The Dabistan

61

" braled, because lie sat upon the throne of justice,
fcC and one of his most approved actions was, that
" he withheld his hand from an old woman's house,
" which was an hinderance in the vicinity of his
" palace, and preferred to waste his own fields;
" and the lord of the prophetic asylum, because
** he appeared upon the field of testimony in the time
" of this king, exalted his fame and glory by these
" words :

" I was born in the time of the just king. *

* * How can it be right to believe that the prophet,
" the last of the age, should be pleased with the
" destruction of a Muselman; he who would not
" disturb the people who, engaged in their trade
" and occupation, obstructed his passage? he who
" said:

" * He who kills willingly a believer shall have hell for eternal
" ' punishment;'

" He cannot have acted by that rule; he who de-
4 * clares:

1 Muhammed, according to his traditions, was born in the twentieth
year of Nushirvan's reign, which, as this king began to reign A. D. 531,
would be in 551. This does not agree with the date of the prophet's
death in 632, at the age of sixty-three years, about which the best histo-
rians are unanimous. For the same reason, the date of his birth, as
stated by Silvestre de Sacy, on the 20th April, 571, cannot be true.
According to Weisi, Muhammed was born in the thirty-eighth year of
Nushirvan's. reign, on the 1st of April, 569, which was a Monday, and it
was on a Monday he was born and died (see Gemaldesaal Mosl., Herr-
sher per Band, Seite 22, note).