Full text of "The life of Mohammed; founder of the religion of Islam, and of the empire of the Saracens"

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LIFE OF MOHAMMED. By Rev. George Bush, A. M.

LIFE OF FULTON. By C. D. Colden, Esq.

LIFE OF CLINTON. By David Hossack, LL. D.

LIVES OF WASHINGTON and FRANKLIN. Improved editions.

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LIFE OF CERVANTES. By J. G. Lockhart, Esq.

LIFE OF THE EARL OF PETERBOROUGH. By Walter Scott

LIFE OF SIR ISAAC NEW-TON. Bv Dr. Brewster.

THE LIFE OF NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE.

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in preparation for the Family Library.

THE LIFE OF GENERAL, THE EARL OF PETER

BOROUGH.
THE LIFE OF MARLBOROUGH.

THE LIFE OF GENERAL WOLFE.

THE LIFE OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT.

THE LIFE AND REIGN OF GEORGE III.

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH REFORMERS.

LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

Harper s Stereotype Edition.

THE

L.IFE OF MOHAMMED;

FOUNDER

THE RELIGION OF ISLAM, AND OF THE
EMPIRE OF THE SARACENS.

BY THE

REV. GEORGE BUSH, A.M.

PRINTED BY J. &lt;$- /. HARPER, 82 CLIFF^ST.

Sold by Collins & Hannay, Collins & Co., G. & C. & H. Carvill, White,
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brook, Milliard, Gray, & Co., and Carter & Hendee.

1831.

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW-YORK, w.

BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the 30th day of September, A. D. 1830, in the fifty-
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claim as Proprietors, in the words following, to wit :

" The Life of Mohammed ; Founder of the Religion of Islam, and of the Empire
of the Saracens. By the Rev. George Bush, M.A."

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FREDERICK J. BETTS,
Clerk of the Southern District

, 648123

PREFACE.

THE present work lays claim to no higher cha
racter than that of a compilation. This indeed
must necessarily be the character of any work at
tempted, at this day, upon the same subject. 411
the accessible facts in the life and fortunes of the
Arabian prophet have long since been given to the
world. New theories and speculations, moral and
philosophical, founded upon these facts, and many of
them richly deserving attention, are frequently pro
pounded to the reflecting, but they add little or no
thing to the amount of our positive information.
All therefore that can now be expected is such a
selection and arrangement and investment of the
leading particulars of the Impostor s history, as
shall convey to the English reader, in a correct
and concentrated form, those details which are
otherwise diffused through a great number of rare
books, and couched in several different languages.
Such a work, discreetly prepared, would supply,
if we mistake not, a very considerable desideratum
in our language one which is beginning to be
more sensibly felt than ever, and which the spirit

of the age loudly requires to have supplied. How

b PREFACE.

far the present sketch may go towards meeting the
demand, it becomes others than the writer to judge.
He has aimed to make the most judicious use of
the materials before him, and from the whole mass
to elicit a candid moral estimate of the character
of the Founder of Islam. In one respect he may
venture to assure the reader he will find the plan
of the ensuing pages an improvement upon pre
ceding Memoirs ; and that is, in the careful colla
tion of the chapters of the Koran with the events
of the narrative. He will profoibly find the history
illustrated to an unexpected extent from this
source a circumstance, which, while it serves
greatly to authenticate the facts related, imparts a
zest also to the tenor of the narrative scarcely to
be expected from the nature of the theme.

In order to preserve the continuity of the story
from being broken by incessant reference to au
thorities, the following catalogue is submitted,
which will present at one view the principal works
consulted and employed in preparing the present
Life : Sale s Koran, 2 vols. ; Universal History,
Mod. Series, vol. i. ; Gibbon s Decline and Fall
of the Roman Empire, vol. iii. ; Pride aux s Life of
Mahomet ; Boulainvillier s do. ; do. in Library of
Useful Knowledge, No. 45 ; Bayle s Historical
Dictionary, Art. Mahomet ; Hottinger s Historia
Orientalis : Abul-Faragii Historia Dynastarum,
Pocock s Transl. ; Morgan s Mahoinetism Ex
plained, 2 vols. ; Forster s Mahometanism Un
veiled, 2 vols. ; D Herbeiot s Bibliotheque Orien-

I K.M A 1.. 7

tale ; Rycaut s Present State of tlio Ottoman Em
pire ; Ocklcy s History of the Saracens, 2 vols. ;
White s Bampton Lectures ; Lee s Translation of
the Rev. H. Martyn s Controversial Trac:
Whitaker s Origin of Arianism ; Faber s Sacred
Calendar of Prophecy, 3 vols. ; Buckingham s,
Keppel s, Burckhardt s, and Madden s Travels in
the East.

On the subject of the Arabic proper names so
frequently occurring in this work, it may be useful
to the English reader to be informed, thai Al is a
particle equivalent to our definite article The.
Thus, Alcoran is composed of two distinct words
signifying The Koran, of which the last only
ought to be retained in English. Again, Ebn is
the Arabic word for son, as is Bint or Binta for
daughter, and with the particle Al after it, accord
ing to the Arabic usage, Ebncfl is, the son. So
Abu, father, with the article after it, Abu l, the fa
ther. Thus, Said Ebn Obeidah Abu Omri, is,
Said, the son of Obeidah father of Omri ; it be
ing usual with the Arabs to take their names of
distinction from their sons as well as their fathers.
In like manner, Ebno l Athir, is, the son of Athir ;
Abu l Abbas, the father of Abbas : and as Abd
signifies servant, and Allah, God ; Abdo^lah or Ab-
dallah is, servant of God ; Abdo l Snems, servant
of the sun,

The deciding between the different modes in
which the prophet s name is, or ought to be, writ-

8 PREFACE.

ten, and the adoption of the most eligible, has been
a matter of perplexing deliberation. Upon con
sulting the Greek Byzantine historians, it appears
that the same diversity of appellation which now
prevails, has obtained for seven centuries. In some
of them we meet with Maometis r from which
comes our Mahomet, the most popular and familiar
title to the English ear ; and in others, Machomed.
Other varieties among ancient authors might doubt
less be specified. But it will be observed, for the
most part, that writers acquainted with the Arabic
tongue and who have drawn their materials directly
from the original fountains, as well as the great
body of recent Oriental travellers, are very unani
mous in adopting the orthography of the name
which appears in our title page. If the Arabic
usage be in fact the proper standard, as will pro
bably be admitted, Mohammed, instead of either
Mahomet, Mahomed, or Mahommed, is the genuine
form of the name, and the mode in which it should
be uniformly written and pronounced. The fact,
that the example of most Oriental scholars of the
present day has given currency to this form, and
the probability that it will finally supplant all
others, has induced us, on the whole, to adopt it,
though with considerable hesitation.

The following list of names and titles frequently
occurring in connexion with the affairs of the East,
together with their etymological import, will not be
deemed inappropriate to the object of the present
work.

PREFAtI . 9

MOHAMMED, &gt; From HAMAD; praised, higlrty ce-
AHMED. J lebrated, illustrious, glorious.

MOSLEM, 1 All from the same root, ASLAM ;
MUSSULMAN, ( signifying to yield up, dtdic-
ISLAM, f consecrate entirdy to the SL/ CICC

ISLAMISM. of religion.

KORAN. From KARA, to read ; the reading, legend,
or that which ought to be read.

CALIPH. A successor ; from the Hebrew CHALAPH;
to be changed, to succeed, to pass round in
a revolution.

SULTAN. Originally from the Chaldaic SOLTAN ;
signifying authority, dominion, principality.

VIZIER. An assistant.

HADJ. Pilgrimage; HADJI; one who makes the
pilgrimage to Mecca.

SARACEN. Etymology doubtful ; supposed to be
from SARAK, to steal ; a plunderer, a robber.

HE JIRA, } The Flight ; applied emphatically to Mo
or &gt; hammed s flight from Mecca to Me-
HEJRA. ) dina. See page 106.

MUFTI The principal head of the Mohammedan
religion, and the resolver of all doubtful
points of the law. An office of great dig
nity in the Turkish empire.

IMAM. A kind of priest attached to the mosques,
whose duty it is occasionally to expound

10 PREFACE.

a passage of the Koran. They, at the
same time, usually follow some more lucra
tive employment.

MOOLLAH. The Moollahs form what is called
the Ulema, or body of doctors in theology
and jurisprudence, who are entrusted with
the guardianship of the laws of the em
pire, and from whose number the Mufti is
chosen.

EMIR. Lineal descendants of the Prophet him
self, distinguished by wearing turbans of
deep sea-green, the colour peculiar to all
the race of Mohammed. They have spe
cial immunities on the score of their de
scent, and one of them carries the green
standard of the Prophet when the Grand
Seignior appears in any public solemnity.

PASHA. The title given to the provincial governors.
A Pasha is to a province or pashalic, what
the Sultan is to the empire, except that the
judicial power is in the hands of the cadis,
the provincial magistrates. The tails of a
Pasha are the standards which he is allowed
to carry ; one of three tails is one of three

standards, which number gives the power
of life and death.

REIS EFFENDI. This officer may be termed the
High Chancellor of the Ottoman empire.
He is at the head of a class of attorneys

PREFACE. 11

which at this time contains the best informed
men of the nation.

SERAGLIO. This word is do rived from Serai, a
term of Persian origin, signifying a palace.
It is therefore improperly used as synony
mous with Herein, the apartments of the
women. The Seraglio is, in strictness of
speech, the place where the court of the
Grand Seignior is held ; but it so happens
that at Constantinople tli is building includes
the imperial Harem within its walls.

CRESCENT. The national ensign of the Turks,
surmounting the domes and minarets at
tached to their mosques, as the Cross does
the churches of the Roman Catholics in
Christian countries. This peculiar and
universal use of the Crescent is said to
have owetKJs origin to the fact, that at the
time of Mohammed s flight from Mecca to
Medina the moon was new. Hence the
half moon is commemorative of that event.

SUBLIME PORTE. This title, which is frequently
applied to the court, cabinet, or executive
department of the Ottoman empire, is de
rived, as the words import, from a lofty
arched gateway of splendid construction,
forming the principal entrance to the Seraglio
or palace. It is a phrase equivalent to
" Court of St. James," " Court of St. Cloud,"
&c.

12 PREFACE.

As one grand object continually aimed at by the
compiler of the ensuing pages has been to exhibit
the Arabian prophet as a signal instrument in the
hands of Providence, and to put the whole system
of his imposture, with its causes, accompaniments,
and effects, where it properly belongs, into the
great scheme of the Divine administration of the
world, it is hoped that the prophetic investigations
of this subject in the Appendix will not be over
looked. The writer is disposed to lay a peculiar,
perhaps an unreasonable, stress of estimation upon
this portion of the work. Not that he deems the
interpretation proposed as infallible, but he is in
hopes that this essay towards a right explication
may contribute somewhat to inspire a more gene
ral interest in this province of scriptural elucida
tion, and thus to pave the way for the eventual
correction of the errors of this and every preceding
exposition. No one who admQfe the truth of reve
lation but will acknowledge that events, which are
so overruled irx the providence of God as to revo
lutionize a great portion of the civilized and Chris
tian world, are important enough to claim n place
in the prophetic developernents of futurity ; and if
predicted, these predictions, when accomplished,
are worthy of being explained. Otherwise, we
willingly and culpably forego one of the main ar
guments in favour of the truth and divinity of the
inspired oracles.

CONTENTS.

PREFA.C* 5

Introduction 17

&lt; 1 1 AFTER I.

National Descent of the Arabs Proved to be from Ishmael, Son of
Abraham 25

( IIAl TKR II.

Birth and Parentage of Mohammed Loses his Parents in early &lt; luid-
hood Is placed under the Care of his I nde Abu Taleb Goes into
Syria on a trading Expedition with his Un&lt; ; at ilu- Age of thirteen
Enters the Service of Cadijah, a Widow of Mtvca, whom he afterward
marries 32

CHAPTER III.

Mohammed forms the Design of palming a new Religion upon the
World Difficult to account for this Determination Considerations
suggested Retires to the Cave of Hera Announces to Cadijah the
Visits of Gabriel with a Portion of the Koran She becomes a Convert
His slow Progress in gaining Proselytes Curious Coincidence 45

CHAPTER IV.

The Prophet announces his Mission among his Kindred of the Koreish
Meets with a harsh Repulse Begins to declare it in Public View
of his fundamental Doctrines His Pretensions respecting the Koran
The disdainful Rejection of his Message" by his fellow-citizens
His consequent Denunciations against them 50

14 CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V.

Mohammed not discouraged by Opposition The Burden of his Preaching
Description of Paradise Error to suppose Women excluded Of
Hell Gains some Followers Challenged to work a Miracle His
Reply The Koran the grand Miracle of his Religion Judicial Ob
duracy charged unon the Unbelievers 68

CHAPTER VI.

The Koreish exasperated and alarmed by Mohammed s growing Success
Commence Persecution Some of his Followers seek safety in
Flight New Converts The Koreish form a League against him Abu
Taleb and Cadijah die He makes a temporary Retreat from Mecca
Returns and preaches with increased Zeal Some of the Pilgrims
from Medina converted 83

CHAPTER VII.

The Prophet pretends to have had a Night-journey through the Seven
Heavens Description of the memorable Night by an Arabic writer
Account of the Journey His probable Motives in feigning such an
extravagant Fiction 89

CHAPTER VIII.

An Embassy sent to the Prophet from Medina Enters into a League
with them Sends thither a Missionary Another Deputation sent to
proffer him an Asylum in that City His Enemies renew their Perse
cutions Determines to fly to Medina Incidents on the Way Makes
a solemn Entry into the City Apostate Christians supposed to have
joined in tendering him the Invitation 101.

CHAPTER IX.

The prophet now raised to a high Pitch of Dignity Builds a Mosque
A Change in the Tone of his Revelations The Faithful now com
manded to fight for the true Religion His first warlike Attempt
unsuccessful The Failure compensated in the Second Account of ,
the Battle of Beder This Victory much boasted of Difficulties in the
Division of the Spoil Caab, a Jew, assassinated at the Instance of
the Prophet 109.

CONTENTS. 15

CHAPTER X.

ed /
of T

Mohammed alters the Kebla Many of his Followers greatly offended
thereby Mohammedan Institution of Prayer Appoints the Fast
Ramadan Account of this Ordinance 119

&lt; HM TIIU XI.

The Korrish undertake a new Expedition against the Prophet The
Battle of Ohod Mohammed and his Army entirely defeated His Fol
lowers murmur The Prophet s poor Devices to retrieve the Disgrace
incurred in this Action Resolves it mainly into the Doctrine of Pre
destination Wine and Games of Chance forbidden Sophyan, son of
Caled, slain War of the Ditch 126

CHAPTER XII.

The Jews the special Objects of Mohammed s Enmity Several Tribes
of them reduced to Subjection Undertakes a Pilgrimage to Mecca
The Mercan.s conclude a Truce with him of ten Years His Po
and Authority -zrratly increased Has a Pulpit constructed for his
Mosque Goes anainst Chaibar, a City of the Arab Ji \vs Besieges
and takes the City, hut is poisoned at an Entertainment by a young
Woman Is still able to prosecute his Victories 135

CHAPTER XIII.

Mohammed alleges a Breach of Faith on the Part of the Mrrans, and
marches an Army against them The City surrendered to the Con
queror Abu Sophyan and Al Abbas, the Prophet s Uncle, declare
themselves Converts Mecca declared to be Holy Ground- -The neigh
bouring Tribes collect an Army of four thousand Men to arrest the
growing Power of the Prophet The Confederates entirely overthrown
A rival Prophet arises in the Person of Moseilama Is crushed by
Caled 142

CHAPTER XIV.

The Religion of the Prophet firmly established The principal Countries
subjected by him The effects of the Poison make alarming Inroads
upon his Constitution Perceives his End approaching Preaches for A /
the last Time in Public His last Illness and Death The Moslems
scarcely persuaded that their Prophet was dead Tumult appeased
by Abubeker The Prophet buried at Medina The Story of the
hanging Coffin false 150

16 CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XV.

Reflections upon the extraordinary Career of Mohammed Description
of his Person General View and Estimate of his Character. ... 156

CHAPTER XVI.

Account of the Prophet s Wives Cadijah Ayesha Hafsa Zeinab
Safya His Concubines Singular Precepts in the Koran respecting
the Wives of Mohammed His comparative Treatment of Jews and
Christians Predictions of the Prophet alleged by Mohammedans to
be contained in the sacred Scriptures .......................... 167

APPENDIX A. Inspired Prophecies respecting Mohammed and Moham
medanism considered ......................................... 181

APPENDIX B. The Caaba, and the Pilgrimage to Mecca ........... 210

APPENDIX C. The Koran ...................................... 227

APPENDIX D. Mohammedan Confession of Faith ................ 241

APPENDIX E. -Account of Authors .............................. 250

ERRATA.

In page 75, line 11, for then, read " there."
156, 14, for eight, read " eighty."
181. " 5, Dan. vii. 8-26," is omitted

INTRODUCTION.

No revolution recorded in history, if we rvcpt
that effected by the religion of the (Jospcl, has in
troduced greater changes into the state of the civil
ized world, than that which h :mvn out of the
rise, progress, and permanence of Mohammedan-
Ism. The history and character, therefore, of this
religion becomes an object of laudable curiosity
with every enlightened mind. Considered merely
as a department of the general annals of the
world, apart from any connexion with the true re
ligion, it furnishes some of the most interesting
records of the human race. But when viewed as
a part of the great chain of providential and pre
dicted events, designed to have a direct bearing
upon the state of the Christian church, through the
whole period of its disastrous prevalence, it urges
a new and stronger claim upon our attention. By
many distinguished writers, who have deeply stu
died its origin, genius, and history, ths religion of
the Koran is confidently regarded rather as a
Christian heresy, or the product of a Christian

18 INTRODUCTION.

heresy, than as a heathen superstition.* Conse
quently, its fate is involved in that of all false
doctrines which have corrupted the Gospel ; and as
far as the disclosures of prophecy, or the present
posture of the nations of the earth, hold out a
hope of the speedy downfall of delusion, and of
the establishment of the truth, the eye is naturally
turned with deepening interest and anxiety to those
regions of the globe where this religion has so
long prevailed.

But in proportion to the interest inspired in the
general subject of Mohammedanism, is that which
is felt in the life, character, and actions of its
founder. That an obscure individual, sprung from
the roving tribes of Arabia, following no higher
occupation than that of a caravan-trader, possess
ing no peculiar advantages of mental culture, nor
distinguished in the outset by any pre-eminence of
power or authority, should yet have been enabled,
in spite of numerous obstacles, to found such an
extensive empire over the minds, as well as per
sons, of millions of the human race, and that this
dominion should have been continued for more
than twelve hundred years, presents a phenomenon
which increases our wonder the more steadily it is
contemplated.

* u Hence," says the learned and exemplary Mede, " Mahometanism
has frequently been accounted a Christian heresy ; and as it had its
origin in Christianity, so to Christ it looks in the end. For, according to
the creed of the Mahometans, Jesus is expected to descend to earth, to
embrace the religion of Mahomet, to slay Antichrist, and to reign with
his saints." The same authority affirms, " that the Mahometans are
nearer to Christianity than many of the ancient heretics ; the Cerinthians,
Gnostics, and Manicheee."

It is proposed in tin- ensuing pno-r^ to rxhihit
the prominent events of the lilr and fortunes of
this remarkable mm. It will not, of coi he
expected that, at this distance ui time and renn
ness of place, a mass of la- itirely now should
be communiratod to the world. The di-
of the materials already oxtail is all that can now he
reasonably required or attempted. ^\ et we arc nor
without hope, that in one aspect, at least, our theme
may present itself arrayed in a cha&gt;- of noxelty

and of unwonted h; ; : wemran, in it- conn&lt; \ions
with Christianity. An enliohtened ( hristian e&gt;ti-
mate of the ptophet of Arabia and his religion is, we
helieve, seldom formed, simply h&lt; - the sub-
ject has seldom been so presented as to afl ord the
means of sueli an rstimr A bi ket,-h, the,
fore, of the state of Christianity at the time of
Mohammed s appea. dly in that region

of the world in which his imposture took its rise,
will properly invite the re: t tent ion at the

outset of the work. This will show more elearly
the intended providential brnrinjr* of the entire
fabric of Mohammedan delusion upon the church
of Christ; and, apart from this particular view of
it, we are persuaded that an entirely correct or
adequate judgment of Islamism cannot be formed.

20 INTRODUCTION.

State of Christianity in the Sixth Century,
particularly in the Eastern Churches.

The distinction of Eastern and Western churches,
in ecclesiastical history, is founded upon a similar
geographical division of the Roman empire under
the emperors, into two great departments ; the one
including the countries of Asia or the East, which
had been subjected to the Roman arms, and the
other those of Europe, more properly denominated
the West. This distinction became still more
common from the days of Constantine, who re
moved the seat of the empire from Rome to Con
stantinople, though the final and complete rupture
between the Greek and Latin churches did not oc
cur till the seventh century.

Over the largest portion of the Roman empire
the Christian religion was early propagated, and
for two or three centuries subsisted in a great de
gree of its original simplicity and purity. Flourish
ing churches were planted by the Apostles them
selves in the different provinces of Asia Minor,
and along the eastern limits of Europe ; from which
" the word sounded out" to the adjacent territories
with a multiplying power, so that the cause and
kingdom of the Redeemer continued to spread long
after its first propagators had entered into their
rest. But a gradual degeneracy supervened upon
the primitive prosperity of the church. During
the fourth century " the mystery of iniquity,"
which had been long before working in secret,

INTRODUCTION. 21

began to discover itself more openly, and though
the Christians, by the laws of the empire, were ex
empted from JM i -ecution, yet from this time for
ward a growing declension and defection among
them is to be traced through every subsequent
period, till at length, in the seventh century, " the
man of sin" became fully revealed, and, accord i-
to the predictions of holy writ, took his seat "
God in the temple of God, opposing and exalting
himself above all that is called God, or is wor
shipped." It was -about the period at which Mo
hammed arose that this fearful apostaey had at
tained its height that t% the transgressors had
come to the full" and the degree to which the
nominal church had departed from the standard of
faith, morals, and \\or&gt;hij&gt; contained in the Scrip
tures, well nigh surpasses he lief. Then it was that
those foul corruptions and sii| itions were in
troduced into the church, which finally grew to
such a pitch of enormity as to occasion the sepa
ration of Luther and the other reformers from what
they deemed and denominated the communion of
Antichrist. At this period it was, that the venera
tion for departed saints and martyrs the idolatrous
worship of images and relics the renderinir divine
honours to the Virgin Mary the doctrine of pur
gatory and the adoration of the Cross, had be
come flnniv csi.ihlished ; ;md thus the lustre of the
Gospel Buffered a dark eclipse, and the essence of
Christianity was lost under a load of idle and su
perstitious ceremonies.

In the en stern parts of tho empire, especially

22 INTRODUCTION.

Syria and the countries bordering upon Arabia, as
well as in some parts of Arabia itself, these evils
were aggravated by the numerous sects and here
sies that prevailed, and by the incessant contro
versial wars which they waged with each other.
The church was torn to pieces by the furious dis
putes of the Arians, Sabellians, Nestorians, Euty-
chians, and Collyridians, by whom the great doc
trines of Christianity were so confounded with
metaphysical subtleties and the jargon of schools,
that they ceased, in great measure, to be regarded
as a rule of life, or as pointing out the only way
of salvation. The religion of the Gospel, the
blessed source of peace, love, and unity among
men, became, by the perverseness of sectaries, a
firebrand of burning contention. Council after
council was called canon after canon was en
acted prelates were traversing the country in
every direction in the prosecution of party pur
poses, resorting to every base art, to obtain the
authoritative establishment of their own peculiar
tenets, and the condemnation and suppression of
those of their adversaries. The contests also for
the episcopal office ran so high, particularly in the
West, that the opposing parties repeatedly had re
course to violence, and, in one memorable instance,
the interior of a Christian church was stained by
the blood of a number of the adherents of the rival
bishops, who fell victims to their fierce contentions.
Yet it is little to be wondered at that these places
of preferment should have been so greedily sought
after by men of corrupt minds, when we learn,

INTRODUCTION. 23

that they opened the direct road to wealth, luxury,
and priestly power. Ancient historians represent
the bishops of that day, as enriched by the pre
sents of the opulent, as riding abroad in pompous
state in chariots and sedans, and surpassing, in the

extravagance of their feasts, the sumptuouMi&lt;&gt;s of

princes; while, at tin; same time, the most barba
rous ignorance was fast overspreading the nations
of Christendom, the ecclesiastical orders them
selves not excepted. Among the bishops, the legi
timate instructors and defenders of the church, num
bers were to be found incapable of composing the
poor discourses which their office retimed them to
deliver to the people, or of subscribing the decrees
which they passed in their councils. The little
learning in vogue was chiefly confined to the
monk-. But they, instead of cultivating science,
or diffusing any kind of useful knowledge, squan
dered their time in the study of the fabulous le
gends of pretended saints and martyrs, or in com
posing histories equally fabulous.

This woful corruption of doctrine and morals in
the clergy was followed, aS might be expected, by
a very general depravity of the common people;
and though we cannot suppose that God left him
self altogether without witnesses in this dark pe
riod, yet the number of the truly faithful had dwin
dled down to a mere remnant, and the wide-spread
ing defection seemed to call aloud for the judg
ments of heaven. In view of this deplorable state
of Christianity, anterior to the appearance of Mo
hammed, we are prepared to admit at once the

24 INTRODUCTION.

justness of the following remarks upon the moral
ends designed to be accomplished by Providence
in permitting this desolating scourge to arise at this
particular crisis of the world.

" At length," says Prideaux, " having wearied
the patience and long-suffering of God, he raised
up the Saracens to be the instruments of his wrath
to punish them for it ; who, taking advantage of the
weakness of their power, and the distraction of
counsels which their divisions had caused among
them, overran, with a terrible devastation, all the
eastern provinces of the Roman empire. And
having fixed that tyranny over them which hath
ever since afflicted those parts of the world, turned
every where their churches into mosques, and their
worship into a horrid superstition ; and instead of
that holy religion which they had abused, forced

on them the abominable imposture of Mahomet

Thus those once glorious and most flourishing
churches, for a punishment of their wickedness,
being given up to the insult, ravage, and scorn of
the worst of enemies, were on a sudden over
whelmed with so terrible a destruction as hath re
duced them to that low and miserable condition
under which they have ever since groaned ; the
all- wise providence of God seeming to continue
them thus unto this day under the pride and perse
cution of Mahometan tyranny, for no other end
but to be an example and warning unto others
against the wickedness of separation and divi

sion."

LIFE OF MOHAMMED*

f , CHAPTER I.

National Descent of the Arabs Proved to be from Ishmae Z, son of

Abraham

IN tracing the genealogy of nations to their pri
mitive founders, the book of Genesis is a docu
ment of inestimable value. AVith those wno do
not hesitate to receive this and the other inspired
books of the Scriptures as authentic vouchers for
historical facts, the national descent of the Arabs
from Ishmael, the son of Abraham, is a point
which will not admit of dispute. The fact of this
derivation, however, has been seriously brought
into question by several skeptical writers, par
ticularly by the celebrated historian of the De
cline and Fall of the Roman Empire. With his
usual dexterity of insinuation, he assails the united
authority of Scripture history and Arabian tradi
tion, respecting the pedigree of this remarkable
people. Yet in no case does he undertake, in a
formal manner, to disprove the fact to which he
still labours to give the air of a fiction.* A suc
cinct view, therefore, of the testimonies which go
to establish the Ishmaelitish origin of the Arabs,

* Decline and Fall. ch. 1.

26 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

may form no unsuitable introduction to the pre
sent work, detailing the life and character of the
individual who has done so much towards render
ing the race illustrious.

From the narrative of Moses we learn not only
the parentage, birth, and settlement of Ishmael in
Arabia, but the fact also of a covenant made with
Abraham in his behalf, accompanied with a pro
phecy respecting his descendants, singularly ana
logous to the prophetic promise concerning the
more favoured seed of Isaac. "And Abraham
said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before
thee ! And God said, Sarah, thy wife, shall bear
thee a son indeed ; and thou shalt call his name
Isaac : and I will establish my covenant with him
for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after
him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee:
Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him
fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly ; twelve
princes shall he beget, and I will make him a
great nation."* In like manner, it will be recol
lected, the nation of Israel sprung from the twelve
sons of Jacob, and was divided into twejve tribes.
In a subsequent part of the Mosaic records we
find the notice of the incipient fulfilment of this
prediction concerning the posterity of Ishmael
" And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael,
by their names, according to their generations :
The first-born of Ishmael, Nebajoth, and Kedar,
and Adbeel, and Mibsam, and Mishma, and
Dumah, and Massah, Hadar, and Tema, Jetur,

* Genesis, xvii. 1820.

LIFE OF MOIIAMMTD. 27

Naphish, and Kedemah. These are tlic sons of
Ishmad, and these are their names, by their
towns, and by their castles : twelve princes -ac
cording to their nations."* Their geographical
residence is clearly ascertained in a .subsequent
verse. "And they dwelt from Ilavilah unto Shur,
that is before Egypt as thou goest towards Assy
ria."! Havilah and Shur, by tlie consent of the
best sacred geographers, are allowed to ha\&lt; rum-
posed part of the region between the Euphrates
and the Red Sea, denominated Arabia.;}; From
causes now unknown, the tribes of Nrbajoth and
Kedar appear to have acquired an ascendency
over the rest, so that the whole country is some
times designated from one, sometimes from the
other of them, just as the entire nation of Israel is
sometimes called Judah from the superior num
bers, power, or influence of that tribe. Amonr
the ancient profane historians also we find tin;
names of Nabitkcan* and Kedartnes frequently
employed as an appellation of the roving inhabit
ants of the Arabian deserts. Tin s testimony
is directly confirmed by that of Josephus. After
reciting the names of the twelve sons of Ishmael,
he adds : " These inhabit all the country extend
ing from the Euphrates to the Red Sea, giving it
the name of the Nabatcnean region. These are
they who have given names to the whole race of
the Arabs with their tribes. v $ In the fourth cen
tury, Jerome, in his commentary on Jeremiah, de-

* Genesis, xxv. 1316. fVer. 18.

J Welis s Sac. Geogr. vol. i. p. 311. $ Ant. Jud. b. i. ch. 12, $ 4.

28 LIFE OF MOHAMMED,

scribes Kedar as a country of the Arabian desert,
inhabited by the Ishmaelites, who were then termed
Saracens. The same father, in his commentary
on Isaiah, again speaks of Kedar as the country
of the Saracens, who in Scripture are called Ish
maelites ; and observes of Nebajoth, that he was
one of the sons of Ishmael, after whose names the
Arabian desert is called.

Another source of evidence in relation to the na
tional descent of the Arabs, is their having prac
tised, from time immemorial, the rite of circum
cision. Josephus has a very remarkable passage
touching the origin of this rite among the Jews
and Arabs, in which he first makes mention of the
circumcision of Isaac ; then introduces that of
Ishmael ; and states concerning each, as matter of
universal and immemorial notoriety, that the Jews
and the Arabians severally practised the rite, con
formably with the precedents given them, in the
persons of their respective fathers. His words
are these : " Now when Sarah had completed
her ninetieth, and Abraham his hundredth year, a
son (Isaac) is born unto them : whom they forth
with circumcise on the eighth day ; and from him
the Jews derive their custom of circumcising
children after the same interval. But the Ara
bians administer circumcision at the close of the
thirteenth year : for Ishmael, the founder of their
nation, the son of Abraham by his concubine, was
circumcised at that time of life." Similar to this
is the testimony of Origen, who wrote in the third

* Ant. Jud. b. i. cfc. 10, $ 5.

LIFi: OF MOHAMMED. 29

century of the Christian era. " The natives of Ju-
dea," says lie, "generally drcumcise their children
on the eighth day; hut the [shmaelite* who in
habit Arahia nni\ i -;illy practise eircnincision in
the thirteenth year. For this InMory tells us con
cerning them."* This writer, like Joseplms, li\cd
near the spot, and had the best opportunities of ob
taining correct information respecting the Arabians.
It is evident, therefore, beyond contradiction, 1 n.ia
his words, that the fact of their derivation from
Abraham through Ishmael was an established
point of historical record, and not of mere tradi
tionary fame, at the period at which he wrote.

The direct testimony to the Ijshmaelitisli ex
traction of the Arabs furnished by the earliest re
cords of the Bible, and confirmed as we see by foreign
authorities, is strikingly corroborated by repeated
references, bearing upon the same point, in later
inspired writers, particularly the prophets. Through
the long course of sacred history and prophecy,
we meet with reiterated allusions to existing tribes
of Arabia, descending from Ishmael, and bearing
the names of his several sons, among which those
of Nebajoth and Kedar usually predominate.
Thus the Prophet Isaiah, in foretelling the future
conversion of the Gentiles, makes mention of the
" rams of Nebajoth" the eldest, and " all the flocks
of Kedar? the second of the sons of Ishmael ;
that is, of the Arab tribes descending from these
brothers ; a passage which not only affords strong

* Grig. Op. torn. ii. p. 16, eL Bened.

30 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

proof of our main position, but conveys also an in
timation of the future in-gathering of the Moham
medan nations into the Christian Church. The
same Prophet, in another part of his predictions,
notices " the cities of the wilderness, the villages
that Kedar doth inhabit." And again, when de
nouncing impending calamity upon the land of Ara
bia, he foretells how " all the glory of Kedar shall
fail ;" he employs the name of this single tribe as
synonymous with that of the entire peninsula. In
this connexion the words of the Psalmist may be
cited : " Wo is me that I sojourn in Mesech, that
I dwell in the tents of Kedar." These words are
supposed by some of the Jewish commentators to
have been written by David, under the influence of
inspiration, as the prophetic plaint of the Christian
Church, labouring and groaning, as it has some
times done, under the yoke of Mohammedan op
pression. In Jeremiah, also, we find mention of
Kedar. He speaks of it as " the wealthy nation
that dwelleth without care, which have neither
gates nor bars, which dwell alone." Ezekiel,
moreover, prophesies conjointly of " Arabia and all
the princes of Kedar." An allusion to Tema, the
ninth son of Ishmael, as the name of a warlike
people of Arabia, occurs as early as in the book oi
Job : " The troops of Tema looked, the compa
nies of Sheba waited for them." Lastly, the tribes
sprung from Jetur and Naphish, the tenth and ele
venth sons of Ishmael, are commemorated in the
first book of Chronicles, who are there called Ha-
garites, from Hagar, the mother of Ishmael, and

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 31

of whom a hundred thousand males were taken
captives.

When to this muss of Scripture evidence of the
descent of the Arabs from Ishmael we add the ac
knowledged coincidence hctwrcn the national cha
racter of this people in every age, and the predicted
personal character of their progenitor " And he
will be a wild man ; his hand will be against ev&lt;
man, and every man s hand against him" and the
fact, that the Uhmaelitith origin of the Arabs has
ever been tin- mstant and unvarying tradition of
that people themselves, the sul&gt;j&lt; ircely admits

of a more irrefragable proof. There are certainly
few landmarks of history more universal or more
permanent than the names of countries affixed by
original settlers, or flowing from tin in, and we may
as justly question the derivation of llimirary from
the Huns, France from the Franks, Turkey from the
Turks, or Judeu from Judah and the Jews, as those
of the several districts of Arabia from the respective
sons of Ishmael. *

* The argument in thi.^ chapter is condensed from a more ample dis
cussion of the subject in the Appendix to " Forster s Manometanisro

Unveiled/

32 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

CHAPTER II.

Birth and Parentage of Mohammed Loses his Parents in early Child
hood Is placed under the care of his uncle Abu Taleb Goes into
Syria on a trading expedition with his uncle at the age of thirteen
Enters the service of Cadijah,aividow of Mecca, whom he afterward
marries.

MOHAMMED, the Legislator of Arabia, the Founder
of the Moslem or Mohammedan religion, and
thence dignified by himself and by his followers
with the title of Prophet and Apostle of God, was
born at Mecca, a city of Arabia, A. D. 569.* His
lineage, notwithstanding that many of the earlier
Christian writers, under the influence of inveterate
prejudice against the prophet and his religion, have
represented his origin as base and ignoble, is clearly
shown to have been honourable and illustrious ; at
least, when rated by the common standard of dis
tinction among his countrymen. The ancient Ara
bians, deriving their pedigree from Ishmael, and
inheriting the nomadic habits of their ancestor, had
from time immemorial been divided into a number
of separate independent tribes, roving at large over
the immense sandy regions of which their country
is composed, except where here and there a few
thousands of them were gathered into cities, and
engaged in merchandise. Some of these tribes,

* Other authorities place his birth, in A. D. 571, The precise year can-
notjfe determined with certainty.

LUK OF MOHAMMKD. 33

from various causes, were more numerous, power
ful, and renowned than others. That of Koreish.
from the founder of which Mohammed was in a di
rect line descended, had lonir been accounted tlie
most noble of them all, and his ancestors, for se
veral generations, had ranked amonr the princes of
Mecca, and the keepers ot thekeysof the Caaba,* its
sacred temple. Ills lather s name was Abdallah,
one of the thirteen sons of Abdol Motalleb, the
chief personage in his day among the Koreish, and
inheriting from his father Hashem the principal
place in the government of Mecca, and succeeding w-
him in the custody of the Caaba. This llashem,
the great-grandfather of Mohammed, was the most
distinguished name in all the line of his predeces
sors, and from him not only is the appellation of
Hashemites bestowed upon the kindred of the pro
phet, but even to this day, the chief magistrate,
both at Mecca and Medina, who must always be
of the race of Mohammed, is invariably styled
" The Prince of the Hashemites." The name of
Mohammed s mother was Amina, whose parentage
was traceable also to a distinguished family of the
same tribe. Her lot was envied in gaining the hand
of the son of Abdol Motalleb, as the surpassing
beauty of his person is said to have ravished the
hearts of a hundred maidens of Arabia, who were
left, by his choice of Amina, to sigh over the wreck
of their fondest hopes.

Abdallah, though the son of a rich and princely

* See Appendix B.

34 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

father, was possessed of but little wealth, and as he
died while his son was an infant, or, as some say,
before he was born, it is probable that that little
was seized with the characteristic rapacity bf the
Arabs, and shared among his twelve surviving bro
thers, the powerful uncles of Mohammed. Al
though the laws of the Koran, in respect to inherit
ances, promulgated by the prophet himself, breathe
more of the spirit of equity and kindness ; yet the
pagan Arabs, previous to his time, as we learn from
Eastern writers, were wont to treat widows and or
phans with great injustice, frequently denying them
any share in the inheritances of thefr fathers and
husbands, under the pretence that it ought to be dis
tributed among those only who were able to bear
arms, and disposing of widows, even against their
own consent, as a part of their husband s posses
sions. The fatherless Mohammed, accordingly,
faring like the rest of his countrymen, received, in
the distribution of the patrimony, no more than five
camels and an Ethiopian female slave.

The Moslem writers, in order to represent the
birth of their pretended prophet as equally marvel
lous with that of Moses or of Christ, the ancient
messengers of God who preceded him, have re
ported a tissue of astonishing prodigies said to have
occurred in connexion with that event. If the
reader will receive their statements with the same
implicit faith with which they seem to be delivered,
he must acknowledge, that at the moment when the
favoured infant was ushered into the world, a flood
of light burst forth with him and illuminated every

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 35

part of Syria ; that the waters of the Lake Sawa
were entirely dried up, so that a city was built upon
its bottom; that an earthquake threw down four
teen towers of the king of Persia s palace ; that
the sacred fire of the Persians was extinguished,
and all the evil spirits which had inhabited the moon
and stars were expelled together from their celes
tial abodes, nor could they ever after animate idols
or deliver oracles on earth. The child also, if we
may trust to the same authorities, discovered the
most wonderful presag&lt; He was no sooner born
than he fell prostrate, in a posture of humble ado
ration, praying devoutly to his Creator, and saying,
" God is great ! There is no God but God, and I am
his prophet !" By these and many other superna
tural signs, equally astounding, is the prophet s na
tivity said to have been marked. To some of them
it would indeed appear that the earlier Christians
gave an honest credence ; with this difference, how
ever, between their belief and that of his followers,
that while the latter ascribed them without hesita
tion to the hand of God, giving in this manner a
gracious attestation to the prophetic character of
his servant, the former referred them directly to the
agency of the devil, who might naturally be sup
posed, they thought, to w r ork some special won
ders on the present occasion. Urjnn t*w narrative
of these miraculous phenomena the reader will form
^IFp^rrjuoVrnent. They are mentioned in the ab
sence ofaiFauthentic information touching the pe
riod and the event in question. Until the facts al
leged a e proved, by competent historical testi-

36 LIFE OF MOHAMMEtt.

mony, to -have taken place, it is scarcely necessary
to call in the aid of divine or diabolical agency to
account for them ; as it is much easier to imagine
that an imposition or illusion may have been prac
tised upon the first reporters, or that the whole ca
talogue of wonders is a mere fabrication of inte
rested partisans, than that the ordinary course of
nature should have been disturbed at this crisis, i

The Arabic biographers of the prophet, more
over, inform us that Abdol Motalleb, his grandfa
ther, the seventh day after the birth of the child*
gave a great entertainment, to which he invited the
principal men of the Koreish, who, after the repast
was over, desired him to give the infant a name.
Abdol Motalleb immediately replied " I name this
child Mohammed." The Koreish grandees at once
expressed their surprise that he did not cali his
grandson, according to custom, by a name which
had belonged to some one of the family. But he
persisted in the selection he had made, saying,
"May the Most High glorify in Heaven him
whom he has created on earth !" alluding to the
name Mohammed, which signifies praised or glo
rified.

At the early age of two years Mohammed lost
his father ; and four years after, his mother. The
helpless orphan, now cast upon the kindness of his
relations, was taken into the house and family of
his grandfather, under whose guardian care he re
mained but two years, when the venerable Motalleb
himself was also called to pay the debt of nature.
In a dying charge, he confided this tender plant of

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 37

the ;uiri( ut siock of the Koreish to the faithful hands
of Aim Taleh, tlie eldest of his sons and the suc
cessor of his authority. M Aly dearest, best beloved
son" -thus history or tradition reports the tenor of-
his instruction - l&lt; to thy charge I leave Moham
med, the son of thine own brother, strictly recom
mended, whose natural lather the Lord hath been
pleased to take to himself, with the intent that this
dear child should become ours by adoption ; and
much dearer ought he to be unto us than merely an
adopted son. deceive him, therefore, at my dying
hands, with the same sincere love and tender how-
els with which I deliver him to thy care. Honour,
love, and cherish him as much, or even more than
if he had sprung from thine own loins ; for all the
honour thou showest unto him shall be trebled unto
thee. Be more than ordinarily careful in thy
treatment towards him, for it will be repaid thee
with interest. Give him the preference before thine
own children, for he exceedeth them and all man
kind in excellency and perfection. Take notice,
that whensoever he calleth upon thee, thou answer
him not as an infant, as his tender age may re
quire, but as thou wouldst reply to the most aged
and venerable person when he askcth thee any
question. Sit not down to thy repasts of any sort
soever, either alone or in company, till thy worthy
nephew Mohammed is seated at the table before
thee ; neither do thou ever offer to taste of any
kind of viands, or even to .stretch forth thine hand
towards the same, until he hath tasted thereof. If
thou observes! these my injunctions, thy goods

38 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

shall always increase, and in nowise be dimi
nished."*

Whether Abu Taleb recognised in the deposite
thus solemnly committed to his trust an object of
such high destiny and such profound veneration as
his father s language would imply, we are not in
formed ; but there is good evidence that he acted
towards his nephew the part of a kind friend and
protector, giving him an education, scanty indeed,
but equal to that usually received by his country
men. His followers, it is true, in order to magnify
their prophet s supernatural gifts, and render the
composition of the Koran a greater miracle, gene
rally affirm that he was wholly illiterate, neither
able to read or write. In this, indeed, they are au
thorized by the pretensions of Mohammed himself,
who says, "Thus have we sent down the book
of the Koran unto thee. Thou couldst not read
any book before this ; neither couldst thou write
it with thy right hand : then had the gains ay ers
justly doubted of the divine original thereof."!
"Believe, therefore, in God and his apostle, the
illiterate prophet.";); But in the Koran, a complete
fabric of imposture, the last thing we are to expect
is an honest adherence to truth. There is abun
dant evidence, from the pages of this spurious re
velation itself, that writing was an art in common
use among the Arabs at that time. The following
precept concerning bonds puts it beyond question.

* Morgan s Mahometanism Explained, vol. i. p. 50
f Koran, ch. xxix. i Ch. vii.

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 39

" O, true bcliovors, when ye bind yourselves one to
the other in a &lt;le!&gt;t lor a certain time, write it down ;
and let a writer write between you according to
justice, and let not the writer refuse writing ac
cording to what God hath taught him." \Ve learn
also that Ali Taleb, the son of Abu Taleb, and
cousin of Mohammed, with whom the prophet
passed his childhood, afterward became one of
his scribes, of whom he had a number employed
in making copies of the Koran as its successive
portions were revealed to him. How did it happen
that Abu Taleb should have had his son instructed
in writing, and not his nephew ? The city of Mecca,
moreover, being a place of traffic, the merchants
must have hourly felt the want of some mode
of recording their transactions ; and as we are in
formed that Mohammed himself was for several
years engaged in mercantile pursuits before he
commenced the propagation of a new religion, it
is scarcely supposable that he was unacquainted
with the use of letters.

Of the infancy, childhood, and youth of the fu-tf
ture prophet no authentic details have reached us. J
The blank has indeed been copiously supplied by
the fabulous legends of his votaries, but as they are
utterly void of authority, they will not repay the
trouble of transcription. Being destined by his
uncle to the profession of a merchant, he was taken,
as some affirm, at the age of thirteen, into Syria with
Abu Taleb s trading caravan, in order to his being
perfected in the business of his intended vocation.
Upon the simple circumstance of this journey, the

40 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

superstition of his followers has grafted a series of
miraculous omens all portending his future greatness.
Among other things, it is said by his historians, that
upon his arriving at Bozrah, a certain man named
Boheira, a Nestorian monk, who is thought by Pri-
deaux to be otherwise called Sergius, advanced
through the crowd collected in the market-place,
and, seizing him by the hand, exclaimed, "There
will be something wonderful in this boy ; for when
he approached he appeared covered with a cloud."
He is said to have affirmed also, that the dry trees
under which he sat were every where instantly
covered with green leaves, which served him for
a shade, and that the mystic seal of prophecy was
impressed between his shoulders, in the form of a
small luminous excrescence. According to others,
instead of a bright cloud being the criterion by
which his subsequent divine mission was indicated,
the mark by which Boheira knew him was the
prophetic light which shone upon his face. This
miraculous light, according to the traditions of the
Mohammedans, was first placed upon Adam, and
from him transmitted to each individual in the line
of his descendants, who sustained the character of
a true prophet. The hallowed radiance at length
rested upon the head of Abraham, from whom it
*was divided into a twofold emanation, the greater
or clearer descending upon Isaac and his seed, the
less or obscurer to Ishmael and his posterity.
The light in the family of Isaac is represented as
having been perpetuated in a constant glow through
a long line of inspired messengers and prophets,

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 41

among the children of Israel ; but that in the fa
mily of Ishmael is said to have been suppressed,
and to have lain hidden through the whole tract of
ages, from Ishmael down to the coming of Mo
hammed, in whom the sacred symbol was again re
vived, and now pointed out to Boheira the high des
tiny of him on whose person it appeared. How
ever intrinsically vain and visionary this legend may
be deemed, it may, nevertheless, be worth advert
ing to, as affording perhaps, in its remoter sources,
a hint of the origin of the ha Zo, which in most of
the paintings or engravings of the Saviour is made
to encircle his sacred brows.

When Abu Taleb was about to return with his
caravan to Mecca, Boheira, it is said, again re
peated his solemn premonition, coupled with a
charge, respecting the extraordinary youth. " De
part with tliis child, and take great care that he
does not fall into the hands of the Je\vs ; for your
nephew will one day become a very wonderful
person."

The early Christian writers have laid hold of
the narrative of this interview with the Syrian
monk, as affording a clew to the true origin and
authorship of the Koran. According to them, this
Boheira, alias Sergius, who, they say, was an apos
tate Jew or Christian, instructed Mohammed in the
histories and doctrines of the Bible, and that they
in concert laid a plan for creating a new religion,
a motley compound of Judaism and Christianity, to
be carried into execution twenty years afterward ;
and that accordingly the monk, rather than Mo-

42 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

hammed, is entitled to the credit of the most im
portant parts of the Koran. Others again, deem
ing it altogether incredible that a youth of thirteen
should have conceived the vast idea of forming
and propagating a new religion, place this corres
pondence with Sergius at a later period of his life ;
that is to say, when he was not far from twenty
years of age, at which time he is alleged to have
taken a second journey into Syria. But, as we
shall see hereafter, the question how far Moham
med was assisted by others in the composition of
the Koran is not susceptible at the present day of
a satisfactory solution.

The next remarkable event in the life of Mo
hammed is his appearance in the character of a
soldier. At the age of fourteen, or, as others say,
nearer the age of twenty, he served under his
uncle, who commanded the troops of his tribe, the
Koreish, in their wars against the rival tribes of
the Kenan and the Hawazan. They returned
from the expedition victorious, and this circum
stance doubtless tended to render the people of the
tribe still more devoted to the uncle and the ne
phew, and to acquire for Mohammed a notoriety
which he was afterward enabled to turn essentially
to his account.

From this time to the age of twenty-five he ap
pears to have continued in the employ of Abu
Taleb, engaged in mercantile pursuits. As he
advanced in years there is reason to believe that
his personal endowments, which were doubtless of
a superior order, together with strong native powers

LITE OF MOHAMMED. 43

of intellect, an acute observation, a ready wit, and
pleasing address combined to render him both
popular and prominent among his associa
Such, at least, is the concurrent testimony of all
his biographers, and we have no means of invali
dating their statements. It is, however, natural
to suppose, that a strong colouring would be put
upon every superior quality of a pretended n;
senger of God, sent to restore the true religion to
the world, and that he, who was by character i 1 .
prophet, should be represented by his adherents
as a paragon of all external perfections. About
this period, by the assistance of his uncle, he v
entered into the service of a rich trading widow of
his native city, who had been twice married, and
whose name was CADIJAH. In the capacity of
factor or agent to this his wealthy employer, he took
a second journey of three years into Damascus
and the neighbouring regions of Syria, in which he
devoted himself so assiduously to the interests of
Cadijah, and managed the trust committed to him
so entirely to her satisfaction, that upon his return
she rewarded his fidelity with the gift of her hand
and her fortune. It may be imagined, that in
entering into this alliance, she was probably in
fluenced by the family connexions and the personal
attractions of her suitor. But whatever were
her motives, the union subsequently appears to
have been one of genuine affection on both sides ;
Mohammed never forgot the favours he had re
ceived from his benefactress, and never made her
repent of having placed her person and her for-

44 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

tune at his absolute disposal. Although Cadijah,
at the time of her marriage, was forty, and Mo
hammed not more than twenty-eight, yet till the
age of sixty-four, when she died, she enjoyed the
undivided affection of her husband; and that too
in a country where polygamy was allowed, and
very frequently practised. By her he had eight
children, of whom Fatima alone, his eldest daugh
ter, survived him. And such was the prophet s
respect to the memory of his wife, that after her
death he placed her in the rank of the four per
fect women,

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 45

CHAPTER III. .

Mohammed forms the design of ;&gt; t ,,n upon \

world Diifn nit to tirruimt f r t
suggested Retires to the &lt;
Visits of Gabriel with a porl/
vert His slow progress in g
cidence.

BEING now raised by his marriage to an equality
with the first citizens of Mecca, Mohanum &lt;! \\
enabled to pass the next twelve years of his life
in comparative affluence and ease; and, until t!
age of forty, nothing remarkable distinguished t 1
history of the future prophet. It is probable that
he still followed the occupation of a merchant, ;
the Arabian nation, like their ancestors the Ish-
maelites, have always been greatly addicted to
commerce. It was during tins interval, however,
that he meditated and matured the bold design of
palming a new religion upon the world. This there
fore becomes, in its resuiis. the most imj ut
period in his whole life; and it is greatly to be
regretted, that the policy of the impostor, and the
ravages of time, have deprived us of all sources of
information, which might afford a satisfactory clew
to the real origin of this design. The circum
stances which first suggested it, the peculiar train of
reflection which went to cherish it, the ends which
be proposed to accomplish by it, together with the
real agencies employed in bringing it forward, are

46 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

all matters wrapped in impenetrable mystery; yet
these are the very points on which the inquiring
mind, intent upon tracing great events to their pri
mary sources, is most eager for information. At
the present day, it is impossible to determine whe
ther Mohammed commenced his career as a de
luded enthusiast or a designing impostor. Those
who have most profoundly considered the whole
subject of Mohammedanism in its rise, progress,
genius, and effects, are, on this point, divided in
their opinion.

On the one hand, it is supposed by some, that
Mohammed was constitutionally addicted to reli
gious contemplation that his native temperament
was strongly tinged with enthusiasm and that he
might originally have been free from any sinister
motive in giving scope to the innate propensities
of his character. As the result of his retired spe
culations he might, moreover, it is said, have been
sincerely persuaded in his own mind of the grand
article of his faith, the unity of God, which in his
opinion was violated by all the rest of the world,
and, therefore, might have deemed it a meritorious
work to endeavour to liberate his countrymen and
his race from the bondage of error. Impelled by
this motive in the outset, and being aided by a
warm imagination, he might at length have come,
it is affirmed, as enthusiasts have often done, to
the firm conviction, that he was destined by Pro
vidence to be the instrument of a great and glo
rious reformation; and the circumstance of his
being accustomed to solitary retirement would na-

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 47

turally cause this persuasion to take a deeper root
in his mind. In this manner, it is supposed, his
career might have commenced; hut liiidinir himself
to have succeeded beyond his expectations, and
the force of temptation growing with the increase
of his popularity and power, his self-love at last
overpowered his honesty, ambition took the pluee
of devotion, his designs expanded with his success,
and he who had entered upon a pious enterpi
as a well-meaning reformer degenerated in the end
into a wilful impostor, a gross debauchee, and an
unprincipled despot.

On the other hand, it is maintained, and we
think with more of an air of probability, that his
conduct from the very first bears the marks of a
deep-laid and systematic design ; that although he
might not have anticipated all the results whicli
crowned the undertaking, yet hi every step of his
progress he acted with a shrewdness and circum
spection very little savouring of the dreams of en
thusiasm ; that the pretended visits of an angel, and
his publishing, from time to time, the chapters of
the Koran, as a divine revelation, are wholly incon
sistent with the idea of his being merely a deluded
fanatic ; and that, at any rate, the discovery of his
inability to work a miracle, the grand voucher of
a divine messenger, must have been sufficient to
dispel the fond illusion from his mind.

Many circumstances, moreover, it is said, may
be adduced, which might have concurred to prompt
and favour the design of this arch imposture.
1. Mohammed s genius was bold and aspiring.

48 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

His family had formerly held the ascendency in
rank and power in the city of Mecca, and it was
merely his misfortune in having lost his father in
infancy, and being left an orphan, that prevented
him from succeeding to the same, distinction. It
was therefore the dictate of a very obvious prin
ciple of human nature, that he should contrive, if
possible, to make the fortune and influence ac
quired by his marriage a step to still higher ho
nours, and to raise himself to the ancient dignity
of his house. 2. He had travelled much in his
own and foreign countries. His journeys would
of course bring him acquainted with the tenets of
the different sects of the religious world, particu
larly the Jewish and the Christian, which were
then predominant, and the latter greatly corrupted
and torn to pieces with internal dissensions. Be
ing a sagacious observer of men, he could not fail
to pc-rceive that the distracted state of the exist
ing religions had put the Eastern world into a
posture extremely favourable to the propagation
of a new system. His own countrymen, the
people of Arabia, were, indeed, for the most part
sunk in idolatry, but the vestiges of a purer faith,
derived from patriarchal times, were still lingering
arnon^ them, to a degree that afforded him the
hope of recovering them to a sounder creed. 3.
The political state of things at that time was such
as signally to favour his project. The Roman
empire, on the one hand, and the Persian monarchy
on the other, had both become exceedingly en
feebled in the process of a long decline, towards

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 49

the last stages of which they were now rapidly
approaching. The Arabs, on the contrary, were
a strong and floiirishinir people, abounding in num
bers, and inured to hardships. Their bein&lt;r divided
into independent tribes presented also advantag.
for the spread of a new faith which v.mild not
have existed had they been consolidated into one
government. As Mohammed had considerable op
portunities to acquaint himself with the peculiar
situation af these empires ; as he had carefully noted
the genius and disposition of the people which com
posed them; and as he possessed a capacity to
render every circumstance subservient to his pur
pose, it is contended, that his scheme was much
more legitimately the fruit of policy than of piety,
and that the pseudo-prophet, instead of be in ir pitied
for his delusion, is rather to be reprobated for his
base fabrication.

After all, it is not improbable that Infinite Wis
dom has so ordered it, that a veil of unpenetrated
darkness should rest on the motives of the impos
tor, in order that a special providence may be re
cognised in the rise and establishment of this arch-
delusion in the world. In the absence of sufficient
human causes to account for the phenomena, we
are more readily induced to acknowledge a divine
interposition. In the production of events which
are overruled in the government of God to operate
as penal evils for the punishment of the guilty,
reason and revelation both teach us reverently to
acknowledge the visitation of the Divine Hand,
whoever or whatever may have been the subordi-

50 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

nate agents, or their motives. " Is there evil in
the city, saith the Lord, and I have not done it ?"
i. e. the evil of suffering, not of sin. It cannot be
doubted that, as a matter of fact, the rise and reign
of Mohammedanism has resulted in the infliction
of a most terrible scourge upon the apostate
churches in the East, and in other portions of
Christendom ; and, unless we exclude the Judge of
the world from the exercise of his judicial prero-
gatives in dealing with his creatures, we cannot err,
provided we do not infringe upon man s moral
agency, in referring the organ of chastisement to
the will of the Most High. The life and actions
of Mohammed himself, and his first broaching the
religion of the Koran, are but the incipient links in
a chain of political revolutions, equtil in magnitude
and importance to any which appear on the page
of history revolutions, from which it would be
downright impiety to remove all idea of providential
ordainment. If then we acknowledge a peculiar
providence in the astonishing success of the Sara
cen arms subsequent to the death of Mohammed,
we must acknowledge it also in the origination of
that system of religion which brought them under
one head, and inspired them to the achievement of
such a rapid and splendid series of conquests.

The pretended prophet, having at length, after
years of deliberation, ripened all his plans, pro
ceeded in the most gradual and cautious manner to
put them in execution. He had been, it seems, for
some time in the habit of retiring daily to a certain
cave in the vicinity of Mecca, called the cave of

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 51

Hera, for the ostensible purpose of spending his
time in fasting, prayer, and holy meditation. The
important crisis having now arrived, he heiran to
break to his wile, on his return home in the ev&lt; -
ning, the solemn intelligence ipernatural visions
and voices with which lie was favoured in li
tirement. Cadijah, as miirht be expertrd, was at
first incredulous. She treated his visions as ihe
dreams of a disturbed imagination, or as the delu
sions of the devil.* Mohammed, however, \
sisted in assuring her of the reality of these com
munications, and rising still higher in his demands
upon her credulity, at length repeated a pass;
which he affirmed to be a part of a divine revela
tion, recently conveyed to him by the ministry of
the angel Gabriel. The memorable nio-ht on
which this visit was made by the heavenly mes
senger is called the " night of Al Kadr," or the
night of the divine decree, and is greatly celebrated,
as it was the same night on which the entire KORAN
descended from the seventh to the lowest heaven,
to be thence revealed by Gabriel in successive por
tions as occasion might require. The Koran has
a whole chapter devoted to the commemoration of
this event, entitled Al Kadr. It is as follows :
" In the name of the most merciful God. Verily,
we sent down the Koran in the night of Al Kadr.
And what shall make thee understand how excel
lent the night of Al Kadr is ? This night is better
than a thousand months. Therein do the angels

* This is the account given by Prideaux. Sale, however, says,
" I do not remember to have read in any Eastern author, that Cadijah
ever rejected her husband s pretences as delusions, or suspected him of
any imposture." Prelim. Ihsc. p. 58* note.

52 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

descend, and the spirit Gabriel also, by the per
mission of their Lord, with his decrees concerning
every matter. It is peace until the rising of the
morn."* On this favoured night, between the 23d
and 24th of Ramadan, according to the prophet, the
angel appeared to him, in glorious form, to commu
nicate the happy tidings of his mission. The light
issuing from his body, if the apostle-elect may be
believed, was too dazzling for mortal eyes to be
hold ; he fainted under the splendour ; nor was it
till Gabriel had assumed a human form, that he
could venture to approach or look upon him. The
angel then cried aloud, " O MOHAMMED, THOU ART

THE APOSTLE OF GoD, AND I AM THE ANGEL

GABRIEL !" " Read !" continued the angel ; the
.prophet declared that he was unable to read.
" Read I" Gabriel again exclaimed, " read, in the
name of thy Lord, who hath created all things ;
who hath created man of congealed blood. Read,
by thy most beneficent Lord, who hath taught the
use of the pen ; who teacheth man that which he
knoweth not."f The prophet, who professed
hitherto to have been illiterate, then read the joy
ful tidings respecting his ministry on earth, when
the angel, having accomplished his mission, majes
tically ascended to heaven, and disappeared from
his view. When the story of this surprising inter
view with a celestial visitant was related to Cadijah
in connexion with the passage repeated, her un
belief, as tradition avers, was wholly overcome,
and not only so, but she was wrought by it into a
kind of ecstasy, declaring, " By Him in whose

*_Koran, ch xcvii. t Ch. xcviii.

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 53

hands her soul was, that she trusted her husband
would indeed one day become the prophet of his
nation." In the height of her joy she immediately
imparted what she had heard to one Waraka, her
cousin, who is supposed by some to have been in
the secret, and who, being a Christian, had learned
to write in the Hebrew character, and was tole
rably well versed in the Jewish and Christian
Scriptures. He unhesitatingly assented to her
opinion respecting the divine designation of her
husband, and even affirmed, that Mohammed was
no other than the great prophet foretold by Moses,
the son of Amram. This belief that both the pro
phet and his spurious religion were subjects of in
spired prediction in the Old Testament Scriptures,
is studiously inculcated in the Koran. " Thy
Lord is the mighty, the merciful. This book is
certainly a revelation from the Lord of all crea
tures, which the faithful spirit (Gabriel) hath caused
to descend upon thy heart, that thou mightest be a
preacher to thy people in the perspicuous Arabic
tongue ; and it is borne witness to in the Scriptures
of former ages. Was it not a sign unto them that
the wise men among the children of Israel knew
itr

Having succeeded in gaining over his wife, he
persevered in that retired and austere kind of life
which tends to beget the reputation of pre-eminent
sanctity, and ere long had his servant, Zeid Ebn
Hareth, added to the list of proselytes. He re
warded the faith of Zeid by manumitting him from

* Koran, ch. xxiii.

E 2

54 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

servitude, and it has hence become a standing rule
among his followers always to grant their freedom
to such of their slaves as embrace the religion of
the prophet. Ali, the son of Abu Taleb, Moham
med s cousin, was his next convert, but the impe
tuous youth, disregarding the other two as persons
of comparatively little note, used to style himself
the first of believers. His fourth and most import
ant convert was Abubeker, a powerful citizen of
Mecca, by whose influence a number of persons
possessed of rank and authority were induced to
profess the religion of Islam. These were Oth-
man, Zobair, Saad, Abdorrahman, and Abu Obei-
dah, who afterward became the principal leaders
in his armies, and his main instruments in the
establishment both of his imposture and of his
empire. Four years were spent in the arduous
task of winning over these nine individuals to the
faith, some of whom were the principal men of
the city, and who composed the whole party of
his proselytes previously to his beginning to pro
claim his mission in public. He was now forty-
four years of age.

It has been remarked, as somewhat of a striking
coincidence, that the period of Mohammed s retiring
to the cave of Hera- for the purpose of fabricating
his imposture corresponds very nearly with the
time in which Boniface, bishop of Rome, by virtue
of a grant from the tyrant Phocas, first assumed
the title of Universal Pastor, and began to lay
claim to that spiritual supremacy over the church
of Chi 1st, which has ever since been arrogated to
themselves by his successors, " And from this

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 65

time," says Prideaux, " both he (the bishop of
Rome) and Mohammed having conspired to found
themselves an empire in imposture, their followers
have been ever since endeavouring by the same
methods, that is, those of fire and sword, to pro
pagate it among mankind ; so that Antichrist seems
at this time to have set both his feet upon Christen
dom together ; the one hi the East, the other in
the West, and how much each hath trampled upon
the church of Christ, all succeeding ages have
abundantly experienced." The agreement of dates
here adverted to may be worth noticing; both
events having occurred within the first six or eight
years of the seventh century ; but we have as yet
met with no evidence to convince us of the pro
priety of applying the epithet Antichrist to Mo
hammed. It is, however, the opinion of many
Protestant expositors of prophecy, that this appel
lation is properly attributable to that system of
ecclesiastical domination so long exercised by the
Romish hierarchy, and the continuance of which,
it is maintained, is limited by the prophetic term
of 1260 years. If, therefore, this predicted period,
assigned to the reign of the Roman Antichrist, be
dated from near the commencement of the seventh
century, we are not very far from the era of great
moral changes in the state of the world ; and
there are reasons to be adduced in a subsequent
part of this work, which lead us to believe, that
the career of Mohammedanism runs parallel to
that of Popery, and that, taking their rise from
nearly a common era, they are destined also to
synchronise in their fall.

56 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

CHAPTER IV. ,. } v

The Prophet announces his Mission among his kindred c/ the Koreish
Meets with a harsh repulse Begins to declare it in public View
of his fundamental Doctrines His pretensions respecting the Ko
ran. The disdainful Rejection of his Message by his fellow-citizens
His consequent Denunciations against them.

THE mission of Mohammed had hitherto been
conducted in private. The proselytes he had thus
far gained had been won over from among the
circle of his immediate friends and connexions.
The time had now come, he affirmed, when the
Lord commanded him to make his message pub
licly known, beginning with his kindred of the
tribe of Koreish. " O thou covered, arise and
preach, and magnify thy Lord."* " And admonish
thy more near relations."! To this end he directed
AH to prepare a generous entertainment, and in
vite to it the sons and descendants of Abdol Mo-
talleb, where, when they were all convened, he
would formally divulge to them the solemn fact of
his apostolic commission. Some disturbance, oc
casioned by Abu Laheb, caused the company to
break up before he had an opportunity of effecting
his purpose, which induced him to give them a se
cond invitation on the ensuing day. About forty
of them accordingly assembled around his board,
when the prophet arose, and thus addressed his

* Koran, ch. Ixxiv. t Ch. xxvi.

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 57

wondering guests : " I know no man in the whole
peninsula of the Arabs who can propose any thing
more excellent to his relations than what I now do
to you ; I offer you happiness both in this life and
in that which is to come ; God Almighty hath com
manded me to call you unto him ; who therefore
among you will be my vizier (assistant), and will
become my brother and vicegerent?" General
astonishment kept the assembly silent; none of
fered to accept the proffered office till the fiery Ali
burst forth and declared that he would be the
brother and assistant of the prophet. " I," said
he, " O prophet of God, will be thy vizier ; I my
self will beat out the teeth, pull out the eyes, rip
open the bellies, and cut off the legs, of all those
who shall dare to oppose thee." The prophet
caught the young proselyte in his arms, exclaim
ing, " This is my brother, my deputy, my succes
sor; show yourselves obedient unto him." At
this apparently extravagant command, the whole
company burst into laughter, telling Abu Taleb
that he must now pay obedience and submission to
his own son ! As words were multiplied, surprise
began to give way to indignation, the serious pre
tensions of the prophet were seriously resented,
and in the issue the assembly broke up in confu
sion, affording the ardent apostle but slender pros
pects of success among his kinsmen.

Undeterred by the failure of his first public at
tempt, Mohammed began to preach still more
openly before the people of Mecca. He an
nounced to them that he was commissioned by the

58 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

Almighty to be his prophet on the earth ; to assert
the unity of the Divine Being ; to denounce the
worship of images ; to recall the people to the
true and only religion ; to bear the tidings of para
dise to the believing ; and to. threaten the deaf and
unbelieving with the terrible vengeance of the
Lord. His main doctrine, and that which consti
tutes the distinguishing character of the Koran is,
that there is but one God ; that he only is to be
worshipped ; and that all idolatry is a foul abomi
nation, to be utterly abolished. The 112th ch. of
the Koran, entitled " The Declaration of God s
Unity," is held in the most profound veneration by
the Mohammedans, and declared, by a tradition of
the prophet, to be equal in value to a third part of
the whole Koran. It is said to k have been re
vealed in answer to the Koreish, who inquired of
the apostle concerning the distinguishing attributes
of the God whom he invited them to worship. It
consists of a single sentence. " In the name of
the most merciful God. Say, God is one God;
the eternal God ; he begetteth not, neither is he
begotten : and there is not any one like unto him."
In the incessant repetition of this doctrine in the
pages of the Koran, the author is aiming not only
at the grosser errors of polytheism and idolatry,
then common among the Eastern nations, but is
levelling a blow also at the fundamental tenet of
Christianity, that Jesus Christ is the son of God,
" the only begotten of the Father." Like others
in other ages, Mohammed could conceive of no
mode of understanding the doctrine of the filia-

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 59

tion of Christ, as held by Christians, which did
not directly militate with the truth of the essential
unity of the Most High ; and in his view the first
born of absurdities was, to allirm in the same
breath that Christ was the son of God, and yet
coequal and coeternnl with the Father. The New
Testament declarations, therefore, respecting the
person and character of the Messiah find no mercy
at the hands of the author of the Koran, who
either had not the candour or the capacity to dis
criminate beween the doctrine of the Trinity and
that of Tri theism. " O ye who have received the
Scriptures, exceed not the just bounds in your re
ligion, neither say of God any other than the
truth." i. e. either by rejecting Jesus as the Jews
do, or by raising him to an equality with God as
do the Christians. " Verily, Christ Jesus, the son
of Mary, is the apostle of God, and his word,
which he conveyed into Mary, and a spirit pro
ceeding from him. Believe, therefore, in God and
his apostles, and say not there are three Gods ;
forbear this ; it will be better for you. God is
but one God. Far be it from him that he should
have a son ! Unto him belongeth whatsoever is in
heaven and on earth ; and he is sufficient unto
himself."* " They are certainly infidels who say,
Verily, God is Christ the son of Mary. Whoever
shall give a companion unto God, God shall ex
clude him from paradise, and his habitation shall
be hell-fire. They are certainly infidels who say
God is the third of three : for there is no God be .

* Koran, ch. iv.

60 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

sides one God. Christ, the son of Mary, is no
more than an apostle ; and his mother was a
woman of veracity : they both ate food."* " There
is no God but he : the curse be on those whom
they associate with him in his worship."!

With this fundamental article of the Moslem
creed, Mohammed connected that of his being,
since Moses and Jesus, the only true prophet of
God. " We gave unto the children of Israel the
book of the law, and wisdom, and prophecy ; and we
fed them with good things, and preferred them above
all nations : and we gave them plain ordinances
concerning the business of religion. Afterward
we appointed thee, O Mohammed, to promulgate
a law concerning the business of religion : where
fore follow the same, and follow not the desires of
those who are ignorant." J The object of his mis
sion, he affirmed, was not so much to deliver to the
world an entirely new scheme of religion, as to
restore and replant the only true and ancient faith
professed by the patriarchs and prophets, from
Adam down to Christ. " Thus have we revealed
unto thee an Arabic Koran, that thou mayest warn
the metropolis of Mecca, and the Arabs who dwell
round about it. He hath ordained you the religion
which he commanded Noah, and which we have
revealed unto thee, O Mohammed, and which we
commanded Abraham, and Moses, and Jesus ; say
ing, Observe this religion, and be not divided there
in. Wherefore, invite them to receive the sure
faith, and be urgent with them as thou hast been

* Koran, ch. v, f Ch. ix. t Ch. xtv.

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 61

commanded." This revival and re-establishment
of the ancient faith, he taught, was to be effected by
purging it of the idolatrous notions of the Arabs,
and of the corruptions of the Jews and Christians.
For while he admits the fact that the books of the
Old and New Testaments were originaDy written by
inspiration, he at the same time maintains, that they
have been since so* shamefully corrupted by their
respective disciples, that the present copies of both
are utterly unworthy of credit ; and therefore, he
seldom quotes them in the Koran according to the
received text. From the following extracts, the
reader will perceive how unsparingly the restorer
of the primitive faith deals forth his rebukes upon
those who had wilfully adulterated and disfigured
it. " O ye who have received the Seriptures, why
do ye clothe truth with vanity, and knowingly hide

the truth? And there are certainly some of

them who read the Scriptures perversely, that ye
may think what they read to be really in the Scrip
tures, yet it is not in the Scriptures ; and they say,
this is from God ; but it is not from God ; and they
speak that which is false concerning God, against
their own knowledge."* "Wherefore, because
they have broken their covenant, wef have cursed
them, and hardened their hearts ; they dislocate
the words of the Pentateuch from their places, and
have forgotten part of what they were admonished ;

* Koran, ch. iii.

t The reader will notice that notwithstanding Mohammed s strenuous
rt ion of God s absolute unity, and his execrations of those who as
cribe to him "associates," yet when he introduces him .-i tdking in live
Konin it is usually in the plural number.

62 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

and wilt thou not cease to discover the deceitful
practices among them, except a few of them?"
" O ye who have received the Scriptures, now is
our apostle come unto you, to make manifest unto
you many things which ye have concealed in the
Scriptures."*

In the execution of his high behest, he declared
himself appointed to promulge a new revelation
in successive portions, the aggregate of which was
to constitute the Bible of his followers. The ori
ginal or archetype of the Koran,f he taught, was-
laid up from everlasting in the archives of Heaven,
being written on what he termed the preserved ta
ble, near to the throne of God, from which the series
of chapters communicated by Gabriel were a tran
script. This pretended gradual mode of revelation
was certainly a master stroke of policy in the im
postor. " The unbelievers say, unless the Koran
be sent down to him entire at once, we will not be
lieve. But in this manner have w r e revealed it that
we might confirm thy he ait thereby, and we have
dictated it gradually by distinct parcels. "J Had
the whole volume been published at once, so that
a rigid examination could have been instituted into
its contents as a whole, and the different parts
brought into comparison with each other, glaring
inconsistencies would have been easily detected,
and objections urged which he would probably have
found it impossible to answer. But by pretending
to receive his oracles in separate portions, at dif-

* Koran, ch. v. j See Appendix C. % Koran, ch. xxv.

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 6*3

ferent times, according as his own exigences or
those of his followers required, lie had a ready way
of silencing all cavils, and extricating himself with
credit from every dilliculty, as nothing forbade the
message or mandate of to-day heing modified or
abrogated by that, of to-morrow. In this manner,
twenty-three years elapsed before 1 the whole chain
of revelations was completed, though the pro])];
informed his disciples that he had the consolation of
seeing the entire Koran, bound in silk and adorn,
with ;old and gems of Paradise, once a year, till, in
the last year of his life, he was favoured with the
vision twice. A part of these spurious oracles were
published at Mecca before his flight, the remainder
at Medina after it. The particular mode of publica
tion is said to have been this : When a new chap
ter had been communicated to the prophet, and was
about to be promulgated for the benefit of the
world, he first dictated it to his secretary, and then
delivered the written paper to his followers, to be
read and repeated till it had become firmly im
printed upon their memories, when the paper was
again returned to the prophet, who can-fully depo
sited it in a chest, called by him " the chest of
his apostleship." The hint of this sacred coffer
was doubtless taken from the Ark of the Covenant,
the holy chest of the Jewish tabernacle, in which
the authentic copy of the law was laid up and pre
served. This chest Mohammed left at his death
in the care of one of his wives ; and from its con
tents the volume of the Koran was afterward com
piled. The first collection and arrangement of

64 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

these prophetic relios, more precious than the scat
tered leaves of all the Sybils, was made by Abu-
beker, but the whole was afterward revised and
new-modelled by Othman, who left the entire vo
lume of the Koran in the order in which we now
have it.

Mohammed s first reception by the mass of his
fellow-citizens of Mecca was scarcely more hope
ful than it had been among his kindred. His al
leged divine messages, especially when they as
sumed a tone of reprehension and reproach towards
his countrymen, for their idolatry, obstinacy, and
perverseness, were met with indignant scoffs and
railings. Some called him a magician and a sor
cerer ; others, a silly retailer of old fables ; and
others directly charged him with being a liar and
an impostor. The reader will be amused and in
terested by the insertion of a few out of the scores
of allusions, with which the Koran abounds, to the
profane and contemptuous treatment shown to
wards the prophet at this time. - " The Meccans
say, O thou, to whom the admonition (the Koran)
hath been sent down, thou art certainly possessed
with a devil : wouldst not thou have come unto
us with an attendance of angels if thou hadst
spoken the truth ? Answer, We send not down the
angels but on a just occasion."* " Verily I have
permitted these Meccans and their fathers to live
in prosperity, till the truth should come unto them,
and a manifest apostle : but now the truth is come

* Koran, ch. vi.

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 65

unto them, they say, this is a piece of sorcery ;
and we believe not therein. And they say, Had
this Koran been sent down unto some great man
in either of die two cities, we would have received
it." " The time of giving up their account drawcth
nigh unto the people of Mecca. No admonition
cometh unto them from their Lord, but when they
hear it they turn it to sport. They say, The Ko
ran is a confused heap of dreams: nay, he hath
forged it."f " And the unbelievers say, this Koran
is no other than a forgery which he hath contrived ;
and other people have assisted him therein : but
they utter an unjust thing and a falsehood. They
also say, These are fables of the ancients, which he
hath caused to be written down ; and they are dic
tated unto him morning and evening. Say, He
hath revealed it who knoweth the secrets in hea
ven and earth. And they say, What kind of apostle
is this ? He eateth food, and walketh in the streets
as we do. The ungodly also say, Ye follow no
other than a man who is distracted. "{ " When our
evident signs are rehearsed unto them, the unbe
lievers say of the truth, This is a manifest piece of
sorcery. Will they say, Mohammed hath forged
it? Answer, If I have forged it, verily, ye will
not obtain for me any favour from God : he well
knoweth the injurious language which ye utter

concerning it. 1 follow no other than what is

revealed unto me ; neither am I any more than a
public warner."^

* Koran, ch. xliii. | Ch. xxi. J Ch. xxv. $ Ch. xlvi.

F 2

66 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

But these stiff-necked idolaters were plainly
taught that they were not to promise themselves
impunity in thus pouring contempt upon the testi
mony of an authorized legate of heaven. The
Most High himself was brought in confirming by
an oath the truth of his prophet s mission. " I
swear by that which ye see and that which ye see

not, that this is the discourse of an honourable

apostle, and not the discourse of a poet: how
little do ye believe ! Neither is it the discourse of
a soothsayer : how little are ye admonished ! It
is a revelation from the Lord of all creatures. If
Mohammed had forged any part of these dis
courses concerning us, verily we had taken him
by the right hand, and had cut in sunder the vein
of his heart ; neither would we have withheld any
of you from chastising him. And verily, this book
is an admonition unto the pious ; and we well
know there are some of you who charge the same
with imposture : but it shall surely be an occa
sion of grievous sighing unto the infidels ; for it is
the truth of a certainty."* "Because he is an
adversary to our signs, I will afflict him with
grievous calamities ; for he hath devised contume
lious expressions to ridicule the Koran. May
he be cursed ! I will cast him to be burned in
hell. And what shall make thee understand what
hell is? It leaveth not any thing unconsumed,
neither doth it suffer any thing to escape; it
searcheth men s flesh ; over the same are nineteen

* Koran, ch. Ixix

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 67

angels appointed. We have appointed none but
angels to preside over hell-fire."* "Verily we
have prepared for the unbelievers chains, and col
lars, and burning fire."t " Verily those who dis
believe our signs we will surely cast out to be
broiled in hell-fire : and when their skins shall be
well burned, we will give them other skins in ex
change, that they may taste the sharper torment.";):

* Koran, ch. Ixxiv. t Ch. XL { Cfc. iv.

68 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

CHAPTER V. .

Mohammed not discouraged by Opposition The burden of his Preach
ing Description of Paradise Error to suppose Women excluded
Of Hell Gains some Followers Challenged to work a Miracle
His Reply The Koran the grand Miracle of his Religion Judicial
Obduracy charged upon the Unbelievers.

BUT no repulses, however rude or rebellious,
operated to deter the prophet from prosecuting his
apostolic ministry. No injuries or insults, how
ever galling, availed to quench that glow of phi
lanthropy, that earnest solicitude for the salvation
of his countrymen, for which his divine revela
tions plainly give him credit. " Peradventure, thou
afflictest thyself unto death lest the Meccans be
come not true believers."* "Verily, God will
cause to err whom he pleaseth, and will direct
whom he pleaseth. Let not thy soul, therefore be
spent in sighs for their sakes, on account of their
obstinacy ; for God well knoweth that which they
do. r f And it must be acknowledged, that his firm
ness at this stage of his career, in the midst of
bitter opposition, opprobrious taunts, and relentless
ridicule, has very much the air of having been
prompted by a sincere though enthusiastic belief
in the truth and rectitude of his cause. The
scope of several chapters of the Koran promul
gated at this time leads to the same impression.

* Koran, ch. xxvi. t Ch, xxxv.

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 69

They are strikingly hortatory and impassioned in
their character, inculcating the being and perfec
tions of the one only God, the vanity of idol^
future resurrection, a day of judgment, a state of
rewards and punishments, and the necessity of
works of righteousness. The marks of impos
ture are much more discernible upon the pages
subsequently revealed, in which the prophet had
private ends of a sinister nature to accomplish.
But he contented not himself with merely preach
ing in public assemblies, and proclaiming in streets
and market-places the solemn and awakening
burden of his message. With a zeal worthy of a
better cause, and with a perseverance and patience
that might serve as a model to a Christian mis
sionary, he backed his public appeals by private
addresses, and put in requisition all the arts of per
suasion and proselytism, in which he was so emi
nently skilled. He applied himself in the most
insinuating manner to all classes of people ; he
was complaisant and liberal to the poor, cultivating
their acquaintance and relieving their wants ; the
rich and noble he soothed by flattery ; and bore
affronts without seeking to avenge them. The
effect of this politic management was greatly en
hanced by the peculiar character of those inspired
promises and threatenings which he brought to
enforce his message.

His promises were chiefly of a blissful paradise
in another life ; and these he studiously aimed to
set forth in colours best calculated to work upon
the fancies of a sensitive and sensual race, whose

70 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

minds, in consequence of their national habits,
were little susceptible of the images of abstract
enjoyment. The notions of a purely intellectual
or spiritual happiness pertain to a more cultivated
people. The scorching heat of those tropical re
gions, the aridness of the soil, and the consequent
lack of a verdant vegetation, made it natural to the
Arabs, and other oriental nations, to conceive of
the most exquisite scenes of pleasure under the
images of rivers of water, cooling drinks, flowery
gardens, shaded bowers, and luscious fruits. The
magnificence also of many of the Eastern build
ings, their temples and palaces, with the sumptu-
ousness of their dresses, the pomp of processions,
and the splendour of courts, would all tend to
mingle in their ideas of the highest state of en
joyment an abundance of gold and silver and pre
cious stones treasures for which the East has
been famed from time immemorial. Mohammed
was well aware that a plenitude of these visible
and palpable attractions, to say nothing of grosser
sources of pleasure, was an indispensable requi
site in a heaven suited to the temperament of his
countrymen. Accordingly, he assures the faith
ful, that they shall enter into delectable gardens,
where the rivers flow, some with water, some with
wine, some with milk, and some with clarified
hone) r ; that there will be fountains and purling
streams whose pebbles are rubies and emeralds,
their earth of camphire, their beds of musk, and
their sides of saffron. In feasting upon the ban
quets of paradise, at one time the most delicious

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 71

fruits shall hang dependent from the branches of
the trees under which their couches are spread, so
that they have only to reach forth their hands to
pluck them; again, they shall be served in dishes
of gold filled with every variety of grateful food,
and supplied with wine of ambrosial flavour. But
the prophet s own glowing pictures of the joys of
his promised paradise will do more justice to the
subject. " They shall repose on couches, the lin
ings whereof shall be of thick silk interwoven witli
gold ; and the fruit of the two gardens shall be
near at hand to gather. Therein shall receive
them beauteous damsels, refraining their eyes from
beholding any besides their spouses, having com
plexions like rubies and pearls. Besides these
there shall be two other gardens that shall be
dressed in eternal verdure. In each of them
shall be two fountains pouring forth plenty of
water. In each of them shall be fruits, and palm-
trees, and pomegranates. Therein shall be agree
able and beauteous damsels, having fine black
eyes, and kept in pavilions from public view,
whom no man shall have dishonoured before their
predestined spouses, nor any genius." "They
shall dwell in gardens of delight, reposing on
couches adorned with gold and precious stones ;
sitting opposite to one another thereon. Youths,
which shall continue in their bloom for ever, shall
go round about to attend them, with goblets and
beakers, and a cup of flowing wine : their heads
shall not ache by drinking the same, neither shall
their reason be disturbed." " Upon them shall be

72 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

garments of fine green silk, and of brocades, and
they shall be adorned with bracelets of silver, and
their Lord shall give them to drink of a most pure
liquor a cup of wine mixed with the water of
Zenjebil, a fountain in paradise named Salsabil."
"But those who believe and do that which is right,
we will bring into gardens watered by rivers,
therein shall they remain for ever, and therein
shall they enjoy wives free from all infirmities ;
and we will lead them into perpetual abodes."
" For those who fear their Lord will be prepared
high apartments in paradise, over which shall be
other apartments built; and rivers shall run be
neath them." " But for the pious is prepared a
place of bliss : gardens planted with trees, and
vineyards, and damsels of equal age with them
selves, and a full cup."

Such is the Mohammedan paradise, rendered
alluring by its gross, carnal, and luxurious cha
racter. It cannot indeed be denied that there are
occasional intimations, in the Koran, of some kind
of spiritual happiness to be enjoyed by the pious
in addition to their corporeal pleasures. " Their
prayer therein shall be, Praise be unto thee, O
God ! and their salutation therein shall be, Peace !
and the end of their prayer shall be, Praise be
unto God, the Lord of all creatures."! But it is
beyond question, that the main ingredients in the
anticipated happiness of the Moslem saints are of
a sensual kind, addressed to the inferior principles

* Koran, eh. iii. iv. xxxvi. xxxvii. xliii. xlvii. Ixxviii. |Ch. x.

LIFE or MOHAMMED. 73

of our nature, and making their paradise to dif
fer but little from the Elysium of the heathen
poets.

The reader of the Koran will meet with re
peated declarations subversive of the vulgar opi
nion, that the religion of Mohammed denies to
women the possession of souls, and excludes
them from all participation in the joys of paradise.
"Whatever may have been imagined or affirmed on
this point by some of his more ignorant followers, it
is certain that Mohammed himself thought too
highly of women to inculcate any such doctrine, as
the following passages will evince : "Whoso doeth
evil, shall be rewarded for it ; and shall not find any
patron or helper besides God; but whoso doeth
good works, whether he be male or female, and is
a true believer, they shall be admitted into para
dise, and shall not in the least be unjustly dealt
with."* " The reward of these shall be paradise,
gardens of eternal abode, which they shall enter,
and whoever shall have acted uprightly, of their
fathers, and their wives, and their posterity ; and
the angels shall go in unto them by every gate,
saying, Peace be upon you, because ye have en
dured with patience ; how excellent a reward is
paradise !"f

ff these vivid representations of the future bliss
of the faithful were calculated to work strongly
upon the passions of his hearers, his denunciations
of the fearful torments reserved for unbelievers,

* Koran, ch. iv. t Ch. xiii.

74 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

were equally well fitted to produce the same ef
fect. The most revolting images of bodily suf
fering, hunger, thirst, the torture of fire, and the
anguish of piercing cold, were summoned up by
the preacher to alarm the workers of evil, and to
call off the worshippers of idols from their im
piety. " But for the transgressors is prepared an
evil receptacle, namely hell : they shall be cast
into the same to be burned, and a wretched couch
shall it be." "And they who believe not shall
have garments of fire fitted unto them : boiling
water shall be poured on their heads ; their bow
els shall be dissolved thereby, and also their skins ;
and they shall be beaten with maces of iron. So
often as they shall endeavour to get out of hell,
because of the anguish of their torments, they
shall be dragged back into the same ; and their
tormentors shall say unto them, Taste ye the pain
of burning."* " It shall be said unto them, Go
ye into the punishment which ye denied as a false
hood: go ye into the shadow of the smoke of
hell, which shall ascend in three columns, and
shall not shade you from the heat, neither shall it
be of service against the flame ; but it shall cast
forth sparks as big as towers, resembling yellow
camels in colour."! " Hath the news of the
overwhelming day of judgment reached thee?
The countenances of some, on that day, shall be
cast down ; labouring and toiling ; they shall be
cast into a scorching fire to be broiled : they

* Koran, cli. xvii. t Ch. Ixxviii.

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 75

be given to drink of a boiling fountain : they shall
have no food but of dry thorns and thistles ;
which shall not fatten neither shall they satisfy
hunger." "Is this a better entertainment, or the
tree of Al Zaccum ? How different is the tree Al
Zaccum from the abode of Eden ! We have
planted it for the torment of the wicked. It is a
tree which issueth from the bottom of hell : thr
fruit thereof resembleth the heads of devils ; and
the damned shall eat of the same, and shall fill
their bellies therewith ; and there shall be given
them thereon a mixture of filthy and boiling wutcr
to drink : afterward shall they return into hell."*

Such was the burden of his exhortations, while
he warned the people of the danger of unbelief,
and urged them by his eloquence to avoid eter
nal damnation by putting faith in the apostle of
God. In addition to these powerful motives,
drawn from another world, he was lavish in the
menaces of fearful punishments in this life also, if
they hearkened not to his voice. For this pur
pose, he set before them the calamities which had
overtaken those who, in former times, had refused
to listen to the prophets sent among them. " Do
they not consider how many generations we have
destroyed before them? Other apostles have
been laughed to scorn before thee, but the judg
ments which they made a jest of encompassed
those who laughed them to .scorn. Say, Go
through the earth, and behold what has been the

* Koran, ch. xxxvii.

76 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

end of those who accused our prophets of impos
ture."* " We have already sent messages unto
sundry nations before thee, and we afflicted them
with trouble and adversity, that they might humble
themselves : yet when the affliction which we
sent came upon them, they did not humble them
selves ; but their hearts became hardened, and
Satan caused them to find charms in rebellion.
And when they had forgotten that concerning
which they had been admonished, we suddenly
laid hold on them, and behold they were seized
with despair ; and the utmost part of the people
which had acted wickedly was cut off: praise be
unto God, the Lord of all creatures !"f He cited
the case of the inhabitants of the old world, who
perished in the deluge for riot giving heed to the
preaching of Noah ; of Sodom, overwhelmed by
fire for not receiving the admonition of Lot ; and
of the Egyptians, who were buried in the Red
Sea for despising Moses. To give still greater
effect to his warnings, and ingratiate himself into
the favour, as well as to awaken the fears, of his
auditors, he took repeated occasions to allege his
entire disinterestedness in the work in which he
was engaged. He preached because he was com
manded to preach, and not because he intended
covertly to make gain of his hearers. He there
fore boldly takes them to witness that he de
manded no compensation for his services. He
looked to a higher source for reward. " But we

* Koran ch.vi. |Ch. vi.

LIFE OF MOIIAMMKD. 77

have brought them their admonition ; and they
turn aside from their admonition. Dost thou ask
of them any maintenance for thy preaching t since
the maintenance of thy Lord is better ; for he is
the most bounteous provider."* " We have sent
thee to be no other than a bearer of good tidings,
and a denouncer of threats. Say, I ask not of
you any reward for this my preaching, besides the
conversion of him who shall desire to take the
way unto his Lord."f As the prophet theref-
disclaimed all sinister views in the execution of
his office, as he expressly renounced the expect
ancy of any earthly advantage whatever, so he
was commanded to divest hi? mind of all undue
anxiety as to the result of his labours of love.
" O apostle, let not them grieve thee who hasten
to infidelity." " Whoso is wilfully blind, the con
sequence will be to himself. We have not ap
pointed thee a keeper over them : neither art thou
a guardian over them." " And be not thou grieved
on account of the unbelievers, neither be thou
troubled for that which they subtly devise."!

It is not therefore to be wondered at that the
rousing appeals of the prophet should have taken
effect ; that one after another should have listened
pondered wavered and yielded especially
as the gravity and sanctity of his deportment seem,
at this time, to have corresponded with the solemn
strain of his expostulations. Such accordingly
was the fact. The number of his followers gra-

* Koran, ch. xxiii. t Ch. xlii. * Ch. xvi.

78 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

dually increased, so that in five years from the
commencement of his mission, his party, including
himself, amounted to forty.

That which operated more than any thing else
to disconcert the impostor was the demand re
peatedly made upon him to prove the truth of his
mission by working a miracle. "Moses and Je
sus," said his hearers, " and the rest of the pro
phets, according to thine own doctrine, wrought
miracles to prove themselves sent of God. Now
if thou be a prophet, and greater than any that
were before thee, as thou boastest, let us see a
miracle from thee also. Do thou make the dead
to rise, the dumb to speak, the deaf to hear ; or
else cause fountains to spring out of the earth, and
make this place a garden adorned with vines and
palm trees, and watered with rivers running
through it in divers channels ; or do thou make
thee a house of gold beautified with jewels and
costly furniture ; or let us see the book which
thou allegest to have come down from heaven, or
the angel which thou sayest brings it unto thee,
and we will, believe." This natural and not un
reasonable demand, he had, as we learn from the
Koran, several ways of evading. At one time, he
tells them he is only a man sent to preach to them
the rewards of paradise and the punishments of
hell. " The infidels say, unless a sign be sent
unto him from his Lord, we will not believe.
Thou art commissioned to be a preacher only, and
not a worker of miracles."* "Answer, Signs are

* Koran, ch.xiii.

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 79

in the power of God alone ; and I am no more
than a public preacher. Is it not sufficient for
them that we have sent down unto thee the book
of the Koran, to be read unto them ?"* " We
sent not our messengers otherwise than bearing
good tidings and denouncing threat Say, I say
not unto you, The treasures of God are in my
power : neither do I say, I know the secrets of
d od: neither do Is ay unto you, Verily I am an
angel : I follow only that wlu ch is revealed unto
me."t At another, that their predecessors had
despised the miracles of the former prophets, and
for this reason God would work no more among
them. Again, that those whom God had ordained
to believe, should believe without miracles, while
the hapless non-elect, to whom he had not decreed
the gift of faith, would not believe though ever
so many miracles were wrought before them.
" And though we had sent down angels unto them,
and the dead had spoken unto them, they would
not have believed, unless God had so pleased." J
" If their aversion to thy admonitions be grievous
unto thee, if thou canst seek a den whereby thou
mayest penetrate into the inward parts of the earth,
or a ladder by which thou mayest ascend into
heaven, that thou mayest show them a sign, do so,
but thy search will be fruitless ; for if God pleased
he would bring them all to the true direction."^
At a latrr period, when he was at Medina at the
read of an army, he had a more summary way of

* Koran, ch. xiii. t Ch. vi. } Ibid. $ Ibid.

80 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

solving all difficulties arising from this source, for
his doctrine then was, that God had formerly sent
Moses and Jesus with the power of working mira
cles, and yet men would not believe, and there
fore he had now sent him, a prophet of another
order, commissioned to enforce belief by the power
of the sword. The sword accordingly was to be
the true seal of his apostleship, and the remark
of the historian is equally just and striking, that
"Mohammed, with the sword in one hand and the
Koran in the other, erected his throne on the ruins
of Christianity and of Rome."*

By some of the more credulous of the prophet s
followers, there are, it is true, several miracles at
tributed to him ; as that he clave the moon asun
der ; that trees went forth to meet him ; that
water flowed from between his fingers ; that the
stones saluted him ; that a beam groaned at him ;
that a camel complained to him ; and that a shoul
der of mutton informed him of its being poisoned,
together with several others. But these miracles
were never alleged by Mohammed himself, nor are
they maintained by any respectable Moslem wri
ters. The only miracle claimed either by him or
his intelligent votaries is the Koran, the composi
tion of which is the grand miracle of their reli
gion. On this point the reader will perceive that
the prophet s assumptions in the following pas
sages are high-toned indeed. " If ye be in doubt
concerning that revelation which we have sent

* Gibbon.

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 81

down unto our servant, produce a chapter like
unto it, and call upon your witnesses, b&lt; God,
if ye say the truth."* Say, Verily, if men and
genii were purposely assembled, that they mi
produce a book like this Koran, they could not
produce one like it, although the one of them as
sisted the other."f "Will they Bay, He hath
forged the Koran ? Bring therefore ten chap!
like unto it, forged by yourselves ; and call on
whomsoever ye may to assist you."j The infatua
tion of the Meccans in rejecting this inestimable
" admonition," stamped as it was with the evident
impress of the divinity, he hesitates not to ascribe
to the effect of a fearful judicial obstinacy, such as
the Jewish prophets frequently threaten against
the perverse nation of Israel. " If we had re
vealed the Koran in a foreign language, they had
surely said, Unless the signs thereof be distinctly
explained, we will not receive the same : Answer,
It is unto those who believe a sure guide and a
remedy ; but unto those who believe not, it is a
thickness of hearing in their ears, and it is a dark
ness which covereth them." " As for the unbe
lievers, it will be equal unto them whether thou
admonish them or do not admonish them ; they
will not believe. God hath sealed up their hearts
and their hearing ; a dimness covereth their sight,
and they shall suffer a grievous punishment. "||
" There is of them who hearkeneth unto thee
when thou readest the Koran ; but we have cast

* Koran ch. ii. t Ch. xvii. { Ch xi.

$Ch. xli. || Ch. ii.

82 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

veils over their hearts, that they should not under
stand it, and a deafness in their ears ; and though
they should see all kinds of signs, they will not
believe therein ; and their infidelity will arrive to
that height, that they will even come unto thee to
dispute with thee."* Still his preaching prevailed.
He became more and more popular; proselytes
flocked around him ; and, as Gibbon remarks, " he
had the satisfaction of beholding the increase of
his infant congregation of Unitarians, who revered
him as a prophet, and to whom he seasonably dis
pensed the spiritual nourishment of the Koran."f

* Koran, ch. vL t Dec. and Fall, ch. 1.

LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

| CHAPTER VI.

The Korfish exasperated and alarmed by Mohammed s growing sue-
cess Commence persecution Some of tux fll&lt;nr,rx / m

flight New converts The Koreish form a League aga&lt; /n

Abu Taleb and Cadijah die He makes a tempor* , (Wl

Mecca Returns and preaches with increased zealS&gt; f the

Pilgrims from Medina converted.

THE zeal of the prophet in proclaiming his doc
trines, together with the visible increase of his
followers, at length alarmed the fears of the head
men of the tribe of Koreish ; and had it not been
for the powerful protection of his uncle, Moham
med would doubtless at this time have fallen a
victim to the malice of his opponents. The chief
men of the tribe warmly solicited Abu Tal.-h to
abandon his nephew, remonstrating against the
perilous innovations he was making in the religion
of their fathers, and threatening him with an open
rupture in case he did not prevail upon him to
desist. Their entreaties had so much weight with
Abu Taleb, that he earnestly dissuaded his rela
tive from prosecuting his attempted reformation
any farther, representing to him in strong tenns
the danger he would incur both for himself and his
friends by persisting in his present course. But
the ardent apostle, far from being intimidated by
the prospect of opposition, frankly assured his
uncle, " That if they should set the sun against
him on his right hand, and the moon on his left,

84 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

yet he would not relinquish his enterprise." Abu
Taleb, seeing him thus determined, used no far
ther arguments to divert him, but promised to
stand by him against all his enemies ; a promise
which he faithfully kept till he died, though there
is no clear evidence that he ever became a con
vert to the new religion.

The Koreish, rinding that they could prevail
neither by fair words nor by menaces, had re
course to violence. They began to persecute his
followers ; and to such a length did they proceed
in their injurious treatment, that it was no longer
safe for them to continue at Mecca. Mohammed
therefore gave leave to such of them as had not
friends to protect them, to seek refuge elsewhere.
Accordingly sixteen of them, among whom was
Mohammed s daughter and her husband, fled into
Ethiopia. These were afterward followed by
several others, who withdrew in successive com
panies, till their number amounted to eighty-three
men, and eighteen women, with their children.
These refugees were kindly entertained by the
king of Ethiopia, who peremptorily refused to
deliver them to the emissaries of the Koreish sent
to demand them. To these voluntary exiles the
prophet perhaps alludes in the following passage :
" As for those who have fled from their country
for the sake of God, after they had been unjustly
persecuted, we will surely provide them an ^excel
lent habitation in this world, but the reward of the
next life shall be greater, if they knew it." *

* Koran, ch. xvi.

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 85

In the sixth year of his mission, lie had the
pleasure of seeing his party strengthened by the
conversion of his urn-le llaniza, a man of distin
guished valour, and of Omar, a p i of equal
note in Mecca, who had formerly made himself
conspicuous hy his virulent opposition to the pro
phet and his claims. This new accession to the
rising sect exasperated the Koreish afresh, ;md in
cited them to measures of still more active perse
cution against the proselytes. But as persecution
usually advances the cause which it lahonrs to
destroy, so in the present case Islamism made
more rapid progress than ever, till the Koreish,
maddened with malice, entered into a solemn league
or covenant against the Hashemites, and especially
the family of the Motalleb, many of whom upheld
the impostor, engaging to contract no marriages
with them, nor to hold any farther connexion or
commerce of any kind ; and, to give it the greater
sanction, the compact was reduced to writing and
laid up in the Caaba. Upon this the tribe became I
divided into two factions ; the family of Hashem,
except one of Mohammed s uncles, putting them
selves under Abu Taleb as their head, and the
other party ranging themselves under the standard
of Abu Sophyan. This league, however, was of
no avail during the lifetime of Abu Taleb. The
power of the uncle, who presided in the govern
ment of Mecca, defended the nephew against
the designs of his enemies. At length, about the
close of the seventh year of the mission, Abu
Taleb died ; and, a few days after his death, Mo-

86 LIFE OP MOHAMMED.

hammed was left a widower, by the decease of
Cadijah, whose memory has been canonized by
the saying of the prophet ; " That among men
there had been many perfect, but of women, four
only had attained to perfection, viz. Cadijah, his
wife ; Fatima, his daughter ; Asia, the wife of Pha
raoh ; and Mary (Miriam), the daughter of Imran
and sister of Moses." As to Abu Taleb, though
the prophet ever cherished a most grateful sense
of the kindness of his early benefactor, yet if the
following passage from the Koran has reference,
as some of the commentators say, to his uncle, it
shows that the dictates of nature in the nephew s
breast were thoroughly brought into subjection to
the stern precepts of his religion. " It is not
allowed unto the prophet, nor those who are true
believers, that they pray for idolaters, although
they be of kin, after it is become known unto them
that they are inhabitants of hell." * This passage,
it is said by some, was revealed on account of Abu
Taleb, who, upon his death-bed, being pressed
by his nephew to speak a word which might enable
him to plead his cause before God, that is, to pro
fess Islam, absolutely refused. Mohammed, how
ever, told him that he would not cease to pray for
him till he should be forbidden by God ; such a
prohibition, he affirmed, was given him in the
words here cited. Others suppose the occasion to
have been the prophet s visiting his mother Amina s
sepulchre, who also was an infidel, soon after the
capture of Mecca. Here, while standing at the

* Koran, ch. ix.

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 87

tomb of hi- parent, he is reported to have burst
into tears, and said, " I asked leave of God to
visit my mother s tomb, and he "ranted it me; but
when I asked leave to pray for her, it was denied
me." This twofold alllirtion of the prophet, in
the loss of his uncle and his wife mi the same
year, induced him ever after to call this " The
Year of Mourning."

The unprotected apostle was now left com
pletely exposed to the attacks of his enemies, and
they failed not to improve their advantage. They
redoubled their efforts to crush the pestilent heresy,
with its author and abettors, and some of his fol
lowers and friends, seeing the symptoms of a
fiercer storm of persecution gathering, forsook the
standard of their leader. In this extremity Mo
hammed perceived, that his only chance of safety
was in a temporary retreat from the scene of con
flict. He accordingly withdrew to Tayef, a village
situated sixty miles to the East of Mecca, where
he had an uncle named Abbas, whose hospitality
afforded him a seasonable shelter. Here, how
ever, his stay was short, and his prophetic labours
unavailing. He returned to Mecca, and boldly
taking his stand in the precincts of the Caaba,
among the crowds of pilgrims who resorted an
nually to this ancient shrine, he preached the
gospel of Islam to the multitudinous assemblies.
New proselytes again rewarded his labours ; and,
among the accessions now made to his party from
these pilgrim hordes, were six of the inhabitants
of Medina, then called Yatreb, who, on their return

88 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

home began at once to relate to their fellow-citizens
the story of their conversion, and to extol, in no
measured terms, their new religion and its apostle.
This circumstance gave eclat to Mohammed in
the city of Medina, and paved the way to a train
of events which tended more than any thing else
to promote his final success in Arabia. In the
mean time, in order to strengthen his interest in
Mecca, he married Ayesha, the daughter of Abu-
beker, and shortly after Sawda, the daughter of
Zama. By thus becoming the son-in-law of two
of the principal men of his party he secured their
patronage to his person and his cause.

LIFE OF M01IAMMI 89

CHAPTER VII.

The Prophet pretends to have had a night-journey through the Sewn
Heavens Description of the memorable Night bij an Arabic icriter
Account of the Journey His probable Motu-is in ft. inning such an
ravag ant fiction.

IT was in the twelfth year of the pretended mis
sion that Mohammed was favoured, according to
his own account, witli his celebrated night-journey
from Mecca to Jerusalem, and from thence to the
seventh heaven, under the conduct of the angel
Gabriel. In allusion to this the s&lt;?\ enth chap
ter of the Koran commences thus : " Praise be
unto him who transported his servant by night
from the sacred temple of Mecca to the farther
temple of Jerusalem, the circuit of which we
have blessed, that we might show some of our
signs ; for God is he who heareth and seeth."
This idle and extravagant tale, which is not related
in the Koran, but handed down by tradition, was
probably devised by the impostor in order to
raise his reputation as a saint, and to put himself
more nearly upon a level with Moses, with whom
God conversed, face to face, in the holy mount.
The story, however, is devoutly believed by the
Mussulmans, and one of their writers has given
the following highly-wrought description of the
memorable night in which it occurred. " In the

90 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

darkest, most obscure, and most silent night that
the sun ever caused by his absence, since that
glorious planet of light was created or had its being;
a night in which there was no crowing of cocks to
be heard throughout the whole universe, no bark
ings of dogs, no howlings, roarings, or yellings of
wild beasts, nor watchings of nocturnal birds ;
nay, and not only the feathered and four-footed
creatures suspended their customary vociferations
and motions, but likewise the waters ceased from
their murmurings, the winds from their whistlings,
the air from its breathings, the serpents from their
hissings, the mountains, valleys, and caverns from
their resounding echoes, the earth from its produc
tions, the tender plants from their sproutings, the
grass of the field from its- verdancy, the waves of
the sea from their agitations, and their inhabitants,
the fishes, from plying their fins. And indeed
upon a night so wonderful it was very requisite,
that all the creatures of the Lord s handy-work
should cease from their usual movements, and be
come dumb and motionless, and lend an attentive
ear, that they might conceive by means of their
ears what their tongues were not capable of ex
pressing. Nor is any tongue able to express the
wonders and mysteries of this night, and should
any undertake so unequal a task, there could no
thing be represented but the bare shadow ; since
what happened in this miraculous night was infi
nitely the greatest arid most stupendous event that
ever befell any of the posterity of Adam, either
expressed in any of the sacred writings which

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 91

came down from above, or by signs and figures.
From the sublime altitudes of heaven the most
glorious seraph of all those which God ever
created or produced, the incomparable Gabriel,
upon the latter part of the evening of that stupen
dous night, took a hasty and precipitate flight,
and descended to this lower world with an unheard-
of and wonderful message, the which caused an
universal rejoicing on earth, and filled the seven
heavens with a more than ordinary gladness ; and,
as the nature of the message both required and
inspired joy, he visited the world under the most
glorious and beautiful appearance that even imagi
nation itself is capable of figuring. His whiteness
obscured that of the driven snow, and his splen
dour darkened the rays of the noontide sun. His
garments were all covered with the richest flowers
in embroidery of celestial fabric, and his many
wings were most beautifully expanded, and all in
terspersed with inestimable precious stones. His
stature was exceeding tall, and his presence
exquisitely awful. Upon his beauteous capa
cious forehead he bore two lines written in cha
racters of dazzling light ; the uppermost consisted
of these words, La illah iF allah THERE is NO
GOD BUT ALLAH ; and in the lowermost line was
contained, Mohammed Rasoul Allah MOHAMMED
is GOD S MESSENGER."*

In passing from this poetical prelude, conceived
in the true gorgeous style of oriental description,
to the meagre and puerile story of the journey it-

* Morgan s Mahometanism Explained.

92 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

self, we feel at once that the prophet s fancy suffers
by comparison with that of his disciple, who could
certainly, from the above specimen, have given a
vastly more interesting fiction of a celestial tour
than the miserable tissue of absurdity which appears
in the fabrication of the prophet. Without detail
ing all the particulars of this nocturnal expedition,
in which the marvels thickened upon him till he
had reached the utmost height of the empyrean,
the following outline will afford the reader an idea
of its general character.

While the prophet was reposing in his bed, with
his beloved Ayesha at his side, he was suddenly
awakened by the angel Gabriel, who stood before
him with seventy pair of expanded wings, whiter
than snow and clearer than crystal. The angel
informed him that he had come to conduct him to
heaven, and directed him to mount an animal that
stood ready at the door, and which was between
the nature of an ass and a mule. The name of
this beast was Alborak, signifying in the Arabic
tongue, The Lightning," from his inconceivable
swiftness. His colour was a milky white. As
he had, however, remained inactive from the time
of Christ to that of Mohammed there having
been no prophet in the interval to employ him
he now proved so restless and refractory, that
Mohammed could not succeed in seating himself
on his back till he had promised him a place in
paradise. Pacified by this promise, he suffered
the prophet quietly to mount, and Gabriel, taking
the bridle in his hand, conveyed him from Mecca

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 93

to Jerusalem in the twinkling o f eye. When he
arrived at the latter place, the departed prophets
and saints came forth to meet and to salute him.
and to request an interest in his pnr Alien lie
came near to the tin one of ^ (ioinnr out of

the temple he found ;i ladder of lijrht ready fixed
for them, and tying Alhorak to ;i jock, he followed
Gabriel on the ladder till they reached tin
heaven, where admittance was readily granted hy
the porter, when told by Gabriel that h .m-
panion was no other than Mohammed, the pro-
phot of God. This first heaven, he tells us, was
all of pure silver, adorned with stars hanirino
from it by chains of gold, each of them of the
size of a mountain. Here he was met by a de-
crepid old man, whom the prophet learned to be
our father Adam, and who greatly rejoiced at
having so distinguished a son. He saw also in
this heaven innumerable angels in the shape of
birds, beasts, and men ; but its crowning wonder
was a gigantic cock, whose head towered up to
the second heaven, though at the distance of five
hundred days journey from the first ! His wings
were large in proportion, and were decked with
carbuncles and pearls ; and so loud did he crow,
whenever the morning dawned, that all creatures
on earth, except men and fairies, heard the tre
mendous din. The second heaven was of pure
gold, and contained twice as many angels as the
former. Among these was one of such vast di
mensions, that the distance between his eyes was
equal to the length of seventy thousand days

94 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

journey. Here he met Noah, who begged the
favour of his prayers. Thence he proceeded to
the third, where he was accosted by Abraham
with the same request. Here he found the Angel
of Death, with an immense table before him, on
which he was writing the names of the human
race as they were born, and blotting them out as
their allotted number of days was completed,
when they immediately died. At his entrance into
the fourth heaven, which was of emerald, he was
met by Joseph, the son of Jacob. In the fifth he
beheld his honoured predecessor, Moses. In the
sixth, which was of carbuncle, he found John the
Baptist. In the seventh, made of divine light in
stead of metals or gems, he saw Jesus Christ,
whose superior dignity it would seem that he ac
knowledged by requesting an interest in his
prayers, whereas in every preceding case the per
sonages mentioned solicited this favour of him.
In this heaven the number of angels, which had
been increasing through every step of his progress,
vastly exceeded that of all the other departments,
and among them was one who had seventy thou
sand heads, in every head seventy thousand mouths,
in every mouth seventy thousand tongues, in every
tongue seventy thousand voices, with which day
and night he was incessantly- employed praising
God!

The angel having conducted him thus far, in
formed him, that he was not permitted to attend
him any farther in the capacity of guide, but that he
must ascend the remainder of the distance to the

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 95

throne of God alono. This he accordingly under
took, and finally accomplished, though with great
difficulty, his w;iy lying through waters and snows,
and other formidahle obstacles, sndicieiit to daunt
the stoutest heart. At length he reached a point
where he heard a voice addressing him, saying,
" O Mohammed, salute thy Creator/ Mounting
still higher, he came to a place where he beheld
a vast extension of light of such dazzling hri/r] it-
ness, that the powers of mortal vision were unahlc
to endure it. In the midst of the eilulgence w
the throne of the Eternal ; on the right side of
which was written in luminous Arabic characters :
" There is no God but God, and Mohammed is
his prophet." This inscription, he says, he found
written on all the gates of the seven heavens
through which he passed. Having approached
to within two bow- shots of the Divine presence,
he ailinned that he there beheld the Most High
seated upon his throne, with a covering of seventy
thousand veils, before his face, from beneath which
he stretched forth his hand and laid it upon the
prophet, when a coldness of inconceivable intensity
pierced, as he said, to " the very marrow of his
back." No injury, however, ensued, and the Al
mighty then condescended to enter into the most
familiar converse with his servant, unfolding to
him a great many hidden mysteries, making him
to understand the whole law, and instructing him
fully in the nature of the institutions he was to
deliver to mankind. In addition to this he honoured
him with several distinctions above the rest of his

96 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

race ; as that he should be the most perfect of all
creatures ; that at the day of judgment he should
have the pre-eminence among the risen dead ; that
he should be the redeemer of all that believe in
him ; that he should have the knowledge of all
languages ; and, lastly, that the spoils -of all whom
he should conquer in war should belong to him
alone. After receiving these gracious assurances,
he retired from the presence of the Divine Majesty,
and, returning, found the angel awaiting him at the
place where they parted, who immediately re-
conducted him back, in the same manner in which
he came, to Jerusalem and Mecca.

Such were the puerile conceptions of the pro
phet. Such the silly rhapsody which he palmed
upon the credulity of his followers as the description
of a most veritable occurrence. The story, however,
carried on the face of it such glaring absurdity, that
several of his party forsook him at once, and his
whole cause came near to being utterly ruined by it.
At length Abubeker, the man of greatest influence
among the prophet s friends, by professing to give
credence to the tale, at once put to shame the in
fidelity of the rest, and extricated his leader from
his unhappy dilemma. He boldly vouched for the
prophet s veracity. " If Mohammed affirms it, it
is undeniably true, and I will stand by him. I
believe every word of it. The Lord s elected
cannot lie." This seasonable incident not only
retrieved the prophet s credit, but increased it to
such a degree, that it made him sure of being able
ever after to impose any fiction he pleased upon the

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 97

&gt;y faith ol his disriph So that this
and paltry fable, which at first threatened to h!
all the impostor*- &gt; IK UK s in the hud. did in l;id

ve, by a peculia^ combination of circum*tan&lt;

materially to promote his success. Abnbeker
henceforth had the honorary title of " Faithful
Witness" bestowed upon him.

We learn from Sale, the English rdmmcntatof
upon the Koran, that it is still somewhat dispi,
among the Mohammedan doctors, whether their
prophet s niiiht -journey was really performed by
him corporeally, or whether it was only a die
or a vision. Some think it was no more than a
vision, and allege an express tradition of Moawiyah,
one of Mohammed s successors, to that purpp^e.
Others suppose, that he was carried bodily to
Jerusalem, but no farther ; and that he thence as-
&lt; ended to heaven in spirit only. But the received
opinion is, that it was no vision, but that he was
actually transported in the body to his journey s
end; and, if any impossibility be objected, they
deem it a sufficient answer to say, that it might
easily have been effected by an omnipotent Being.

It is by no means improbable that Mohammed
had a farther design in forging this extravagant
tale than merely to astonish his adherents by the
relation of a miraculous adventure. The attentive
observer of the distinguishing traits of Islamism
will not fail to discover innumerable points of re
semblance between that system and the divinely-
revealed religion of the Jews ; and it appears to
have been an object studiously aimed at by the

98 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

impostor to assimilate himself as much as possible
to Moses, and to incorporate as many peculiarities
of the Jewish economy into his own fabrication as
he could without destroying the simplicity of his
creed. This fact is in keeping with what may be
asserted in general terms, that the descendants of
Ishmael, under a consciousness that the cove
nanted blessings of Jehovah have flowed down in
the line 6f Isaac and Jacob, have ever shown a
disposition to imitate what they could not attain.
More stiking proofs of this will appear in the
sequel. We adduce the observation here as
affording a probable clew to the motives of the
prophet in feigning this memorable night-journey.
Hitherto he had only imparted to his followers the
Koran, which, like the books of Moses, may be
termed his written law. In making this revelation
he had professed himself merely an organ through
whom the divine counsels were to be uttered to
the race of men. He simply gave forth what was
communicated to him through the medium of the
angelic messenger, and that without interposing
any comments or expositions of his own. Ac
cordingly, when pressed by the cavils of his adver
saries, his usual refuge was to affirm that the Koran
was not his book, but God s, and that he alone
could give a just interpretation of its meaning,
which was in some places to be understood literally,
in others allegorically. " There is no God but
God, the living, the self-subsisting : he hath sent
down unto thee the book of the Koran with truth,
confirming that which was revealed before it.

LIFE OF MOHAMMHD.

It is lie who hath sent down unto tliee the book,
therein are some verses clear to hi.- understood;
they are the foundation of the book; and others
are parabolical. JJut they whose he-arts are per
verse will follow that which is parabolical therein,
out of love of schism, and a desire of the inter
pretation thereof; yet none knoweth the interpre
tation thereof except God."* But having me
means become acquainted with the fact, that the
Jews, in addition to the written law dictated by
&lt; &gt;d himself, were in possession of another, called
the oral law, said to have been given to Moses at
the same time with the former on the holy mount;
and from Jiim handed down by tradition from age
to age; understanding, moreover, that this law was
accounted of equal authority with the written,
while it had its origin solely from certain verbal
declarations or dictates of Moses which were pre
served in the memories of those who conver-
with him ; the prophet may from this have taken
the hint of a similar mode of advancing his autho
rity, and of giving the weight and character of
oracles to his private sayings. To this end it is
not unlikely that he originated the fabulous legend
of his nocturnal travel into the regions of the
spheres. He was well aware, that could he once
succeed in making it believed that he had been fa
voured to hold this high converse with God in the
secret of his presence, and that he had been there
fully instructed in the profound mysteries of hea
ven, he could upon this foundation erect just such

* Koran, ch. iii.

100 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

a fabric of imposture as he pleased, and impose it
upon his credulous followers. Such at any rate
was the actual result. From this time forth
a peculiar sacredness attached to the most trivial
sayings and the most inconsiderable actions of the
prophet iii every thing that regarded his religion.
They were reverently noted during his lifetime,
and devoutly collected from traditional reports after
his death, and at length brought together in those
volumes of traditions, which compose the Sonnah^
answering precisely to the oral law of the Jews.
And as the Jewish Rabbins employ themselves in
collating, digesting, and explaining their ancient,
traditions, by many of which they make the law
of God of none effect, so also among the Moham
medan divines, there are those who devote them
selves to the business of expounding the Sonnah,
as containing the sum of their theology, both
speculative and practical. It was not without rea
son, therefore, that the impostor was extremely
anxious to have this marvellous recital cordially
believed, or that he should have introduced the
Most High in the Koran confirming the truth of
his servant s asseverations. "By the star when it
setteth, your companion Mohammed erreth not, nor
is he led astray : neither doth he speak of his own
will. It is no other than a revelation which hath
been revealed unto him. The heart of Moham
med did not falsely represent that which he saw.
Will ye therefore dispute with him concerning that
which he saw ?"*

* Koran, cli. liii.

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 101

CHAPTER VIII.

An Embassy jsent to the Prophet from M&lt; dma- ~ info a League

withthnn Sends thither a .V -ary Antlir Ihjm

to proffer him an Asylum in that City ///.* En encw th&lt; ir

Persecutions Determines to fly to Mniina -Iividt nt* on the
way Makes a Sotonn Entry into the City Apostate Christians
supposed to have joined in tendering him the Invitation.

THE fame of Mohammed had now extended be
yond the walls of his native town. While he was
opposed, scorned, and derided at Mecca, his impu
tation was growing, and his doctrines secretly
spreading at Medina. This city, anciently known
by the name of Yatreb, and lying at the northern
extremity of the province of Hejaz, about seventy
miles from Mecca, hud been distinguished by the
early introduction of letters, arts, and science ; and
its inhabitants, composed of pagan Arabs, here
tical Christians, and Jews, were frequently desig
nated as the people of the book. The two princi
pal tribes which now had possession of the city
were the Karejites and the Awsites, between
whom a hereditary feud had long subsisted, and
the disturbances occasioned by the rivalry of these
two tribes were enhanced by the disputes of the
religious factions, Jewish and Christian, which dis
tracted all classes of citizens. It has been al
ready observed that several of the inhabitants, in
a pilgrimage to the Caaba, had been converted by
the preaching of Mohammed, and that on their re-

102 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

turn they had not been slothful in the propagation
of their new sentiments. That they were both
sincere and successful disciples of the prophet may
be inferred from the fact, that on this year, the
twelfth of the mission, called the accepted year^
twelve men came to Mecca, and took an oath of
fidelity to Mohammed at Al Akaba, a hill on the
north of that city. The amount of this oath was :
" That they should renounce all idolatry ; that
they should not steal nor commit fornication, nor
kill their children, as the pagan Arabs used to do
when they apprehended they should not be able to
maintain them ; nor forge calumnies ; and that they
should obey the prophet in every thing that was
reasonable " When they had solemnly bound
themselves to the conditions of the oath, Moham
med sent one of his disciples, named Masab Ebn
Omair, to instruct these men fully in the principles
and practices of the new religion. Masab s mis
sion was eminently successful. Among the prose
lytes were Osaid Ebn Hodeira, a chief man of the
city, and Saad Ebn Moadh, prince of the tribe of
Aws ; and scarce a house in the city but numbered
one or more converts. If the terms may be al
lowed, the excitement was little short of a Mo
hammedan revival.

The next year, the thirteenth of the mission,
Masab returned to Mecca accompanied by se
venty-three men and two women who had pro
fessed Islamism, besides several who were as yet
unbelievers. The object of this deputation was
to proffer to the apostle an asylum or any assist-

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 103

ance in their power, as they had learned that, from
the strength and malice of his adversaries, he
stood in special need of auxiliaries. It was in
fact a political association which was proposed to
be Entered into, "in which we may perceive," says
(lihbon, "the first vital spark of the empire of the
Saracens." In this secret conference with the
prophet, his kinsmen, and his disciples, vows of
fealty and of mutual fidelity were pledged by the
parties. The deputies from Medina promised, in
the name of the city, that if he should he banished,
they would "receive him as a confed&lt; obey
him as a leader, and defend him to the last extre
mity, like their wives and children." " But if you
are recalled to your country/ they asked, kk will
you not abandon your new allies ?" " All thin;
replied Mohammed. " are now common between
us ; your blood is as my blood ; your ruin as my
ruin. We are bound to each other by the ties of
honour and interest. I am your friend and the
enemy of your foes." " But if w r e are killed in
your service, what will he our reward ?" " PARA-

*F *

DISK !" replied the confident apostle. This treaty
was then ratified, and they separated, Mohammed
having first chosen twelve out of their number,
who were to have the same authority among them
as the twelve apostles of Christ had among the
disciples.

Abu Sophyan succeeded Abu Taleb in the go
vernment of Mecca, in w r hom Mohammed found a
mortal enemy to his family, his religion, and him
self. No sooner was he called to the head of the

104 LIFE OF MOHAM&gt;1ED.

state than he determined to exterminate the apostle
and his new-fangled heresy. A council of the
Koreish and their allies was called, and the death
of the impostor decided upon. It was agreed that
a man should be chosen out of each of the con
federated tribes for the execution of the project, and
that each man should have a blow at him with his
sword in order to divide the guilt of the deed, and
to baffle the vengeance of the Hashemites ; as it
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 had re
vealed to him the atrocious conspiracy, to which
he thus alludes some time afterwards : " And call
to mind, when the unbelievers plotted against thee
that they might either detain thee in bonds, or put
thee to death, or expel thee the city ; and they
plotted against thee ; but God laid a plot against
them ; and God is the best layer of plots."* The
heavenly minister, however, who disclosed the
plot, pointed out no way of defeating it but by a
speedy flight. Even this chance of safety had
like to have been cut off through the vigilance of
his enemies. He was indebted for his .escape to
the devoted zeal of Ali, who wrapped himself in
the green mantle of the prophet, and lying down
upon his bed deceived .the assassins who had be
sieged the house of his friend. Mohammed, in
the mean time, in company with his faithful friend

* Koranj ch. viii.

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 105

Abubckcr, succeeded in irctiino safely out of the
i ity, and in re;i&lt;-liing a cave three miles distant,
called the cave of Thor, where the two liiiritives
concealed themselves three days from their pur
suers. A tradition of his follower- Mates that the
assassins, having arrived at the mouth of thr
rave, were deceived l&gt;y the nest of a pigeon made
at its entrance, and by a web which a spider had
fortunately woven across it. Believing this to be
sufficient evidence that no human beinir was within,
they desisted from all farther examination. The
manifest tokens of divine protection vouchsafed
to the prophet on this occasion, afforded him signal
encouragement ever after, even in the entire des
titution of human resources. " If ye -ist not
tho prophet, verily God will assist him, as he
sistcd him formerly, when the unbeliever! drove
him out of Mecca, the second of two (i. e. having
only Abubeker with him) ; when they were both
in the cave ; when he said unto his companion, Be
not grieved, for God is with us. And God sent
down his security upon him, and strengthened him
with armies whicli ye saw not."* Leaving the
cave after the departure of their enemies, they
made their way as rapidly as the perils of their
ilijrht would permit towards the city of refuge,
where they arrived sixteen days after leaving
Mecca. Having halted at Koba, two miles from
Medina, he was there met by five hundred of the
citizens who had gone forth for the purpose, and

* Koran, ch. ix.

106 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

by whom his arrival was greeted with la cordial
welcome. The prophet, having mounted a camel,
with an umbrella spread over his head, and a tur
ban unfurled instead of a banner,. made his public
and solemn entry into the city, which was hereaf
ter to be sanctified as the place of his throne.
This flight of the apostle of Islamism, called in
the Arabic tongue the HE JIRA, or more properly the
HEJRA, has become the grand era of all the Mo
hammedan nations, being employed by them for
the same purposes as the year of our Saviour s
birth is throughout the nations of Christendom. It
took place A. D. 622, in the fifty-third year of the
prophet s age.

The waiting adherents of the messenger of
truth, composed of those of his friends who had
by his orders fled from Medea a short time before
him, and the proselytes of Medina whom he had
never seen, now flocked obsequiously about his
person, and the distinction henceforth became es
tablished among his followers, of the Mohajerins,
or the companions of his flight, and the Ansars, or
helpers ; familiar appellations for the fugitives of
Mecca, and the auxiliaries of Medina. "As for
the leaders and the first of the Mohajerin and the
Ansars, and those who have followed them in well
doing ; God is well pleased with them, and they
are well pleased in him ; and he hath prepared
them gardens watered by rivers ; they shall re
main therein for ever ; this shall be great felicity."

* Koran, ch. ix.

LIFE OF Moimmr.D. 107

At this distance of time it is not possible to de
cide what class of citizens had the principal share
in tendering this invitation to the prophet, and
granting him such a ready reception. From the
following passage, occurring in the first published
chapter of the Koran after entering Medina, some
writers have inferred that the nominal Christians
of that city were the most active agents in intro
ducing the impostor. " Thou shalt surely find the
most violent of all men in enmity against the true
believers to be the Jews and the idolaters (i. e.
pagan Arabs); and thou shalt surely find IboftC
among them to be the most inclinable to entertain
friendship for the true believers who say, We are
Christians. This cometh to pass because there
are priests among them and monks, and because
they are not elated with pride: and when they
ir that which hath been sent down unto the
apostle read unto them, thou shalt see their eyes
I overflow witli tears because of the truth which
they perceive therein ; saying, O Lord, we believe ;
write us down therefore with those who bear wit
ness to the truth : and what should hinder us from
believing in God, and the truth which hath come
unto us, and from earnestly desiring that our Lord
would introduce us into paradise with the righteous
people ?"* This is certainly important as a histo
rical document, and if the inference drawn from it
be correct, it affords a melancholy proof of the
deep degeneracy of the eastern churches, that they

* Koran, ch. iii.

108 LIFE OF MOHAMMED,

should be among the first to embrace the foul im
posture. If that were the fact, it furnishes pal
pable demonstration also, that when men have
once began to swerve and deviate from the truth,
no limits can be set to the degree of apostacy into
which they are liable to fall. A fearful illustration
is thus afforded of the law of the divine judg
ments, that where men, under the cloak of a Chris
tian profession, receive not the love of the truth,
but have pleasure in unrighteousness, God shall
send them strong delusion that they should believe
a lie, and that too to their inevitable ruin.

LIFE OF MOHAMMEP. 109

. -, OHAPTEB IV.

T7ic Prophet now raited to a hich Pitch

A dinner m th? Tour of hi om-

: nanded to fizhtfor t he true. &gt; &gt;n Hi* Jirst wnr-like .\

unsuccessful The Fmlun &lt; -n/npt nxntcd intheSecoml -1 ! of

the Kattli- of Bfdfr T: tory much boasttd of- in

the Dti-nion of the Spoil Caab, a Jew, assassinated at the Inst .
of the Prophet.

FROM a fugitive Mohammed became a monarch.
Vo sooner had he arrived at Medina than he ibund
himself at the head of an army devoted to his
person, obedient to his will, and blind believers in
his holy office, Ho began at once to make ar
rangements for a permanent settlement, and his
first business, after giving his daughter Fatima in
marriage to Ali, was to erect a dwelling house fm
himself, and a temple or mosque, adjacent to his
own residence, for a place of religious worship, in
which he might publicly pray and preach before
the people. For he now, in his own person, com
bined the temporal and the religious power ; he
was leader of. his army, judge of his people, and
pastor of his flock.

With the change of his fortunes, his doctrines
began also to vary. Hitherto he lfa*l propagated
his religion by the milder arts of arguments and
entreaties, and his whole success before leaving
Mecca is to be attributed solely to the effect of per
suasion, and not of force. " Wherefore warn thy

110 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

people ; for thou art a warner only : thou art not
empowered to act with authority over them."*
Up to the period of his flight, he had utterly
disclaimed the use of any species of coercion in
propagating, or of violence in defending, the prin
ciples of his holy faith. In numerous passages of
the Koran, published at Mecca, he expressly de
clares that his business was only to preach and
admonish ; that he had no authority to compel any
one to embrace his religion ; and that whether
people believed or disbelieved was no concern of
his, but a matter that belonged solely to God.
" We have also spoken unto thee, O Mohammed,
by revelation, saying, Follow the religion of Abra
ham, who was orthodox, and was no idolater. In
vite men unto the way of thy Lord by wisdom and
mild exhortation ; and dispute with them in the
most condescending manner; for thy Lord well
knoweth him who strayeth from his path, and he
well knoweth those who are rightly directed.
Wherefore do thou bear opposition with patience ;
but thy patience shall not be practicable unless
with God s assistance. And be not thou grieved
on account of the unbelievers."! " Let there be
no violence in religion."! Indeed, so far was he from
allowing his followers to resort to violence, that he
exhorted them to bear with meekness the injuries
offered them on account of their faith, and when
persecuted himself, chose rather to quit the place
of his birth, and retire to a distant village than

* Koran, ch, Ixxxviii. t Ch. xvi. ;f .Ch. ii.

LIU; OF MOHAMMED. Ill

make any resistance. But this exemplary modera
tion, continued lor the space of twelve years,
seems to have heeii owing 1 altogether to his want
of power, and the ascendem-\ &lt;&gt;1 his enemies; for
no sooner was he enahled, hy the ,! iM;tnce of the
men of Medina, to withstand his adversaries, than
he suddenly "altered his voice," declaring that
God had allowed him and his followers to defend
themselves by human weapons against the infi
dels ; and as his foices increased, he pietmdcd to
have the divine permission to act upon the offensive
also, to attack his foes, to root out idolatry at all
hazards, and to urge the true faith at the point of
the sword. " War is enjoined you against the in
fidels."* " Fight, therefore, against the friends
of Satan, for the stratagem of Satan is weak."-|
" O true believers, take your necessary precaution
against your enemies, and either go forth to war in
separate parties, or go forth all together in a body."J
And when the months wherein ye shall not be al
lowed to attack them shall be past, kill the idola
ters wherever ye shall find them, and take them
prisoners, and besiege them, and lay wait for them
in every convenient place." " When ye encoun
ter the unbelievers, strike off their heads until ye
have made a great slaughter among them ; and bind
them in bonds ; and either give them a free dis
mission afterward, or exact a ransom, until the
war shall have laid down its arms."|| "Verily,
God hath purchased of the true believers their

* Koran, ch. ii. tCh. iv. J Ibid.

$ ClL ix. jj Ch. xlvii.

112 LIFE OF MOHAMMED*

souls, and their substance, promising them the en
joyment of paradise on condition that they fight
for the cause of God : whether they slay or be
slain, the promise for the same is assuredly due
by the law, and the gospel, and the Koran."* This
fierce, intolerant, and sanguinary spirit will be found
to distinguish most of the chapters revealed at
Medina, so that it can frequently be determined,
from the tone and temper pervading it, without
consulting the date, whether the portion was re
vealed before or after the flight. The prophet s
followers have faithfully acted up to the spirit of
these precepts ; and the terrific announcement at
tending the Moslem arms has been, " The Koran,
death, or tribute !" Even to the present day, every
other religious sect living under the government
of Mohammedan nations is compelled to pay an
annual tax as a mulct for their infidelity, and are
sure to meet with persecution, if not with death, if
they oppose or vilify any of the tenets of the holy
prophet. Indeed, every thing like argument or
controversy with the unbelievers, though not abso
lutely forbidden, is far from being countenanced, as
we may gather from the following precept to the
prophet himself. " Let them not, therefore, dis
pute with thee concerning this matter : but invite
them unto thy Lord : for thou followest the right di
rection. Bat if they enter into debate with thee,
God well knoweth that which ye do : God will judge
between you on the day of resurrection concerning
that wherein ye now disagree."!

* Koran, ch. ix. t Ch. xxiL

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 113

The prophet was now enabled to put in opera
tion a more effectual system of measures to com
pass his great ends than he had hitherto had pow
er to adopt. lie had he^uir to wield the vsword by
divine commission, and lie was not disposed to let
its potency r&lt; -main improved. ^ et the first war
like enterprise undertaken under the auspices of
the martial apostle, an expedition denned to har-
rass the Koreish, was unsuccessful. Having
learned that a caravan, the property of the, hostile
tribe, was on its way from Syria to Meera, he des
patched his uncle 1 1 am/a, with a party of thirty
horse to capture it. But the nearer approach of the
caravan discovering to the assailants that it was
guarded by a body of three hundred men, they
deemed it prudent to forbear an attack, and to re
turn quietly to Mecca.

The shame of the prophet s failure on this oc
casion was more than compensated by the success
of his arms at the battle of Beder, so famous in
the Mohammedan annals, which took place the en
suing year. A rich caravan proceeding to Mecca,
and guarded by Abu Sophyan with between thirty
and forty men, tempted at once the revenge and the
cupidity of Mohammed. The spies of the prophet
informed liirn that their rich and apparently easy
prey was within his grasp. He advanced with a
few followers in pursuit of it ; but before he could
overtake the unprotected band, Abu Sophyan had
despatched a messenger to his brethren of Mecca
for a reinforcement. Roused by the fear of losing
their merchandise and their provisions, unless they

114 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

hastened to his relief, a troop of nine hundred and
fifty men, among whom were the chief persons of
the city, instantly obeyed the summons. Moham
med was posted between the caravan and the ap
proaching succour with only three hundred and thir
teen soldiers, mounted, for the most part, on ca
mels. Of these, seventy-seven were fugitives, the
rest auxiliaries. Undismayed by this disparity of
force Mohammed determined to try the event of
a battle, and risk his fortune, his reputation, and
perhaps his life, upon the issue of the contest.
The troops were persuaded to engage the superior
forces of the enemy, abandoning for the present
the tempting prize of Abu Sophyan s wealthy ca
ravan. The prophet animated them by his prayers,
and, in the name of the Most High, promised them
certain victory. But however assured he might
have been of divine assistance, he was careful to
omit no human means of securing success. A
slight entrenchment was formed to cover the flank
of his troops, and a rivulet, flowing past the spot he
had chosen for his encampment, furnished his army
with a constant supply of water. When the enemy
appeared descending from the hill, Mohammed, al
luding to his own party, exclaimed, " O God, if these
are destroyed, by whom wilt thou be worshipped on
earth! Courage, my children, close your ranks,
discharge your arrows, and the day is your own !"
Before the armies, however, could engage, three
combatants, Ali, Al Hareth, and Hamza, on the side
of the Moslems, and three of the Koreish, joined in
single combat. The Moslem champions were vie-

LII MOHAMMED. 116

torious, and thus gave to both armies a presage
of the issue of the coming engagement. At the
commencement of (ho battle, the prophet, together
with Abubekcr, mounted a kind of throne or pulpit,
earnestly asking of (iod the assistance of Gabriel
with three thousand angels ; but when his army
appeared to waver, he started from his place of
prayer, threw himself upon a horse, and castin.
handful of sand into the air, exclaiming, " Con-
lusion fill their faces !" rushed upon the ene
my. Fanaticism rendered his Ibllowers invincible.
The forces of the Koreish were unable to break
the ranks or to resist the furious chat of his
confiding soldiers. They trembled and fled, leav
ing seventy of their bravest men dead on the field,
and seventy prisoners to grace the first victory of
the faithful. Of the Moslems. &lt;nty fourteen were
slain, whose names have been handed down to pos
terity, and enrolled among the list of martyrs, win
memory the pious Mussulman i^ taught to cherish
with devout veneration. The dead bodies of the
Koreish were stripped, and with a sa\ a&lt;je barbarity
cast into a well ; two of the most obnoxious pri
soners were punished with death, and the ransom
of the others fixed at four thousand drams of sil
ver. This sum would compensate, in a measure,
for the escape of the booty ; for, notwithstanding
the defeat, Abu Sophyan managed to effect a de
cent retreat, and to arrive safely at Mecca with
the greater part of the caravan. The spoils how
ever arising from the ransom of the prisoners, and
the partial plunder of the caravan, amounted to a

116 LIFE OF MOHAMMED*

considerable sum, the division of which had like to
have proved fatal to the victors themselves. Foi
of the two parties composing the prophet s army
the Ansars, or auxiliaries, being the most nume
rous, laid claim to the greatest share. The Moha*
jerins, from being first in the faith, assumed equal,
at least, if not superior, merit to that of their com
rades, and a furious altercation ensued. Moham
med, in order to put an end to the contention,
feigned a seasonable revelation from Heaven, in
which orders were given him to divide the booty
equally, after having deducted a fifth part for the
uses of the prophet, and certain specified purposes
of charity. "In the name of the most merciful
God : They will ask thee concerning the spoils :
Answer, The division of the spoils belongeth unto
God and the apostle ; therefore, fear God and com
pose the matter amicably among you ; and obey
God and his apostle, if ye be true believers."
"Know that whenever ye gain any spoils, a fifth part
thereof belongeth unto God and to the apostle, and
his kindred, and the orphans, and the poor, and the
traveller."* The part which the prophet adjudged
to himself on this occasion, amounted to several
thousand drams, or dirams, of silver ; how much
of this sum he allotted to " the poor, the orphans,
and the traveller," history gives us no intimation.

The success of Mohammed, with his little band
of devotees, at the battle of Beder, is frequently
alluded to in the Koran in a style of self-satisfied

viii

LI1 I 01 &gt;:&lt;&gt;HAM.Mi:D. 117

vaunting ami triumph, and is often appealed to by
his follow* - nothing less than a miraculous at
testation of Cod himself in favour of the prophet.
"Ye have already had t miracle shown yon in
two armies which attacked each other: one army
fnuirht lor God s true religion, but the other were
inlidels ; they saw the faithful tuice as man\
themselves in their own ijrht; for God strength-
eneth with his help whom he pleaseth."* 15&lt; sides
the miracle of the iniidel the Moslem army

double to what it was, two others are said to li;
been wrought on this memorable occasion. 1.
The sand or gravel which Mohammed threw into
the air is said to have been carried by the power
of God with such force against the faces of the
enemy tlytt they immediately turned their backs
and fled. \nd ye i not those who were slain
at Beder yourselves, but (iod &gt;!ew them. Neither
didst thou, O Mohammed, cast the gravel into their
eves, when thou didst seem to cast it; but God
cast it."f 2. We are also taught, that God sent
down to the prophet s aid, first a thousand, and af
terwards three thousand angels having their heads
adorned with white and yellow s -, the ends of
which hung down hi i\ adders; and

that this troop of e , auxiliaries, borne upon

black and white horses. ;:nd headed by Gabriel
upon his steed Hiazum, really did all the execution in
the defeat of the Koreish, though Mohammed s men
fought bravely, and, until better instructed, gave the
credit of the victory entirely to themselves. " And

* Koran, ch. xii. t Ch. viii.

118 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

God had already given you the victory at Beder,
when ye were inferior in numbers ; therefore, fear
God, that ye may be thankful. When thou saidst
unto the faithful, Is it not enough for you, that your
Lord should assist you with three thousand angels,
sent down from Heaven. Verily, if ye persevere,
and fear God, and your enemies come upon you sud
denly, your Lord will assist you with five thousand
angels, distinguished by their horses and attire."*
The vindictive spirit of the prophet was strikingly
evinced not long after this event by the assassination
of Caab, the son of Al-Ashraf, a Jew. This man,
having a genius for poetry, and being inveterately
opposed to Mohammed, went to Mecca after the
battle of Beder, and with a view to excite the Ko-
reish to revenge, deplored in touching verses the
unhappy fate of those of their brethren who had
fallen while valiantly resisting a renegade prophet,
with his band of marauders. He afterward returned
to Medina, and had the hardihood to recite his
poems to the people within the walls of that city.
Mohammed was so exceedingly provoked by the
audacity of the poet, who must, indeed, have been
possessed of the highest phrensy of his tribe to
promise himself impunity in these circumstances,
that he exclaimed, " Who will deliver me from the
son of Al-Ashraf?" A certain namesake of the
prophet, Mohammed, the son of Mosalama, a ready
tool of hia master, replied, " I, O prophet of God,
will rid you of him." Caab was soon after mur
dered while entertaining one of the apostle s fol
lowers.

* Koran, ch. ili.

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 110

CHAPTER X.

Afohammed alters the Kebla Many of his Followers greatly offended
thereby Mohammedan I n*t/ fiction of Prayer Appoints tkc I
Ramadan Account of this Ordinance.

ON the second year of the Hejira, Mohammed
altered the Kebla for his disciples, that is, the
point of the compass towards which they were to
direct their prayers. It was usual among the vota
ries of all the religions of the East to observe some
particular point in the heavens towards which they
turned their faces when they prayed. The Jews,
in whatever part of the world they chanced to be,
prayed with their faces towards Jerusalem, the
seat of their sacred temple ; the Arabians, towards
Mecca, because there was the Caaba, the centre
of their worship; the Sabians, towards the North
Star; the Persians, who deified fire and light, to
wards the East, where the Sun, the fountain of
Light, arose. " Every sect," says the Koran,
" have a certain tract of heaven to which they turn
themselves in prayer."* Mohammed, when he
first arrived in Medina, deeming the particular point
itself a matter of perfect indifference, and with a
view probably to ingratiate himself with the Jews,
directed his disciples to pray towards Jerusalem,
which he used to call the Holy City, the City of

* Koran, eh. ii.

120 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

the Prophets, and which he, at one time, intended
to have made the grand seat of his worship, and
the place of pilgrimage to his followers. But find
ing the Jews too intractable, or that his other con
verts still retained a superstitious regard for the
temple of Mecca, for so many ages the place of
idolatrous resort, and thinking it would tend to
conciliate the inhabitants of that city, if he kept up
the sanctity of their temple, he, at the end of six or
seven months, repealed his former law regulating
the Kebla, and thenceforward required all the faith
ful to offer their supplications with their faces
directed towards Mecca. Though not now in ac
tual possession of that city, yet anticipating the time
when it would be in the hands of Moslem masters,
he fixed upon it as the future " holy city" of his
followers. " From what place soever thou comest
forth, turn thy face towards the holy temple ; and
wherever ye be, thitherward turn your faces, lest
men have matter of dispute against you."* This
change was indeed an offence to many of his dis
ciples, from its indicating a singular degree of
fickleness in a professed prophet, and large num
bers accordingly forsook him altogether on account
of it. But his growing aversion to the Jews made
him steadfast in the present alteration, to which he
thus alludes in the Koran : " The foolish men
will say, What hath turned them from their Kebla
towards which they formerly prayed ? Say, Unto
God belongeth the East and the West : he direct-
eth whom he pleas eth in the right way."f " We

* Koran, ch. ii. t Ibid.

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 121

have seen thee turn about thy face towards heaven
with uncertainty; but we will cause; thee tu turn
thyself towards a Kebla that will please tli
Turn therefore thy face towards the holy temple
of Mecca; and, wherever ye be, turn your laces
towards that place."* " Verily, although tlum
shouldst show unto those to whom the Scripture
hath been given all kinds of signs, yet they will
not follow thy Kebla, neither shall thou follow their
Krbla ; nor will one part of them follow the Kebla
of the other."! The bearing or situation of Mecca,
with its holy temple, from any particular region of
the Mohammedan world, is pointed out within their
mosques by a niche, which governs the direction
of their faces ; and without, by the situation of the
doors which open into the galleries of the mi
narets. There are also tables calculated for the
purpose of readily finding out their Kebla, when
they have no other means of ascertaining the right
direction.

No duty enjoined by the Mohammedan creed is
more prominent than that of prayer. The prophet
himself used to call prayer " the pillar of religion
and the key of paradise," and to say that there
could be no good in that religion which dispensed
with it. He therefore prescribed to his followers
five stated seasons in the space of twenty- four
hours for the performance of their devotions. 1.
In the morning, between daybreak and sunrise.
2. Just after noon, when the sun begins to decline
from the meridian. 3. At the middle hour between

* Koran, ch. ii. 1 1bid.

122 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

noon and sunset. 4. Between sunset and dark.
5. An hour and a half after night has fully closed
in. At these times, of which public notice is given
by the muezzins, or criers, from the galleries of
the minarets attached to the mosques for the Mo
hammedans use no bells every conscientious
Moslem engages in this solemn duty, either in a
mosque, or by spreading his handkerchief, and
kneeling in any clean place upon the ground. Such
extreme sacredness do they attach to this part of
worship, and with such intensity of spirit do they
hold themselves bound to attend upon it, that the
most pressing emergency, the bursting out of a fire
in their chamber, or the sudden irruption of an
armed enemy into their gates or camps is not con
sidered a sufficient warrant for their abruptly break
ing off their prayers. Nay, the very act of cough
ing, spitting, sneezing, or rubbing their skin in
consequence of a fly-bite, in the midst of their
prayers, renders all the past null arid void, and
obliges them to begin their devotions anew. In
the act of prayer they make use of a great variety
of postures and. gestures, such as putting their
hands on.e on the other before them, bending their
body, kneeling, touching the ground with their
foreheads, moving the head from side to side, and
several others, among which it is impossible to
distinguish those enjoined by Mohammed himself
from those which were common among the ancient
Arab tribes before he arose. Still it is affirmed

by travellers, that, notwithstanding the scrupulous
preciseness of the Moslem devotions, no people

LIFi: (&gt; I MolI.YMMIiD. 123

are more deeply tinctured with tin 4 pharisaical spirit
of ostentation, or love better to pray in the nr,nk&lt; t-
places, and in the corners of the stn &lt; s. that they
may be seen of men, and obtain their pra:
Among the Turks especially it is said that where
ver they find the greatest concourse of special
particularly if they be Christians, there they are
ever sure to spread their handkerchiefs, whatever
inconveniences may attend the location, and begin
their adorations. In these petitions, a very promi
nent object of request is, that God would grant the
blessing of dissensions, wars, and tumults to be
enkindled among Christians ; and the rumours of
such joyful events are hailed as tokens of his gra
cious answers to their prayers. .

On the same year the prophet introduced into
his religion the holy fast of Ramadan, or Rama-
zan, so called from its being continued through the
whole of this month, which is the ninth in the or
der of the months of the Arabic year. Of this
duty Mohammed used to say, it was " the gate of
religion," and that " the odour of the mouth of him
who fasted is more grateful to God than that of
musk." An acceptable fast, according to the Mos
lem doctrine, includes abstinence from food, the
restraining all the senses and members from their
accustomed gratifications, and the withdrawment
of the thoughts from every thing but God. The
institution is thus announced in the Koran : " O
true believers, a fast is ordained you, as it was or
dained unto those before you, that ye may fear
God. A certain number of days shall ye fast -

124 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

but he among you who shall be sick, or on a jour
ney, shall fast an equal number of other days.
And those who can keep it and do not, must re
deem their neglect by maintaining of a poor man.
But if ye fast, it will be better for you, if ye knew
it. The month of Eamadan shall ye fast, in which
the Koran was sent down from Heaven, a direction
unto men."* By the law of their religion, there
fore, the disciples of Islam are required to fast,
while the sun is above the horizon, during the en
tire month of Ramadan, from the time the new
moon first appears, till the appearance of the next
new moon. Throughout that period they abstain
wholly from the pleasures of the table, the pipe,
and the harem ; they neither eat, drink, nor receive
any thing into their mouths during the day, till the
evening lamps, hung around the minarets, are
lighted by the Imam, or priest of the mosque, when
they are released from the obligations of abstinence.
They then give themselves, without restraint, to the
pleasures of the palate, and compensate in full mea
sure for the penance of the day by the indulgence
of the night. This is continued, according to the
law of the prophet, " till they can plainly distin
guish a white thread from a black thread by the
daybreak,"! when the season of self-denial com-
m^nces again for the ensuing day. As most of
thr- Mohammedans, however, are not too scrupu
lous to quell the annoyance of appetite by sleeping
away the hours of the day, the observance of the

* Koran, ch. ii. flbid.

Lin: or &gt;IOHA.M.&gt;II-:I&gt;. 125

fast of Ramadan is little more than turninnr day into
night, and night into day. As the Arabic year is
lunar, each month in a period of thirty-three yean,
falls into all the different seasons of the solar year,
and consequently the observance of the fast, when
the month of Ramadan occurs in summer, is ren
dered, by the length and heat of the days, &lt; \-
tremely rigorous and trying ; especially as the poor
are still compelled to labour during the day ; and
yet are forbidden, upon pain of death, to assuage
their thirst by a drop of water.

L 2

126

LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

CHAPTER XL

-, ^ ;

The Koreish undertake a new Expedition against the Prophet The
Battle of Ohod Mohammad and his Army entirely defeated His fol
lowers murmur The Prophet s poor devices to retrieve the disgrace
incurred in this action Resolves it mainly into the doctrine of Pre
destination Wine and Games of chance forlidden Sophyan, son
of Caledj slain War of the Ditch.

THE resentment of Abu Sophyan and the citi
zens of Mecca, for the loss and the disgrace sus
tained the preceding year, stimulated them to un
dertake a new expedition against the warlike apos
tle. The Koreish accordingly assembled an army
of three thousand men under the command of Abu
Sophyan, and proceeded to besiege their enemy in
the city of Medina. Mohammed, being much in
ferior in numbers to the invading army, determined
at first to await and receive their attack within the
walls of the city. But the ardour of his men, en
kindled by the recollection of their former success,
could not brook restraint ; they clamorously de
manded to be led out to battle; and he unwisely
yielded to their request. Impelled, also, himself,
by the same spirit of rash confidence, he unwarily
promised them certain victory. The prophetic
powers of the apostle were to be estimated by the
event. Mohammed, in every encounter, seems to
have manifested, in a high degree, the talents of a
general. In the present instance his army, con-

Lli MOIIAMMI.I . 127

sistingof about one thousand men, was advantage
ously posted on tin 1 declivity of the mountain
Ohod, lour miles to the north of Medina. Three
standards were confided each one to a separate
tribe, while the great standard was earned before
the prophet, and a chosen band of fifty arch
were stationed in the rear, witb peremptory on!
to remain there till commanded to the attack
by Mohammed himself. The Koreish advanced
in the form of a crescent ; Caled, the fiercest of
the Arabian warriors, led the right wing of the ca
valry ; while Hinda, the wife of Abu Sophyan, ac
companied by fifteen matrons of Mecca, inces
santly sounded timbrels to animate the troops to
the approaching conflict. The action commenced
by the Moslems chariring down the hill, and break
ing through the enemy s ranks. Victory or para
dise was the reward promised by Mohammed to
his soldiers, and they strove with frantic enthusi
asm to gain the expected recompense. The line
of the enemy was quickly disordered, and an easy
victory seemed about to crown the spirit and valour
of the Moslem troops. At this moment, the arch
ers in the rear, impelled by the hope of plunder,
deserted their station and scattered themselves over
the field. The intrepid Caled, seizing the favour
able opportunity, wheeled his cavalry on their flank
and rear, and exclaiming aloud, " Mohammed is
slain!" charged with such fury upon the disordered
ranks of the Moslems, as speedily to turn the fate
of the day. The flying report of the death of their
leader so dispirited the faithful, that they gave way

128 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

in every direction, and the rout soon became gene
ral. Mohammed endeavoured in vain to rally his
broken troops ; he fought with desperate valour ;
exposed his person where the danger appeared
greatest ; was wounded in the face by a javelin ;
had two of his teeth shattered by a stone ; was
thrown from his horse ; and would in all probabi
lity have been slain, but for the determined bra
very of a few chosen adherents, who rescued their
leader from the throng, and bore him away to a
place of safety. The day was utterly lost; se
venty of his soldiers were slain, among whom was
his uncle Hamza ; and his reputation as a prophet
and apostle was in imminent peril. His followers
murmured at the disastrous issue of the conflict,
and had the hardihood to affirm that the prophet
had deceived them ; that the will of the Lord had
not been revealed to him, since his confident pre
diction of success had been followed by a signal
defeat. The prophet, on the other hand, threw the
blame on the sins of the people ; the anger of the
Lord had fallen upon them in consequence of an
overweening conceit of their security, and because
he had determined to make trial of their sincerity.
" After a misfortune hath befkllen you at Ohod, do
ye say, Whence cometh this? Answer, This is
from yourselves : for God is almighty, and what
happened unto you was certainly by the permis
sion of God, that he might know the faithful and

that he might know the ungodly.- And we

cause these days of different success interchange
ably to succeed each other among men, that God

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 12U

might prove those who believe, and might destroy
the infidels. Did ye imainne that ye should enter
paradise, when as yd (&lt;&gt;&lt;! kne\v not those -among
you who fought strenuously in his cause ; nor knew
those who persevered with patience ? Verily, they
among you who tinned their hacks on the day
whereon the two armies met each other at Ohod,
Satan caused them to slip for some crime \\ hich
they had committed."* In order to stille the mur
murs of those who were overwhelmed with grid
at the loss of their friends and relatives, lie repi
sented to them, that the time of every man s death
is distinctly fixed by the divine decree, and that
those who fell in battle could not have avoided
their predetermined fate even if they had staid at
home ; w r hereas now they had obtained the glo
rious privilege of dying martyrs for the faith, and
were consequently translated to the bliss of para
dise. " O true believers, be not as they who be
lieve not, and said of their brethren when they
had journeyed in the land, or had been at war,
If they had been, with us, those had not died, nor
had these-been slain : whereas, what befell them
was so ordained. No soul can die unless by the
permission of God, according to what is written in
the book containing the determination of things.
Thou shall in no wise reckon those who have been
slain at Ohod, in the cause of God, dead : nay,
they are sustained alive with their Lord, rejoicing
for what God of his favour hath granted them."t
With these miserable evasions did he excuse the

* Koran, cli. iii.

130 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

falsehood of his prediction, and salve over the
ignominy of his defeat. This doctrine of fatalism
however took a deep root among his followers, and
to this day the Mohammedans are the most stre
nuous sticklers of any people on earth for the doc
trine of absolute unconditional predestination.
" No accident," saith the Koran, " happeneth in the
earth, nor in your persons, but the same was en
tered in the book of our decrees, before we cre
ated it."* &gt;: ; - " ; . : ;v

Abu Sophy an, for reasons now inexplicable, did
not pursue the advantages he had gained on this
occasion. He merely gave the prophet a chal
lenge to meet him again in the field on the ensu
ing year, which was readily accepted, although
somewhat more than a year elapsed before the
actual renewal of hostilities.

* " We had at the same time the following striking instance of the
frivolous appeals to the Deity among the Mohammedans. A man went
round the caravan, crying with a loud voice, In the name of God, the
just, the merciful. My cup is gone from me : it disappeared while I
prayed at sunset (and may God grant my evening prayer). To whoever
may find the same, may God lengthen out his life, may God augment
his pleasures, and may God bring down affairs of business on his head !
This pompous appeal to Heaven, and prayers for good fortune to the
finder of the missing utensil, were all powerless, however, in their
effect. The lost cup was not found ; and the consolation then assumed
was, God knows where it is gone ; but it was written in heaven from of
old? " Buckingham s Travels in Mesopotamia, vol. i. p. 281, Lond. 182t.

" While this was going on, the author of our calamity [a vessel had
been run aground] was pacing the deck, the picture of terror and inde
cision, calling aloud on Mohammed to assist us out of the danger. His
fears were not much lessened by the threats thrown out by each passing
tar. I say, Jack/ said one of them, " we 11 string you up for this ;
making his observation intelligible, by pointing with one hand to the
yard-arm, and with the other to the neck of his auditor, at the same
time imitating the convulsive guggle of strangulation. When called
to account for his obstinacy, the pilot gave us an answer in the true
spirit of (Mohammedan) predestination; l lfit is God s pleasure that
the ship should go ashore, what business is it of mine ? " KeppeCs Jour
ney from India to England, in 1824, p. 33.

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 131

About this time, or in the fourth year of the
Hejira (A. D. 626), Mohammed prohibited the use
of wine and of games of chance to his follow (is.
"They will ask thee of wine and lots. Answer,
In both these there is great sin, and also some
things of use unto men ; hut their sinfulness is
greater than their use."* The occasion of this
prohibition seems to have been the prophet s wit
nessing their bad effects in producing discord and
broils among his disciples. "O true believers,
wine and games of chance are an abomination, of
the work of Satan ; therefore avoid them, that ye
may prosper. Satan seeketh to sow dissension and
hatred among you by means of wine and lots, and
to divert you from remembering God, and iroin
prayer ; will ye not, therefore, abstain from them ?"
The sins of the past, arising from this source, are
graciously remitted on condition of future amend
ment. "In those who believe and do good works,
it is no sin that they have tasted wine or gaming
before they were forbidden ; if they fear God and
believe, and do good works, and shall for the future
fear God and believe, and shall persevere to fear
him and to do good. Obey God, and obey the
apostle, and take heed to yourselves : but if ye
turn back, know that the duty of our apostle is
only to preach publicly."! Under wine are com
prehended also all kinds of strong and inebriating
liquors ; and though Mussulmans of lax and liber
tine principles, and many such there are, will indulge
themselves with the forbidden beverage, yet the

* Koran, ch. ii. f Ch. v.

132 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

more conscientious scrupulously avoid it, and not
only hold it criminal to taste of wine, but also to
press grapes for the making of it, to buy or to sell
it, or even to maintain themselves with the money
arising from the sale of it.

Another act of blood stains the fame of Mo
hammed in this part of his history. Being in
formed that Sophy an, the son of Caled, was col
lecting men for the purpose of attacking him, he
ordered Abdallah, the son of Onai s, surnamed
Dhul-Malldhrat, that is, a man ready to undertake
any thing, to assassinate his designing foe. Ab
dallah obeyed the prophet s command, and mur
dered Sophyan in the valley of Orsa. He imme
diately returned to Mohammed, who, upon hear
ing the success of the enterprise, gave him as a
token of his friendship the cane with which he usu
ally walked.

In the fifth year of the Hejira occurred the war
of the ditch, or, as it is otherwise termed, the war
of the nations ; which, but for peculiar circum
stances, would probably have resulted in the entire
overthrow of the impostor. The Koreish, in con
junction with a number of the neighbouring tribes
or nations, many of .whom were Jews, assembled
an army of ten thousand men, and making common
cause against the grand adversary of their ancient
religion, advanced to the siege of Medina. On
their approach, Mohammed, by the advice of So-
liman, or Salman, the Persian,* ordered a deep

* This Soliman, otherwise called Suleiman Pauk (i.e. the Pure), has
a celebrated tomb erected to his memory near the ruins of the ancient

LIFE 01 MOHAMMED. 133

ditch, Or intrcnchment, to be dug around the city
for its security, behind which he remained fortified
for near a month. During this period, no oth- r
acts of hostility occurred than a few ineffectual
attempts to annoy each other by shooting arro
and slinging stones. In the mean time, tradition
says, the prophet was busily employed by his aits
and emissaries, in corrupting and bringing over to
!ns interest the leading men among the enemy.
Having succeeded with several, he employed them
in sowing dissensions among the rest; so that at
length the camp of the confederates was torn to
pieces with divisions, and one party breaking off
after another, nearly the whole army was finally
dissipated, and the little remnant that remained
thrown into confusion and made powerless by the
direct visitation of an angry God. For while they

Ctesiphon, on the Tigris. It is among the prominent objects of curi
osity to modern travellers to the East. "From the ruins we went to
the tomb of Suleiman Pauk, whose name has superseded that of the
builder of this magnificent pile, in -jiving a name lo the district. Tbe
tomb is a small building with a dome ; the interior, to which they
allowed us access, on our pulling off our sho ornamented with

arabesque arches, and the surrounding enclosure was used as a cara
vanserai." KeppeUs Journey, p. 82.

"After traversing a space within the walls sin- wed with fragments
of burnt brick and pottery, we came in about half an hour to the tomb
of Selman Pauk, which is within a short distance of the ruined palace
ofChosroes. We found here a very comfortable and secure retreat,
within a high-walled enclosure of about a hundred paces square, in the
centre of which rose the tomb of the celebrated favourite of Mohammed.
This Selman Pauk, or Selman the Pure, was a Persian barber, who,
from the fire-worship of his ancestors, became a convert to Islam,
under the persuasive eloquence of the great prophet of Medina himself;
and after a life of fidelity to the cause he had embraced, was buried here
in his native city of Modain (Ctesiphon). The memory of this beloved
companion of the great head of their faith is held in great respect by all
the Mohammedans of the country ; for, besides the annual feast of the
barbers of Bagdad, who, in the month of April visit his tomb as that of
a patron saint, there are others who come to it on pilgrimage at all sea-
eons of the year." Buckingham s Travels in Mesopotamia, vol. 2,
j&gt;.450.

134 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

lay encamped about the city, a remarkable tem
pest, supernaturally excited, benumbed the limbs
of the besiegers, blew dust in their faces, extin
guished their fires, overturned their tents, and put
their horses in disorder. The angels, moreover,
co-operated with the elements in discomfiting the
enemy, and by crying "ALLAH ACBAR!" (God is
great !) as their invisible legions surrounded the
camp, struck them with such a panic, that they
were glad to escape with their lives.

The prophet was not insensible to the marks 01
the divine favour vouchsafed him in these illus
trious prodigies, nor did he fail to hold them up to
the consolation of his followers on subsequent
occasions. " O true believers, remember the fa
vour of God towards you, when armies of infidels
came against you, and we sent against them a wind,
and hosts of angels which ye saw not."* But, to
whatever it were owing, whether to human or hea
venly agency, it is certain that from this time the
Koreish gave up all hopes of putting an end to the
growing power and spreading conquests of Mo
hammed. They henceforth undertook no more
expeditions against him.

* Koran, ch. xxxiii.

LIFE OF MOHAMMED 135

- CHAPTER XII.

The Jews the special objects of Mohammed s Enmity Sei^eral Tribes of
them reduced to Subjection / ndfrtakes a Pilgrimage to Mecca
The Meccans conclude a Truce with him of ten years His Power
and Authority greatly mcreasnl Has a Pulpit constructed for his
Mosque Goes against Chaibar, a City of the Arab Jews Besieges
and takes the City, but is poisoned at an Enttrtuinment by a young
Woman /* still able to prosecute his Victories.

WHATEVER might have been the prophet s early
reverence for the city of Jerusalem, and his friend
ship towards the Jews, who, together with the sons
of Ishmael, claimed in Abraham a common father,
their obstinacy converted his favour into impla
cable hatred ; and to the last moment of his life
he pursued that unfortunate people with a rigour
of persecution unparalleled in his treatment of
other nations. The Jewish tribes of Kainoka, Ko-
raidha, and the Nadhirites, lying in the vicinity of
Medina, were singled out as the next objects of his
warlike attempts ; and as they fell an easy prey
to the power of his arms, spoliation, banishment,
and death were the several punishments to which
he adjudged them, according to the grade of their
crime in rejecting a prophet or opposing a con
queror.

Our intended limits will not permit us to enu
merate the various battles fought by Mohammed
during the five succeeding years. Suffice it to

136 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

say, that, according to the computation of some of
his biographers, no less than twenty-seven expedi
tions were undertaken, in which he commanded
personally, and in which nine pitched battles were
fought. The heart sickens in following a pro
fessed messenger and apostle of God from one
scene of blood and carnage to another, making the
pretences of religion a cloak to cover the most un
bounded ambition and the vilest sensuality. A
mind untrained to a deep sense of the purity and
peaceableness of the religion of Jesus may be daz
zled by the glare of a tide of victories, and lose its
detestation of the impostor in admiring the success
of the conqueror. But to one who feels the force
of Christian principles, no relief is afforded by the
view of arduous battles won, of sieges undertaken,
or of cities sacked or subjected, by the prowess of
a leader whose career is stained like that of the
founder of Islam.

One or two subsequent expeditions, however, are
too important in the prophet s history to be passed
over without notice. In the sixth year of the
Hejira, with fourteen hundred men, he undertook
what he declared to be a peaceful pilgrimage to
the holy temple of Mecca. The inhabitants were
jealous of his intentions; and while he halted
several days at Hodeibiya, from whence he des
patched an emissary to announce his intention,
they came to a determination to refuse him admit
tance, and sent him word, that if he entered the
city, it must be by forcing his way at the point of
the sword. Upon this intelligence, the warlike

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 137

pilgrim called his men together, and it was resolved
to attack the city. The Meccans, in the mean
time, having more accurately measured their
strength, or estimated their policy, and having been,
besides, somewhat wrought upon by an unex
pected act of clemency on the part of Mohammed,
in pardoning and dismissing eighty prisoners of their
fellow-citizens, who had fallen into his hands,
altered the.ir purpose of resistance, and sent an
ambassador to his camp to confer upon terms of
peace. Some umbrage was given to the Moslems
by the facility with which their leader waived the
title of Apostle of God,* but the result was the
concluding of a truce of ten years, in which it was
stipulated, that the prophet and his followers should
have free access to the city and temple whenever
they pleased, during the period of the truce, pro
vided they came unarmed as befitted pilgrims, and
remained not above three days at a time. In the
48th chapter of the Koran, entitled " The Victory,"
the prophet thus alludes to the events of this ex
pedition ; " If the unbelieving Meccans had fought
against you, verily they had turned their backs ;
and they would not have found a patron or pro
tector ; according to the ordinance of God, which
hath been put in execution heretofore against the

* "In wording the treaty, when the prophet ordered AH to begin with
the form, In the name of the most merciful God, they (the Meccans)
objected to it, and insisted that he should begin with this, In thy name,
O God ; which Mohammed submitted to, and proceeded to dictate : These
are the conditions on which Mohammed, the apostle of God, has made
peace with those of Mecca. To this Sohail again objected, saying, If we
had acknowledged thee to be the apostle of God, we had not given thee
any opposition. Whereupon Mohammed ordered Ali to write as Sohail
desired, These are the conditions which Mohammed, the son ofAbdal-
be. Sale s Koran, vol. 2 p. 384, note.

138 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

opposers of the prophets. It was he who re
strained their hands from you, and your hands
from them, in the valley of Mecca." The entrance
into Mecca on this occasion is vaunted of by the
apostle as the fulfilment of a prophetic dream.
" Now hath God in truth verified unto his apostle
the vision, wherein he said, Ye shall surely enter
the holy temple of Mecca, if God please, in full
security."

This event tended greatly to confirm the power
of Mohammed ; and not long after, he was solemnly
inaugurated and invested with the authority of a
king by his principal men. With the royal dignity
he associated that of supreme pontiff of his reli
gion, and thus became at once the king and priest
of his Moslem followers, whose numbers had by
this time swelled to a large amount. So intense
had their devotion to their leader now become, that
even a hair that had dropped from his head, and
the water in which he washed himself, were care
fully collected and preserved, as partaking of
superhuman virtue. A deputy, sent from another
city of Arabia to Medina to treat with the prophet,
beheld with astonishment the blind and unbounded
veneration of his votaries. " I have seen," said
he, " the Chosroes of Persia, and the Caesar of
Rome, but never did I behold a king among his
subjects like Mohammed among his companions."

With this new addition to his nominal authority,
he began to assume more of the pomp and parade
due to his rank. After the erection of the mosque
at Medina, in which the prophet himself officiated

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 139

as loader of worship, ho had tor ;i long time no other
&lt; nnxonience in the way of stand, desk, or pulpit,
than the trunk oi a palm-tree lixcd perpendicularly
in the ground, on the top oi which he was accus
tomed to lean while prrachii This was now
he come too mean an accommodation, and by the
advice of one of his wives he caused a pulpit to
be constructed, with a seat and two steps ;itt;i&lt; -I
to it, which he henceforth made use of instead &lt;&gt;f
the "beam." The beam, however, was loath to
be deprived of its honour, and the dealers in the
marvellous among his followers say, that it gave
an audible groan of regret when the prophet left
it. Othman Ebn Affan, when he became Caliph,
hung this pulpit with tapestry, and Moawiyah, an
other Caliph, raised it to a greater height hy add
ing six steps more, in imitation, doubtless, of the
ivory throne of Solomon, and in this form it is
said to be preserved and shown at the present d;i\ ,
as a holy relic, in the mosque of Medina.

This year he led his army against Chaibar, a
city inhabited by Arab Jews, who offering him a
manly resistance, he laid siege to the place and
carried it by storm. A great miracle is here said
to have been performed by Ali, surnamed "The Lion
of God." A ponderous gate, which eight men after
ward tried in vain to lift from the ground, was
torn by him from its hinges, and used as a buck
ler during the assault !* Mohammed, on entering

* " Abu Rafe, the servant of Mohammed, is said to have affirmed that
he was an eye-witness of the fact; but who will be witness for Abu
RaleF Gibbon,.

140 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

the town, took up his quarters at the house of
Hareth, one of the principal inhabitants, and here
met with a reception which eventually cost him
his life. Zeinab, the daughter of Hareth, while
preparing a meal for the conqueror and his attend
ants, inserted a quantity of poison into a shoulder
of mutton which was served up at the table. Ba-
shar, a companion of Mohammed, had scarcely
began to eat of it, before he was seized with con
vulsions, and died upon the spot. Mohammed, by
spitting out the greatest part of what he had taken
into his mouth, escaped immediate death, but the
effects of the fatal drug had entered his system, and,
resisting every effort of medicine to expel or counter
act it, in somewhat more than three years afterward
it brought him to his end. If, as the reporters of
Mohammed s miracles affirm, the shoulder of mut
ton informed the prophet of its being poisoned, it
is certain the intelligence came too late. The
seeds of death were henceforth effectually sown
in his constitution ; and his own decline ever after
kept pace with his growing power. When Zeinab
was asked, how she had dared to perpetrate a
deed of such unparalleled enormity, she is said to
have answered, " that she was determined to make
trial of his powers as a prophet : if he were a true
prophet," said she, " he would know that the meat
was poisoned ; if not, it would be a favour to the
world to rid it of such a tyrant." It is not agreed
among the Mohammedan writers what was the
punishment inflicted upon this second Jael, or
whether she suffered any. Some affirm that she
was pardoned ; others that she was put to death.

Lin. OF .MOiMM.MKD. 141

The progir^ ,&gt;f the prophci s disease was not
such as to prevent him from prosecuting that suc
cessful course of conquests in which he was now
engaged. The Jews, the constant objects of his
vengeance, again tempted his victorious sword.
He proceeded against Bedcr, Watiba, and Selalin
places which he brought under subjection, permit
ting their inhabitants to retain possession on con
dition of paying him one half the product of their
date-trees as an annual tribute. On these terms
they remained undisturbed in their towns and vil
lages during the lifetime of the prophet ; till at
length, in the reign of Omar, who pretended that
Mohammed in his last sickness had -m u him a
charge not to permit two religions to coexist in
Arabia, they were all expelled from their ancient
settlements.

142 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

CHAPTER XIIL ; ~

Mohammed alleges a Breach of Faith on the part of the Meccans, and
marches an Army against them The City surrendered to the Con
queror Abu Sophyan and Al Abbas, the Prophet s Uncle, declare
themselves Converts Mecca declared to be Holy Ground The neigh
bouring Tribes collect an Army of four thousand men to arrest the
growing power of the Prophet ThejConfederates entirely overthrown
A rival Prophet arises in the person of Moseilama 7* crushed
by Caled,

Two years had scarcely elapsed when Moham
med accused the Meccans of violating the truce,
and made their alleged breach of faith a pretence
for summoning an army of ten thousand men with
a design to make himself master of the city. He
was now strong, and his enemies were weak. His
superstitious reverence for the city of his birth,
and the temple it contained, served to influence his
determination for war. The time since the con
cluding of the truce had been skilfully employed
in seducing the adherents of the Koreish, and con
verting to his religion, or enticing under his stand
ard, the chief citizens of Mecca. By forced
marches he urged his large army rapidly towards
the city, and so unexpectedly was the place invested
by the Moslem troops, that they had scarcely time
to put themselves in a posture of defence before
they were driven to such extremities, that the sur
render of the city at discretion, or total destruction,
seemed to be the only alternative. In these ci:

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 143

cumstances the former step was resolved upon,
humiliating as it was, and Abu Sophyan, the former
inveterate enemy of Mohammed and his religion,
accompanied by Al Abbas, an uncle of the impos
tor, came forth and presented the keys of the city
to the conqueror. Nor was this all: they both
crowned their submission by bowing to the pro
phetic claims of their new master, and acknowledg
ing him as the apostle of God. This we may
suppose was a constrained admission, made under
the uplifted scimitar of the furious Omar, and
yielded as the price of life. Mohammed, though
a conqueror and an impostor, was not habitually
cruel ; his anger was directed rather against the
gods of his country, than its inhabitant The
chiefs of the Koreish prostrated themselves before
him, and earnestly demanded mercy at his hands.
u What mercy can you expect from the man you
have wronged?" exclaimed the prophet. " We
confide in the generosity of our kinsman." " You
shall not confide in vain," was the generous or
politic reply of Mohammed. " Be gone ; you are
safe ; you are free." They were thenceforth left
unmolested, and places of honour and trust were
still confided to them. Oh his entry into the city,
of which he had now made himself absolute mas
ter with the sacrifice of only three men and two
women, whom he ordered to be executed, he pro
ceeded to purge the Caaba of its three hundred
and sixty idols, and to consecrate that temple anew
to the purposes of his religion. The apostle
again fulfilled the duties of a pilgrim, and a per-

144 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

petual law was enacted, that no unbeliever should
dare to set his foot on the territory of the holy
city. On the day on which the prophet entered
Mecca in triumph, he ordered Belal, his crier, to
mount to the top of the temple at noon, and from
thence to call the people to prayer for the first
time under the new institution. This custom has
been religiously observed in Mohammedan coun
tries from that day to the present ; the crier, who
is called muezzin, still giving the people notice of
the hour of prayer from the minarets of their
mosques.

When the news of the conquest of Mecca
reached the neighbouring tribes of Arabs, the Ha-
wazins, Takifians, and others, hastily assembled a
force amounting to about four thousand men, with
the design of crushing the usurper before his dan
gerous power had attained to any greater height.
Mohammed, appointing a temporary governor of
the city, marched out with an army of no less
than twelve thousand men, and met the enemy in
the valley of Honein, three miles from Mecca, on
the way to Tayef. The Moslems, seeing them
selves so vastly superior in point of numbers, were
inspired with a presumptuous confidence of victory,
which had like to have resulted in their ruin. In
the first encounter, the confederates rushed upon
the faithful with such desperate valour, that they
put nearly the whole army to flight, many of them
retreating back to the walls of Mecca itself. Mo
hammed, mounted on a white mule, with a few of
his faithful followers at his side, boldly maintained

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 1 I

his ground; and such was his ardour in this crisis
of the conflict, that it \v,is hy main force that one
of his uncles and a cousin, layinir hold of his
bridle and sthrup, restrained him from rushing
alone into the midst of the enemy. " O my bre
thren," he exclaimed, " I am the son of Ahdallah !
I am the apostle of truth ! O men, stand fa&gt;t in
the faith ! () God, send down thy sureou. II

uncle Abbas, who possessed a stentorian voice,
exertinir the utmost strength of his lunirs, recalled
the flying troops, and gradually rallied them
a IT: tin around the holy standard ; on which tin 1 pro
phet, observing with pleasure " that the furnace
was rekindled," charged with new vigour the ranks
of the infidels and idolaters, and dually succeeded
in obtaining a complete victory, though not, aa ap
pears from the Koran, without the special ;^-ist*
ance of angels The giving way in the firs! in
stance was a mark of the Divine displeasure against
the Moslems for their overweening Confidence in
their superior numbers. " Now hath God assisted
you in many engagements, and particularly at the
battle of Honein; when ye pleased yourselves in
your multitudes, but it was no manner of ad van*
tage unto you ; the earth seemed to be too narrow
in your precipitate flight : then did ye retreat and
turn your backs. Afterward God sent down his
security upon his apostle and upon the faithful, and
troops of angels which ye saw not."*

The remaining part of the year was spent iri
demolishing the temples and idols of the subject

* Koran, ch. ix.

146 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

Arabs. Saad, Caled, and others of his Moslem
chieftains were despatched in various directions over
the conquered provinces with orders to wage a war
of extermination against the idols of the ancient su
perstition. This pious crusade was crowned with
the conversion of many idolaters, as well as with
the destruction of the " lying vanities" of their
worship, and it is not strange that they should
have admitted the doctrine of the divine unity,
when the destroying sword of the apostle had cut
off all gods but one.

The prophet having now become in fact the so
vereign of Arabia, he began, m the ninth year of
the Hejira, to meditate the conquest of Syria.
He did not live fully to accomplish this design,
which was executed by his successors ; but he en
tered upon it, and notwithstanding the expedition
was undertaken in the heat of the summer, and
the scarcity of water subjected his men to almost
intolerable sufferings, yet he succeeded in obtain
ing possession of Tabuc, a town on the confines of
the Greek empire, from whence he made a victo
rious descent upon the adjacent territories of Dau-
ma and Eyla. Their princes yielded 1 to the des
tiny which now seemed to accompany the arms of
the impostor wherever they were turned, and they
were henceforth enrolled among his tributaries.
This was the last expedition on which the pro
phet went forth in person. The fame of his power
had now become so extensive and imposing, that
distant tribes were awed into submission, and sent
their emissaries to tender to him the voluntary

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 147

-acknowledgment of their homage and fealty. The
numerous deputations which for this and other
purposes, waited upon Mohammed this year, in
duced him to call it "The Year of Embassies."

The close of this year was distinguished by the
prophet s last pilgrimage to Mecca, called, from
its being the last, " The Pilgrimage of Valedic
tion." An idea of the amazing increase of his fol
lowers since he last visited Mecca may he formed
from the fact, that on this occasion he is said to
have been accompanied by one hundred and four
teen thousand Moslems!

Signal success in any enterprise seldom fails
to call forth imitators and rivals. Mohammrd
had now become too powerful to be resisted by
force, but not too exalted to be troubled by com
petition. His own example in assuming the sa
cred character of an apostle and prophet, and the
brilliant success which had attended him, gave a
hint to others of the probable means of advancing
themselves to a similar pitch of dignity and do
minion. The spirit of emulation, therefore, raised
up a formidable fellow-prophet in the person of
Moseilama, called to this day by the followers of
Islam, " the lying Moseilama," a descendant of the
tribe of Honeifa, and a principal personage in the
province of Yemen. This man headed an em
bassy sent by his tribe to Mohammed, in the ninth
year of the Hejira, and then professed himself a
Moslem ; but on his return home, pondering on the
nature of the new religion and the character and
fortunes of its founder, the sacrilegious suggestion

148 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

occurred to him, that by skilful management he
might share with his countryman in the glory of
a divine mission ; and accordingly, in the ensuing
year, began to put his project in execution. He
gave out that he also was a prophet sent of God,
having a joint commission with Mohammed to re
call mankind from idolatry to the worship of the
true God. He moreover aped his model so closely
as to publish written revelations like the Koran,
pretended to have been derived from the same
source. Having succeeded in gaining a consider^
able party from the tribe of Honeifa, he at length
began to put himself still more nearly upon a level
with the prophet of Medina, and even went so far
as to propose to Mohammed a partnership in his
spiritual supremacy. His letter commenced thus ;
" From Moseilama, the apostle of God, to Mo*
hammed, the apostle of God. Now let the earth
be half mine and half thine," But the latter,
feeling himself too firmly established to stand in
need of an associate, deigned to return him only the
following reply : " From Mohammed, the apostle
of God, to Moseilama, the liar. The earth is
God s : he giveth the same for inheritance unto
such of his servants as he pleaseth ; and the happy
issue shall attend those who fear him." During
the few months that Mohammed lived after this
revolt, Mosei}ama continued, on the whole, to gain
ground, and became, at length, so formidable,
as to occasion extreme anxiety to the prophet,
now rapidly sinking under the effects of his dis
ease? An expedition under the command of

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 149

Caled, " the Sword of God," was ordered out to
suppress the rival sect, headed by the spurious
apostle, and the bewildered insinuation of Mo
hammed, in his moments of delirium, was fre
quently picturing to itself the results of the engage
ment between his faithful Moslems and these da
ring apostates.

The army of Caled returned victorious. Mo-
seilama himself and ten thousand of his followers
were left dead on the field ; while the rest, con
vinced by the shining evidence of truth that gleamed
from the swords of the conquerors, renounced their
errors, and fell quietly back into the bosom of the
Mohammedan church. Several other insurer
of similar pretences, but of minor consequen.
were crushed in like manner in the early stages of
their defection.

MOHAMMED,

CHAPTER XIV,

The Religion of the Prophet/irmly established The principal Countries
subjected by him The effects of the Poison make alarming Inroads
upon his Constitution Perceives his End approaching Preaches
for the lastTime in Public His last Illness and Death The Moslems
scarcely persuaded that their Prophet was dead Tumult appeased
by Abubeker The Prophet buried at Medina The Story of the hang
ing Coffin false.

WE have now reached the period at which the
religion of Mohammed may be considered to have
become permanently established. The conquest
of Mecca and of the Koreish had been, in fact,
the signal for the submission of the rest of Arabia ;
and though several of the petty tribes offered, for a
time, the show of resistance to the prophet s arms,
they were all eventually subdued. Between the
taking of Mecca and the period of his death,
somewhat more than three years elapsed. In that
short period he had destroyed the idols of Arabia ;
had extended his conquests to the borders of the
Greek and Persian empires ; had rendered his
name formidable to those once mighty kingdoms ;
had tried his arms against the disciplined troops of
the former, and defeated them in a desperate en
counter at Muta. His throne was now firmly es
tablished ; and an impulse given to the Arabian na
tions, which induced them to invade, and enabled
them to conquer, a large portion of the globe. In
dia, Persia, the Greek empire, the whole of Asia

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 151

Minor, Egypt, Barbary, and Spain, were eventually
reduced by their victorious arms. Mohammed
himself did not indeed live to see such mighty
conquests achieved, but he commenced the train
which resulted in this wide-spread dominion, and
before his death had established over the whole
of Arabia, and some parts of Asia, the religion
which he had devised.

And now, having arrived at the sixty-third year
of his age, and the tenth of the Hejira, A. D. 63
the fatal effects of the poison, which had been so
long rankling in his veins, began to discover them
selves more and more sensibly, and to operate with
alarming virulence. Day by day he visibly de
clined, and it was evident that his life was hasten
ing to a close. For some time previous to the
event, he was conscious of its approach, and is
said to have viewed and awaited it with charac
teristic firmness. The third day before his disso
lution, he ordered himself to be carried to the
mosque, that he might, for the last time, address
his followers, and bestow upon them his parting
prayers and benedictions. Being assisted to mount
the pulpit, he edified his brethren by the pious
tenor of his dying counsels, and in his own ex
ample taught a lesson of humility and penitence,
such as we shall scarcely find inculcated in the
precepts of the Koran. " If there be any man,"
said the apostle, " whom I have unjustly scourged,
I submit my own back to the lash of retaliation.
Have I aspersed the reputation of any Mussulman 1
let him proclaim my faults in the face of the con-

152 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

gregation. Has any one been despoiled of his
goods ? the little that I possess shall compensate
the principal and the interest of the debt."
" Yes," replied a voice from the crowd, " thou
owest me three drachms of silver." Mohammed
heard the complaint, satisfied the demand, and
thanked his creditor, that he had accused him in
this world rather than at the day of judgment. He
then set his slaves at liberty, seventeen men and
eleven women ; directed the order of his funeral ;
strove to allay the lamentations of his weeping
friends, and waited the approach of death. He
did not expressly nominate a successor, a step
which would have prevented the altercations that
afterward came so near to crushing in its infancy
the religion and the empire of the Saracens ; but
his appointment of Abubeker to supply his place
in the function of public prayer and the other ser
vices of the mosque, seemed to intimate indirectly
the choice of the prophet. This ancient and faith
ful friend, accordingly, after much contention, be
came the first Caliph of the Saracens,* though his
reign was closed by his death at the end of two
years. The death of Mohammed was hastened
by the force of a burning fever, which deprived him
at times of the use of reason. In one of these pa
roxysms of delirium, he demanded pen and paper,
that he might compose or dictate a divine book.
Omar, who was watching at his side, refused his

* Saracen is the name bestowed by the ancient foreign writers upon
the Arabs. They may have tolerated the title, but it is not one of their
own imposition or of their liking.

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 153

request, lest the expiring prophet might dictate
something which should suspersede the Konm.
Others, however, expressed a oieai desire that the
book might be written; and so warm a dispute
arose in the chamber of the apostle, that lie was
forced to reprove their unbecoming vehemence.
The writing was not performed, and many of his
followers have mourned the loss of the sublime re
velations which his dying visions might have be
queathed to them. His favourite wife Ayeslia
hung over her husband in his last moments, sus
taining his drooping head upon her knee, as he lay
stretched upon the carpet, watching with trem
bling anxiety his changing countenance, and lis
tening to the last broken sounds of bis voice, ilia
disease, as it drew towards its termination, was at-
tended at intervals with most excruciating pains,
which he constantly ascribed to the fatal morsel
taken atChaibar; and as the mother of Bash a r,
the companion who had died upon the spot from
the same cause, stood by his side, he exclaimed,
" O mother of Bashar, the cords of my heart are
now breaking of the food which I ate with your
son at Chaibar." In his conversation with those
around him, he mentioned it as a special preroga
tive granted to him, that the angel of death w r as
not allowed to take his soul till he had respect
fully asked his permission of him, and this per
mission he condescendingly granted. Recovering
from a swoon into which the violence of his pains
had thrown him, he raised his eyes towards the
roof of the house, and with faltering accents

154 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

claimed, " O God! pardon my sins. Yes, I come
among my fellow-labourers on high !" His face
was then sprinkled with water, and that by his
own feeble hand, when he shortly after expired.

The city, and more especially the house, of the
prophet, became at once a scene of sorrowful, but
confused, lamentation. Some of his followers
could not believe that he was dead. " How can
he be dead, our witness, our intercessor, our me
diator with God ? He is not dead. Like Moses
and Jesus he is wrapped in a holy trance, and
speedily will he return to his faithful people." The
evidence of sense was disregarded, and Omar,
brandishing his scimitar, threatened to strike off
the heads of the infidels who should affirm that
the prophet was no more. The tumult was at
length appeased by the moderation of Abubeker.
" Is it Mohammed," said he, "or the God of Moham
med, whom ye worship ? The God of Mohammed
liveth for ever, but the apostle was a mortal like
ourselves, and, according to his own prediction, he
ha.th experienced the common fate of mortality."

The prophet s remains were deposited at Me*
dina, in the very room in which he breathed his
last, the floor being removed to make way for his
sepulchre, and a simple and unadorned monument
some time after erected over them. The house

* " Mohammed is no more than an apostle : the other apostles have
already deceased before him : if he die, therefore, or be slain, will ye
turn back on your heels ?" Koran, ch. iii.

" Verily, thou, O Mohammed, shall die, and they shall die; and ye
shall debate the matter [idolatry] with one another before your Lord at the
day of resurrection." Ibid. ch. xxxix.

LITE OF MOHAMMED. 155

itself has long since mouldered or been demo
lished, but the place of the prophet s interment is
still made conspicuous to the superstitious reve
rence of his disciples. The story of his relics br
ing suspended in the air, by the power of load
stone, in an iron colTin, and that too at Mecca,
instead of Medina, is a mere idle fabrication ; as
his tomb at the latter place has been visited by
millions of pilgrims, and from the authentic ac
counts of travellers who have visited both these
holy cities in disguise, we learn that it is con*-
structed of plain mason work, fixed without eleva
tion upon the surface of the ground.

150 tIFE OF MOHAMMED^

CHAPTER XV,

Reflections upon the extraordinary Career of Mohammed Description
of his Person General View and Estimate of ?iis Character.

THUS closed the earthly career of one of the
most remarkable men, and of decidedly the most suc
cessful impostor, that ever lived* By the force of
a vast ambition, giving direction to native talents of
a superior order, he had risen from small begin
nings to the pinnacle of power among the Arab
nation, and before his death had commenced one
of the greatest revolutions known in the history of
man* He laid the foundation of ail empire, whichy
in the short space of eight years, extended its
sway over more kingdoms and countries than Rome
had mastered in eight hundred/ And when we
pass from the political to the religious ascendency
which he gained, and consider the rapid growth,
the wide diffusion, and the enduring permanence
of the Mohammedan imposture, we are still more
astonished* Indeed, in this, as in every other in
stance where the fortunes of an individual are
entirely disproportioned to the means employed,
and surpass all reasonable calculation, we are
forced to resolve the problem into the special pro
vidence of God* Nothing short of this could have
secured the achievement of such mighty results ;
and we must doubtless look upon Mohammedanism

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 157

at the present day as a standing monument of the
mysterious wisdom of Jehovah, designed to com
pass ends which are beyond the grasp of human
minds, at least till they are accomplished.

As to his ] n, Mohammed, according to his
Arabic biograph . was of a middling stature and
of a florid complexion. His head \va&lt; large and
well formed ; his hair smooth and of a glossy
black ; his eye of the same colour ; and so un
commonly vigorous and robust was his frame, that
at the time of his death scarcely any of the marks
or infirmities of age had appeared upon him. His
features were large, yet regular ; his cheeks full ;
his forehead prominent ; his eyebrows long and
smooth, mutually approaching each other, yet not
so as to meet ; and between them was a vein, of
which the pulse was quicker and higher than usual
whenever he was angry. He had an aquiline
nose and a large mouth, with teeth of singular
brilliancy and somewhat singular form, as they
were pointed like the teeth of a saw, and placed
at some distance from each other, though still in
beautiful order. When he laughed he discovered
them, and they appeared, if tradition may be cre
dited, like hail-stones or little white pearls. Even
his laughter is said to have been full of majesty,
and in his smile there was such a peculiar contrac
tion of the muscles of the mouth and cheeks, and
such an expression given to the countenance, as
rendered it irresistibly attractive. In his later
years he became corpulent ; but he had always a

158 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

free, open air, a majestic port, and a most engaging
address.

The Moslem writers are unbounded in their eu
logy of the prophet s character as a man. Even
those of them who treat as it deserves the foolish
fiction of his having been taken by two angels in
his childhood, his body laid open by a knife, his
heart taken out, and pressed, and wrung, till its
original corruptions oozed out in the form of large
black fetid drops, when it was again replaced, pu
rified and perfect, in his bosom, and the wound
miraculously healed, still maintain that his moral
qualities were such as to lift him quite out of the
grade of the common race of men. But here the
history of his life and the pages of the Koran will
enable us to make those abatements which, in re
spect to his personal accomplishments, we can only
suspect ought to be made. His followers extol
his piety, veracity, justice, liberality, humility, and
self-denial, in all which they do not scruple to
propose him as a perfect pattern to the faithful.
His charity, in particular, they say, was so con
spicuous, that he seldom had any money in his
house, keeping no more than was just sufficient to
maintain his family, and frequently sparing even a
part of his own provisions to supply the necessi
ties of the poor. All this may have been so, but
in forming our judgment of the exhibition of these
moral traits, we cannot forget that he had private
ends to answer, and we thus find it impossible to
distinguish between the generous impulses of a

LITE OF MOHAMMED. 159

kind and noble heart, and the actings of an inte
rested policy. It is no unusual tiling for a strong
ruling passion to bring every other passion, even
the most opposite and discordant, into harmony
and subserviency to its dictates. Ambition will
sometimes control avarice, and the love of plea
sure not unfrequently govern both. A man may
afford to be just and generous, and to act the part
of a very saint, when he has no less a motive be
fore him than to gain the character of a prophet
and the power of a monarch. If Mohammed re
ally evinced the virtues of a prophet, he doubtless
had his eye upon " a prophet s reward." Hut we
would not be gratuitously harsh : judgment
of the impostor s moral qualities. We think it by
no means improbable, that his disposition was natu
rally free, open, noble, engaging, perhaps magnani
mous. AVe doubt not injustice may have been
done by Christian writers to the man in their un
measured detestation of the impostor. But as long
as we admit the truth of histoiy, as it relates to

Islamism and its founder, it is plain, that if he were
originally possessed of praiseworthy attributes,
they ceased to distinguish him as he advanced in
life ; for his personal degeneracy kept pace with
his success, and his delinquencies became more
numerous, gross, and glaring, the longer he lived.

Of his intellectual endowments, his followers
speak in the same strain of high panegyric. His
genius, soaring above the need of culture, unaided
by the lights of learning, despising books, bore
him by its innate strength into the kindred subli-

160 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

mities of prophecy and poetry, and enabled him
in the Koran, without models or masters, to speak
with an eloquence unparalleled in any human pro
duction. But here it has escaped them, that they
praise the prophet at the expense of his oracles ;
that whatever credit, on the score of authorship,
they give to him, so much they detract from the
evidence of its inspiration ; since Mohammed him
self constantly appeals to his revelations as pro
ceeding from an " illiterate prophet," and therefore
carrying with them, in their unequalled style, the
clearest evidence of being, not a human, but a di
vine composition. On the point, however, of the
literary merits of the Koran, and of the mental
endowments of its author as evinced by it, the
reader will judge for himself. We can more rea
dily assent to their statements when they inform us,
that his intellect was acute and sagacious, his me
mory retentive, his knowledge of human nature,
improved as it was by travel and extended inter
course, profound and accurate, and that in the arts
of insinuation and address he was without a rival.
Neither are we able to gainsay their accounts
when they represent him as having been affable,
rather than loquacious ; of an even cheerful tem
per ; pleasant and familiar in conversation ; and
possessing the art, in a surprising degree, of at
taching his friends and adherents to his person.

On the whole, from a candid survey of his life
and actions, we may safely pronounce Mohammed
to have been by nature a man of a superior cast
of character, and very considerably in advance of

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 161

the age in which he lived. But the age and the
counti y in which he arose and shone were rude
and barbarous ; and the standard which would
determine him great among the roving tribes of
Arabia might have left him little more than a
common man in the cultivated climes of Europe.
Men s characters are moulded as much by their
circumstances and fortunes as by their native ge
nius and bias. Under another combination of ac
cidents, the founder of the Moslem faith and of the
empire of the Saracens might have sunk to obli
vion with the anonymous millions of his race, as
the drops of rain are absorbed into the sands of
his native deserts. His whole history makes it
evident, that fanaticism, ambition, and lust were
his master-passions ; of which the former appears
to have been gradually eradicated by the growing
strength of the two last. An enthusiast by nature,
he became a hypocrite by policy ; and as the vio
lence of his corrupt propensities increased, he
scrupled not to gratify them at the expense of
truth, justice, friendship, and humanity. It is
right, indeed, in forming our estimate of his con
duct in its most repulsive respects, that we should
make allowance for the ignorance, the prejudices,
the manners, the laws of the people among whom
he lived. A heathen people cannot be fairly
judged by the rules of Christian morality. In
the mere circumstance of multiplying his wives,
he followed the common example of his country
men, with whom polygamy had been, from the
earliest ages, a prevailing practice. And so, though

162 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

we cannot justify, yet we may in some measure
palliate, the murder of Caab and Sophy an, if we
supposed the prophet to have viewed them as ene
mies from whom his own life was in jeopardy ; for
in this no violence was done to the common senti
ments of the Arab race. Even at the present day,
among the prophet s disciples all over the East,
no trait is more common or more revolting than
recklessness of life, which is doubtless to be ascribed
as much to national habits as to a native cruelty or
ferocity of disposition. We must, indeed, think
but little of the morality of such a people, and
must behold with indignation a pretended prophet,
while professing to purify the moral code of his
countrymen, continuing still in the practice of some
of the worst of its tenets. Here, in fact, our hea
viest condemnation falls upon Mohammed. He
did not observe those rules of morality which he
himself laid down, and which he enforced upon
others by such terrible sanctions. No excuse can
be offered for the impostor on this score. He
abused his claims as a prophet to screen the guilty
excesses of his private life, and under the pretence
of a special revelation, dispensing him from the
laws imposed by his own religion, had the female
sex abanr"c ed without reserve to his desires.
" O prophet, we have allowed thee thy wives unto
whom thou hast given their dower, and also the
slaves which thy right hand possesseth, of the
booty which God hath granted thee ; and the
daughters of thy uncle and the daughters of thy
aunts, both on thy father s side and on thy mother s

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 163

side, who have fled with thee from Mecca, and any
other believing woman, if she give herself unto the
prophet ; in case the prophet desireth to take her
to wife. This is a peculiar pri vilest- granted unto
thee, above the rest of the true believers."* The
exceedingly liberal grant thus made to the prophet
on the score of matrimonial privilege may be con
trasted with the allowance made to his followers.
" Take in marriage of such women as please you
two, three, or four; and not more. But if ye fear
that ye cannot act equitably towards so many,
marry one only."f

Respect to decorum forbids our entering into de
tails relative to this part of Mohammed s conduct
and character. Hut from what has been already
adduced, the reader cannot have failed to perceive
how completely the prophet s imposture was made
an engine for promoting the gratification of sensual
passion. One of the grossest instances of his un
hallowed abuse of the claims to which he pre
tended occurs in the his tiny of his intercourse with
Mary, an Egyptian slave. The knowledge of his
illicit amours with this " possession of his right
hand" having come to the ears, or rather to the
eyes, of one of his lawful wives, who thereupon
reproached him most bitterly for his infidelity, he
went so far, in order to pacify her, as to promise
with an oath never to be guilty of a repetition of
the offence. But the infirmity of nature having
not long after triumphed again over the strength of
his resolution, he had recourse to his revelations

* Koran, ch. auuuii. f Ch. IT.

164 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

to cover the scandal of this shameless lapse. The
expedient now resorted to forms one of the black
est stains upon the pages of the Koran, and upon
the character of its author. It was nothing less
than a pretended absolution of the prophet from
the obligation of his oath. " O prophet, why
boldest thou that to be prohibited which God hath
allowed thee, seeking to please thy wives ; since
God is inclined to forgive, and merciful ? God hath
allowed you the dissolution of your oaths, and God
is your Master."* Here is an alleged dispensa
tion of the prophet, which must be construed as
actually legalizing perjury on the part of a pro
fessed messenger of truth ; one too who thus in
structs his followers : " Perform your covenant
with God, when ye enter into covenant with
him, and violate not your oaths after the ratifica
tion thereof; since ye have made God a witness
over you. Verily, God knoweth that which ye do.
And be not like unto her who undoeth that which
she hath spun, untwisting it after she hath twisted
it strongly." * Therefore take not your oaths be
tween you deceitfully, lest your foot slip after it
hath been steadfastly fixed, and ye taste evil in
this life, and suffer a grievous punishment in the
life to come."f This is but too fair a specimen
of the general character of the Koran. By far
the greater part of its contents were fabricated to
answer particular purposes, which he could effect
in no other way ; and this was an expedient which
never failed. If any new enterprise was to be

* Koran, ch. Ixvi. |Ch. xvi.

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 165

undertaken, any new objections answered, any diffi
culty to be solved, any disturbance among his fol
lowers to be hushed, or any offence to be removed,
immediate recourse was had to Gabriel, and a new
revelation, precisely adapted to meet the necessi
ties of the case, was granted. As an inevitable
consequence, a vast number of variations and con
tradictions, too palpable to be denied, occur in the
course of the book. His commentators and dis
ciples acknowledge the fact, but account for it by
saying, that whenever a subsequent revelation
plainly contradicts a former, the former is to be
considered s having been revoked or repealed by
the latter; and above a hundred and fifty verses
are enumerated as having been thus set aside by
after-discoveries of the divine will. In this they
are countenanced by the words of the impostor
himself. "Whatever verse we shall abrogate, or
cause thee to forget, we will bring a better than it,
or one like unto it."* " When we substitute in the
Koran an abrogating verse in lieu of a verse abro
gated (and God best knoweth the fitness of that
which he revealeth), the infidels say, Thou art
only a forger of these verses : but the greater part
of them know not the truth from falsehood."!
When this feature of their religion is objected to
modern Mohammedans, as it was by Henry Mar-
tyn in his controversy with them, they reply, that
"this objection is altogether futile; for the pre
cepts of God are always delivered with a special
regard to the necessities of his servants. And

* Koran, ch. ii. f Ch. xvi.

166 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

there can be no doubt that these must vary with
the varying exigences of the times in which they
are delivered. The divine Lawgiver may here
be considered as the spiritual physician of his
people ; who, like a temporal physician, prescribes
such regimen and medicines as are most likely to
suit the wants of his patient."* The pupil here is
certainly worthy of the master, when they both
agree in teaching, that the grand principles of mo
rality are not eternal and immutable, growing out
of the very nature of the relation subsisting between
the Creator and his creatures, but are mere arbi
trary rules, subject to be relaxed, modified, or dis
pensed with, as circumstances may dictate. See
ing that this pitiful device of feigning dispensa
tions and abrogations of particular duties subjects
the immutable Counsels of the Almighty to the
charge of weakness and fickleness, it is surprising
that his disciples should have been blinded by so
flimsy a disguise ; yet such is evidently the fact.
And it adds another proof of the truth of the re
mark, that as there is no error or absurdity in reli
gion too monstrous to be conceived or broached,
so there is none too gross to be imposed upon the
credulity of others.

* Lee s Translation of H. Martyn s Controversial Tracts.

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 167

, r

a CHAPTER XVI.

Account of the Prophet s Wires Cadijah Ai/e.iha Hnfsa
Safyn His Concubines Singular Precepts in the Koran retpe
the Wives of .Mohammed His comparative Treatment of Jew* and
Christians Predn tio, is of the Prophet alleged by Mohammedans to
be contained in the sacred Scriptures.

As the subject of women occupies a prominent
place in the Koran, so in a complete history of the
prophet s life his .numerous wives, of which the
number is variously stated from fifteen to twenty-
one, form a topic of too much interest to be
omitted.

During the lifetime ofCadijah, it does not ap
pear that she was ever pained with the sight or
suspicion of a rival. After her death, when at
length his reputation as a prophet had become es
tablished, and his authority too firmly rooted to be
shaken, the restraints which policy had imposed
upon passion were gradually thrown off, and the
most unlimited license in this respect marked his
subsequent conduct.

His third and best beloved wife was Ayesha,
the daughter of Abubeker, whom he married in
the first year of the Hejira. Vague rumours of
conjugal infidelity have cast a stain upon the cha
racter of Ayesha not entirely effaced even at the
present day. They were not believed, however,
by the prophet, and the divine Acquittal in the
twenty-fourth chapter of the Koran has done much

168 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

towards shielding her fame from reproach. " As
to the party among you, who have published the
falsehood concerning Ayesha every man of them
shall be punished according to the injustice of
which he hath been guilty ; and he among them
who hath undertaken to aggravate the same shall
suffer a grievous punishment. Did not the faith
ful men and the faithful women say, This is a mani
fest falsehood ? Have they produced four witnesses
thereof? Wherefore, since they have not pro
duced the witnesses, they are surely liars in the
sight of God. Had it not been -for the indulgence
of God towards you, and his mercy in this world,
and in that which is to come, verily a grievous
punishment had been inflicted on you for the ca
lumny which ye have spread ; when ye published
that with your tongues, and spoke that with your
mouths, of which ye had no knowledge ; and es
teemed it to be light, whereas it was a matter of
importance in the sight of God."*

Ayesha was married such is the surprising phy
sical precocity peculiar to an eastern climate at
the early age of nine ; and survived her husband
forty-eight years. Her memory is held in great ve
neration by the Moslems, who have bestowed upon
her the title of Prophetess, and Mother of the Faith
ful, probably from the circumstance of her being
much resorted to after her husband s death, as an
expositor of the doubtful points of the law ; an of
fice which she performed by giving the sense which

* Koran, cfc. xiv.

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 169

she had heard the prophet affix to them in his lifc-
time. Her expositions, together with those of
Mohammed s first ten converts, form what is
called the SO/UHI/I, or the Authentic Traditions, of
the professors of Islam, which hear a striking re
semblance to the traditions of the Jews. Ayesha
was the inveterate enemy of Ali, the rival candi
date with Ahubeker to the honour of being the
prophet s successor ; and when at last he attained
to that dignity, she appeared in arms against him.
Her expedition was indeed unsuccessful, yet she
found means, some time after, to excite a defec
tion among Ali s followers, which finally resulted
in the ruin of himself and his house.

Hafsa, the daughter of Omar, was next in fa
vour with the prophet. To her, as being the eldest
of his wives, he committed the Chest of his apos-
tleship, containing the original copies of his pre
tended revelations, from which the volume of the
Koran was composed after his death, by Abubeker.
She died at the age of sixty-six.

Zeinab, another of his wives, was originally the
wife of his servant Zeid ; upon whom, as we learn
from the Koran, God had bestowed the grace to
become one of the earliest converts to the true
faith. The circumstances which led to her be
coming the wife of the prophet, form a story worth
relating. Mohammed, having occasion, one day,
to call at the house of Zeid upon some matter of
business, and not finding him at home, accidentally
cast his eyes on Zeinab his \vife. Being a wo
man of distinguished beauty, the prophet was so

170 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

smitten with her charms at first sight, that he
could not forbear exclaiming, " Praised be God,
who turneth the hearts of men as he pleaseth !"
and thenceforth became violently in love with her.
Zeid, when made acquainted with the circum
stance, was thrown into great perplexity. His af
fection for his wife and his wish to retain her
were counterbalanced by his sense of obligation to
his master, who had not only freed him from ser
vitude, but had also publicly adopted him as his
son and heir, by a religious ceremony at the black
stone of the Caaba. Upon mature reflection ; he
determined to part with Zeinab in favour of his be
nefactor, whom he privately acquainted with his
intention, at the same time giving out in public,
that he no longer retained any affection for her, in
order to pave the way for a divorce. Mohammed,
aware of the scandal that would ensue among his
people, from his taking to his bed one who stood
to him in the relation of a daughter, made a feint
of dissuading him from his purpose, and endea
voured to suppress the violence of his passion.
But finding the flame which consumed him uncon
querable, a chapter of the Koran came seasonably
to his relief, which at once removed all impedi
ments hi the way of a union. " And remember,
when thou saidst to him unto whom God had been
gracious (Zeid), and on whom thou also hadst
conferred favours, keep thy wife to thyself and fear
God ; and thou didst conceal that in thy mind (i. e.
thine affection to Zeinab) which God had deter
mined to discover, and didst fear men ; whereas it

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 171

was more just that thou shouldst fear God. But
when Zeid had determined the matter concerning
her, and had resolved to divorce her, we joined
her in marriage unto thee, lest a crime should be
charged on the true believers in marry ing the wives
of their adopted sons : and the command of God
is to be performed. No crime is to be charged
on the prophet as to what God hath allowed him."
Here the Most High is represented not only as
sanctioning the marriage, but as conveying a gen
tle rebuke to the prophet, that he should so long
have abstained from the enjoyment of this favour
out of regard to public sentiment, as though he
feared men rather than God! Zeinab hereupon
became the wife of this most favoured of mortals,
and lived with him in great affection to the time
of his death ; always glorying over her associates,
that whereas they had been married to Mohammed
by their parents and kindred, she had been
united to him by God himself, who dwells above
the seven heavens !

Another of his wives, Safya, was a Jewess. Of
her nothing remarkable is related, except that she
once complained to her husband of being thus re
proached by her companions : " O thou Jewess,
the daughter of a Jew and of a Jewess." To
which the prophet answered, " Canst thou not say,
Aaron is my father, Moses is my uncle, and Mo
hammed is my husband?" But in reference to
these insulting taunts, an admonition was conveyed

* Koran, ch, xxxiii.

172 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

to the offenders from a higher source than the pro
phet himself. " O true believers, let not men
laugh other men to scorn, who peradventure may
be better than themselves ; neither let women laugh
other women to scorn, who may possibly be bet
ter than themselves. Neither defame one another,
nor call one another by opprobious appellations."*

In addition to his wives, the harem of the pro
phet contained a number of concubines, among
whom Mary, the Egyptian, was his favourite. By
her he had a son, Ibrahim (Abraham), who died
in infancy, to the unspeakable grief of the prophet
and his disciples. He had no children by any of
the rest of his wives except Cadijah, who was the
mother of eight four sons and four daughters ; but
most of these died in early life, none of them sur
viving their father except Fatima, the wife of Ali,
and she only sixty days.

The following passages from the Koran evince
that not the prophet only was an object of the di
vine care, beneficence, and guidance, but that his
wives also shared in the same kind providence, and
that whatever instructions or admonitions their
frailties might require were graciously bestowed
upon them. From an infirmity not uncommon to
the sex, they had become, it appears, more devoted
to the decoration of their persons than was credit
able for the wives of a holy prophet, and had de
manded of him a larger allowance on the score of
dress than he deemed it prudent to grant. They

* Koran, ch, xlix*

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 173

are thus rebuked : " O prophet, say unto thy
wives, If ye seek this present life and the pomp
thereof, come, I will make a handsome provision
for you, and I will dismiss you with an honourable
dismission : but if ye seek God and his apostle,
and the life to come, verily God hath prepared for
such of you as work righteousness a great re
ward."* " O wives of the prophet, ye are not as
other women : if ye fear God, be not too com
plaisant in speech, lest he should covet in whose
heart is a disease of incontinence ; but speak the
speech which is convenient. And sit still in your

houses ; and set not out yourselves with the osten-

tation of the former time of ignorance, and observe
the appointed times of prayer, and give alms ; and
obey God and his apostle ; for God desireth only
to remove from you the abomination of vanity,
since ye are the household of the prophet, and to
purify you by a perfect purification. !

The prophet interdicted to all his wives the pri
vilege of marrying again after his death, and
though some of them were then young, they scru
pulously obeyed his command, delivered to them,
like every thing else in the Koran, in the form of
a mandate of heaven, and lived and died in widow
hood. The passage in which this severe edict is
found is a curiosity, and will doubtless lead the
reader to suspect that it was prompted by a spirit
of mean jealousy, the effects of which he aimed
to perpetuate when he was no more. It is pre

* Koran, ch. xxxiii.

174 LIFE OF MOHAMMED.

faced by some wholesome cautions to his followers
respecting the etiquette to be observed in their in
tercourse with the prophet and his household.

" O true believers, enter not into the houses of
the prophet, unless it be permitted you to eat
meat with him, without waiting his convenient
time ; but when ye are invited, then enter. And
when ye shall have eaten, disperse yourselves ; and
stay not to enter into familiar discourse ; for this
incommodeth the prophet. He is ashamed to bid
you depart, but God is not ashamed of the truth.
And when ye ask of the prophet s wives what ye
may have occasion for, ask it of them behind a
curtain. This will be more pure for your hearts
and their hearts. Neither is it fit for you to give
any uneasiness to the apostle of God, or to marry
his wives after him for ever ; for this would be a
grievous thing in the sight of God."

In the outset of his career, Mohammed appears
to have been more favourably disposed towards the
Jews than the Christians. This is inferred from
his enjoying with them a common descent from
the patriarch Abraham ; from his agreement with
them in the fundamental doctrine of the divine
unity ; and from his proffering to make Jerusalem
the point of pilgrimage and of the Kebla to his fol
lowers. But conceiving a pique against them
about the time of his entrance into Medina, he
thenceforward became their inveterate en,emy, and
in all his wars pursued them with a more relentless

* Koran, cli. xxxiii.

LITE OF MOHAMMED. 175

severity than he showed towards any other people.
Thus this descendant of Ishmael, without intend
ing it, made good the declaration of holy writ re
specting the antagonist set -ds of Ilagarand of Sa
rah. "For it is written that Abraham had two
sons, the one by a bond-maid tlie oilier by a i
woman. But he who was of the bond-woman
was born after the flesh ; but he of the free woman
was by promise. But as then he that was born
after the flesh persecuted him that was born alter
the spirit, even so it is now." Thtir oppositi-
to him can easily be accounted for on the score oi
national and religious prejudice. And the op|
brious name which they gave to the corrupt &lt; m
of the heresiarch, tended still more to pro., ins
indignation. For while he profess* &lt;1 to be a i
storer of the true primitive religion which (iod com
municated to Abraham, and Abiaham to his son
Ishmael, and which the prophet denominated Jslam,
or Islamism, from a word signifying to devote or
dedicate to religion, the Jews, by a transposition of
letters, called the new creed Ismaelism, from the
prophet s progenitor, and thus cast the JIT.
possible reproach on the bastard faith of their
enemy. Their effrontery Mohammed neither for
got nor forgave. Still, both Jews and Christians
were admitted to protection in ordinary cases on
the payment of a specified tribute.

Towards the Christians, though the Koran, and
all who embrace it, breathe the most inveterate ma
lice and the most sovereign contempt against the

* Gal. ch. iv.

176 LIFE OF MOHAMMED*

" dogs" and " infidels" who profess the Gospel faith,
yet rather more forbearance is exercised than to
wards the Jews ; and some of the Moslems will
grant, that Christianity, next to their own, is the
best religion in the world, particularly as held by
Unitarians. Yet Mohammed, in the Koran, loses
no opportunity to pour his revilings indiscriminately
upon both. "The Jews and the Christians say,
We are the children of God and his beloved. An
swer, Why, therefore, doth he punish you for your
sins !"* " They say, Verily, none shall enter pa
radise, except they who are Jews or Christians :
this is their wish. Say, Produce your proof of
this, if ye speak truth. The Jews say, The
Christians are grounded on nothing ; and the Chris
tians say, The Jews are grounded on nothing : yet
they both read the Scriptures."! " O ye, to whom
the Scriptmes have been given, why do ye dispute
concerning Abraham? Abraham was neither a
Jew nor a Christian ; but he was of the true reli
gion, one resigned unto God, and was not of the
number of idolaters. "J

The religion of the Koran tolerates Christian
churches in places where they have been anciently
founded, but permits them not to be reared on new
foundations. Christians may repair the walls and
roofs of their places of worship* but are not
allowed to lay a stone in a new place consecrated
to the site of a holy building ; nor, if fire or any
other accident should destroy the superstructure,
are they suffered to renew the foundations, so as

* Koran, ch. v. t C1 *- & t Ch. iii.

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 177

to erect another building. The consequence i&gt;,
that Christian churches, in the Mohammedan &lt;
minions, must necessarily at length sink to ruin,
and vast numbers of them have already gone en
tirely to decay. In the great fires which happei
in Galata and Constantinople in 1660, numerous
Christian churches and chapels were rcdm-ei*
ashes, and when the piety and zeal of their vota
ries had re-edified and almost completed the gr&lt;
est number of them, a public order was issued that
they should all be again demolished, it being judged
contrary to Turkish law to permit the restoration
of churches where nothing but the mere foundation
remained.

The fact may be here adverted to, in drawing
our sketch to a close, that Mohammed not only
admitted the Old and New Testaments as divinely
inspired books, though corrupted by their disciples,
but affirmed that they bore unequivocal proph&lt;
testimony to his future mission as prophet and
apostle : " And when Jesus, the son of Mary, said,
O children of Israel, Verily I am the apostle of
God sent unto you confirming the law which was
delivered before me, and bringing good tidings of
an apostle who shall come after me, and whose
name shall be Ahmed (Mohammed)."* In support
of what is here alleged, the Persian paraphrast
quotes the words of Christ in his last address to
his disciples : " If I go not away, the Comforter
will not come unto you ; but if I go away, I will
send him unto you." This passage the Moham-

* Koran, ch. Ixi.

178 LIFE OF MOHAMMED*

medan doctors unanimously teach has a direct in
ference to their prophet, and is fulfilled in him
only. But then, in order to make good their in
terpretation, they are obliged to hold that the
Christians in their copies have corrupted the true
reading, which, instead of Paraclete ( Comforter),
is Periclyte (illustrious, renowned), a word per
fectly synonymous with Ahmed.

The following passage (Deut. xxxiii. 2) is also
suborned to the support of the same bad cause :
" The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from
Mount Seir unto them; he shined forth from
Mount Paran, and he came with ten thousand of
his saints ; from his right hand went a fiery law for
them." By these words, say the Moslem exposi
tors, is set forth the delivery of the law to Moses,
on Mount Sinai ; of the Gospel to Jesus at Jeru
salem ; and of the Koran to Mohammed at Mecca.
By Seir, they maintain that the mountains of Je
rusalem are meant, and by Paran, those in the
neighbourhood of Mecca. But their geography
will appear as lame as their divinity, when it is
stated, that Seir was a hundred miles distant from
Jerusalem, and Paran five hundred from Mecca.
Their other glosses of this nature need no con
futation.

In another sense, however, wholly different
from that intended by Mohammed or his followers,
we doubt not that this grand impostor and his re
ligion are distinctly foretold in the sacred volume.
The religion promulgated, and the empire esta
blished, by the author of Islam, has been too

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 179

signal a scourge to the Church and the civilized
world not to be entitled to a place iu the prophetic
annunciations of the Bible. As th subject of the
rise, progress, and pe iimm -nee of Mohammedan
ism cannot be duly appreciated apart from the pre
dictions concerning it, we have determined to dr-
vote a portion of the Appendix to the consideration
of the most prominent and striking of these pro
phecies, to which the reader will permit us to
bespeak his attention.

(181)

APPENDIX,

[A.]* :

PROPHECY. Dan. vii. 8 26.

(THE VISION.)

8 The he-goat waxed very great : and when he was stron:

horn was broken ; and for it came up four notable ones toward th

9. four winds of heaven. And out of one of thnn mmr forth a littl*:
horn, which waxed exceeding great toward tl U and to\\

10. theeast, and toward the pleasant land. And it v n to
the host of heaven; and it cast down .someot tin- h -tars

11. to the ground, and stainjml upon them \ .-d hni;
even to th Prince of the host, and by him was t y saer:

12. taken away, and the place of 1 \ni Ami
a host was given him against the d;iii a of
transgression ; and it cast down the truth to the ground ; arid it

13. practised and prospered. Then I heard one saint speaking,
another saint said unto that certain saint which sp:t -.&lt; . How
long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the
transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the

14. host to be trodden under foot? And he said unto me, Unto two
thousand and three hundred days ; then shall the sanctuary be
cleansed.

(THE INTERPRETATION.)

21. And the rough goat is the king (kingdom) of Orocia: and the

great horn that is between his eyes is the first king (kingdom).

22. Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four king-

23. doms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power. And
in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are
come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding
(Heb. making to understand, teaching) dark sentences, shall stand

24. up. And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power :
and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise,.

25. and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people. And through
his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand ; and he

* For the materials of this chapter, and occasionally for some por
tion of the language, the compiler acknowledges himself indebted prin
cipally to Faber s Sacred Calendar of Prophecy, Foster s Mahometanism
Unveiled, and Fry s Second Advent of Christ. He has moreover given
a minute and critical attention to these prophecies in the original lan
guages.

182 APPENDIX.

shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy
many : he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes ; but
26. he shall be broken without hand. And the vision of the evening
and the morning which was told is true j wherefore shut thou up
the vision ; for it shall be for many days. Dan. vii. 8 26.

THE prophecy of Daniel contains a prospective
view of the providential history of the world, in
cluding the four great empires of antiquity, together
with the powers which should succeed them to the
end of time, and consummation of all things. It is
reasonable therefore to expect, that a system of pre
dictions thus large upon the history of the world,
would not omit a revolution of such magnitude and
prominence as that occasioned by Mohammed and
Mohammedanism. No event, moreover, has had a
more direct and powerful bearing upon the state of
the Church than the establishment of this vast im
posture ; and as the preceding chapter contains a
full and exact portraiture of the Papal tyranny which
was to arise and prevail in the western portion of
Christendom, so the present is very generally ad
mitted to contain a prediction of that great apostacy
which was destined to grow up and overwhelm the
Church in the East. The reasons of this opinion
we now proceed to state.

The theatre of this prophecy is the Macedonian
empire, founded by Alexander; from one of the
four dismembered kingdoms of which the little
horn of the vision was to spring up. In the vision,
the prophet saw the first great horn of the he-goat,
or the kingdom of Alexander, " broken ;" indicating
that that kingdom was no longer to have a place as
a kingdom in the eye of prophecy. The dominions
of Alexander at his death were divided between
four of his generals: Macedon and Greece in the
west were assigned to Cassander ; Thrace and Bi-
thynia in the north to Lysimachus ; Egypt in the
south to Ptolemy ; and Syria with the eastern pro
vinces to Seleucus.

Fer. 9. And out of one ofthei^ camef ^th a little

APPENDIX. 183

horn. A " horn," in the symbolical language of pro
phecy, represents a civil or ecclesiastical kingdom.
The little horn here mentioned was to come forth
out of one of the four notable horns or members of
the subdivided kingdom of Alexander. The ques
tion has been much agitated whether Alexander
seized and retained any portion of the Arabian penin
sula : the fact of his having done so may be seen in
any map of the Macedonian empire. " The empire
of .Alexander," observes M. Rollin, " was distributed
into four kingdoms ; of which Ptolemy had Egypt,
Libya, Arabia, Ccelosyria, and Palestine." The dis
trict occupied was indeed no more than an outskirt,
but that outskirt comprised part of the province of
Hejaz ; that is to say, part of that very district which
gave birth to Mohammed and his religion. As the
horn in the vision was a little one, so Mohammedan
ism in its first rise perfectly corresponded with the
symbol. It originated with an obscure inhabitant
of a desert corner of Asia, whose earliest converts
were his wife, his servant, his pupil, and his friend ;
and whose party at the end of three years scarcely
numbered a dozen persons.

Which waxed exceeding great toward the south,
and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land.
Mohammedanism accordingly, in its primitive
course of conquest, did presently wax exceedingly
great ; and that in the very line marked out by the
prophecy. Its conquests extended southward over
the large peninsula of Arabia, over Egypt, and over
a considerable portion of central Africa ; eastward,
over Persia, Bokhara, and Hindostan ; and north
ward, over Palestine, Asia Minor, Mesopotamia,
Greece, and Tartary, the countries now forming the
Turkish empire. " The pleasant land," or, literally,
"the beauty," "the ornament," is an appellation
bestowed upon the land of Judah, from its being in
a peculiar manner the residence of the divine glory,
the seat of worship, containing the city of Jerusalem

184 APPENDIX.

and the temple, which were " a crown of beauty and
a diadem of glory" to the nation of Israel. The ori
ginal word here employed is found in a parallel sense
MI Ezek. xx. 6. 15 ; "a land flowing with milk and
i-soney, which is the gloi*y of all lands." Jerusalem
was captured by the Saracens A. D. 637, after a
siege of four months.

Ver. 10. And it waxed great even to the host of
teaven. The " host of heaven" is but another name
i or the multitude of stars in the firmament. But
dars, in the idiom of prophecy, are a standing em-
r.lem of ecclesiastical officers. The word " host"
Accordingly is not only applied to the priests and
i^evites performing the service of the sanctuary
(Num. iv. 3), but to the nation of Israel as a great
organized ecclesiastical body, or kingdom of priests.
Ex. xii. 41. And when Christ says (Rev. i. 20),
" the seven stars are the angels of the seven
churches," his meaning undoubtedly is, that these
stars are symbols of the spiritual rulers of the
churches. The grand scope, therefore, of the pre
sent prophecy is, to point out a spiritual desolation,
achieved by a hostile power suddenly attaining
great strength, and forcibly thrusting itself into the
body of true worshippers, with a view to their dis
comfiture and dispersion.

And it cast down some of the host, and (i. e. even) of
the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them. As in
the figurative language of prophecy the stars denote
the spiritual pastors of God s church, so the violent
dejection of such stars from heaven to earth signifies
a compulsory apostatizing from their religion. Mo
hammedanism strikingly fulfilled this prophecy from
the date of its first promulgation, when it stood up
against the allegorical host, or the degenerate pas
tors of the Christian Church. Such of them as lay
within the territories of the Greek empire were espe
cially given into the hand of this persecuting super
stition ; but by its inroads into Africa, and Spain,

APPENDIX. 185

and France, and Italy, it waxed great against the
whole host. Of the eastern clergy, it cast some to
the ground, or compelled them altogether to renounce
the Christian faith. And as for those who still ad
hered to the form of their religion, it stamped them,
as it were, under its feet with all the tyranny of
brutal fanaticism.

Ver. 11. Fea, he magnified himself even to the
Prince of the host. If the starry host be the pastors
of the Church, the prince of that host must obviously
be the Messiah. Mohammedanism has most clearly
verified this prediction by magnifying its founder to
a pitch of dignity and honour equal to that of Christ.
In fact, it has set up Mohammed above Christ. The
Arabian impostor allowed Jesus to be a prophet ; but
he maintained that he himself was a greater pro
phet, and that the Koran was destined to supersede
the Gospel. Thus did Mohammedanism magnify
itself " even to" the Prince of the host.

And by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and
the place of his sanctuary was cast down. The term
rendered " daily sacrifice," or, literally, " the daily,"
" the continual," is a term frequently used respect
ing the daily repeated sacrifices of the Jewish tem
ple, typifying the death of Christ till he should come.
Now, what this continual burnt-offering was with
respect to Christ s first coming, are the daily offer
ings of prayer and praise, and all the solemnities of
the Christian Church, as administered by a divinely
appointed order of men. When, therefore, the
Saracens and Turks by their victories and oppres
sions broke up and dispersed the churches of the
East, and abolished the daily spiritual worship of
God, then did the " little horn" take away the " con
tinual offering" established by the Prince of the
host. But the predicted desolation was to extend
yet farther. The place of God s sanctuary was to
be razed to its foundation, and both the sanctuary
and the host for a long course of ages to be trodden

186 APPENDIX.

under foot. Accordingly, Mohammedanism began
this appointed work by the subversion of the Chris
tian churches and altars in every stage of its pro
gress against the Greek empire ; and has continued
the desolation during nearly twelve hundred years,
until it has all but completed the extinction of Eastern
Christianity. Gibbon observes, that upon the taking
of Jerusalem, " by the command of Omar, the ground
of the temple of Solomon was prepared for the
foundation of a mosque."* And it is worthy of
notice, that whereas the original word used by
Daniel for " sanctuary" is Kodsh, the same historian
remarks, that the epithet Al Rods is used now, and
was then among the Arabs as the proper appellation
of the Holy City, of which the sanctuary or temple
was the distinguishing ornament and glory.

Ver. 12. And an host "was given him against the
daily sacrifice by reason of transgression : and it cast
down the truth to the ground : and it practised and
prospered. From this it would appear, that power
was to be given to the little horn, not merely for the
subversion of the true religion, but also for the per
manent substitution of another faith. " Host," we
may naturally suppose, means in this place the same
as when it was used in a former verse, " a host of
stars," symbolical of the several orders of Christian
pastors and ministers. " An host," then, to be given
to the little horn, implies that he too should have
his orders of teachers, and a regular system of reli
gious worship, and that by means of this new and
spurious ecclesiastical polity, the Christian ministry
should be opposed and superseded, and " the truth
cast to the ground." The prediction, thus inter
preted, according to the natural force of the lan
guage and construction, is applicable to no other
known power ; but as applied to the heresy of Mo
hammed, its fulfilment appears perfect. For the

* Pec. and Fall, eh. li.

APPENDIX. 187

religion of Islam permanently overthrew the Chris
tian priesthood and altars, by the permanent ereetion
of other altars and of another priesthood in their
room. Every where throughout its vast domains
the mosques replaced the Christian temples; and
the Imams and the Muezzin were substituted for the
appointed ministry of Christ. In a more enlarged
view, the Saraeens and Turks themselves com
posed the antagonist host or priesthood. For in
Mohammedanism, the sword being the grand engine
of conversion, the whole Mussulman people became
virtually a priesthood; and each individual Saracen
and Turkish soldier a missionary and maker of
proselytes.

Ver. 23. And in the latter time of their kingdom,
when the transgressors are come to the full, a ki/&gt;^
of fierce countenance and understanding (teaching)
dark sentences, shall stand up. We are here fur
nished with a chronological clew to the period of
the commencement of this disastrous power. The
first three empires, forming a part of the symbolic
image which appeared in vision to Nebuchadnezzar,
were indeed stripped of their dominions by the con
quests of the fourth, or Roman empire ; but still, in
the view of prophecy, their lives are considered as
being nevertheless prolonged; Dan.vii. 12. Hence
it is an indisputable fact that the little horn of Mo
hammedanism rose up in the latter time of the
Greek empire. Another striking note of the tjme
of the rise of this power is contained in the words,
" When the transgressors are come to the full," or,
" when the apostacy shall be completed." By the
transgressors or apostates here mentioned, we must
understand the corrupt Christian Church, with its
degenerate pastors, the smitten ecclesiastical stars,
spoken of in a former verse. We learn both from
the civil and sacred history of the time when Mo
hammed arose, that the Christian Church had then
arrived at the height of those corruptions in doctrine

188 APPENDIX.

and practice, which had been so clearly foretold by
the Apostle Paul in his prediction of the Man of Sin.
The extraordinary success of the Mohammedan im
posture was permitted as a punishment of this great
defection. The allegorical host, by reason of their
apostacy from the truth, were subjected to the ty
ranny of the little horn. But this apostacy, which
had long previously infected both the East and the
West, was completed, or had reached its acme, about
the commencement of the seventh century, when
the prophet of Islam first appeared. Gibbon, the
historian, introduces his account of Mohammedanism
by observing, that " the Christians of the seventh
century had insensibly relapsed into a semblance of
paganism." From this time, therefore, the stars
were given into the hand of the little horn, as the
appointed rod of God s anger : they were penally
consigned to its tyranny by reason of their previous
apostacy into the idolatrous superstitions of the Gen
tiles. Again, as far as the aspect of Mohammedan*
ism is concerned, that wonderful ecclesiastical
domination may well be described as a " kingdom
of fierce countenance," when the avowed maxim
of its founder was to employ the sword as the grand
engine of conversion. Of this ferocious spirit its
proselytes have in all ages largely partaken. Some,
however, suppose the words should be translated
" of a firm countenance," denoting the bold effron
tery of the barefaced, impudent liar ; and such were
Mohammed and his successors : their religion is, in
truth, the most glaring imposition that was ever
palmed upon the credulity of mankind. As to the
remaining character of this desolating power that
he should " understand dark sentences" the expres
sion, " dark sentences," is equivalent to the familiar
scriptural phrases, " dark sayings," and " dark say
ings of old." These phrases, in the language of
the sacred writers, will be found uniformly to con
vey a spiritual signification. Thus the Psalmist,

APPENDIX. 1 89

" I will open my mouth in a parnblo ; I will utter
dark sayings of old." It seems probable, therefore,
that the equivalent expression, "dark sentences,"
relates, in one shape or other, to religion ; and the
" understanding dark senteno to real or pre
tended skill in the interpretation of thin: - spiritual.
The Koran, so celebrated in the Mohammedan reli
gion, the book containing their spiritual mysteries,
exactly answers to this description. And it is not a
little remarkable, that the author of the Koran should
have been unconsciously led to appropriate the lan
guage of this very prediction to himself. " O Lord,
thou hast given me a part of the kingdom, and hast
taught me the interpretation of dark sayings." " We
taught him the interpretation of dark sayings, but
the greater part of them men do not understand."
" This is a secret history which we reveal unto thee,
O Mohammed."* As the fabricator, therefore, of the
Koran, Mohammed has himself confirmed his claim
to the prophetic distinction of " understanding dark
sentences ;" for it is the declared object of this pre
tended revelation to revive the traditions of ancient
times concerning God and religion ; and it professes
farther to unfold the history of futurity, and the se
crets of the invisible world.

Ver. 24. And his power shall be mighty, but not
by his own power. Of this language a twofold in
terpretation may be suggested, either of which is
satisfactoiy, though it be not easy to decide which
of them is the true one. By "his power being
mighty, but not by his own power," may be meant,
that the temporal power of Mohammed and his suc
cessors was to owe its greatness and perpetuity to
his spiritual dominion ; or, in other words, that the
empire which he founded was to be upheld by the
imposture which he established. To this purpose
the folio wing*pass age from Demetrius Cantemir, the

* Koran, ch. xii.

190 APPENDIX.

historian of the Ottoman empire, will be found very
striking. " The Turks," says he, " ascribe the for
tunate successes of the empire, not so much to hu
man prudence, policy, and valour, as that their first
emperors waged war, not through ambition and a
desire of dominion, but through the zeal of propaga
ting the Mohammedan religion ; and by that means
they procured the divine assistance to their under
takings." The temporal power of Mohammedanism,
accordingly, has repeatedly risen and declined ; the
Mohammedan world has again and again changed
masters, but its spiritual tyranny has subsisted in
undiminished vigour ; it has lived and reigned un
altered, through the whole of its period thus far ful
filled. It is mighty, therefore, by the power of the host
given unto it. According to another interpretation,
the passage may be simply designed to teach, that
the remarkable success gf the Mohammedan power
is to be referred directly to the special providence
of God, that the results attained were so entirely to
transcend all that could be anticipated from the ordi
nary operation of human causes, that the hand of
God was to be clearly recognised in every stage of
its progress. Viewed in this light, the language of
the Most High respecting Nebuchadnezzar may
afford a commentary of most striking pertinency upon
this prediction : " O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger,
and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I
will send him against an hypocritical nation, and
against the people of my wrath will I give him a
charge to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to
tread them down like the mire of the streets. How-
beit, he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think
so ; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off na
tions not a few. For he saith, by the strength of
mine hand I have done it, and by my wisdom ; for I
am prudent. Shall the ax boast itself against him
that heweth -therewith 1 or shall the saw magnify
itself against him that shaketh it! as if the rod

APPENDIX. 191

should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as
if the staff should lift up itself as if it were no wood."*
And he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper
and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the
holy people. It should be borne in mind that the
verses we are now considering contain the an
gel s interpretation of the symbolic actions per
formed by the little horn in the vision. Of these
the principal was his rudely invading the emblematic
" host," or the hierarchy, violently casting them to
the ground, and stamping upon them with his feet.
The language before us is unquestionably exegeti-
cal of this figurative scenery, and the phrases, " shall
destroy wonderfully," and " shall destroy the mighty
and the holy people," are equivalent to saying, he
shall succeed to a surprising degree in causing mul
titudes to apostatize from the Christian profession.
This was to be done by spreading the poison of a
false religion. For the original word rendered " de
stroy" is a term implying not merely physical de
struction, but moral corruption, or the vitiating in
fluence of false doctrines and principles upon human
conduct. It is the term employed in the following
passages : " For all flesh had corrupted his way
upon the earth;" " Take ye therefore good heed
unto yourselves, lest ye corrupt yourselves, and
make you a graven image, &c. ;" " They are cor
rupt ; they have done abominable works." In allu
sion to these expressions, it is said in the annuncia
tion of divine judgments in the Apocalypse, " Thy
wrath is come, that thou shouldst destroy them that
destroy the earth ;" i. e. those that corrupt the earth.
In affixing this sense to the destruction to be achieved
by the little horn, or the Mohammedan power, it is
not necessary to exclude the idea of the bloodshed
and desolation which have marked the progress of
the Saracen and Turkish arms in planting and de-

* Isaiah, ch. x. 515.

192 APPENDIX.

fending their dominion. Yet we think the sense of
a moral depravation, brought about by the introduc
tion of a spurious and pestilent faith, and accom
plishing a sad defection among the professors of the
true religion, answers better to the nature of the
symbol employed, and is equally accordant with the
truth of history.

Fer. 25. And through his policy also he shall cause
craft to prosper in his hand : and he shall magnify
himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many :
he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes.
The institution of the religion of the Koran with its
" host," or orders of teachers, and its system of wor
ship, was Mohammed s masterpiece of " policy."
It was by this means that his followers supplanted
the preachers of the Gospel, and converted to the
faith multitudes of those over whom the temporal
authority had been extended by the power of the
sword. " Policy" here is probably to be understood
in the sense of unprincipled shrewdness, the working
of a keen but depraved intellect, laying its plans
with a serpentine subtlety, and executing them with
an entire recklessness of the moral character of the
means employed. In this manner success has
crowned the Mohammedan power ; their vile arts,
their " craft," their perfidy, have stangely prospered.
No more striking characteristic of the founder or
the followers of Islam could be designated. "In
the exercise of political government," says Gibbon,
" Mohammed was compelled to abate of the stern
rigour of fanaticism, to comply in some measure
with the prejudices and passions of his followers,
and to employ even the vices of mankind as the in
strument of their salvation. The use of fraud and
perfidy, of cruelty and injustice, was often subser
vient to the propagation of the faith." " In the sup
port of truth, the arts of fraud and fiction may be
deemed less criminal ; and he would have started
at the foulness of the means, had he not been satis-

APPENDIX. . 193

fied of the importance and justice of the end." The
recent Travels in the East of Mr. Madden, an English
gentleman, furnish some very graphic sketches of
Mohammedan character, which may be adduced to
fill up the prophetic portraiture \vc are nmv consi
dering. "His (the Turk s) h at hostility to
Christianity is the first principle of his law ; end the
perfidy it is supposed to enjoin is the most prominent
feature in his character." " The most striking qua
lities of the Moslem are his profound ignorance, his
insuperable arrogance, his habitual indolence, and
the perfidy which directs his policy in the divan,
and regulates his ferocity in the field. "f " As to the
outward man, the Turk is, physically speaking, the
finest animal, and, indeed, excels all Europeans in
bodily vigour as well as beauty. As to their moral
qualities, I found them charitable to the poor, atten
tive to the sick, and kind to their domestics; but I
also found them perfidious to their friends, treache
rous to their enemies, and thankless to their bene
factors.";): " I never found a Turk who kept his
word when it was his interest to break it."

As to the expression, " by peace he shall destroy
many," it has been interpreted by some as implying,
that the kingdom represented by the little horn
should destroy many by wasting invasions while
their victims were slumbering in a state of negligent
security ; a peculiarity said to have been exemplified
in the whole progress of the Saracen arms. Such
may have been the case ; but we incline to attribute
another import to the words. Adhering to the sense
before given to the word " destroy," as implying the
same as to corrupt, seduce, lead wto destructive error,
\ve suppose the allusion to be to the fact, that thou
sands during the victorious progress of the Moslem
arms accepted of life, safety, and " peace," on con
dition of their embracing the foul imposture of the

* Madden s Travels, vol. i. p. 13. t Ib. p. 19.

Jib. p. 29. $ Ib. p. 31.

194 APPENDIX.

conquerors. Thus it was that "by peace he de
stroyed many ;" i. e. he corrupted them by the terms
on which he granted peace. It is notorious that
these were " death, tribute, or the Koran," and where
the subject nations escaped the point of the sword,
they were destroyed by the corrupting and deadly
influence of the superstition which they embraced.

But he shall be broken without hand. That is to
say, not by human hands, or by the instrumentality
of man, as empires are usually overthrown ; but this
spiritual dominion is to meet its fate when the stone
cut out "without hands" is dashed against the
image, and reduces all the power of despotism and
delusion to the dust. Expositors of prophecy are
many of them confident in the belief that the Mo
hammedan imposture will begin to be broken, with
out hand, at the time when the great antichristian
confederacy of the Roman beast is destroyed; and
at the epoch when the Millennium is on the point of
commencing. At this period the Gospel will begin
to be successfully preached throughout the whole
world; and the issue, it is supposed, will be the uni
versal gathering of the Gentiles into the pale of the
Christian Church. During this period, the Moham
medans will be converted to the true faith ; and
when their conversion shall have become general,
the spiritual kingdom of the Eastern little horn will,
no doubt, be broken. But in that case, it will plainly
have been broken without hand ; for it will not have
been broken by the sword of violence, in the hand
of an earthly conqueror ; but by the invisible agency
of the Holy Spirit, inclining the hearts of its long-
deluded votaries to renounce their errors, and to
embrace the faith of the true Prophet of God.

Thus we have seen, that the little horn of the
gymbolical he-goat answers in every important par
ticular, however circumstantial, which has hitherto
been accomplished, to the successful imposture of
Mohammed. The result, therefore, of the whole in-

APPENDIX. 195

quiry must be, that by the little horn, described in
this chapter of Daniel, is symbolized the spiritual
kingdom of Mohammedanism.

Another parallel prophecy is now to be traced in
the Apocalypse of John, who has confirmed and
illustrated the most important predictions of Daniel.

REVELATION, CH. IX. 1 19.

1. And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fell from heaven unto

the earth : and to him \v:is given the key of the bottomless pit.

2. And he opened the bottomless pit ; and there arose a smoke out of
the pit, as the smoke of a jireat furnace ; and the sun and the air

3. were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came
out of the smoke locusts upon the earth : and unto them was given

4. power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And it W:LS rum-
mandod them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth,
neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men

5. which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. Arid to them it
was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be
tormented five months : and their torment was as the torment of a

6. .scorpion, when he striketh a man. And in those days shall men
seek death, and shall not find it ; and shall desire to die, and death

7. shali flee from them. And the shapes of the locusts were like unto
horses prepared unto battle ; and on their heads were as it were

8. crowns, like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. And
they had hair as th;; hair of women, and their teeth were as the

9. teeth of lions. And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates
of ir^n ; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots

10. of many horses, running to battle. And they had tails like unto scor
pions ; and there were stings in their tails : and their power was

11. to hurt men five months. And they had a king over them, which
is the angel of the bottomless pit ; whose name, in the Hebrew
tongue, &gt;s Abaddon ; but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apol-

12. lyon. One wo is past ; and behold there came two more woes

13. hereafter. And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from

14. the four horns of the golden altar, which is before God ; saying to
the sixth angel, which had the trumpet, loose the four angels which

15. are bound in the river Euphrates. And the four angels were
loosed which were prepared for an hour and a day, and a month

16. and a year, for to slay the third part of men. And the number of
the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand :

17. and I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in
the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire,
and of jacinth, and brimstone : and the heads of the horses were
as the heads of lions ; and out of their months issued fire, and

18. smoke, and brimstone. By these three was the third part of men
killed; by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which

1 96 APPENDIX.

19. issued out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth, and
in their tails : for their tails were like unto serpents, and had
heads, and with them they do hurt.

" In the prediction of Daniel," observes Mr. Faber,
" Mohammedanism alone is spoken of: its two prin
cipal supporters, the Saracens and the Turks, are not
discriminated from each other : a general history of
the superstition from its commencement to its termi
nation is given, without descending to particularize
the nations by which it should be successively pa
tronised. In the Revelation of John, this deficiency
is supplied ; and we are furnished with two distinct
and accurate paintings, both of the Saracenic locusts
under their exterminating leader, and of the Eu-
phratean horsemen of the four Turkish Sultanies."
These two departments of the prophecy we shall
now endeavour to explain in their minute parti
culars.

Vef. 1. And I saw a star fall (Gr. "having
fallen") from heaven unto the earth ; and to him was
given the key of the bottomless pit, and there arose a
smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace :
and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of
the smoke of the pit. Commentators at the present
day are almost universally agreed in regarding the
fifth trumpet as symbolizing and predicting the ap
pearance of the Arabian impostor, his spurious reli
gion, and his Saracen followers. But, as it is by
no means evident, how Mohammed himself can
properly be represented as "a star falling from
heaven," the usual symbol of an apostate Christian
teacher, or of a number of them, we apprehend the
design of the Holy Spirit in this imagery to be, to
teach us, that Mohammedanism is to be considered as
the fruit or product of a Christian heresy. The star
had fallen before the time of the false prophet, in
the person of Arius, and other gross heretics ; and
as the consequence of their apostacy from the truth,

he providence of God so ordered it, that the deso^

APPENDIX. 197

lating delusion of Mohammedanism should arise and
overspread some of the fairest portions of the Church.
This view of the arch-imposture of Islamism has
been taken by some very able writers of modern
times; particularly by Mr. \V hi taker in his " Origin
of Arianism." The grand heresies, therefore, of the
Christian Church, previous to the time of Moham
med, seem to be here personified in the fallen star,
and represented as being instrumental in introducing
this master-plague of error and superstition into the
world. The poetical machinery of the vision is
supposed to be taken from the sacred oracular cav*
of the ancient Pagans, which were often thought to
communicate with the sea, or the great abyss, and
which were specially valued, when (like that at
Delphi) they emitted an intoxicating vapour: it is
used, therefore, with singular propriety in foretelling
the rise of a religious imposture. There may pos
sibly be an allusion also to the cave of Hera, whither
the prophet was wont to retire for the purpose of ex
cogitating- his system, and from which it really ema
nated. The opening of the bottomless pit, there
fore, and the letting out the vapour and smoke of the
infernal regions, aptly represents the wicked and
diabolical system of religion, the dense and noxious
fumes of the corrupt theology which he broached,
and by means of which so large a portion of Chris
tendom was finally obscured and involved in dark
ness. The preternatural darkening of the sun fore
shows the eclipse of the true religion ; and that of
the air prefigures the uncontrolled dominion of the
powers of darkness. As a striking coincidence with
the signs here predicted, it is worthy of note, that a
remarkable comet immediately preceded the birth
of Mohammed ; and that an eclipse of the sun, of ex
traordinary degree and duration, attended the first
announcement of his pretended mission.

Ver. 2. And there came out of the pit locusts upon
the earth. Arabia has long been noted for giving

R 2

198 APPENDIX.

birth to prodigious swarms of locusts, which often
overspread and lay waste the neighbouring 1 coun
tries ; and it is remarkable, that in a genuine Arabian
romance, the locust is introduced as the national em
blem of the Ishmaelites. The symbol, therefore, of
the locusts issuing out of the smoke strikingly repre
sents the armies of the Saracens, the martial fol
lowers of the prophet, first engendered, as it were,
amid the fumes of his religion, and then marching
forth, at his command, to conquer arid to proselyte
the world. The pages of history must be consulted
to learn the devastations of those hosts of destruc
tive Saracens, which, under the guidance of Moham
med and his successors, alighted upon and wasted
the apocalyptic earth. Yet, notwithstanding the
phantasms that came forth from the pit of the abyss
bore a general resemblance to locusts, they were
marked by several peculiarities, by which they were
more perfectly adapted to typify the people designed
to be thus shadowed out. These we shall consider
as we proceed.

Fer. 4. And it was commanded them that they
should not hurt the grass of the earth 9 neither any green
thing, neither any tree; hut only those men which have
not the seal of God in their foreheads. By the com
mand that they should not hurt the grass, nor the
trees, but men only, it is evident that these were not
natural, but symbolical locusts ; and also that they
were under providential control. The same thing
appears from other attributes assigned them, which
plainly belong to the objects signified, and not to the
sign; as the human face, the woman s hair, the
golden crowns, the iron breastplates. But it is very
common in the symbolic diction of prophecy, to find
the literal and the allegorical sense intermixed, and
that even in the same passage. We are thus fur
nished with a clew to the real meaning of the sym
bols. By the precept here given, the emblematic
locusts were required to act in a manner perfectly

APPENDIX. 199

dissimilar to the ravages of natural locusts : and yet
how faithfully the command was obeyed, may be in
ferred from the following very remarkable injunction
of the Caliph Abubeker to Yezid, upon setting out
on the expedition against Syria, \\iejirst undertaking
of the Saracens in the way of foreign conquest. It
can scarcely be doubted, that these instructions have
been preserved, under the providence of God, for the
express purpose of furnishing an illustration of this
prophetic text. " Remember," said Abubeker, " that
you are always in the presence of God, on the verge
of death, in the assurance of judgment, and the hope
of paradise. When you fight the battles of the
Lord, acquit yourselves like men, without turning
your backs ; but let not your victory be stained with
the blood of women or children. Destroy no palm-
trees, nor burn any fields of corn. Cut down no
fruit-trees; nor do any mischief to cattle, only such as
you kill to eat. When you make any covenant, stand
to it, and be as good as your word. As you go on,
you will find some religious persons, who live retired
in monasteries, and propose to themselves to serve
God that way: let them alone, and neither kill them,
nor destroy their monasteries. And you will find
another sort of people, that belong to the synagogue
of Satan, who have shaven crowns: be sure you
^cleave their skulls, and give them no quarter till they
/either turn Mahometans, or pay tribute."* It has
accordingly been noticed, that those parts of the
Roman empire which were left untouched by these
Saracen hordes, were those in which it appears from
history the remnant of the true church of God was
still found residing : they were only to hurt the men
who had not the mark of God on their foreheads.

Ver. 5. And to them it was given that they should
not kill them, but that they should be tormented five,
months; and their torment was as the torment of a

* Ock ey s History of the Saracens, vol. i.

200 APPENDIX.

scorpion, when he striketh a man. Mr. Gibbon s un
designed commentary on these words will show how
the commission was fulfilled. " The fair option of
friendship or submission, a battle was proposed to the
enemies of Mahomet. If they professed the creed
of Islam, they were admitted to all the temporal and
spiritual benefits of his primitive disciples, and
marched under the same banners, to extend the re
ligion they had embraced. The clemency of the
prophet was decided by his interests ; yet he seldom
trampled on a prostrate enemy, and he seemed to
promise, that on the payment of a tribute, the least
guilty of his unbelieving subjects might be indulged
in their worship." The period assigned for the
power of the locusts, in this prediction, is "five
months." Prophecy has its peculiar mode of com
puting time. A day for the most part stands for a
year. Five months, therefore, of thirty days each,
amount, in the computation of prophecy, to one hun
dred and fifty years. As five literal months is the
utmost term of the duration of the natural plague of
the locusts, so the prophetic five months accurately
denote the period of the main conquests of the Sa
racen empire, computing from the appearance of
Mohammed to the foundation of Bagdad. " Read,"
says Bishop Newton, " the history of the Saracens,
and you will find, that their greatest exploits were
performed, and their greatest conquests made, within
the space of five prophetic months, or one hundred
and fifty years, between the year 612, when Ma
homet opened the bottomless pit, and began publicly
to teach and propagate his imposture ; and the year
762, when Almansor built Bagdad, and called it the
city of peace." The comparison of the locusts tor
ments to that of the scorpion will be considered sub
sequently.

F er. 6. And in those days shall men seek death, and

shall not find it; and shall desire to die, but death shall

flee from them. This prediction has usually been

APPENDIX. 201

considered as awfully expressive of the hopeless
sufferings and despair of Eastern Christendom, under
the lawless insults, violences, and oppressions sys-
tt matieally pi &lt;&lt;! by their Saracen masters. We
would not deny that this may have been alluded to;
yet, as it would seem that men ous of escaping
suffering by death, iniuht easily, in a thousand ways
have accomplished their object, it may be suggested,
whether the Saracens themselves are not the persons
here referred to, as coveting death in battle, from a
view to the honour, and the rewards of such a de
cease. The following passage from the Koran, is
worthy of special note in this connexion. "More
over, ye did sometimes wish for death, before that ye
met it."* On these words Sale remarks, in a note,
"that several of Mohammed s followers, who were
not present at Beder, wished for an opportunity of
obtaining, in another action, the like honour as
those had gained who fell martyrs in that event."
The import of the lamma^o, therefore, may be, that
God should give to the Moslem hosts such an unin
terrupted tide of conquests, they should so uni
formly come off victorious in their engagements,
and that with such inconsiderable losses, that num
bers, in the height of their enthusiasm, should pant
in vain for the glorious privilege of dying in the
field of battle.

Ver. 7. And the shapes of the locusts were like unto
horses prepared unto battle. "Arabia," says Gibbon,
" is, in the opinion of naturalists,the native country
of the horse." The horsemanship of the Arabs has
ever been an object of admiration. " The martial
youth, under the banner of the Emir, is ever on
horseback and in the field, to practise the exercise
of the bow, the javelin, and the scimitar." In cor
respondence, therefore, with the hieroglyphic of the
prophet, the strength of the Saracens consisted very

* Koran, eh. UL

202 APPENDIX.

much in their numerous cavalry, and the unrivalled
speed of the Arabian coursers forms the most strik
ing 1 possible emblem of the rapid career of the Sa
racen armies.

And on their heads were as it were crowns like gold,
and their faces were as the faces of men. " Make a
point," says a precept of Mohammed, " of wearing
turbans; because it is the way of angels." The tur
ban, accordingly, has ever been the distinctive head
dress of the Arabs, and their boast has been, that
they wore, as their common attire, those ornaments,
which among other people are the peculiar badges
of royalty. The notice of the " faces of men"
seems to be intended merely to afford a clew to the
meaning of the emblem ; to intimate, that not na
tural locusts, but human beings, were depicted under
this symbol.

Ver. 8. And they had httir. as the hair of women,
and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. The Arabs,
as Pliny testifies, wore their beards, or rather mus-
tachios, as men, while their hair, like that of women,
was flowing or plaited. The " teeth like those of
lions," has reference to the weapons and imple
ments of war ; and the " breastplates of iron" to
the armour made use of by the Saracen troops in
their expeditions. The "sound of their wings as
the sound of chariots of many horses running to
battle," is but a part of the same expressive imagery
denoting warlike scenes and preparations.

Fer. 10. Jlnd they had tails like unto scorpions :
and there were stings in their tails. The interpreta
tion of the symbols of the Apocalypse must be
sought for in the Old Testament. From the follow
ing words of Isaiah (ch. ix. 14, 15) it appears that
the tail of a beast denotes the false doctrines or the
superstition which he maintains : " Therefore the
Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch
and rush, in one day. The ancient and honourable,
he is the head ; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he

APPENDIX. 203

is the tail" The emblem, therefore, strikingly repre
sents the infliction of spiritual wounds by the propa
gation of poisonous and deadly errors and heresies.
And nothing is more evident from the page of his
tory than that the Moslem followers of Mohammed
have scattered, like scorpions, the venom of their
doctrines behind them ; and whether conquering or
conquered, have succeeded in palminir *i new creed
upon those with whom they have had to do. By
this symbol, then, we are plainly taught, that the
plague of the allegorical locusts consisted not only
in the ravages of war, but in the successful propaga
tion of a false religion, of which the doctrines should
be as deleterious in a spiritual point of view, a* t lu
sting of a scorpion in a natural. In like manner,
when it is said (ch. xii. 3, 4) of the " great red dragon
having seven heads and ten horns, that his tail drew
the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast.
them to the earth," the explication is, that the \nti-
christian power shadowed out by this formidable
monster should be permitted to instil the most per
nicious errors into the minds of the professed minis
ters of the truth, and thus bring about their entire
defection from Christianity.

Vcr. 11. And they had a king over them, which is
the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the
Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue
hath his name Apollyon. Both these terms signify
destroyer. Since the locusts are at once secular
conquerors and the propagators of a false religion,
their king must stand to them in the double relation
of a temporal and spiritual head. Such accordingly
were Mohammed and the Caliphs his successors, who
must be viewed as jointly constituting the locust-
king Abaddon; for in the usual language of pro
phecy, a king denotes, not any single individual, but
a dynasty or kingdom. The chief of the locusts,
when they first issued from the pit of the abyss, was
Mohammed himself ; but during the allotted period
of the wo which they occasioned, the reigning de-

204 APPENDIX.

stroyer was, of course, the reigning Caliph. If,
therefore, we were to suppose the genius of Moham
medanism under the Caliphs to be personified, and
this symbolical personage to be designated by the
most appropriate title, Abaddon, the destroyer, would
be the appellation.

As the portion of the prophecy thus far considered
has reference to the origin of Mohammed s impos
ture, and to the rise, progress, and conquests of the
Saracens, its earliest abettors and propagators, so the
remaining part announces the commencement and
career of the Turkish power, the principal of its later
supporters.

Fer. 13. And the sixth angel sounded , and I heard a
voice from the four horns of the golden .altar, which is
before God, saying to the sixth angel which had the trum
pet, Loose the jour angels which are bound in (rather at,
by, in the vicinity of) the great river Euphrates, and
the four angels were loosed. It is impossible, from the
train of events, and from the quarter of the world hi
which we are directed to look for the irruption of
these prodigious multitudes of horsemen, to mistake-
to whom the prophecy refers. The four angels who
are described as bound in the regions bordering on
the river Euphrates, not in the river itself, are the
four contemporary sultanies or dynasties, into which
the empire of the Seljukian Turks was divided
towards the close of the eleventh century : PERSIA,
KERMAN, SYRIA, and RHOUM. These sultanies, from
different causes, were long restrained from extend
ing their conquests beyond what may be geo
graphically termed the Euphratean regions, but to
wards the close of the thirteenth century, the four
angels on the river Euphrates were loosed in the
persons of their existing representatives, the united
Ottoman and Seljukian Turks. The historian of the
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire must of ne
cessity be the guide to any English commentator on
this part of the prophetic history. The following is
his testimony as to the immense number of the

APPENDIX. 205

Turkish cavalry. " As the subject nations marched
under the standard of the Turks, their cavalry, both
men and horses, were proudly computed by millions."
" On this occasion, the myriads of the Turkish horse
overspread a frontier of six hundred miles, from
Taurus to Erzeroutn."

Ver. 17. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and
those that sat on them, having breastplates of fire and of
jacinth^ and brimstone. These prophetic character
istics of the Euphratean warriors accord in the most
perfect manner with the description which history
gives of the Turks. They brought immense armies
into the field, chiefly composed of horse, and from
their first appearance on the great political stage of na
tions their costume has been peculiarly distinguished
by the colours of scarlet, blue, and yellow, which
are here denoted by the terms " fire," "jacinth," and
" brimstone." Rycaut s " Present State of the Otto
man Empire," published towards the close of the
seventeenth century, will satisfy the reader on this
point.

And the heads of the horses were as the- heads of
lions, and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke
and brimstone. We have here a symbol which is
not elsewhere to be met with in the Scriptures. The
prophetic horses are represented as vomiting out of
their mouths " fire, and smoke, and brimstone," by
which it is added, " the third part of men was killed."
Mede, Newton, Faber, and most other eminent ex
positors of the Revelation, agree in supposing that
the flashes of fire attended by smoke and brimstone,
which seemed to proceed from the mouths of the
horses, were in reality the flashes of artillery. The
Turks were among the first who turned to account
the European invention of gunpowder in carrying
on their wars. Cannon, the most deadly engine of
modern warfare, were employed by Mohammed II.
in his wars against the Greek empire ; and it is said
that he was indebted to his heavy ordnance for the

206 APPENDIX.

reduction of Constantinople. The prophet, therefore,
is to be considered as depicting the visionary scene of
a field of battle, in which the cavalry and artillery
are so mingled together, that while flashes of fire and
dense clouds of smoke issued from the cannon, the
horses heads alone would be dimly discerned through
the sulphureous mist, and would seem to the eye of
the spectator to belch forth the smoky flames from
their own mouths. As the design of this striking
imagery is to describe the appearances rather than
the reality of things, the prophet employs an expres
sion,* " in the vision," or rather " in vision," i. e. ap
parently, as it seemed, which evidently conveys the
idea that the phantasm of a battle scene was pre
sented to the imagination. We may now see how
far history confirms this interpretation. " Among
the implements of destruction," says Mr. Gibbon,
" he (Mohammed II.) studied with peculiar care the
recent and tremendous discovery of the Latins ; and
his artillery surpassed whatever had yet appeared in
the world." " The Ottoman artillery thundered on
all sides, and the camp and city, the Greeks and
Turks, were involved in a cloud of smoke which
could only be dispelled by the final deliverance or
destruction of the Roman empire." " The great can
non of Mohammed has been separately an important
and visible object in the history of the times. But
that enormous engine, which required, it is said,
seventy yoke of oxen and two thousand men to
draw it, was flanked by two fellows almost of equal
magnitude : the long order of Turkish artillery was
pointed against the wall; fourteen batteries thun
dered at once on the most accessible places ; and of
one of these it is ambiguously expressed, that it was
mounted with a hundred and thirty guns, or that it
discharged a hundred and thirty bullets."

Ver. 19. For their power is in their mouth, and in

APPENDIX. 207

their tails : for their tails were like imto serpents,
and had heads, &lt;t/nl with than they do hurt. The
emblematic import of the tail of a beast we have
already considered. The imagery in the present
symbol is slightly different from that of the Saracen
locusts, which had the tails of scorpions ; but the im
port is the same. Here the tails of the horses ter
minated in a serpent s head; and it is not a little
remarkable, that the Turks have been in the habit,
from the earliest periods of their history, of tying- a
knot in the extremity of the long flowing tails of
their horses, when preparing for war; so that their
resemblance to serpents with swelling heads must
have been singularly striking. Striking too is the
fact, that so slight a circumstance should have been
adverted to by the historian so often quoted, who
thought as little of being an organ to illustrate the
predictions of Scripture, as the Turks themselves
did of being the agents to fulfil them. Speaking of
Alp Arslan, the first Turkish invader of the Roman
empire, he says, " With his own hands he tied up
his horse 9 s tail, and declared that if he were van
quished, that spot should be the place of his burial."
The scope of the hieroglyphic here employed is to
predict the propagation of a deadly imposture by the
instrumentality of the same warlike power which
should achieve such prodigious conquests. The
event has corresponded with the prophecy. Like
the Saracens of the first wo, the Turks were not
merely secular conquerors. They were animated
with all the wild fanaticism of a false religion ; they
professed and propagated the same theological sys
tem as their Arabian predecessors; they injured by
their doctrines no less than by their conquests ; and
wherever they established their dominion, the Koran
triumphed over the Gospel. Thus writes Mr. Gib
bon : " The whole body of the nation embraced the
religion of Mohammed. 1 " Twenty-five years after
the death of Basil, his successors were suddenly

208 APPENDIX.

assaulted by an unknown race of barbarians, who
united the Scythian valour with the fanaticism of
new converts"

Sufficient proof has now been afforded, if we mis
take not, that the appearance of the Arabian pro
phet in the world, and the rise, progress, and results
of his imposture, are clearly foretold in the Sacred
volume. Indeed, it would not be easy to specify
any admitted subject of prophecy, upon which his
tory and Providence have thrown a stronger or
clearer light, -than that which we have considered in
the preceding pages. Interpreters have been justly
struck at the surprising exactness of the delinea
tions, and their perfect accordance with the details
of history. " The prophetic truths," says Dr. Zouch,
" comprised in the ninth chapter of the Apocalypse are,
of themselves, sufficient to stamp the mark of divinity
upon that book. When I compare them with the page
of history, I am filled with amazement. The Saracens,
a people which did not exist in the time of John, and
the Turks, a nation then utterly unknown, are there
described in language the most appropriate and dis
tinct." If then the considerations commonly ad
duced to account for the rise, progress, and reign of
Mohammedanism appear to be inadequate, if the
human causes usually quoted to explain the asto
nishing success of Mohammedan imposture still seem
to us to leave many of the phenomena inexplicable,
and the greatest revolution in the world connected
with the history of the Church stands forth an un
solved problem, why should we hesitate to ascribe
it directly to the determinate will and counsel of the
Most High, and thus find a clew to all the myste
ries connected with it ? Why should we be anxious
to escape the recognition of a Divine interference in
the rise of this arch-heresy] If we have been cor
rect in our interpretation of the preceding predic
tions of Daniel and John, the Mohammedan delusion
is as real and as prominent a subject of prophecy as

APPENDIX. 209

any in the whole compass of the Bible. Now, to
insist upon the operation of merely human causes
in the production of an event which is truly a sub
ject of prophecy, is in fact to take the government
of the world out of the hands of God. And this
principle pushed to the extreme will inevitably lov
and impugn the sure word of prophecy ; for it makes
God the predicter of events over which, at the same
time, he has no special superintendence or control.
Such a principle cannot stand the least examination.
When Daniel foretels the fortunes of the four LH
empires; or when Isaiah speaks of Cyrus by name,
as one who should accomplish certain great pur
poses of the Infinite Mind, is it to be supposed, that
the events predicted were to happen exclusive of
Providential agency? As easily and as justly then
may we acknowledge a special pre-ordainment in
the case of Mohammed, whose still more formidable
dominion and more lasting and more fatal a&lt;_ r iicy
in the affairs of men, are equally the theme of un
questionable predictions. . &gt; admission of this na
ture militates with the free agency of man. or at all
affects the moral character of his actions. The
mere fact that an event is foreknown or foretold by
the Deity, neither takes away nor weakens the ac
countability of the agents concerned. Of this, the
whole Scripture is full of proofs. But the reflecting
reader will desire no farther confirmation of so plain
a position.

210 APPENDIX.

[ B ] ;

THE CAABA.

CAABA is the name given to a very ancient temple,
in the city of Mecca, the origin of which is lost in
the darkness of remote ages. Centuries before
Mohammed was born, and while the Arabs were yet
pagans, this building was held to possess a peculiar
sanctity: pilgrimages were made to it from distant
regions ; and that tribe or family was accounted the
most honourable, who were the keepers of its keys.
It is an oblong, massive structure, built of large
blocks of different sized stones, joined rudely to
gether, and is about eighteen paces in length, four
teen in breadth, and from thirty-five to forty feet in
height. It has but one door, on the north side, seven
feet above the ground, wholly plated with silver,
and embellished with gilt ornaments. From the
door s being placed, not in the centre, but near to one
corner of the building, it appears not to have been
originally designed for a sacred use ; but at what
time, or for what reasons, it became thus appro
priated, it is not possible now to determine. Near
the door, in the angle of the wall of the north-east
corner of the Caaba, about seven spans from the
ground, is the celebrated "black stone," so de
voutly kissed by every pilgrim visiting the sacred
city. It is of an oval shape, about seven inches in
diameter, composed of about seven small stones, of
different sizes and shapes, well joined together with
cement, and perfectly smooth ; appearing as if the
original stone had been broken into many pieces by
a violent blow, and then united again, which indeed
is reported to have been the fact. A border of some
kind of cement, rising a little above the surface of

APPENDIX. 211

the stone, surrounds it, and both this and the stone
are encircled by a silver band.

According to the fabulous legends of the Mussul
mans, the "black stone" was brought down from
heaven by Gabriel, at the creation of the world;
and was then of a pure white, but has contracted its
present sable hue from the guilt of the MI is com
mitted by the sons of men. If a conjecture, how
ever, may be hazarded, we should not hesitate to
refer its origin to that peculiar trait in the character
of the Ishmaelites, which has ever led them to imi
tate the Israelites. Scarcely a feature in the reli
gious institutions, usages, or traditions of the Jews,
but has its spurious counterpart in those of the seed
of Hagar. Jacob s pillar of stone, at Bethel, would
of course become celebrated among his descendants.
In like manner, from causes now unknown, we may
imagine this stone to have received a similar sanctity
among the Arabs. This is rendered more probable
from the circumstance, that one of the names given
to the Caaba, in the Arabic Ian image, is Beit-Allah,
house of God; a word of the same import and simi
lar sound with Beth-el, from which the Greek term
Baitulia was frequently applied to sacred stones or
memorial-pillars, like that of Jacob.

The double roof of the Caaba is supported within
by three octangular pillars of aloes-wood, between
which, on a bar of iron, hang a number of silver
lamps. The four sides without are covered with a
rich black silk stuff hanging down to the ground,
and encircled near the top with an embroidered band
of gold, which compasses the whole building. This
covering, which is renewed every year, was for
merly supplied by the Caliphs, afterward by the
Sultans of Egypt ; but is now sent from Cairo, at the
expense of the Grand Seignior, at the time of the
Hadj, when the old one is cut into small pieces and
sold to the pilgrims for nearly as much money as
the new one costs. This curtain or veil, called

APPENDIX.

Kesoua, is blazoned all over with the words, " There
is no God, but God," &c. in gold letters of great
size ; and such a sacredness attaches to it, that the
camel which transports it to Mecca is ever after ex
empted from labour. This circumstance of the
Caaba being covered in the manner described sug
gests the probability, that the structure was intended
as a rude imitation of the Jewish Tabernacle, which
was also enveloped in embroidered curtains without,
while within was a golden candlestick, with seven
branches, kept constantly burning.

The Caaba, at a slight distance, is surrounded
with a circular enclosure of thirty-two slender gilt
pillars, between every two of which are suspended
seven lamps, upon small bars of silver connecting
the pillars towards the top. These lamps are always
lighted after sunset. This sacred paling reminds
us again of the Tabernacle ; the .court of which,
though of an oblong instead of a circular form, was
constructed of pillars, and hung with curtains, with
only a single place of entrance. Within this en
closure of the Caaba, and almost contiguous to its
base, lies the " white stone," said to be the sepul
chre of Ishmael, which receives the rain-water fall
ing off the flat roof of the edifice through a spout,
formerly of wood, but now of gold. According to
the account of Burckhardt, the effect of the whole
scene, the mysterious drapery, the profusion of gold
and silver, the blaze of lamps, and the kneeling mul
titudes, surpasses any thing the imagination could
have pictured.

At a small distance from the Caaba, on the east
side, is the station or place of Abraham, whom the
Arabs affirm to have been the builder of the temple,
where there is another stone much respected by the
Moslems, as they pretend that the patriarch stood
upon it while employed about the building, and pro
fess to show the prints of his footsteps to this day.
Just without the circular court, on its south, north,

APPENDIX. 213

and west sides, are three buildings drsiuaed as ora
tories, or places of prayer, wlit-re the pilgrim wor
shippers perform their devotions. Besides these
there are several small buildings near to the main
structure, in one of which is the famous well of
Zemzem, said by the Mussulmans to be the very
spring which the angel discovered to Hagar in the
wilderness, and whose waters of course possess the
most miraculous virtues. They cure all diseases,
both of body and spirit, and supply the whole town
for drinking and oblation. It is said to be the only
sweet water in the whole valley ; but Pitts, an Eng
lish traveller, found it brackish, and says, the pil
grims 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
spiritual corruption." They not only drink, but
have buckets of water poured over them, and then
think their sins are washed into the well. One of
the miracles of Mecca is, that the water of this well
never diminishes ; but this is not surprising to the
true believers, who regard it as having been miracu
lously created to save the infant Ishmael when dying
of thirst in the wilderness. Burckhardt, however,
explains it without a miracle, by supposing that the
I water flows through the bottom, being supplied by a
subterraneous rivulet. The water, he says, is per
fectly sweet, but heavy to the taste, slightly tepid,
and sometimes in its colour resembles milk. The
pilgrims frequently destroy the ropes, buckets, and
other appendages of the well in their eagerness to
quaff its holy water.

Surrounding all the objects now described, which
occupy the centre of an open space, is the square
colonnade or grand piazza, consisting of a quadruple
row of columns on one side, and a triple row on
the other three sides, united by pointed or Gothic
arches, every four of which support a dome, plas
tered white the number of these domes amounting

214 APPENDIX.

to one hundred and fifty-two, and the pillars to four
hundred and forty-eight. From the arches of these
colonnades are suspended lamps, some of which are
lighted every night, and the whole of them during
the nights of the Ramadan. The columns are up
wards of twenty feet high, and somewhat more than
a foot and a half in diameter; some are of a reddish-
gray granite, some of red porphyry, and others of
white marble. No two capitals or bases are exactly
alike ; in some cases, by the ignorance of the work
men, the former have been placed upside down on
the shafts. The arches and some parts of the walls
are gaudily painted in stripes of yellow, red, and
blue, which, as we have already seen, are colours
peculiar to Mohammedanism. At each of the four
corners of this immense quadrangular court, tower
ing above the pillared domes, rises a lofty minaret,
surmounted with a gilded crescent, the invariable
accompaniment of the Moslem temple.

"The high antiquity of the Caaba," says Mr.
Forster,* " is undisputed. The permanent character
of its rites is certified by our knowledge of the ad
herence of the Arabs, in every age, to their ancient
customs. But, from the uniform consent of Maho
metan writers, it farther appears that the statues of
Abraham and Ishmael, which from remote antiquity
nad held a conspicuous place in the Caaba, and con
stituted the principal object of its idol worship, re
mained to the time of Mahomet, and were there
found by the Mussulmans after the capture of Mecca,
Mahomet, Abulfeda tells us, when he took Mecca
in the eighth year of the Hejira, found and destroyed
in the Caaba, on his entering the temple, the image
of Abraham holding in his hand seven arrows with
out heads or feathers, such as the Arabs use in divi
nation, and surrounded with a great number of
angels and prophets, as inferior deities, among

* Mahometanism Unveiled, vol. ii. p. 404.

ix. 215

whom, as Al Janabi and other \\ n;- is add, was
mael with divining arrowa also m his hand.
" Various external si&lt;n &gt;atriarehal

rin, may be traced in th" A ire- Mahometan
worship of the Caal)a. Ainnn-j one ci

suiliciently remarkable :aim distinct notice in

this place, inasmuch as it has he-n ;iih: , n ,l

censured in the Koran.* Tii 11 \rah&gt;- were

used to compass the Caaba nak&lt; &lt;!, because doih
they said, were the signs of t to

&lt;H&gt;d. The celebrated black stone of the ( aab;- al-o,
primitive source and object of Arabian i r\ ,
strongly indicates the origin to which if i
uniformly referred. The Arabs attribute itc
duetion into the temple of Mecca to the in mi,
posterity of Ishmael. The peculiar kni&lt;l of su;
lion is just what might be expected to arise from the
abuse of an early patriarchal custom that oi i ni-
up stones on particular spots in honour of the true
God. While the connexion is farther made out by
the exact correspondence in this particular betu .
the idolatry of the ancient Israelites and of the;
Ante-Mahometan Arabians, their identity miulit
be largely shown from the Old Testament ; but a
passage from the prophecy of Isaiah will sufli
The prophet thus indignantly reproves the Jews for
their idolatry : * Among the smooth stones of the
stream is thy portion : they, they are thy lot : even
to them thou hast poured a drink offering, thou hast
offered a meat offering-. "

IN connexion with the preceding account of the
Caaba, the place of the Moslem solemnities, the
reader may be interested by the following ani
mated sketch of the pilgrimage to Mecca, from the

* Koran, ch. viL

216 APPENDIX.

Review (in the London Quarterly) of Burckhardt s
Travels in Arabia.

" At a certain distance from the Holy City, all pil
grims are required to strip themselves naked, throw
away their garments, and put on the ihram, or ehram,
two pieces of linen or cotton cloth, generally white,
one of them wrapped round the loins, the other
thrown loosely over the neck and shoulders, while
the head remains wholly uncovered. Burckhardt
at once complied with this custom, which has occa
sioned the death of many ; for when the pilgrimage
happens in winter, the assumption of the ihram is
extremely prejudicial to the most robust constitu
tion, more especially to that of the northern Mus
sulmans, who have been accustomed to thick woollen
clothes; yet, says Burckhardt, the religious
zeal of some who visit the Hedjaz is so ardent, that
if they arrive even several months previous to the
Hadj, they vow, on taking the ihram, not to throw it
off till after the completion of their pilgrimage to
Arafat. It is said* that Haroun Al Raschid and his
wife Zobeyda once performed the pilgrimage on
foot from Bagdad to Mekka, clothed only with the
ihram; but indulged in the luxury of walking on
splendid carpets the whole way.

" The ancient Arabs, who reckoned time by lunar
months, and intercalated a month every three years,
had the pilgrimage fixed to a certain season, for the
Hadj is not a Mussulman invention ; but when Ma
homet ordained that the same pilgrimage should be
continued, in honour of the living God, which, for
ages before him, had been, in forgetfulness of the
original patriarchal faith of the race, performed in
honoui of senseless idols, he prescribed the cere
mony to a particular lunar month ; and as the
modern Arabs do not intercalate, its periodical re
turns became irregular, and in thirty-three years
shifted through all the months of the year, from the
height of summer to the depth of winter

Al PKXDIX. 217

"On entering Mekka, the temple or mosque must
lio immediately visited, whether the stranger be pil
grim or not. The prescribed ceremonies are, first,
to repeat certain prayers, in dirt". -rent parts of the

nple; then to bruin the / . or walk round the.
Kaaba seven times, kissing the black stone at each
circuit; then to proceed to the well of /ein/ein,
and drink as much water as they wish or can get.
The second ceremony whicli the pilgrim lias to per
form is, to pro-- :) the hill of S/afa, and there re
peat certain prescribed prayers before he sets out
on the holy walk, or say, which is along a level spot,
about six hundred paces in length, terminating at a
stone platform, called Meroti This walk, which
in certain places must be a run, is to he repeated
seven times, the pilgrims reciting prayers uninter
ruptedly, with a loud voice the whole time. The
third ceremony is that of shaving the head and walk
ing to the Omra, about one hour and a half from
Mekka, chanting pious ejaculations all the way.
The two former ceremonies must, after this, be
again repeated. The walk round the Kaaba seven
times, may be repeated as oft as the pilgrim thinks
fit, and the more frequently the more meritorious.

"About seventy thousand persons assembled at
Mekka, when Burckhardt made his pilgrimage, and
submitted to the performance of these ceremonies.
This is the least number which the Mussulmans told
Ali Bey there must necessarily be assembled at every
pilgrimage, on Mount Arafat ; and that in case any
deficiency should occur, angels are sent down from
heaven to complete the number. Pitts says pre
cisely the same thing. When Ali Bey went through
this part of the ceremony, he tells us, an assemblage
of eighty thousand men, two thousand women, and
one thousand little children, with sixty or seventy
thousand camels, asses, and horses, marched through
the narrow valley leading from Arafat, in a cloud of
dust, carrying a forest of lances, guns, swivels, &c.

218 APPENDIX.

and yet no accident occurred that he knew of, ex
cept to himself, he received, it seems, a couple of
wounds in his leg. One would have thought that
Burckhardt s seventy thousand was a prodigious
number ; yet he tells us, that two only of the five or
six regular caravans made their appearance this
year, the Syrian and the Egyptian. About four
thousand pilgrims from Turkey came by sea ; and
perhaps half as many from other distant quarters of
the Mahommedan world. The Syrian was always
considered the most numerous. It is stated, that
when the mother of Motessem b lllah, the last of the
Abbassides, performed the pilgrimage in the year of
the Hejira 631, her caravan was composed of one
hundred and twenty thousand camels that in 1814
consisted of not more than four or five thousand per
sons, and fifteen thousand camels. Barthema states
the Cairo caravan, when he was at Mekka, to have
amounted to sixty-four thousand camels; in 1814
the same caravan consisted mostly of Mahomet Ali s
troops, with very few pilgrims. But Burckhardt says.,
that in 1816, a single grandee of Cairo joined the
Hadj with one hundred and ten camels, for the trans
port of his baggage and retinue, whose travelling
expenses alone, he supposes, could not have been
]ess than ten thousand pounds. The tents and equip
age of the public women and dancing girls were
among the most splendid in this caravan. The
Moggrebyn (i. e. Western, or Barbary) caravan, com
prised, of late years, altogether from six to eight thou
sand men (it has been forty thousand) ; in the year
1814 very few joined it. The Eastern caravan of
this year consisted chiefly of a large party of Ma
lays from Java, Sumatra, and the Malabar coast. A
solitary Afghan pilgrim, an old man of extraordinary
strength, had walked all the way from Caubul to
Mekka, and intended to return in the same manner.
Vast numbers of Bedouins flock to Mekka at the
time of the pilgrimage ; and others from every part

APPENDIX. 219

of Arabia. Many of these pilgrims depend entirely
M iice, botli on the journey and at Mekka,
on beiruinir; others bring some small productions
from tlirii ective countries for sale.

" Tlir Al&lt; :&gt;yns, for example, brin- their red
bonnets and woollen cloaks; tin- Kuropeaii Turks,
shoes and slippers, hardware, embroidered siulVs,
sweetmeats, ai\iher, trinkets of European manufac
ture) knit silk purses, &c.; the Turks of Anatolia,
bring carpets, silks, and Angora shawls; the Per
sians, Cashmere shawls and large silk handkerchi.
the Afghans, tooth-brushes, made of the spongy
boughs of a tree growing in Bokhara, beads of a yel
low soapstone, and plain coarse shawls, manufac
tured in their own country; the Indians, the nu
merous productions of their rich and extensive re
gion; the people of Yemen, snakes for the Persian
pipes, sandals, and various other works in leather;
and the Africans bring various articles adapted to
the slave trade.

" When all the required ceremonies have been gone
through at Mekka, the whole concourse of pilgrims
repair together on a certain day to Mount Arafat,
some on camels, some on mules, or asses, and the
greater number barefooted, this being the most me
ritorious way of performing a journey of eighteen or
twenty miles. We were several hours, says
Burckhardt, before we could reach the outskirts
of the town, so great was the crowd of camels. Of
the half-naked Hadjis, all dressed in the white
ihram some sat on their camels, mules, or asses,
reading the Koran, some ejaculated loud prayers,
while others cursed their drivers, and quarrelled with
those near them, who were choking up the pas
sages. Having cleared a narrow pass in the moun
tains, the plain of Arafat opened out. Here the dif
ferent caravans began to disperse in search of places
to pitch their tents. Hadjis were seen in every di
rection wandering among the tents in search of their

220 APPE]S 7 DIX.

companions, whom they had lost in the confusion
along the road ; and it was several hours before the
noise and clamour had subsided.

"In the morning, Burckhardt ascended the summit
of Mount Arafat, from whence he counted about
three thousand tents, dispersed over the plain, of
which two -thirds belonged to the two Hadj cara
vans, and to the suite and soldiers of Mohammed
Ali ; but the greatest number of the assembled mul
titudes were, says our traveller, like myself,
without tents. Those of the wife of Mohammed
Ali, the mother of Tousoun and Ibrahim Pasha,
were magnificent, the transport of her baggage
alone, from Djidda to Mekka, having required five
hundred camels.

" Her tent was in fact an encampment, consisting
of a dozen tents of different sizes, inhabited by her
women ; the whole enclosed by a wall of linen cloth,
eight hundred paces in circuit, the single entrance
of which was guarded by eunuchs in splendid
dresses. Around this enclosure were pitched the
tents of the men who formed her numerous suite.
The beautiful embroidery on the exterior of this
linen palace, with the various colours displayed in
every part of it, constituted an object which re
minded me of some descriptions in the Arabian Tales
of a Thousand and One Nights.

"Mr. Burckhardt says, he estimated the number of
persons assembled on the plain at seventy thousand ;
but whether any, or how many of them, were sup
plied by angels, he does not say : it is, however,
deserving of remark, that he is the third traveller
who mentions the same number. This enormous
mass, after washing and purifying the body accord
ing to law, or going through the motions where
water was not to be had, now pressed forwards
towards the mountain of Arafat, and covered its
sides from top to bottom. At the appointed hour,
the Cadi of Mekka took Ms stand on a stone plat-

APPENDIX. 221

form on the top of the mountain, and began his
sermon, to which the multitude appeared to listen in
solemn and respectful silence. At every pause,
however, the assembled multitudes waved the skirts
of their //; over their heads and rent the air

wiili shouts of Lebeyk, alhihuma Icbryk / Here
ire are, at thy commands, O Uod! * During tin-
wavings of the ihramsf says BurckhaYdt, the side
of the mountain, thickly crowded as it was by the
people in their white garments, had the appearance
of a cataract of water ; while the green umbrellas,
with which several thousand hadjis, sitting on their
camels below, were provided, bore some resemblance
to a verdant plain. The assemblage of such a
multitude, to every outward appearance humbling
themselves in prayer and adoration before God,
must be an imposing and impressive spectacle to him
who first observes it, whether Mahommedan, Chris
tian, Jew, or Pagan. It was a sight, indeed,
says Pitts, able to pierce one s heart, to bohold so
many in their garments of humility and mortifica
tion, with their naked heads and cheeks watered with
tears, and to hear their grievous sighs and sobs, beg
ging earnestly for the remission of their sins.
Burckhardt mentions the first arrival of a black
Darfoor pilgrim at the temple, at the time when it
was illuminated; and from eight to ten thousand
persons in the act of adoration, who was so over
awed, that, after remaining prostrate for some time,
* he burst into a flood of tears ; and in the height of
his emotion, instead of reciting the usual prayers
of the visiter, only exclaimed " O God ! now take
my soul, for this is paradise !"

" As the sun descended behind the western moun
tains, the Cadi shut his book : instantly the crowds
rushed down the mountains : the tents were struck,
and the whole mass of pilgrims moved forward
across the plain on their return. Thousands of
torches were now lighted ; volleys of artillery and

222 APPENDIX.

of musketry were fired : sky-rockets innumerable
were let off; the Pasha s band of music were played
till they arrived at a place called Mezdelfe, when
every one lay down on the bare ground where he
could find a spot. Here another sermon was
preached, commencing with the first dawn, and con
tinuing till the first rays of the sun appear, when the
multitude again move forward, with a slow pace, to
Wady Muna, about three miles off. This is the
scene for the ceremony of throwing stones at the
Devil ; every pilgrim must throw seven little stones
at three several spots in the valley of Muna, or
twenty-one in the whole ; and at each throw repeat
the words, 4 In the name of God ; God is great ; we
do this to secure ourselves from the Devil and his
troops. Joseph Pitts says, as I was going to
throw the stones, a facetious hadji met me ; saith
he, " You may save -your labour at present, if you
please, for I have hit out the Devil s eyes already."
The pilgrims are here shown a rock with a deep split
in the middle, which was made by the angel turning
aside the knife of Abraham, when he was about to
sacrifice his son Isaac. Pitts, on being told this,
observes, it must have been a good stroke indeed.
The pilgrims are taught also to believe, that the cus
tom of stoning the Devil is to commemorate the
endeavour of his satanic majesty to dissuade Isaac
from following his father, and whispering in his ear
that he was going to slay him.

" This stoning in the valley of Muna occupies a
day or two, after which comes the grand sacrifice
of animals, some brought by the several hadjis,
others purchased from the Bedouins for the occasion ;
the throats of which must always be cut with their
faces towards the Kaaba. At the pilgrimage in
question, the number of sheep thus slaughtered in
the name of the most merciful God, is represented
as small, amounting only to between six and eight
thousand. The historian Kotobeddyn, quoted by

APPENDIX. 223

Burckhardt, relates, that when the Caliph Mokteda
performed the pilgrimage, in the year of the Hejira
350, he sacrificed on this occasion forty thousand
camels and cows, and fifty thousand sheep. Bar-
thema talks of thirty thousand oxen being slain, and
their carcasses given to the poor, who appeared to
him more anxious to have their bellies filled than
their sins remitted. One is at a loss to imagine
where, in such a miserable country, all these th&lt;u-
sanda and tens of thousands of camels, cows, and
sheep can possibly be subsisted; the numbers n:
be exaggerated, but there is no question of th&lt; Mi-
be ing very great. The feast being ended, all the
pilgrims had their heads shaved, threw off the ihrarn^
and resumed their ordinary clothing ; a larger fair
was now held, the valley blazed all night with illu
minations, bonfires, the discharge of art ill aid
fireworks ; and the hadjis then returned to Mekka.
Many of the poorer pilirrims, however, remained to
feast on the offals of the slaughtered sheep. At
Mecca the ceremonies of the Kaaba and the Drura
were again to be repeated, and then the hadj was
truly perfumed. Burckhardt makes no mention of
any females becoming hadjis by a visit to Arafat,
though Ali Bey talks of two thousand. There is no
absolute prohibition; but from what follows, no great
encouragement for the fair sex to go through the
ceremonies.

" * The Mohammedan law prescribes, that no un
married woman shall perform the pilgrimage ; and
that even every married woman must be accompa
nied by her husband, or at least by a very near re
lation (the Shaffay sect does not even allow the
latter). Female hadjis sometimes arrive from
Turkey for the hadj ; rich old widows who wish to
see Mekka before they die ; or women who set out
with their husbands, and lose them on the road by
disease. In such cases the female finds at Djidda
delyls (or, as this class is called, Muhallil) ready to

224 APPENDIX.

facilitate their progress through the sacred territory
in the character of husbands. The marriage con
tract is written out before the Kadhy ; and the lady,
accompanied by her delyl, performs the pilgrimage
to Mekka, Arafat, and all the sacred places. This,
however, is understood to be merely a nominal mar
riage ; and the delyl must divorce the woman on his
return to Djidda : if he were to refuse a divorce, the
law cannot compel him to it, and the marriage would
be considered binding : but he could no longer ex
ercise the lucrative profession of delyl ; and my in
formant could only recollect two examples of the
delyl continuing to be the woman s husband. I be
lieve there is not any exaggeration of the number,
in stating that there are eight hundred full-grown
delylsj besides boys who are learning the profession.
Whenever a shop-keeper loses his customers, or a
poor man of letters wishes to procure as much
money as will purchase an Abyssinian slave, he
turns delyl. The profession is one of little repute ;
but many a prosperous Mekkawy has, at some period
of his life, been a member of it.

" Burckhardt remained at Mekka a whole month
after the conclusion of the hadj, at which time it
appeared like a deserted town.

" Of its brilliant shops one-fourth only remained ;
and in the streets, where a few weeks before it was
necessary to force one s way through the crowd, not
a single hadji was seen, except solitary beggars who
raised their plaintive voices towards the windows of
the houses which they supposed to be still inhabited.
Rubbish and filth covered all the streets, and no
body appeared disposed to remove it. The skirts
of the town were crowded with the dead carcasses
of camels, the smell from which rendered the air,
even in the midst of the town, offensive, and cer
tainly contributed to the many diseases now preva
lent.

"Disease and mortality, which succeed to the

APPENDIX. 225

fatigues endured on the journey, or are caused by the
liirht covering of the ihram, the unhealthy lodgii
ai .Mckka, the bad fare, and sometimes absolute
want, fill the mosque with dead bodies carried thither
to receive the Imam s prayer, or with sick persons,
many of whom uhen their dissolution approaches,
are brought to the colonnades, that they may cither
be cured by the sight of the Kaabu, or at least to
have the satisfaction of expiring within the sacred
enclosure. Poor hadjis, worn out with disease and
hunger, are seen dragging their emaciated bodies
along the columns ; and when no longer able to
stretch forth their hand to ask the passenger for
charity, they place a bowl to receive alms near the
mat on which they lay themselves. When they feel
their last moments approaching, they cover them
selves with their tattered garments ; and often a whole
day passes before it is discovered that they are dead.
For a month subsequent to the conclusion of the
liadj, I found, almost every morning, corpses of pil
grims lying in the mosque ; .myself and a Greek hadji,
whom accident had brought to the spot, once closed
the eyes of a poor Moggrebyn pilgrim, who had
crawled into the neighbourhood of the Kaaba to
breathe his last, as the Moslems say, in the arms
of the prophet and of the guardian angels. He inti
mated by signs his wish that we should sprinkle
Zemzem water over him; and while we were doing so
he expired : half an hour afterward he was buried.

" The situation of Mekkais singularly unhappy, and
ill adapted for the accommodation of the numerous
votaries of Islam that flock thither to perform the
rites of the pilgrimage. The town is built in a nar
row valley, hemmed in by barren mountains ; the
water of the wells is bitter or brackish ; no pastures
for cattle are near it ; no land fit for agriculture ;
and the only resourc.e from which its inhabitants de
rive their subsistence is a little traffic, and the
visits of the hadjis. Mr. Burckhardt estimates

226 APPENDIX.

the population of the town and suburbs at twenty-
five to thirty thousand stationary inhabitants, to
which he adds three or four thousand Abyssinian
and black slaves.

" On the whole, notwithstanding all that Burckhardt
records as to certain symptoms of enthusiasm in the
course of his hadj, it is sufficiently plain, that even
in the original seat of Mahommedanism, the reli
gious feelings of the people have cooled down con
siderably. The educated Moslems every where are
mostly of the sect of Mahomet Ali of Egypt, nor can
we have any doubt that all things are thus working
together for the re-establishment of the true religion
in the regions where man was first civilized, and
where the oracles of God were uttered. In the
mean time, the decline of the arch-heresy of the
East will be regretted by no one who judges of the
tree by the fruit. A long residence, says Burck
hardt, among Turks, Syrians, and Egyptians (and
no man knew them better) justifies me in declar
ing that they are wholly deficient in virtue, honour,
and justice ; that they have little true piety, and still
less charity or forbearance ; and that honesty is only
to be found in their paupers or idiots. "

APPENDIX. 227

[C]

THE KORAN.

THE word KORAN, derived from ihe verb KARA, to
read, properly signifies the reading, legend, or that
rvhich ought to be read; by which n;ime the Moham
medans denote not only the entire book or volun
of the Koran, but also any particular chapter or sec
tion of it, just as the Jews, in their laimnauc, call
the whole Scripture, or any part of it, by the name
of Karah, or Mikra, words of precisely the sani
origin and import as Koran. This book muM lie re
garded as the code of laws, religion, and morality,
which Mohammed, in his character of legislator and
prophet, promulgated to the people of Arabia. \ -
it is therefore the only book of law amon&lt;r the Mus
sulmans, and comprehends also the religious doc
trines -which they are taught to believe, it follows,
that with them a doctor in the law is also a doctor
in theology, which two professions are wholly inse
parable. This law, upon which is founded all their
theology and jurisprudence, is comprised in the
Koran, in the same manner as the civil code of the
Jews is comprised in the five books of Moses.

The collection of moral traditions, composed of
the sayings and actions of the prophet, and forming
a kind of supplement to the Koran, the Moslems call
the Sonnah; just as the Jews have denominated the
book containing their oral traditions, the Mishna.

The entire Koran is divided into one hundred and
fourteen portions, which are denominated Suras, or
chapters; and these again into smaller divisions,
called Ayat, answering nearly, though not exactly,
to our verses.

There appears to be an entire absence of any thing
like design or method in either the larger or the

228 APPENDIX.

smaller divisions. Neither the time at which they
were delivered, nor the matter they contain, was the
rule by which they were arranged. They were, in
fact, apparently thrown together without order or
meaning. One verse has seldom any connexion
with the preceding; and the same subject, unless it
be some narrative, such as that of Abraham, Joseph,
or Pharaoh, distorted from the Sacred Scriptures, is
in no case continued for a dozen verses in succes
sion ; each one appears an isolated precept or ex
clamation, the tendency and pertinence of which it
is often difficult and frequently impossible to dis
cover. The first nine titles will convey to the reader
a fair conception of the arrangement, and something
of the nature, of the subjects enbraced in the whole.
1. The Preface. 2. The Cow. 3. The Family of
Irani. 4. Women. 5. Table. 6. Cattle. 7. Al
Araf. 8. The Spoils. 9. The Declaration of Im
munity.

As to the plan or structure of this pseudo-revela
tion, it is remarkable that Mohammed makes God
the speaker throughout. This should be borne in
mind by the reader in perusing the extracts given in
the preceding work. The addresses are for the
most part made directly to the prophet, informing
him what he is to communicate to his countrymen
and the world; in other cases, the precepts, pro
mises, or threatenings are addressed immediately to
the unbelievers, or the faithful, according as the
burden of them applies to the one or the other. The
following citations may serve as a specimen of the
whole book. " Now we know that what they speak
grieveth thee : yet, they do not. accuse thee of false
hood ; but the ungodly contradict the signs of God.
And apostles before thee have been accounted liars :
but they patiently bore their being accounted liars,
and their being vexed, until our help came unto
them." " Say, Verily I am forbidden to worship the
false deities which ye invoke besides God. Say, I

APPENDIX. 229

will not follow your desires; for then should I err,
neither should 1 he one of those wh
reeled. Say, I ! . e according to the plain decla
ration which I have r i my Lord; hut
h;ive forged lies concernim: him."

," which is almost of ; nal occur in

the Koran, is generally pr : to p
para&lt;rra &gt;ntaiuing a message to the people; and

the word "Answer" is employed wherever a
hypothetical or foreseen objection* are to he ob
viated, or any doubtful questions to be resoh
"They will ask thee also what they shall bestow in
alms: answer, What ye have to spare. Ti ill
also ask thee concerning orphans : answer, T&lt;
righteously with them is best ; and if ye intern*
with the management of what belongs to them,
them no wrong; they are your brethen: (
knoweth the corrupt dealer from the righteous ; and
if God please he will surely distress you, for Cod is
mighty and wise," To others the Divine mandal
are usually couched in the following style : " &lt;) m&lt; -n,
now is the apostle come unto you with truth from
the Lord; believe, therefore ; it will be hett&lt;
you." "We have formerly destroyed the genera
tions who were before you, O men of M&lt;
when they had acted unjustly, and our apostles had
come unto them with evident miracles, and tl;
would not believe. Thus do we reward the wicked
people." " O true believers, wage war against such
of the infidels as are near you ; and let them find
severity in you : and know that God is with those
that fear him." " O true believers, raise not your
voices above the voice of the prophet ; neither
speak loud unto him in discourse, as ye speak loud
unto one another, lest your works become vain, and
ye perceive it not."

Immediately after the title, at the head of every
chapter, with the single exception of the ninth, is
prefixed the solemn form, "!N THE NAME OF THE

230 APPENDIX.

MOST MERCIFUL GOD." This form is called by the
Mohammedans, Bismillfth, and is invariably placed
by them at the beginning of all their books and
writings in general, as a peculiar mark or distin
guishing characteristic of their religion: it being
deemed a species of impiety to omit it. The Jews,
for the same purpose, make use of the form, " In the
name of the Lord," or, " In the name of the great
God :" and the Eastern Christians that of, " In the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost."

In its general outline of facts, the Koran corres
ponds with the Old Testament in the following his
torical details : the accounts of the creation of the
world ; of the fall of Adam ; of the general deluge ;
of the deliverance of Noah and his family in the
ark ; the call of Abraham ; the stories of Isaac and
Ishmael; of Jacob arid the patriarchs; the selec
tion of the Jews as God s chosen people ; the pro
phetic office, miracles, and administration of Moses ;
the inspiration and authority of the Hebrew histo
rians, prophets, and psalmists, especially of David
and Solomon ; and, lastly, of the promise of the ad
vent of the Messiah, with many of the accompany
ing predictions respecting it.

Again, with the New Testament the Koran con
curs in the recognition of Jesus Christ as the pro
mised Messiah of the Jews ; in his miraculous con
ception by the breath or Spirit of God ; his imma
culate nativity of the Virgin Mary; his title of
Logos, or Word of God ; in the miraculous birth of
John the Baptist, son of Zecharias, as his forerunner ;
in his performance of many mighty signs and mira
cles, such as healing the sick,- raising the dead, and
controlling and casting out devils; in his rejection
and persecution by his own countrymen ; his con
demnation to the death of the cross ; his bodily as
cension into heaven ; his officiating there as a Me
diator and Intercessor between God and man, and

APPENDIX. 231

as Judge of all men at the last day. After the ex
ample, however, of sonic of tin- aneimt heret
Mohammed, as ap; iVoin the foDowing passag

lied the reality of the ^ ;r*s cru &gt;n:

"And for that they have not believed in ,nd

have spoken a irai nst Man ahiinny; and

have said, Verily we have slain Chri&gt;t Jesus, the
son of Mary, the apostle of God ; yet they slew him
not, neither crucified him, hut he was represented
by one in his likeness. They did not really kill
him; but God took him up to himself: and God is
mighty and wise." "And the .lews devised a stra
tagem against him; but God devised a stratagem
against them; and God is the best deviser of stra
tagems." This stratagem, accord ing to the M&lt;&lt;-
L ins, was God s taking Jesus up into heaven, and
stamping his likeness on another person, who was
apprehended and crucified in his stead. Their con
stant tradition is, that 11 not Jesus himself who
underwent that ignominious death, but somebody else
in his shape and resemblance.

These numerous coincidences of the Koran with
the facts and doctrines of the Bible are strangely
interspersed with matter the most incongruous;
with extravagant fables, monstrous perversions of
the truth, and ridiculous and endless puerilities.
This is accounted for on the supposition, that while.
the authentic facts were derived immediately from
the canonical Scriptures, the fictions and absurdities
were deduced in part from the traditions of the Tal-
mudic and Rabbinical w r riters ; and in part from the
apocryphal Gospels, or from the books of Adam, of
Seth, of Enoch, of Noah, and other similar fabrica
tions, well known in church history as having been
extensively in use among the heretics of the first
centuries. ~

A specimen or two of the manner in which some of
the best-known narratives of the Old Testament ap
pear in the Koran, may not be unsuitably adduced here.

232 APPENDIX.

" Our messengers also came formerly unto Abra
ham with good tidings. They said, Peace be upon
thee. And he answered, And on you be peace ! and
he tarried not, but brought a roasted calf. And his
wife Sarah was standing by; and she laughed: and
we promised her Isaac, and after Isaac, Jacob. She
said, Alas ! shall I bear a son, who am old ; this my
husband also being advanced in years ? Verily, this
would be a wonderful thing. The angels answered,
Dost thou wonder at the effect of the command of
God 1 The mercy of God and his blessings be upon
you. And when his apprehension had departed from
Abraham, and the good tidings of Isaac s birth had
come unto him, he disputed with us concerning the
people of Lot ; for Abraham was a pitiful, compas
sionate, and devout person. The angels said unto
him, O Abraham, abstain from this ; for now is the
command of thy Lord come, to put their sentence in
execution, and an inevitable punishment is ready to
fall upon them. And when our messengers came
unto Lot, he was troubled for them; and his arm
was straitened concerning them ; and he said, This
is a grievous day. And his people came unto him,
rushing upon him : and they had formerly been guilty
of wickedness. Lot said unto them, O my people,
these my daughters are more lawful for you : there
fore fear God, and put me not to shame by wronging
my guests. Is there not a man .of prudence among
you 1 They answered, Thou knowest that we have
no need of thy daughters ; and thou well knowest
what we would have. He said, If I had strength
sufficient to oppose thee, or I could have recourse
unto a powerful support, I would certainly do it.
The angels said, O Lot, verily we are the messen
gers of thy Lord ; they shall by no means come in
unto thee. Go forth, therefore, with thy family, in
some part of the night, and let not any of you turn
back : but as for thy wife, that shall happen unto her
which shall happen unto them. Verily, the predic-

APPENDIX. 233

tion of their punishment shall be fulfilled in the

morning.

" And Abraham said, Verily, I am going unto my
Lord who will direct me. O Lord, irnmt me a
righteous issue! Wherefore we acquainted him
that he should have a son, who should he a meek
youth. And when he had attained t&lt;&gt; yean of dis
cretion, and could join in acts of religion with him,
Abraham said unto him, O my son, vmly I saw in ;i
dream that I should offer thee in sacrifice: consider
therefore what thou art of opinion I should do. He
answered, O my father, do what thou art commanded:
thou shalt find me, if God please, a patient person.
And when they had submitted themselves to the
divine will, and Abraham had laid his son prostrate 1
on his face, we cried unto him, O Abraham, now
hast thou verified the vision. Tims do we reward
the righteous. Verily, this was a manifest trial.
And we ransomed him .with a noble victim.

The following passage may serve to illustrate the
correspondence of the Koran with the historical re
lations of the New Testament :

" Zacharias called on his Lord, and said, Lord,
give me from thee a good offspring, for thou art the
hearer of prayer. And the angels called to him,
while he stood praying in the chamber, saying,
Verily, God promiseth thee a son, named John, who
shall bear witness to THE WORD which cometli from
God ; an honourable person, chaste, and one of the
righteous prophets. He answered, Lord, how shall
I have a son, when old age hath overtaken me, and
my wife is barren ? The angel said, So God doth
that which he pleaseth. Zacharias answered, Lord,
give me a sign. The angel said, Thy sign shall be,
that thou shalt speak unto no man for three days,
otherwise than by gesture. And when the angels
said, OMary, verily, God hath chosen thee, and hath
purified thee, and hath chosen thee above all the
women of the world : when the angels said, O Mary,

Ufl

234 APPENDIX.

verily, God sendeth thee good tidings, that thou
shalt bear THE WORD, proceeding from himself; his
name shall be Christ Jesus, the son of Mary; honour
able in this world and in the world to come, and one
of those who approach near to the presence of God :
She answered, Lord, how shall I have a son, since
a man hath not touched me ? The angel said, So
God createth that which he pleaseth : when he de-
creeth a thing, he only saith unto it, Be, and it is :
God shall teach him the Scripture, and wisdom, and
the law, and the Gospel ; and he shall appoint him
his apostle to the children of Israel."

But besides agreements with the Old and New
Testaments of this palpable kind, the Koran betrays
its obligations to the sacred volume by numerous
coincidences, more or less direct, with the senti
ments, the imagery, and the phraseology of Scrip
ture. Indeed, the most interesting light in which
the Koran is to be viewed is as a spurious resem
blance of the inspired oracles of Jews and Christians.
The extent to which the Bible of Mohammedans
is made up of plagiarisms from the true revelation
can scarcely be conceived by one who has not insti
tuted a special inquiry into the contents of each,
with the express design of tracing the analogy be
tween them. Of the fact, however, of the Koran
being constructed, in great measure, from the mate
rials furnished by the Old and New Testaments, no
one can doubt, who is assured that the following is
but a specimen of hundreds of similar correspon
dencies which might easily be made out between
the two.

BIBLE. KORAN.

Take heed that ye do not your Make not your alms of none

alms before men to be seen of them ; effect, by reproaching or mischief;

otherwise ye have no reward of as he that layeth out what he hath,

your Father which is in heaven. to appear unto men to give alms.

Jesus of Nazareth, a man ap- We gave unto Jesus, the son of

proved of God among you by mira- Mary, manifest signs, and strength

cles and wonders, and signs which ened him with the Holy Spirit.
God did by him.

APPENDIX.

235

BIBLE.

Thou shall give life for 1 iff, tooth
for tooth, foot *, burning for

burning, wound for wound, stripe
for stripe.

But their minds were blindt &lt;1 :

for until this day remameth the

same veil untaken a way in then

ini? of the Old Testament . But

u unto this day when Mos s is

veil is upon thi ir heart.
They said then ton- unto him,
What sit, M shew-st thou then, that
wi i-o and believe thee?

In i rining (;&lt;nl created t lu

ll a\en and the earth. And (

e light, and there
hunt.

And when he (Moses) was full
f.rty years old, it earne into

irt to visit his brethren, the chil-
jvn of Israel.

1 in th&lt;. latter time of tlieir
kingdom, when the transgr
are come to the full, a king of fierce
uteiiance, and understanding
dark sentences, shall stand up.

I will open my mouth in para
bles ; I will utter things which
have been kept secret from the
foundation of the world.

And the seventh angel sotini
and there were gnva vo:
h aven, saying, The kingdoms of
this world are become the king
doms of our Lord and of hisC. hrist.

For behold, I Created new heavens
and a new earth. We look for n
heavens and a new earth. I will
cause you to come up out of your
graves." And every man shall re
ceive his own reward according to
his own labour.

I was envious at the foolish when
I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
Thus my heart was grieved.

If thou, Lord, shouldst mark ini
quities, O Lord who shall stand ?

KORAN.

We have therein commai

:ial they should j: lor

life, and i

nose, and ear lor ear, and tout),
tooth, and that wounds should be

puni&gt;!i .ation.

Tli- on who hearkeneth

unto thee when thou r- the

-an ; but we have cast v.

over ti rts, that t! &gt;uld

not nil , and i. - in
their ears.

The ii:l I

t &lt;!U\MI unto him from
Lord, we \\ill not hi
It i ho hath created the

heavens and th&lt; esuth : And wh.
ever he sayeth unto a thing
is.

I have already dwelt among
to the age of forty \&lt; ars be&n I
received it -(the ! ho ye

then nil

;in snail thy

1 "hoe- id teach thee

tne interpretation of dark sayings,
i Mini the Interpi

:*. bu the greater
part of iiK-n i!o not understand.

O Lord, thou hast L lven me a
part of the- kingdom, and li
taughi me the intcr])retation of dark
sayi.

And his will be the kingdom on
the day whereon the trumpet shall
be sounded.

The day will come when the

earih Shall be changed into another

.h, and tin us into other

vens ; and men shall come forth

from their ir raves to appear before

the only, the mighty tiod. That

God may reward t ml accord

ing to what it shall have deserved.

4 not thine eyes on the good

things which we have bestowed on

several of the unbelievers, so as to

covet the same ; neither be thou

grieved on their account.

If God should punish men for
their iniquity, he would not leave
on the earth any moving thing.

230

APPENDIX.

BIBLE.

Dust thou art, and unto dust
shall thou return.

The merciful doeth good to his
own soul ; but he that is cruel
troubleth his own flesh.

Not rendering evil for evil, but
contrariwise, blessing.

Call ye on the name of your gods,
and I will call on the name of the
Lord. And they cried aloud. And it
came to pass that there was neither
voice nor any to answer.

All that are in the graves shall
hear his voice, and shall come forth.
All nations shall be gathered be
fore him.

But, beloved, be not ignorant of
this one thing, that one day is with
the Lord as a thousand years, and
a thousand years as one day.

Go to, now, ye that say, To-day
or to-morrow we will go into such
a city, and continue there a year ;
and buy and sell and get gain :
Whereas ye know not what shall
be on the morrow. For that ye
ought to say, If the Lord will, we
shall live and do this or that.

But of that day and that hour
knoweth no man ; no, not the an
gels which are in heaven, neither
the Son, but the Father.

KORAN.

Out of the ground have we
created you, and to the same will .
we cause you to return.

If ye do well, ye will do Well to
your own souls ; and if ye do evil,
ye will do it unto the same.

Turn aside evil with that which
is better.

And it shall be said unto the
idolaters, call now upon those
whom ye have associated with
God: and they shall call upon
them but they shall not answer.

And the trumpet shall be sounded
again, and behold they shall come
forth from their graves, and shall
hasten unto the Lord.

But God will not fail to perform
what he hath threatened : and ve
rily one day with the Lord is as a
thousand years of those which ye
compute.

Say not of any matter, I will
surely do this to-morrow ; unless
thou add, If God please.

They will ask thee concerning
the last hour; at what time its
coming is fixed? Answer, Verily,
the knowledge thereof is with my
Lord ; none shall declare the fixed
time thereof except he.

From the foregoing examples it will appear mani
fest, that the plagiarisms of the Koran are not limited
to the leading facts and narratives of the Bible, but
extend to many of its minuter peculiarities ; to its
modes of thought, its figures of speech, and even to
its very forms of expression. Yet, in several in
stances, we meet with such egregious blunders, as
to plain matters of fact, stated in the sacred volume,
as must convict the copyist of the most arrant igno
rance, or of downright falsification. Thus he makes
the prophet Elijah (Al Kedr) contemporary with

APPENDIX. 237

Moses, Ishmacl to have been ofi- T&lt;] in -acrifice in
stead of Isaac, Saul to have led tlir ten thousand
down to the river s brink instead of Gideon, and, by
the most monstrous anachronism re, nts Mary,
the mother of Jesus, to have heen the sam on

with Miriam, the sister of Mos

The palpable obligations of this spurious revela
tion to Holy Writ, and the real or supposed incom
petence of its nominal fabricator, have very natu
rally given birth to inquiries into the history of it
composition. The great mass of writers on Mo
hammedanism, following the opinion of the Eastern
1 hristians, have generally agreed in suppoMtiu that in
the construction of the Koran, the Prophet was in
debted to the assistance of one or more accomplices.
It is certain, from the pages of the work itself, that this
was objected to him at the outset of his career. " We
also know that they say, Verily ace rtain man tcacheth
him to compose the Koran." " And the unbelievers
say. This Koran is no other than a forgery, which
he hath contrived : and other people have assisted
him therein: but they utter an unjust tiling and a
falsehood." 13nt this emphatic disclaimer of the
Apostle has failed to produce conviction. The un
believers of Christendom have continued to side
with those of Mecca, and as many as eight or ten
different persons have been designated as having
been, some one or more of them, associated with
the impostor in the promulgation of his counterfeit
oracles. The more general belief has been, that Mo
hammed received his principal aid from a Nestorian
monk, named Sergius, supposed to be the same per
son as the Boheira, with whom he became ac
quainted at an early period of his life, at Bosra, in
Syria. On this, the learned Sale remarks : . If Bo
heira and Sergius were the same men, I find not the
least intimation in the Mohammedan writers, that
he ever quitted his monastery to go into Arabia,
and his acquaintance with Mohammed at Bosra was

238 APPENDIX.

too early to favour the surmise of his assisting- him in
the Koran, though Mohammed might, from his dis
course, gain some knowledge of Christianity and
the Scriptures, which might be of some use to him
therein." The same writer, however, admits with
Prideaux and others, that while Mohammed is to be
considered as the original projector and the real
author of the Koran, he may have been assisted, in
some measure, by others, though his successful pre
cautions of secrecy make it impossible to determine,
at this day, by what agents, or to what extent, this
was done. After all, the assertions advanced in
respect to the part borne by others in the compo
sition of the Koran have never been authenticated
by proofs, and the whole story has the air of an
hypothesis framed to meet the difficulties of the
case. And even were the popular belief on this
question to be admitted, it would not do away all the
difficulties which embarrass the subject. For who
was capable, in that dark period, of producing such
a work ? This pretended revelation, independently
of its plagiarisms from our Scriptures, contains pas
sages as much superior to any remains, whether
Jewish or Christian, of the literature of the seventh
century, as they are utterly inferior to the contents
of that sacred volume which .the Koran blasphe
mously assumes to resemble and supplant. The
whole subject, therefore, of the origin of this re
markable book, with the history of its composition,
as well as the question how far Mohammed was ac
quainted with the Christian Scriptures, must doubt
less remain an unsolved problem to the end of time..
Of the literary merits of the Koran, a fair esti
mate is not easily to be formed from a translation.
By those who are acquainted with the original, it is
universally acknowledged to possess distinguished
excellences, which cannot be transfused into any
other language. It is confessedly the standard of
the Arabic tongue ; is written, for the most part, in

APl MNWX. 239

a pure and elegant style, abounding with hold figures
after the oriental manner; and aiming at a conei
ness which often renders it obscu Though writ
ten in prose, the sentences usually conclude in a
long continued rhyme, for the sake of which, the
sense is often interrupted, and unip ary rep
tions introduced. This feature of the composition,
though a disadvantage and a deformity to a transla
tion, is one of its superlative charms in the estimate
of the native Arabs, whose ear is singularly sus
ceptible to the harmony of the rhythmical cadences
with which the periods conclude.

When we pass from the mere sound and diction
which mark " the perspicuous book," it is indubitable
that its finest passages are devoid of the merit of
originality. Sir William Jones remarks ; " The
Koran indeed shines with a borrowed Jiu ht, since
most of its beauties are taken from our Scripfures ;
but it has Lrreat beauties, and the Mussulmans will
not be convinced that they are borrowed." In de
scribing the majesty and the attributes of God, and
the variety and grandeur of the creation, it often
rises to an impressive elevation ; but in almost every
instance of this kind, it is evident that some pas
sage of inspiration of corresponding import was in
the eye of the writer, and the copy is invariably in
ferior to the original. Yet the result of a candid
examination of this pseudo-bible of Mohammedans,
even in our English version, would probably be a more
favourable impression of the book on the score of
its composition, and a conviction that amid the mul
titude and heinousness of its defects, scarcely com
mon justice had been done by Christian writers
either to the character of its beauties, or the extent in
which they obtain. Taken however as a whole, so
far from supporting its arrogant claims to a super
human origin and eloquence, it sinks below the level
of many confessedly human productions, to be found
in different languages and regions of the earth.

240 APPENDIX.

"With occasional passages of real beauty and
power, it is, on the whole, a strange medley, in
which the sublime is so nearly allied to the bom
bastic, the pathetic to the ludicrous, the terrible to
the absurd, that each chapter, each page, almost each
paragraph, is sure to give rise to the most opposite
emotions. Respect, contempt, admiration, abhor
rence, so rapidly succeed each other, in the perusal,
as to leave no fixed or uniform impression on the
mind."*

* Forster.

APPENDIX. 241

ID]

MOHAMMEDAN CONFESSION OF FAITH ; TRANSLATED FROM

THE ARABIC.

( From Morgan s V i u F, \ \ &gt; 1 ;t i 1 1

The articles of our faith which every .com] M
sulman is bound to believe and to receive \\nh an
entire assurance are thirteen in number, \vhoivof the
first and principal is,

I. Of God s Existence.

To believe from the heart, to confetti wiih the
tongue, and with a voluntary and steadl a-i mind ii&gt;
affirm, that there is but one only God, L.id and Go-
vernor of the universe, who produced all things from
nothing-, in whom then* is neither i ma ire nor re
semblance, wlio never begot any per-*. n \vhat&gt;oev.
as he himself was be .11 by noue ; who.
never was a son, so he never hath been a fail, It
is this Lord and Sovereign Arbiter of all things
whom we Mussulmans are bound to serve and adore ;
so that none among us may deviate from this arti
cle, but every one must imprint it deeply in his
heart ; for it is unquestionable.

II. Of the Prophet Mahomet and the Koran.

We must believe from our hearts and confess with
our mouths that the Most High God, after having
revealed himself to mankind by his ancient pro
phets, sent us at length his Elected, the blessed
Mahomet, with the sacred and divine law, which
through his grace he had created, the which is con
tained in the venerable Koran, that hath been from
him remitted unto us. By this holy law it is that
God hath abolished all the preceding ones, and hath

242 APPENDIX.

withdrawn from their doubts and errors all nations
and people in order to guide them to a firm and last
ing state of happiness. Wherefore we are obliged
exactly to follow the precepts, rites, and ceremo
nies thereof, and to abandon every other sect or reli
gion whatsoever, whether instituted before or since
this final revelation. By this article we are distin
guished and separated from all sorts of idolatry, lying
rhapsodies, and false prophecies, and from all those
sects, societies, and religions different from ours,
which are either erroneous, abrogated, or exagger
ated, void of faith, and without truth.

III. Of Providence and Predestination.

We must firmly believe and hold as a certainty
that, except God himself who always was and always
shall be, every thing shall one day be annihilated,
and that the Angel of death shall take to himself
the souls of mortals destined to a total and uni
versal extinction,* by the command of God, our
powerful Lord and Master, who was able and hath
vouchsafed to produce out of nothing, and in fine to
set in form this universal world, with all things
therein contained, both good and evil, sweet and
bitter ; and hath been pleased to appoint two angels,
the one on the right, and the other on the left, to
register the actions of every one of us, as well the
good as the bad, to the end that judicial cognizance
may be taken thereof, and sentence pronounced
thereupon, at the great day of judgment. It is there
fore necessary to believe predestination: but it is
not permitted to discourse thereof to any whom
soever, till after being perfectly well versed in the
study of our written law, viz. the Koran, and of our
Sonnah, which is our oral law. Seeing then all
things are to have an end, let us do good works, and
deport ourselves so that we may live for ever.

* Notwithstanding this annihilation, it is taught in the Koran that all
intelligent creatures will be reproduced again at the resurrection.

APPENDIX. 243

IV. Of the Interrogation in the Grave.

We must truly and firmly believe and hold as cer
tain and assured] the Interrogation of the sepulchre,
which will after death he administered to every one
of us by two angels upon these four important ques
tions: -1. Who was our Lord and our God? 2.
Who was our Prophet? 3. Which was our reli
gion] 4. On what side was our Keblah ? He who
shall be in a condition to make answer, that God
was his only Lord, and Mahomet his Prophet, shall
find a great illumination in his tomb, and shall him
self rest in glory. But he who shall not make a pro
per answer to these questions shall be involved in
darkness until the day of judgment.

V. Of the Future Dissolution.

W T e must heartily believe and hold as certain, that
not only shall all things one day perish and be anni
hilated, viz. angels, men, and devils, but likewise
this shall come to pass at the end of the world, when
the angel Israfil shall blow the trumpet in such
sort that except the Sovereign God none of the
universal creation shall remain alive immediately
after the dreadful noise, which shall cause the moun
tains to tremble, the earth to sink, and the sea to be
changed to the colour of blood. In this total extinc
tion, the last who shall die will be Azarael, the Angel
of death ; and the power of the Most High God will
be evidently manifested.

VI. Of the Future Resurrection.

We are obliged cordially to believe and to hold for
certain, that the first before all others whom God
shall revive in heaven shall be the Angel of death ;
and that he will at that time recall all the souls in
general, and reunite them to the respective bodies to

244 APPENDIX.

which each belonged ; some of which shall be des
tined to glory, and others to torment. But upon
earth, the first whom God will raise shall be our
blessed prophet Mahomet. As for the earth itself,
it shall open on all sides, and shall be changed in a
moment ; and by God s command fire shall be
kindled in every part thereof, which shall be ex
tended to its utmost, extremities. God will then
prepare a vast plain, perfectly level, and of sufficient
extent to contain all creatures summoned to give an
account of their past conduct. May this solemn,
definite, and irrevocable judgment awaken us from
- our security ; for to nothing that hath been created
shall favour be showed. Every soul shall be judged
there by the same rule, and without exception of
persons.

VII. Of the Day of Judgment.

We must believe from our hearts and hold for
certain, that there shall be a day of judgment,
whereon God shall ordain all nations to appear in a
place appointed for this great trial, of sufficient vast-
ness that His Majesty may there be evident in splen
dour. It is in this magnificent and spacious station
that the universal assembly of all creatures shall be
made, about the middle of the day, and in the bright
ness of noon : and then it is, that accompanied by
his prophet (Mohammed), and in the presence of all
mankind, God shall with justice and equity judge
all the nations of the earth in general, and every
person in particular. To this effect, every one of
us shall have a book or catalogue of our actions de
livered to us ; that of the good in such wise that it
shall be received and held in the right hand ; that of
the wicked, so that it shall be received and held in
the left hand. As to the duration of that day, it
shall be as long as the continuance of the present
age. This shall be a day of sighs and griefs, a day
of tribulation and anguish, when the cup of sorrow

APPENDIX. 245

and misery must be drunk up, even the very dregs
thereof. But this is what shall be particularly ex
perienced by the ungodly and the perverse; every
thing shall present to them ideas of sorrow and
affliction. To them every thing shall become aloes
and bitterness. Tlu-y shall not obtain one moment
of repose. They shall behold nothing that is agree
able, nor hear one voice that shall delight them :
their eyes shall see nothing but the torments of hell ;
their ears shall hear nothing but the cries and howl-
ings of devils ; and their terrified imaginations shall
represent unto them nothing but spectres and
tortures.

. VIII. Of Mahomet s Intercession.

We are bound to believe, and hold as certain, that
our venerable prophet Mahomet shall with success
intercede for his people at the great day of examina
tion. This will be the first intercession ; but at the
second, God will be entirely relented, and all the
faithful Mussulmans shall be transported into a state
of glory, while not one excuse or supplication in
behalf of other nations shall be accepted. As to the
greatness of pain which those among us are to un
dergo, who have been offenders by transgressing the
precepts of the Koran, it is known to God alone, as
there is none but Him who exactly knoweth how long
the same is to continue, whether its duration shall be
more or less than that of the examination or judg
ment. But to us it belongeth to shorten its con
tinuance by good works, by our charity, and by all
the endeavours we are capable of.

IX. Of the future Compensation at the last Judgment.

We must sincerely believe, and hold as a certainty,
that we must every one of us give up our accounts
before God, concerning the good and evil we
have transacted in this world. All who have been

X 2

246 APPENDIX.

followers of Mahomet shall be before all others
summoned to this examination, because they it will
be who shall bear witness against all other strange
nations. It shall come to pass on that day, that
God will take away out of the balance of him who
has slandered his brother some of the good works,
and put them unto that of him who hath been slan
dered ; and if the slanderer is found to have no good
works, he will -then deduct from the punishment of
the slandered, to include them in the list of those
of the slanderer, insomuch that his great justice will
be fully manifest. At least, then, that we not run
the hazard of this terrible compensation, let us not
think of wronging others, or of diminishing their
substance, their honour, or their good name.

X. Of the Balance, and of Purgatory.

We -must believe from the heart, and confess with
the mouth, that all our actions, good and bad, shall
one day be weighed in the balance, the one against
the other, insomuch that those whose good works
outweigh their bad shall enter into Paradise ; and
that, on the contrary, they whose bad works shall
outweigh their good shall be condemned to the
flames of hell. And for those whose scales shall be
equally poised, because the good they have done is
equivalent to the evil, they shall be detained in a
station situate in the middle, between Paradise and
hell, where consideration will be made both of their
merits and of their demerits, since besides their
being confined in that place, they shall have no
punishment inflicted on them, nor shall they enjoy
any part of the glory ordained for the beatified
righteous. It is true that all those among that num
ber who are Mussulmans shall be at length released
from their captivity, and shall be introduced into
Paradise at the second intercession of our blessed
prophet Mahomet, whose great compassion will

APPENDIX. 247

be signalized by his engaging, in order to our re
demption, to supplicate the power and the mercy of
the Most High, as well as his justice, already satis
fied by the long captivity of the criminals. Where
fore let us from henceforward weigh our good
works, to the end that we may assiduously strive to
increase their weight, and that they may have the
advantage over the bad.

XI. Of the Sharp-edged Bridge, and the unavoidable

passage thereof.

We are obliged to believe from our hearts and to
hold as assured, that all mankind in the world must
pass one day over the Sharp-edged Bridge, whose
length shall be equal to that of this world, whose
breadth shall not exceed that of one single thread
of a spider s web, and whose height shall be propor
tionable to its extent. The righteous shall pass over
it swifter than a flash of lightning ; but the impious
and the ungodly, shall not, in as much time as the
present age shall endure, be able to surmount the
difficulties thereof, and that through the want of
good works. For which reason, they shall fall and
precipitate themselves into hell-fire, in company
with the infidels and blasphemers, with those of
little faith and bad conscience, who have done few
deeds of charity, because they were void of virtue.
There shall be some among the good, notwithstand
ing, whose passage shall be lighter and swifter than
that of many others, who shall therein meet with
temptations and obstructions from every precept
which they shall have ill-observed in this life. Good
God ! how dreadful to our sight will this formidable
bridge appear! What virtue, what secret grace
from the Most High shall we not need to be enabled
to pass over it ?

248 APPENDIX.

XII. Of Paradise.

We are to believe and to hold for a certainty, that
God did create a Paradise which he prepared for the
blessed, from among the number of the faithful, by
which are meant the followers of the true religion,
and of our holy prophet, Mahomet ; where with him
they shall be placed in perpetual light, and in the
enjojunent of heavenly delights ; for ever beautiful
in the vigour of their age, and brighter than the sun ;
and where they shall be found worthy to contem
plate and adore the face of the Most High God. As
for those who shall be detained in the tortures of
hell, to wit, the sinners and transgressors, who have
nevertheless believed in one only God, they shall be
released at the second intercession of the prophet, by
whom they shall immediately be washed in the
sacred laver, from whence being come forth whiter
than snow and more refulgent than the sun, they
shall, with the rest of the blessed, behold them
selves seated in paradise, there to enjoy all the
glory they can desire. This is what shall befall the
body composed of clay ; and what then shall be the
state of our souls ? To the which it shall be granted
eternally to behold the light and brightness of the
divine majesty. Let us then endeavour to do works
of such a character, that we may have no cause to
fear hell-fire. Let us, I say, chiefly apply ourselves
to good works, let us not refuse to exert our utmost
strength in the exact observation thereof, and of the
fast of our venerable month of Ramadan, and of the
prayers and ceremonies which are ordained; and
let us not defraud the poor of a tenth of all our
goods.

XIII. Of Hell

We must sincerely believe and hold for certain,
that there is a hell prepared for the unrighteous, the
refractory transgressors of the divine law, accursed

APPENDIX. 249

of God for their evil works, ;m&lt;l for whom it would
have been better had they never have been born, and
to have never seen the light of day. It is for siu-h
as those that a place of torment is appointed, or
rather a fire which burneth without touching them,
afire of ice and north winds, when; then 1 shall be
nothing but snakes and serpents, with other venom
ous and ravenous creatures, which shall bite them
without destroying them, and shall cause them to
feel grievous pains. That place shall be the abode
of the impious and of the devils, where these shall,
with all sorts of cruelty and rage, incessantly tor
ture those ; and lest the sense of their pain should
cause them to relent, a new skin shall continually
succeed in the stead of that which has been burned
or mortified. It is for us Mussulmans to conceive
and entertain a just horror of this detestable place ;
such reflections are the duty of all God s servants.
As for those others who have declared war against
our religion, they shall one day feel the torments of
hell. Let us all dread this punishment and these
frightful terrors. Let us confirm our faith by the
sentiments of our hearts, and by the confession of
our tongues, and let us engrave it in the bottom of
our souls.

APPENDIX.

; .. [E]

AN ACCOUNT OF THE PRINCIPAL ARABIC, GREEK, AND LATIN
AUTHORS, WHO HAVE TREATED THE SUBJECT OF MO
HAMMEDANISM AND ITS FOUNDER.

(Collected chiefly from Prideaux.)

ABUL FARAGIUS ; a physician of Malatia, in Lesser
Armenia, of the Christian religion, and of the sect of
the Jacobites. He is a writer of distinguished note
in the East y both among Mohammedans and Chris
tians. His Historia Dynastarum embraces the pe
riod from the creation of the world to the year of
our Lord 1284. He nourished near the close of the
13th century, about the time when his History ends.
His work was published in 4to at Oxford, A. D. 1663,
with a Latin Version by Dr. Pocock. His entire
name is Gregorius Ebn Hakim Abul Faragii. He
is thus spoken of by Gibbon. "Yet in that long
period some strangers of merit have been con
verted to the Monophysite faith, and a Jew was the
father of Abul Pljaragius, primate of the East, so
truly eminent in his life and death. In his life, he
was an elegant writer of the Syriac and Arabic
tongues, a poet, a physicjan, and historian, a subtle
philosopher, and a moderate divine. In his death,
his funeral was attended by his rival, the Nestorian
patriarch, with a train of Greeks and Armenians,
who forgot their disputes, and mingled their tears
over the grave of an enemy."*

ABUL FEDA ; an author eminently distinguished
among the oriental writers for two works well known
among the learned ; the one, a General Geography
of the world, after the method of Ptolemy ; the other,

* Decline and Fall, vol. v. p. 508, Dublin edition, 1788,

251

a General History, which lie culls the Epitom*- of
the History of Nations. He \v;is bom \. I). i*j7:i,
and finished his Geography A. D. n-Jl. Twenty
years afterward he was advanced to the principality
of Hamah, in Syria, from whence lie is commonly
called Shufuih aamdk, i. e. prince, of //&lt;//////, when
after a reign of three years and iwo months, he died
A. D. 1345, aged seventy-two. He was l&gt;y nation a
Turk, of the noble family of the Jolidir, from which
also Saladin, the famous Sultan of EU\ pt was de
scended. Kcchelensis quotes him by the name, of
Ish mad Sh ia h in sh iah.

ABUNAZAR; a legendary writer among the Moham
medans, often quoted by Hottinger.

AGAR; the name of a book of great authority
among the Mussulmans, containing an account of
the life and death of Mohammed. Johannes An
dreas makes great use of it under the name of Azaer,
as does Bellonius in the third hook of his Observa
tions, under the name of Asaer. Guadagnl, who
had a copy of the work, draws from it the most of
the particulars which he objects against the life and
actions of Mohammed.

AHMED EBN EDRIS ; an author who wrote in the
defence of the Mohammedan religion against the
Christians and the Jews.

AHMED EBN YUSEPH ; a historian who flourished
A. D. 1599, when he completed his history.

AHMED EBN ZINALABEDIN; a nobleman of Ispa
han, in Persia, of the sixteenth century, who wrote
one of the acutest works against the Christian reli
gion and in defence of the Mohammedan, ever pub
lished. Jernimo Xayier, a Jesuit Missionary to the
court of Ecbar, Great Mogul, had written in the
Persian language, two works in favour of Chistian-
ity, one entitled, the History of Jesus Christ, collected
for the most part out of the legends of the church
of Rome : the other called Jl Looking-Glass of the
Truth, intended as a defence of the Gospel against

252 APPENDIX.

the Mohammedans. This latter work, unluckily for
the author, soon after its publication, fell into the
hands of the learned Persian Ahmed Ebn Zin, who
immediately wrote an answer to it which he entitled,
The Brusher of the Looking-Glass. The college of
the Propaganda at Rome were so exceedingly nettled
by the masterly manner in which their missionary s
work had been answered, that two Franciscan Friars
were ordered each of them to prepare a reply to the
rude Brusher of the Jesuit s Mirror. But as their
arguments in defence of Christianity were mostly
drawn from the authorities of Popes and Councils,
the palm of victory was fairly left in the hands of
their Moslem opponent.

AL BOCHARI ; an eminent Arabic writer, who has
given the fullest account of the Traditionary Doc
trines of the Mohammedan religion. He is enume
rated, by Johannes Andreas and Bellonius, among
the six Mohammedan Doctors who met by the ap
pointment of one of the Caliphs ai Damascus in order
to make an authentic collection of all the traditions
which compose their Sonnah. His work contains
the Pandects of all that relates either to their Law or
their Religion, digested under their several titles
through twenty books, and from its antiquity and
authenticity ranks among their sacred writings next
to the Koran. He was bom at Bochara, A. D. 809,
and died, A. D, 869.

AL FRAGANI ; an astronomer of Fragana in Persia,
whence his name ; which is at length Mohammed
Ebn Katir Al Fragani. He wrote a book called
The Elements of Astronomy, which has been several
times republished in Europe, as at Nuremburgh,
A. D. 1537; at Paris, 1546 ; at Frankfort, cum notis
Christmanni, A. D. 1590, in Latin ; and afterward
by Golius in Arabic and Latin at Leyden, A. D.
1669, with copious notes extremely useful to a
knowledge of the Geography of the East. He flou
rished under the Caliph Al Mamon, who died A. D. 833.

APPENDIX. J53

\\, (i.\7\u; a famous philosopher of Tusa in
JVrsia. lie wrote many works not only in the de
partment of philosophy, but also in defence of the
Mohammedan religion against rhriMians. .Irus,
Pa&lt;r.i:is, and every da- unbelievers. The most
notrd of liis works is that entitled The Dcstntctimi

Philosopher*, written against Aviemna and other
philosophers, who, in order to solve the absnnln
of Islamism, were for turnin.u 1 into i mnre and alle
gory numerous points of that religion \\hieh had all
along been understood literally. These writers he
violently opposes, accusing them, on account of
these mystical interpretations, of heresy and infi
delity, as corrupters of the faith and subv&lt; M; r&gt; of
religion, for which reason he had the honorary appel
lation bestowed upon him of 1 lo^hatol Islam Xainod-
din, i. e. The Demonstration ofMo/Htt/uHcttdnism, and
thi Honour of Religion. I le was born A. I). I ox, and
died A. D. 1112. His name at length is Abu 1 lamed
Elm Mohammed Al Gazali Al Tusi.

AL JANNABI; a historian born at Jannaba, a city
of Persia, near Shiraz. His History extends down
to the year of our Lord, 1588, and in the course of
it he informs his reader that he took a pilgrimage to
Mecca, and went from thence to Medina, to pay his
devotions at the tomb of the Prophet, in that year of
the Hejira which answers to A. 1). 1556.

AL KAMUS; i. e. The Ocean; a noted Arabic Dic
tionary, so called from the ocean of words con
tained in it. It was written by Mohammed Al Shi
raz i Al Firauzabadi. He was a person of great
esteem among the princes of his time, for his emi
nent learning and worth, particularly with Ismael
Ebn Abbas, king of Yemen, Bajazet, king of the
Turks, and Tamerlane the Tartar, the last of whom
made him a present of five thousand pieces of gold
at one time. He was by birth a Persian, born A. D.
1328, but lived mostly at Sanau in Yemen of Arabia*
He finished his Dictionary at Mecca, and dedicated

254 APPENDIX.

it to Ismael Ebn Abbas, whose patronage he had
long enjoyed, and died at Zibit, in Arabia, A. D. 1414,
having attained nearly to the age of ninety years.

AL KODAI; an Arabic historian. He wrote his
history about A. D. 1045, and died A. D. 1062.

AL MASUDI ; an historian. He is the author of a
history called the Golden Meadows, but his era it is
not possible now to discover. His name at length
is Ali Ebn Housain Al Masudi. He wrote another
work also, with the professed design of exposing
the base fraud practised by the Roman Christians in
Jerusalem, in lighting the candles at the Holy Sepul
chre on Easter Eve. A full account of this vile im
position may be seen in Thevenot s Travels, Book
ii., chap. 43.

AL MOTAREZZI ; the author of a book called Mo-
grel; he was born A. D. 1143, and died A. D. 1213.
He was of the sect of the Motazali, and seems by
his name, Al Motarezzi, to have been by occupation
a tailor, as that is the signification of the word in
Arabic.

BEDAWI; one of the most distinguished of the
commentators on the Koran. He died A. D. 1293.

DIALOGUS MAHOMETIS CUM ABDOLLAH EBN SALEM ;
a book written in Arabic, containing a great many
of the absurdities of the Mohammedan religion, in
the form of a dialogue between the Impostor him
self, and the Jew who was supposed to have been
his assistant in forging the Koran. It was trans
lated into Latin by Hermannus Dalmata, whose
version will be found at the end of Bibliander s
Latin translation of the Koran.

DISPUTATIO CHRISTIANI CONTRA SARACENUM DE LEGE
MAHOMETIS. This work was written in Arabic by a
Christian, who was an officer in the court of a king
of the Saracens, to a Mohammedan friend of his, a
fellow-officer with him in the same court ; and con
tains a confutation of Islamism. Peter, the famous
Abbot of Cluny, in Burgundy who flourished A. D.

APPENDIX. 255

1130, caused it to be translated into Latin, by Peter
of Toledo. An epitome of the work occurs in Hi-
bliander s Koran.

ELMACINUS, usually written KL.M\M\; an Arabic
author, who has written a history of the Christian
religion, which extends from the creation of the
world to A. D. 111R. The hitter part of it, com
mencing from the rise of Mohammedanism, was
published by Erpeuius, under the title of llMnria
Saracenica, A. D. 16-J5. He was son to Yaser M
Amid, secretary of the council of war under the
Sultans of Egypt, of the family of Jobidir, and in
the year 1238, Elmacin succeeded his father to the
same office, by whom it had been occupied for forty-
five years together. His whole nann la (ieorjjius
Ebn Amid; but for his eminent learning w; n-d

Al Shaich Al Rais Al Macin, /. e. Thr. prime. I&gt;
solidly learned. By the last of these titles, or Elm
cin, he is generally called by Erpenius; but by
others he is frequently cited by the name of Elm
Amid.

ERNOL ATHIR; a Mohammedan author, born A. D.
1149, and died A. D. 1209.

ALI EBNOL ATHIR; an historian, brother to the
former, who died A. D. 1232. His history, which he
calls Camel, extends from the beginning of the
world to .the year of our Lord 1230.

EBNOL KASSAI ; author of the book called Taarifat,
or an explication of the various Arabic terms used
by philosophers, lawyers, divines, and other classes
of the learned professions among them.

EUTYCHIUS; a Christian author, of the sect of the
Melchites, whose name in Arabic is Said Ebn Ba-
trik. He was bom at Cairo in Egypt, A. D. 876,
where he became eminently distinguished in the
medical profession. But towards the latter part of
his life, addicting himself more to the study of di
vinity, he was A. D. 933, chosen patriarch of Alex
andria, when he first took the name of Eutychius.

256 APPENDIX.

He died seven years after, A. D. 940. His Annals
of the Church of Alexandria, were published in
Arabic and Latin at Oxford, by Dr. Pocock, A. D.
1656, at the charge of the learned Selden.

LIBER DE GENERATIONS ET NUTRITURA MAHOMETIS ;
a most silly and frivolous Tract, written originally
in Arabic, from which it was translated into Latin by
Hermannus Dalmata, and published with the Latin
Koran of Bibliander.

GEOGRAPHIA NUBIENSIS; one of the most noted
Oriental works on the subject of geography. This
title was given it by Sionita and Hesronita, Maron-
ite Christians, who published it in Latin with a geo
graphical appendix, A. D. 1619. But the Geographia
Ntjbiensis is in fact only an abridgment of a much
larger and much better work, written by Sherif El
Edrisi, at the command of Roger, king of Sicily, for
the purpose of explaining a large terrestrial globe
which that prince had constructed entirely of silver.
He completed his work A. D. 1153, and entitled it
Ketab Roger, i. e. The Book of Roger, from the name
of his patron. The author was by extraction of the
race of Mahomet, and therefore called Sherif, the
title appropriated to all the descendants of the pro
phet. There was a beautiful copy of this work
among the Arabic MSS. of Pocock.

GEORGIUS MONACHUS ; Abbot of the monastery of
St. Simeon. He wrote a tract in defence of the
Christian religion against the Mohammedans, in the
form of a disputation held by himself with several
Mussulmans, of whom the principal speaker was
Abu Salama Ebn Saar, of Mosul.

JAUHARI ; the author of a noted Arabic Dictionary
called Al Sahah. He was of Turkish origin, and
died A. D. 1007. This dictionary is considered in
ferior only to the Kamus. Golius, in his Arabic Lexi
con, has drawn largely from its resources.

JALALANI ; i. e. The two Jalals. They were two
individuals of the same name, who wrote a short

APPENDIX. 257

commentary on the Koran, which wns be&lt;_ran by the
first, and finished by the id. The latter com

pleted the work A. D. 1466, and was author also of a
history called Mezhar.

SHARESTANI. .V scholastic writer of considerable
repute among tlic Mohammedai He w:is horn at
Sharestan, A.D. in: 1. and died A.I). li:&gt;i.

/AMACH-SHARI. The aulliorof a work called Al
Keshaf; which is an extensive commentary on the
Koran, the most highly esteemed among the Mo
hammedans of any work of this kind. He died
A.D. 1143.

GREEK AUTHORS.

BARTHOLOMEI EDESSINI CONFUTATIO HAGARENI. A
treatise in the Greek language written against the
Mohammedan religion, published by Le Moyne
among his Varia Sacra. The author was a monk
of Edessain Mesopotamia, but in what age lie lived
is unknown.

CONTACUZENUS CONTRA SECTAM MAHOMF.TirAM.

This work contains four apologies for the Christian
Religion, and four orations against the Mohamme
dan. The author had been emperor of Constanti
nople, but having resigned his empire to John Pale-
ologus, his son-in-law, A. I). 1355, he retired into a
monastery, accompanied by one Meletius, whom he
had converted from the Mohammedan to the Chris
tian faith. The work now mentioned was written
for Meletius in answer to a letter addressed to him
by Sampsates, a Persian of Ispahan, with a view to
reclaim him, if possible, again to the religion of
Islam.

CEDRENI COMPENDIUM HISTORIARUM. A work em
bracing a concise history of all ages from the cre
ation of the world to the year of our Lord 1057,

258 AFPENDIX.

CONFUTATIO MAHOMETIS. A Greek tract published
by Le Moyne in his Varia Sacra ; author unknown.

THEOPHANIS CHRONOGRAPHIA. The work of one
of the Byzantine historians, containing a chronolo
gical history of the Roman Empire, from the year
of our Lord 285 to A. D. 813. The author was a
nobleman of Constantinople, where he held an of
fice of distinction in the imperial court, but after
ward retiring from public life and secluding himself
in a monastery, he wrote this history. He died
A.D. 815 in prison, in the island of Samothrace, a
martyr to his zeal for image-worship, for which he
was a most strenuous advocate in the second coun
cil of Nice.

ZONAR^E COMPENDIUM HISTORIARUM. Another of
the series of the Byzantine historians. It contains
a history reaching from the creation to the death
of Alexius Comnenus, emperor of Constantinople,
which happened A.D. 1118, when the author flou
rished. He was at first a person of distinguished
rank in the court of Constantinople, but afterward
becoming an ecclesiastic, he wrote the history now
mentioned, and was author also of a celebrated
Comment on the Greek Canons.

LATIN AUTHORS.

CLENARDI EPISTOLJE. The author of these epis
tles was the famous grammarian of his age. Urged
by his high opinion of the literary treasures locked
up in the Arabic language, he went to Fez, A. D.
1540, on purpose to make himself master of this in
valuable tongue, and that at an advanced period of
life. From this place he wrote the epistles above-
mentioned, containing a minute account of the man
ners and religion of the Mohammedans. He died
at Granada in Spain, immediately after his return.

APPENDIX. 259

CUSANI CRIHATIO AUMR\M. The author of tliis
book was the celebrated Nicolas &lt;!(. Cusa, the mo&gt;t
eminent scholar of the a ire in which he lived. He
was made Cardinal of Koine, A. D. 1448, with the
title of St. Peter s (&lt;&lt;i rinnda* and died A. D. 1 H .l,
about ten years after the capture of Constantinople
by the Turks. This event occasion to the

work, in which he aimed to provide an antidote to
that baneful religion which he saw was now likely
to overspread a great part of Christendom.

ABRAHAMI KCCHELENSIS HISTORIA ARABUM. This
work is subjoined by the author to his Chronirnn
Orientate, collected out of the Arabic writer-. I. -
chelensis was aMaroniteof Mount Libanus in S\
and was employed as Pmfc-sor of tlie Oriental
Laniruaires in the College DC Propaganda Fit/ , at
Rome, from whence, about the year Kilo, li-
called to Paris, to a in the publication of the

(rreat Polyglot Bible, and was there made the kin
Profo^rof Oriental Laniruaires in the college of
that city. His part, how&lt; \ r. in the execution of
that irivat work was said by some of the doctors of
tht&gt; Sorbonne to have done him little credit. H
inaccuracies were almost infinite, and such as to
evince that his judgment came far short of his eru
dition.

J. H. HOTTIXGERI HISTORIA ORIENTALIS. Of this
valuable work there are two editions ; the first of
A. D. 1651; the second, much enlarged, of A. D.
1G60. The author was Professor of Oriental Lan
guages, first at Zurich in Switzerland, and afterward
at Heidelburgh in Holland. From this place he was
called to a similar Professorship at Leyden, but was
unfortunately drowned in the Rhine during his re
moval thither. Hottinger was a man of amazing
industry and of vast learning; but from having
written so much in so short a compass of time, for
he died young, his works want that accuracy which

260 APPENDIX,

the maturity of a few more years in the author would
have given them. As it is, they are all useful.

JOHANNES ANDREAS DE CONFUSIONE SECT^E MAHO
METANS. The author of this work was formerly an
Alfaki, or doctor of the Mohammedan Law ; but in
the year 1487, being- at Valencia in Spain, he was
converted to Christianity, and soon after received
into holy orders ; whereupon he wrote this treatise
in Spanish against the religion which he had aban
doned. From the Spanish, it was translated into
Italian A. D. 1540 ; and again into Latin in 1595, and
reprinted by Voetius at Utrecht in 1656. His
thorough knowledge of the subject enables him to
manage the controversy with a force and pertinency
which has since been rarely equalled.

POCOCK. The celebrated Professor of the Hebrew
and Arabic tongues at Oxford ; for piety and learn
ing one of the brightest ornaments of his age. He
was born A.D. 1604, and died A. D. 1691. For up
wards of sixty years he was a constant editor of
useful and learned works, connected for the most
part with the history or literature of the East. His
most valuable, though by no means his most exten
sive, work is the Specimen Histories, Jlrabicce, pub
lished A.D. 1650, which Mr. Gibbon thus signifi
cantly characterizes in one of his notes : " Consult,
peruse, and study the Specimen Histories Arabicae !
The three hundred and fifty-eight notes form a
classic and original work on the Arabian antiqui
ties."* Again, " the English scholar (Pocock) un
derstood more Arabic than the Mufti of Aleppo."f

RlCHARDI CONFUTATIO LEGIS SARACENIC^E.- TIl6

author of this very valuable tract was a Dominican
friar, who in the year 1210 went to Bagdad with
the sole purpose of studying the Mohammedan reli
gion out of their own writings, in order the more
successfully to confute it. This learned and judi-

* Decline and Fall, vol. v. p. 139. t Ib. vol. v. p. 228.

APPENDIX. 201

cious treatise was the fruit of his foreign residence,
which he published upon his ivtuni. ji was trans
lated from the Latin into (. reek l.y Demetrius r\
nins for i) -emperor Cantacuzene, who n

Client use of it, derivin&lt;_r from it \\hate\ a of mi

I value in his four Orations against the .Moham
medan religion. From this Creel n of Cydo-
nms it was re-translated into Latin by PiVenus. and
published in the Latin Koran of Bibliand&lt; Tlii-
all w- now have of it, the oriuinnl heinu- 1&lt;&gt; I liis
tract of Richard, and that of Johami. - indreaa be
fore mentioned, were the ablest which had been
.(ten by p]uropeans in the Mohammr&lt;!;m con-
tiovrisy previous to those of the Rev. Henry Martyu,
which were originally published in Persian, and
have since been translated into English by Prof. I

of Cambridge.

.^ ~

RODERICK TOLETANI HISTORIA AKAIU-.M. ( 1 ontaining
a history of the Saracens from the birth of Moham
med to the year of our Lord 115n. The author \
Roderie, Archbishop of Toledo, in Spam, wlio was
present at the Lateran Council in ]-Ji:&gt;. His his-
tory, from the tenth chapter, is mostly confined to
tlie Saracens of Spain, where his accounts may be
generally relied on; but little credit, it is said, is due
to him wherever he follows them out of the boui
of the Peninsula. The work was published with
Erpenius Historia Saracenica at Leyden, A.D. 1625.

THE END.

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