedingly suffering, so that in thevio-
" lence of his pain he might have said things which
16 were not consonant with a sound mind. On that
"' account Omar forbade his writing." The Shiah
remarked:'c When the prophet had left the garment
:t of mortality, Omar drew his sword, and threat-
'" ened to kill whosoever would say that the prophet
" died, because he was still living ; such a declara-
" tion, how can it be reconciled with his impeding
£* the writing of the last will in the manner before
" said?" The Sonnite avowed: " Mankind is sub-
" ject to error." The Shiah pressed further: " Af-
" ter the contention, when Osman was appointed
" khalif, his relations of the family of Omiyah
'' practised oppression under his authority, and he
44 brought back Hakim, the son of As ,2 the son of

1 This happened in the battle of Ohod (so is called a mountain half an
hour's distance from Madina, on the route of Mecca). Muhammed fought
with seven hundred men against more than three thousand Koreish from
Mecca, in the third year of the Hejira (A, D. 624). Otba, the son of Vac-
casi, and brother of Sad, >vho fought on the prophet's side, hit him with
a stone, so as to knock out four incisors of his inferior jaw.

2 The edition of Calcutta and the manuscript of Oude have erroneously:
44 Hakim, the son of Mervan," instead of As, which I substituted for