LIBRARY 
 Connecticut Agricultural College 
 
 Vol. 
 
 ^^.3 06-G 
 
 'lass No. X^l loo 9 7^. ^X 
 
 Oc ^ , /^ . ^g^Q 
 
 2\ 
 
 3 T1S3 OODfllbflB 7 
 
EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 The splendid fiftieth chapter of Gibbon's 
 History of the * Decline and fall of the Ro- 
 man Empire,' with the learned and judicious 
 notes of Dean Milman and Dr. William 
 Smith, may be regarded as at once a bril- 
 liant and accurate Life of the Arabian pro- 
 phet. The narrative of Gibbon favorably 
 exhibits his characteristic qualities of com- 
 prehensiveness, breadth of vision, and sus- 
 tained eloquence. The notes of Dean Mil- 
 man correct any ecclesiastical errors, and 
 make all necessary additions from the point 
 of view of Church history. In the notes of 
 Dr. William Smith we have the last results 
 of Oriental scholarship in regard to Mahom- 
 et's (or Mohammed's) Life. Most of Gib- 
 bon's notes, which contain little more than 
 references to his authorities, which would 
 encumber the page and add nothing of in- 
 terest to the reader, have been omitted, 
 
 
IV Editor'' s Preface, 
 
 Those that are retained are referred to by 
 letters. The notes of Milman and Dr. Smith 
 are respectively designated by their initials, 
 and referred to by figures. Following our 
 general plan, we here give a summary of 
 Gibbon's life. 
 
 GriBBON, Edward, was born at Putney, in 
 the county of Surrey, on the 27th of April, 
 1737. He has given us in his * Autobiog- 
 raphy,' copious particulars concerning his 
 life and writings. From his own account 
 we learn that in childhood his health was 
 very delicate, and that his early education 
 was principally conducted by his aunt, Mrs. 
 Porten. At the age of nine he was sent to 
 a boarding-school at Kingston-upon-Thames, 
 where he remained for two years, but made 
 little progress, in consequence of the fre- 
 quent interruption of his studies by illness. 
 The same cause prevented his attention to 
 <tudy at Westminster school, whither he 
 was sent in 1749, and " his riper age was 
 left to acquire the beauties of the Latin and 
 the rudiments of the Greek tongue." After 
 
Editor'^s Preface, 
 
 residing for a short time with the Rev. 
 Philip Francis, the translator of Horace, he 
 was removed in 1762 to Oxford, where he 
 was matriculated as a gentleman commoner 
 of Magdalen College in his fifteenth year. 
 Though his frequent absence from school 
 had prevented him from obtaining much 
 knowledge of Latin and Greek, his love of 
 reading had led him to peruse many his- 
 torical and geographical works ; and he ar- 
 rived at Oxford, according to his own ac- 
 count, " with a stock of erudition that might 
 have puzzled a doctor, and a degree of igno- 
 rance of which a school-boy would have been 
 ashamed." His imperfect education was 
 not improved during his residence at Ox- 
 ford ; his tutors he describes as easy men, 
 who preferred receiving the fees to attend- 
 ing to the instruction of their pupils ; and 
 after leading a somewhat dissipated life 
 for fourteen months, he was compelled to 
 leave Oxford in consequence of having em- 
 braced the Roman Catholic faith. His 
 conversion was effected by the perusal of 
 
ri Editor^s Preface, 
 
 Pr. Middleton's 'Free Inquiry into the Mi- 
 raculous Powers possessed by the Church 
 in the Early Ages,' in which he attempts to 
 show that all the leading doctrines of the 
 Roman Catholic Church are supported by 
 the miracles of the early fathers, and that 
 therefore the doctrines of the Church ot 
 Rome must be true, or the miracles false. 
 Gibbon's early education had taught him to 
 revere the authority'of these fathers ; he was 
 induced to read some works, especially ' Bos- 
 suet's Variations,' in favor of the Roman 
 faith; and in 1763, he, " solemnly, though 
 privately, abjured the errors of heresy." 
 With the object of reclaiming him to Prot- 
 estanism, his father sent him to Lausanne 
 in Switzerland, to reside with M. Pavillard, 
 a Calvinist minister. The arguments of 
 Pavillard and his own studies had the effect 
 which his father desired ; in the following year 
 ke professed his belief in the doctrines of the 
 Protestant Church, and according to his own 
 gtatement, " suspended his religious inquiries, 
 acquiescing with implicit belief in the tenets 
 
JEJditor^s Preface. vn 
 
 and mysteries which are adopted by the gen- 
 eral consent of Catholics and Protestants.' 
 He remained in Switzerland for five years, 
 during which time he paid great attention to 
 study, and assiduously endeavored to remedy » 
 the defects of his early education. 
 
 During his residence at Lausanne, he had 
 become perfectly acquainted with the French 
 language, in which he composed his first 
 work, entitled ' Essai sur I'Etude de la Lit- 
 terature,' which was published in 1761. " It 
 was received with more favor on the Conti- 
 nent, than in England, where it was little 
 read, and speedily forgotten." His studies 
 after his return to England were much in- 
 terrupted by attention to his duties in the 
 Hampshire militia, in which he was appointed 
 captain, and the knowledge of military tac- 
 tics, which he acquired in the service, was 
 not, to use his own words, " useless to the 
 Mstorian of the Roman Empire." During 
 his visit to Rome in 1764, " as he sat musing 
 amids^t the ruins of the Capitol, while the 
 baxf footed friars were singing vespers in the 
 
viii JEditoT'^s Preface 
 
 Temple of Jupiter, the idea of writing the 
 decline and fall of the city first started to 
 his mind." Many years, however, elapsed 
 before he began the composition of the ' De- 
 cline and Fall.' On his return to England, 
 he commenced a work on the Revolutions of 
 Florence and Switzerland ; and in conjunc- 
 tion with a Swiss friend of the name of Dey- 
 verdun, published in 1767 and 1768, two 
 volumes of a work entitled ' Memoires Lit- 
 teraries de la grande Bretagne.' His next 
 work, which appeared in 1770, was a ' Re- 
 ply to Bishop Warburton's Interpretation 
 of the Sixth Book of the ^neid.' In 1774 
 he was returned to parliament by the interest 
 of Lord Eliot for the borough of Liskeard 
 and ft)r eight sessions he steadily supported 
 by his vote, though he never spoke, the min 
 istry of Lord North, for which he was re 
 warded by being made one of the commis 
 sioners of trade and plantations, with a sal 
 ary of £800 a year. In the next parlia 
 ment he sat for the borough of Lymington 
 yni resigned his seat on the dissolution of 
 
JEJditor''s Preface, vs. 
 
 Lord North's ministry, when he lost " hia 
 convenient salary, after having enjoyed it 
 about three years." During the time in 
 which he was a member of parliament, he 
 published in the French language, at the re- 
 quest of the ministry, a pamphlet entitled 
 * Memoire Justificatif,' in reply to the French 
 manifesto, and in vindication of the justice 
 of the British arms. In 1776, the first vol- 
 ume of the ' Decline and Fall of the Roman 
 Empire ' appeared in 4to., and was received 
 by the public in the most favorable manner : 
 the first impression was exhausted in a few 
 days ; a second and third edition were 
 scarcely adequate to the demand." The 
 second and third volumes, which terminated 
 the history of the fall of the Western Em- 
 pire, were published in 1731. 
 
 In 1783 he left England, and retired to 
 Lausanne, to reside permanently with hia 
 friend M. Deyverdun. From this time to 
 1787 he was engaged in the composition of 
 the last three volumes of his great work 
 -vhich appeared in 1788. He spent some 
 
Editor^s Preface. 
 
 time that year in England to superintend 
 the publication, and again returned to Lau- 
 sanne, where he remained till 1793, when 
 the death of Lady Sheffield recalled him to 
 his native country to console his friend. 
 He died in London on the 16th of Janu- 
 ary, 1794. 
 
 The ' Decline and Fall of the Roman Em- 
 pire ' comprises the history of the world 
 for nearly thirteen centuries, from the reign 
 of the Antonines to the taking of Constan- 
 tinople by the Turks. It was a great ac- 
 cession to literature; Niebuhr indeed pro- 
 nounced it " a work never to be excelled." 
 It connects ancient and modern history, and 
 contains information on many subjects which 
 historians generally neglect, and sometimes 
 unsuccessfully attempt. In the most con- 
 venient edition of the ' Decline and Fall,' 
 that edited by Dr. William Smith, 8 vols. 
 6vo., 1854-55, are embodied the more im- 
 portant notes of Guizot, the equally valuable 
 ones of Wenck, the Grerman translator, with 
 ^hose by Dean Milman, intended to correct 
 
Editor'^s Preface, 
 
 the ecclesiastical bias of the historian, and 
 a judicious selection from the comments of 
 other authorities, while the references are 
 throughout verified. His * Miscellaneous 
 "Works, with Memoirs of his life and writings 
 composed by himself,' were published by 
 Lord Sheffield in 2 vols. 4to., 1796 ; to which 
 a third volume was added in 1815. The 
 ' Miscellaneous Works ' were reprinted in 
 the same year in 5 vols. 8vo. This collection 
 contains a republication of some of the works 
 which have been alresdy mentioned ; and in 
 addition to these, a large ' Collection of 
 Letters written by or to Mr. G-ibbon ; ' Ab- 
 stracts of the Books he read, with Reflec- 
 tions ; ' Extracts from his Journal ; ' ^ Out- 
 lines of the History of the World ; ' ' A 
 Dissertation on the Subject of L' Homme au 
 Masque de Fer ; ' ' Antiquities of the House 
 of Brunswick ; ' Memoire sur la Monarchie 
 des Modes ; ' ' Nomina Gentesque Antiquae 
 Italiae;' 'Remarks on Blackstone's Com- 
 mentaries ; ' ' On the Position of the Merid- 
 ional Line, and the supposed Circumnavi- 
 
xii Editor'' s Preface, 
 
 gation of Africa by the Ancients,' and other 
 pieces of less importance. 
 
 A splendid and reliable Life of the foun- 
 der of a religion, that strove many centuries 
 with Christianity for the mastery of the 
 world, that failed because every thing human 
 fails in a conflict with the divine, must be a 
 welcome book. To the thoughtful, whether 
 young or old, who are striving to look be- 
 neath the surface in the complicated history 
 of the world, we heartily recommend it. 
 0. W. Wight. 
 
 March, 1859. 
 
LIFE OF MAHOMET. 
 
 The genius of tlie Arabian prophet, the 
 manners of his nation, and the spirit of 
 his religion, involve the causes of the 
 decline and fall of the Eastern empire ; 
 and oul- eyes are curiously intent on 
 one of the most memorable revolutions, 
 which have impressed a new and lasting 
 character on the nations of the globe.* 
 
 » The best works on the ancient geography and ante- 
 Mahometan history of Arabia are 'The Historical Geography 
 of Arabia,' by the Eev. Charles Forster, 2 vols. 8vo., London, 
 1844, and 'Essai sur THistoire des Arabes avant I'lslamisme, 
 pendant Tepoque de Mahomet, et jusqu'a la reduction de 
 toutes les tribus sous la loi Musulmane,' by A. P. Caussin de 
 Perceval, Professeur d'Arabe au College Boyal de France, 3 
 fols. Bvo., Paris, 1847-1848. Of the latter work there is an 
 able account in the Calcutta Review, No. xli.— S. — Of modem 
 travellers may be mentioned the adventurer who called him- 
 Belf Ali Bey ; but, above all, the intelligent, the enterprising 
 ^e accurate Burckhardt. — M. 
 
10 Life of Mahomet . 
 
 In the vacant space between Persia, 
 Syria, Egypt, and ^tliiopia,the Arabian 
 peninsula may be conceived as a trian- 
 gle of spacious but irregular dimensions. 
 From the northern point of Beles* on 
 the Euphrates, a line of fifteen hundred 
 miles is terminated by the straits of 
 Babelmandel and the land of frankin- 
 cense. About half this length may be 
 allowed for the middle breadth, from 
 east to west, from Bassora to Suez, from 
 the Persian gulf to the Red sea. The 
 sides of the triangle are gradually en- 
 larged, and the southern basis presents 
 a front of a thousand miles to the In- 
 dian ocean. The entire surface of the 
 peninsula exceeds in a fourfold pro- 
 portion that of Germany or France ; 
 but the far greater part has been justly 
 stigmatized with the epithets of the 
 deny and the sandy. Even the wilds 
 
 • It was In this place, the paradise or garden of s satrap 
 that Xenophon and the Greeks first passed the Euphrates. 
 
Life of Mahomet. 11 
 
 of Tartary are decked, by the hand of 
 nature, with lofty trees and luxuriant 
 herbage ; and the lonesome traveller 
 derives a sort of comfort and society 
 from the presence of vegetable life. 
 But in the dreary waste of Arabia, a 
 boundless level of sand is intersected 
 by sharp and naked mountains ; and 
 the face of the desert, without shade or 
 shelter, is scorched by the direct and 
 intense rays of the tropical sun. Instead 
 of refreshing breezes, the winds, par- 
 ticularly from the south-west, diffuse a 
 noxious and even deadly vapor ; the 
 hillocks of sand which they alternately 
 raise and scatter, are compared to the 
 billows of the ocean, and whole cara- 
 vans, whole armies, have been lost and 
 buried in the whirlwind. The common 
 benefits of water are an object of desire 
 and contest ; and such is the scarcity of 
 «rood, that some art is requisite to pre- 
 Rerve and propagate the element of fire. 
 
12 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 Arabia is destitute of navigable rivers, 
 which fertilize the soil, and convey its 
 produce to the adjacent regions ; the 
 torrents that fall from the hills are im- 
 bibed by the thirsty earth : the rare and 
 hardy plantSjthe tamarind or the acacia, 
 that strike their roots into the clefts of 
 the rocks, are nourished by the dews of 
 nig'lit ; a scanty supply of rain is col- 
 lected in cisterns and aqueducts ; the 
 wells and springs are the secret treasure 
 of the desert ; and the pilgrim of Mecca," 
 after many a dry and sultry march, is 
 disgusted by the taste of the waters, 
 which have rolled over a bed of sulphur 
 or salt. Such is the general and genuine 
 picture of the climate of Arabia. The 
 experience of evil enhances the value 
 of any local or partial enjoyments. A 
 shady grove, a green pasture, a stream 
 
 • In the thirty days, or stations, between Cairo and Mecca, 
 there are fifteen destitute of good water. See the route of the 
 "^adjees, in Shaw's Travels, p. 477. 
 
Life of Mahomet. 13 
 
 of fresh water, are sufficient to attract a 
 colony of sedentary Arabs to the fortu- 
 nate spots which can afford food and re- 
 freshment to themselves and their cattle, 
 and which encourage their industry in 
 the cultivation of the palm-tree and the 
 vine. The high lands that border on the 
 Indian ocean are distinguished by their 
 superior plenty of wood and water ; the 
 air is more temperate, the fruits are 
 more delicious, the animals and the 
 human race more numerous ; the fer- 
 tility of the soil invites and rewards 
 the toil of the husbandman ; and the 
 peculiar gifts of frankincense* and coffee 
 have attracted in different ages the 
 merchants of the world. If it be com- 
 pared with the rest of the peninsula, 
 
 » The aromatics, especially the thus or frankincense, of 
 ^.rabia, occupy the twelfth book of Pliny. Our great poet 
 (Paradise Lost, 1. iv.) introduces, in a simile, the spicy odors 
 that are blown by the north-east wind from the Sabaeau 
 coast: 
 
 Many a league, 
 
 Pleased with the grateful scent, old Ocean smiles. 
 
14 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 this sequ-estered region may truly de- 
 serve the appellation of the hajpjpy ; 
 and the splendid coloring of fancy and 
 fiction has been suggested by contrast, 
 and countenanced by distance. It was 
 for this earthly paradise that nature had 
 reserved her choicest favors and her 
 most curious workmanship : the incom- 
 patible blessings of luxury and inno- 
 cence were ascribed to the natives : 
 the soil was impregnated with gold* 
 and gems, and both the land and sea 
 were taught to exhale the odors of 
 aromatic sweets. This division of the 
 
 » Agatharcides affirms that lumps of pure gold were found 
 from the size of an olive to that of a nut ; that iron was twice, 
 and silver ten times, the value of gold, (de Mari Rubro, p. 
 60.) These real or imaginary treasures are vanished, and no 
 gold mines are at present known in Arabia. (Niebuhr, De- 
 gcription, p. 124.) i 
 
 > A brilliant passage in the geographical poem of Diony- 
 bius Periegetes embodies the notions of the ancients on the 
 wealth and fertility of Yemen. Greek mythology, and the 
 traditions of the "gorgeous east," of India as w£ll as Arabia, 
 tre mingled together in indiscriminate splendor. Compare 
 on the southern coast of Arabia the recent travels of Lieut 
 Tellsted.— M, 
 
Life of Mahomet 15 
 
 mndy^ the stony^ and the happy, so 
 familiar to the Greeks and Latins, is 
 unknown to the Arabians themselves : 
 and it is singular enough,that a country, 
 whose language and inhabitants have 
 ever been the same, should scarcely re- 
 tain a vestige of its ancient geography. 
 The maritime districts of Bahrein and 
 Oman are opposite to the realm of 
 Persia. The kingdom of Yemen dis- 
 plays the limits, or at least the situa- 
 tion, of Arabia Fselix : the name of 
 Neged is extended over the inland space : 
 and the birth of Mahomet has illustrat- 
 ed the province oi Hejaz^ along the coast 
 of the Red sea. 
 
 The measure of the population is re- 
 gulated by the means of subsistence ; 
 
 * Hejaz means the "barrier" or "frontier," as lying be- 
 ♦•araen the southern and northern merchants, or, in other 
 words, between Arabia Felix and Arabia Petraea. It is a 
 mountainous district, and includes Medina as well as Mecca. 
 It occupies the space between Meged (Najd) and the Ked 
 6ea. Sprenger, Life of Mohammed, p. 14; C. de Perceval, 
 tfssai, &c., vol. i. p. 3.— S. 
 
le Life of Mahomet. 
 
 and tlie inhabitants of this vast peii« 
 insula might be outnumbered by the 
 subjects of a fertile and industrious 
 province. Along the shores of the Per- 
 sian gulf, of the ocean, and even of the 
 Red sea, the Icthyophagi., or fish-eaters, 
 continued to wander in quest of their 
 precarious food. In this primitive and 
 abject state, which ill deserves the name 
 of society, the human brute, without 
 arts or laws, almost without sense or 
 language, is poorly distinguished from 
 the rest of the animal creation. Gene 
 rations and ages might roll away in 
 silent oblivion, and the helpless savage 
 was restrained from multiplying his 
 race, by the wants and pursuits which 
 confined his existence to the narrow 
 margin of the sea-coast. But in an 
 early period of antiquity the great body 
 of the Arabs had emerged from this 
 scene of misery ; and as the naked wil- 
 derness could not maintain a people 
 
I'^f^ of Mahomet. 17 
 
 of hunters, they rose at once to the 
 more secure and plentiful condition of 
 the pastoral life. The same life is uni- 
 formly pursued by the roving tribes of 
 the desert ; and in the portrait of the 
 modern Bedoweens^ we may trace the 
 features of their ancestors, who, in the 
 age of Moses or Mahomet, dwelt under 
 similar tents,and conducted their horses, 
 and camels, and sheep, to the same 
 springs and the same pastures. Our 
 toil is lessened, and our wealth is in- 
 creased, by our dominion over the use- 
 ful animals ; and the Arabian shepherd 
 had acquired the absolute possession of 
 a faithful friend and laborious slave.* 
 Arabia, in the opinion of the naturalist, 
 is the genuine and original country of 
 the horse y the climate most propitious, 
 not indeed to the size, but to the spirit 
 
 » Eead (it is no unpleasant task) the incomparable articles 
 of Ma.e Horse and the Camel, in the Natural History of M. de 
 Buffon. 
 
18 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 and swiftness, of that generous animal. 
 The merit of the Barb, the Spanish, and 
 the English breed, is derived from a 
 mixture of Arabian blood : the Bedo- 
 weens preserve, with superstitious care, 
 the honors and the memory of the 
 purest race : the males are sold at a 
 high price, but the females are seldom 
 alienated ; and the birth of a noble 
 foal was esteemed, among the tribes, as 
 a subject of joy and mutual congratu- 
 lation. These horses are educated in 
 the tents, among the children of the 
 Arabs, with a tender familiarity, which 
 trains them in the habits of gentleness 
 and attachment. They are accustomed 
 only to walk and to gallop : their sen 
 sations are not blunted by the inces 
 Bant abuse of the spur and the whip 
 their powers are reserved for the mo 
 ments of flight and pursuit ; but no 
 sooner do they feel the touch of the 
 huid or the stirrup, thaji they dar* 
 
I^^f^ of Mahomet. 19 
 
 fcway with the swiftness of the wind ; 
 and if their friend be dismounted in 
 the rapid career, they instantly stop till 
 he has recovered his seat. In the 
 sands of Africa and Arabia, the camel 
 .s a sacred and precious gift. That 
 Btrong and patient beast of burthen can 
 perform, without eating or drinking, a 
 journey of several days ; and a reser- 
 voir of fresh water is preserved in a 
 large bag, a fifth stomach of the animal, 
 whose body is imprinted with the 
 marks of servitude : the larger breed is 
 capable of transporting a weight of a 
 thousand pounds ; and the dromedary, 
 of a lighter and more active frame, out- 
 strips the fleetest courser in the race. 
 Alive or dead, almost every part of 
 the camel is serviceable to man : her 
 milk is plentiful and nutritious : the 
 young and tender flesh has the taste 
 :>f veal : a valuable salt is extract- 
 ed from the urine ; the dung supplies 
 
20 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 the deficiency of fuel ; and the long 
 hair, which falls each year and is re- 
 newed, is coarsely manufactured into 
 the garments, the furniture, and the 
 tents of the Bedoweens. In the rainy 
 seasons they consume the rare and in- 
 sufficient herbage of the desert : during 
 the heats of summer and the scarcity of 
 winter, they remove their encamp- 
 ments, to the sea-coast, the hills of 
 Yemen, or the neighborhood of the 
 Euphrates, and have often extorted the 
 dangerous licence of visiting the banks 
 of the l^ile, and the villages of Syria 
 and Palestine. The life of a wandering 
 Arab is a life of danger and distress ; 
 and though sometimes, by rapine or 
 exchange, he ma}^ appropriate the fruits 
 of industry, a private citizen of Europe 
 is in possession of more solid and pleas- 
 ing luxury than the proudest emir, who 
 marches in the field at the head of ter: 
 ^^housand horse. 
 
Life of Mahomet . 21 
 
 Yet an essential difference may be 
 found between the hordes of Scythia 
 and the Arabian tribes ; since many of 
 the latter were collected into towns, 
 and employed in the labors of trade 
 and agriculture. A part of their time 
 and industry was still devoted to the 
 management of their cattle : they min- 
 gled, in peace and war, with their 
 brethren of the desert ; and the Bedo- 
 weens derived from their useful inter- 
 course, some supply of their wants, and 
 some rudiments of art and knowledge. 
 Among the forty-two cities of Arabia, 
 enumerated by Abulfeda, the most 
 ancient and populous were situate in 
 the hajpjpy Yemen : the towers of 
 Saana, and the marvellous reservoir of 
 Merab,^ were constructed by the kings 
 of the Homerites ; but their profane 
 
 * The town never recovered the inundation which took 
 olsce from the bursting of a large reservoir of water — an 
 *vent of great importance in the Arabian annals, and dis- 
 eussed at considerable length by modern 'Orientalists.— M. 
 
22 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 lustre was eclipsed by the prophetic 
 glories of Medina, and Mecca/ near the 
 Red sea, and at the distance from each 
 other of two hundred and seventy miles. 
 The last of these holy places was known 
 to the Greeks under the name of Ma 
 coraba ; and the termination of the 
 word is expressive of its greatness, 
 which has not indeed, in the most 
 flourishing period, exceeded the size and 
 populousness of Marseilles.' Some latent 
 motive, perhaps of superstition, must 
 have impelled the founders, in the 
 choice of a most unpromising situation. 
 
 * Even in the time of Gibbon, Mecca had not been so in- 
 accessible to Europeans. It had been visited by Ludovico 
 Barthema, and by one Joseph Pitts of Exeter, who was taken 
 prisoner by the Moors, and forcibly converted to Mahomet 
 anism. His volume is a curious though plain account of hia 
 sufferings and travels. Since that time Mecca has been en- 
 tered, and the ceremonies witnessed, by Dr. Seetzen, whose 
 papers were unfortunately lost ; by the Spaniard who called 
 Himself Ali Bey; and lastly, by Burckhardt, whose descrip- 
 tion leaves nothing wanting to satisfy the curiosity.— M. 
 
 2 Mr. Forster identifies the Greek name with the Arabi* 
 Mechardb^ "the warlike city," or "the city of the Harb." 
 Geogr. of Arabia, vol. i. p. 265. — S. 
 
Life of Mahomet, 23 
 
 They erected their habitations of mua 
 or stone, in a plain about two miles long 
 and one mile broad, at the foot of three 
 barren mountains : the soil is a rock ; 
 the water even of the holy well of Zem 
 zem is bitter or brackish ;^ the pastures 
 are remote from the city ; and grapes 
 are transported above seventy miles 
 from the gardens of Tayef. The fame 
 and spirit of the Koreishites, who 
 reigned in Mecca, were conspicuous 
 among the Arabian tribes ; but their 
 ungrateful soil refused the labors of 
 agriculture, and their position was 
 favorable to the enterprises of trade. 
 By the sea-port of Gedda, at the dis- 
 tance only of forty miles, they maintain- 
 
 » Burckhardt, however, observes : — " The water is heavy 
 n its taste, and sometimes in its color resembles milk, but it 
 5* perfectly sweet, and differs very much from that of the 
 orackish wells dispersed over the town." (Travels in Arabia, 
 p. 144.) Elsewhere he says : — " It seems probable that the 
 town of Mecca owed its origin to this well ; for many miles 
 "•ound no sweet water is found, nor is there in any part of th« 
 •ountry so copious a supply." (Ibid, p. 145). — S. 
 
24 ^tfe of Mahomet. 
 
 ed an easy correspondence with Abys- 
 sinia; and that Christian kingdom af 
 forded the first refuge to the disciples 
 of Mahomet. The treasures of Africa 
 were conveyed over the peninsula of 
 Gerrha or Katif, in the province of 
 Bahrein, a city built, as it is said, of 
 rock-salt, by the Chaldean exiles ; and 
 from thence, with the native pearls of 
 the Persian gulf, they were floated on 
 rafts to the mouth of the Euphrates. 
 Mecca is placed almost at an equal dis- 
 tance, a month's journey, between Ye- 
 men on the right, and Syria on the left 
 hand. The former was the winter, the 
 latter the summer, station of her cara- 
 vans ; and their seasonable arrival re- 
 lieved the ships of India from the tedious 
 and troublesome navigation of the Red 
 sea. In the markets of Saana and Me- 
 rab, in the harbors of Oman and Aden, 
 the camels of the Koreishites were laden 
 with a precious cargo of aromatics ; a 
 
^^f^ of Mahomet. 25 
 
 Biipply of corn and manufactures was 
 purchased in the fairs of Bostra and 
 Damascus ; the lucrative exchange dif- 
 fused plenty and riches in the streets 
 of Mecca ; and the noblest of her sons 
 united the love of arras with the pro- 
 fession of merchandise. 
 
 The perpetual independence of the 
 Arabs has been the theme of praise 
 among strangers and natives ; and the 
 arts of controversy transform this sin- 
 gular event into a prophecy and a mira- 
 cle, in favor of the posterity of Ismael. 
 Some exceptions, that can neither be 
 dissembled nor eluded, render this mode 
 of reasoning as indiscreet as it is super- 
 fluous ; the kingdom of Yemen has been 
 successively subdued by the Abyssin- 
 lans, the Persians, the sultans of Egypt, 
 and the Turks : the holy cities of Mecca 
 and Medina have repeatedly bowed 
 under a Scythian tyrant ; and the Ro- 
 man province of Arabia embraced the 
 
26 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 peculiar wilderness in which Ismael and 
 his sons must have pitched their tents 
 in the face of their brethren. Yet these 
 exceptions are temporary or local ; the 
 body of the nation has escaped the yoke 
 of the most powerful monarchies : the 
 arms of Sesostris and Cyrus, of Pom- 
 pey and Trajan, could never achieve 
 the conquest of Arabia ; the present 
 sovereign of the Turks* may exercise a 
 shadow of jurisdiction, but his pride is 
 reduced to solicit the friendship of a 
 people, whom it is dangerous to pro- 
 voke, and fruitless to attack. The ob- 
 vious causes of their freedom are in- 
 scribed on the character and country 
 of the Arabs. Many ages before Ma- 
 homet, their intrepid valor had been 
 
 » Niebuhr (Description de rArabie, p. 302, 303, 329—331) 
 affords the most recent and authentic intelligence of the 
 Turkish empire in Arabia. ^ 
 
 ^ Niebuhr's, notwithstanding the multitude of later trav 
 «'ilers, maintains its ground as the classical work on Arabia 
 — M. 
 
Life of Mahomet, 27 
 
 eeverlj felt by their neighbors in of- 
 fensive and defensive war. The pa- 
 tient and active virtues of a soldier are 
 insensibly nursed in the habits and dis- 
 cipline of a pastoral life. The care of 
 the sheep and camels is abandoned to 
 the women of the tribe ; but the mar- 
 tial 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 scymitar. The 
 long memory of their independence is 
 the firmest pledge of its perpetuity, and 
 succeeding generations are animated to 
 prove their descent, and to maintain 
 their inheritance. Their domestic feuds 
 are suspended on the approach of a 
 common enemy ; and in their last hos- 
 tilities against the Turks, the caravan 
 of Mecca was attacked and pillaged by 
 fourscore thousand of the confederates. 
 When they advance to battle, the hope 
 of victory is in the front ; in the rear. 
 
28 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 the assurance of a retreat. Their horses 
 and camels, who in eight or ten days 
 can perform a march of four or five 
 hundred miles, disappear before the 
 conqueror ; the secret waters of the 
 desert elude his search ; and his victo- 
 rious troops are consumed with thirst, 
 hunger, and fatigue, in the pursuit of 
 an invisible foe, who scorns his efforts, 
 and safely reposes in the heart of the 
 burning solitude. The nrms and deserts 
 of the Bedoweens are not only the safe- 
 guards of their own freedom, but the 
 barriers also of the Happy Arabia, 
 whose inhabitants, remote from war, 
 are enervated by the luxury of the soil 
 and climate. The legions of Augus- 
 tus melted away in disease and lassi- 
 tude ; and it is only by a naval jjower 
 that the redaction of Yemen has been 
 successfully attempted. When Ma- 
 homet erected his holy standard, that 
 kingdom was a province of the Persiac 
 
Life of Mahomet. 29 
 
 empire ; yet seven princes of the Ho- 
 merites still reigned in the mountains ; 
 and the vicegerent of Chosroes was 
 tempted to forget his distant country 
 and his unfortunate master. The his- 
 torians of the age of Justinian repre- 
 sent the state of the independent Arabs, 
 who were divided by interest or affec- 
 tion in the long quarrel of the east : the 
 tribe of Gassan was allowed to encamp 
 on the Syrian territory : the princes of 
 Hira w^ere permitted to form a city 
 about forty miles to the southward of 
 the ruins of Babylon. Their service in 
 the field was speedy and vigorous ; but 
 their friendship was venal, their faith 
 inconstant, their enmity capricious : it 
 was an easier task to excite than to dis- 
 arm these roving barbarians ; and, in 
 tlie familiar intercourse of war, they 
 learned to see,and to despise,the splendid 
 weakness both of Rome and of Persia. 
 From Mecca to the Euphrates, the 
 
80 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 Arabian tribes were confounded by the 
 Greeks and Latins, under the general 
 appellation of Sakacens, a name which 
 every Christian mouth has been taught 
 to pronounce with terror and abhor- 
 rence. 
 
 The slaves of domestic tyranny may 
 vainly exult in their national indepen 
 dence : but the Arab is personally 
 free; and he enjoys, in some degree, 
 the benefits of society, without forfeit- 
 ing the prerogatives of nature. In 
 every tribe, superstition, or gratitude, 
 or fortune, has exalted a particular 
 family above the heads of their equals. 
 The dignities of sheick and emir invari- 
 ably descend in this chosen race ; but the 
 order of succession is loose and precari- 
 ous, and the most worthy or aged of the 
 noble kinsmen are preferred to the sim- 
 ple, though important, office of compos- 
 ing disputes by their advice, and guiding 
 valor by their example. Even a fe- 
 
^^f^ of Mahomet. 31 
 
 male of sense and spirit has been per- 
 mitted to command the countrymen of 
 Zenobia. The momentary junction of 
 Beveral tribes produces an army ; their 
 more lasting union constitutes a na- 
 tion ; and the supreme chief, the emir 
 of emirs, whose banner is displayed at 
 their head, may deserve, in the eyes of 
 6trangers,the honors of the kingly name. 
 If the Arabian princes abuse their 
 power, they are quickly punished by 
 the desertion of their subjects, who had 
 been accustomed to a mild and parental 
 jurisdiction. Their spirit is free, their 
 steps are unconfined, the desert is open, 
 and the tribes and families are held to- 
 gether by a mutual and voluntary com- 
 pact. The softer natives of Yemen 
 supported the pomp and majesty of a 
 monarch ; but if he could not leave his 
 palace without endangering his life, the 
 ftctive powers of government must havfe 
 eeen devolved on his nobles and mag- 
 
32 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 istrates. The cities of Mecca and 
 Medina present, in the heart of Asia, 
 the form, or rather the substance, of a 
 commonwealth. The grandfather of 
 Mahomet, and his lineal ancestors, ap 
 pear, in foreign and domestic transac- 
 tions as the princes of their country ; 
 but thej reigned, like Pericles at 
 Athens, or the Medici at Florence, by 
 the opinion of their wisdom and integ- 
 rity ; their influence was divided with 
 their patrimony ; and the sceptre was 
 transferred from the uncles of the 
 prophet to a younger branch of the 
 tribe of Koreish. On solemn occasions 
 they convened the assembly of the peo- 
 ple ; and since mankind must be either 
 compelled or persuaded to obey, the 
 use and reputation of oratory among 
 the ancient Arabs is the clearest evi- 
 dence of public freedom. But their 
 simple freedom was of a very different 
 oast from the nice and artificial machi- 
 
Life of Mahomet. 33 
 
 :iery of the Greek and Roman republics, 
 in wliich each member possessed an un- 
 divided share of the civil and political 
 rights of the community. In the more 
 simple state of the Arabs, the nation is 
 free, because each of her sons disdains a 
 base submission to the will of a master. 
 His breast is fortified with the austere 
 virtues of courage, patience, and sobri- 
 ety ; the love of independence prompts 
 him to exercise the habits of self-com- 
 mand ; and the fear of dishonor guards 
 him from the meaner apprehension of 
 pain, of danger, and of death. The 
 gravity and firmness of the mind is 
 conspicuous in his outward demeanor ; 
 his speech is slow, weighty, and con 
 cise ; he is seldom provoked to laughter ; 
 his only gesture is that of stroking his 
 beard, the venerable symbol of man- 
 hood ; and the sense of his own impor 
 tance teaches him to accost his equals 
 ivithout levity, and his superiors with- 
 3 
 
34 I^^f^ of Mahomet. 
 
 out awe/ The liberty of the Saracens 
 survived their conquests : the first 
 galiphs indulged the bold and familiar 
 language of their subjects ; they as- 
 cended the pulpit to persuade and edify 
 the congregation ; nor was it before the 
 seat of empire was removed to the 
 Tigris, that the Abbassides adopted the 
 proud and pompous ceremonial of the 
 Persian and Byzantine courts. 
 
 In the study of nations and men, we 
 may observe the causes that render 
 them hostile or friendly to each other, 
 that tend to narrow or enlarge, to mol- 
 lify or exasperate, the social character. 
 The separation of the Arabs from the 
 rest of mankind, has accustomed them 
 to confound the ideas of stranger and 
 enemy ; and the poverty of the land 
 has introduced a maxim of jurispru 
 dence, which they believe and practise 
 
 » See the curious romance of Antar, the most vivid an . 
 mthentic picture of Arabian manners. — M. 
 
■^V""^ ^f Mahomet. S5 
 
 to tli« present hour. They pretend, 
 that in the division of the earth, the 
 rich and fertile climates were assigned 
 to the other branches of the human 
 family ; and that the posterity of the 
 outlaw Ismael might recover, by fraud 
 or force, the portion of the inheritance 
 of which he had been unjustly deprived. 
 According to the remark of Pliny, the 
 Arabian tribes are equally addicted to 
 theft and merchandise : the caravans 
 that traverse the desert are ransomed 
 or pillaged ; and their neighbors, since 
 the remote times of Job and Sesostris, 
 have been the victims of their rapa- 
 cious spirit. If a Bedoween discovers 
 from afar a solitary traveller, he rides 
 furiously against him, crying, with a 
 loud voice, '' Undress thyself, thy aunt 
 {my wife) is without a garment." A 
 ready submission entitles him to mercy ; 
 resistance will provoke the aggressor, 
 and his own blood must expiate the 
 
36 I^^f^ of Mahomet. 
 
 blood which he presumes to shed in 
 legitimate defence. A single robber, 
 or a few associates, are branded with 
 their genuine name ; but the exploits 
 of a numerous band assume the charac 
 ter of lawful and honorable war. The 
 temper of a people, thus armed against 
 mankind, was doubly inflamed by the 
 domestic license of rapine, murder, and 
 revenge. In the constitution of Europe, 
 the right of peace and war is now con- 
 fined to a small, and the actual exercise 
 to a much smaller, list of respectable 
 potentates ; but each Arab, with im- 
 punity and renown, might point his 
 javelin against the life of his country- 
 man. The union of the nation con- 
 sisted only in a vague resemblance of 
 language and manners ; and in each 
 community, the jurisdiction of the mag- 
 istrate was mute and impotent. Of 
 the time of ignorance which preceded 
 Mahomet, seventeen hundred battles 
 
I^^f^ of Mahomet. 37 
 
 are recorded by tradition : hostility was 
 embittered with the rancor of civil fac- 
 tion ; and the recital, in prose or verse, 
 of an obsolete feud, was sufficient to re- 
 kindle the same passions among the de- 
 scendants of the hostile tribes. In pri- 
 vate life, every man, at least every 
 family, was the judge and avenger of 
 its own cause. The nice sensibility of 
 honor, which weighs the insult rather 
 than the injury, sheds its deadly venom 
 on the quarrels of the Arabs : the honor 
 of their women, and of their heards, is 
 most easily wounded ; an indecent ac- 
 tion, a contemptuous word, can be ex- 
 piated only by the blood of the offender ; 
 and such is their patient inveteracy, 
 that they expect whole months and 
 years the opportunity of revenge. A 
 Sne or compensation for murder is 
 familiar to the barbarians of every age ; 
 but in Arabia the kinsmen of the dead 
 are at liberty to accept the atonement, 
 
58 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 or to exercise with their own hands the 
 iaw of retaliation. The refined malice 
 of the Arabs refuses even the head of 
 the murderer, substitutes an innocent 
 to the guilty person, and transfers tlie 
 penalty to the best and most considera- 
 ble of the race by whom they have been 
 injured. If he falls by their hands, 
 they are exposed in their turn to the 
 danger of reprisals ; the interest and 
 principal of the bloody debt are accu- 
 mulated ; the individuals of either family 
 lead a life of malice and suspicion, and 
 fifty years may sometimes elapse before 
 the account of vengeance be finally 
 settled. This sanguinary spirit, igno- 
 rant of pity or forgiveness, has been 
 moderated, however, by the maxims of 
 honor, which require in every private 
 encounter some decent equality of age 
 and strength, of numbers and weapons. 
 An annual festival of two, perhaps of 
 four, months, was observed by th« 
 
Life of Mahomet. 39 
 
 Arabs before the time oF Mahomet, 
 during which their swords were relig- 
 oiisly sheathed both in foreign and do- 
 mestic hostility ; and this partial truce 
 is more strongly expressive of the habits 
 of anarchy and warfare. 
 
 But the spirit of rapine and revenge 
 was attempered by the milder influence 
 of trade and literature. The solitary 
 peninsula is encompassed by the most 
 civilized nations of the ancient world ; 
 the merchant is the friend of mankind ; 
 and the annual caravans imported the 
 first seeds of knowledge and politeness 
 into the cities, and even the camps, of 
 the desert. Whatever may be the pedi- 
 gree of the Arabs, their language is de- 
 rived from the same original stock 
 with the Hebrew, the Syriac, and the 
 Chaldean tongues ; the independence of 
 the tribes was marked by their peculiar 
 dialects ; but each, after their own, 
 allowed a just preference to the pure 
 
40 Life of Maho 7716 1, 
 
 and perspicuous idiom of Mecca. In 
 Arabia, as well as in Greece, the per- 
 fection of language outstripped the re. 
 finement of manners ; and her speech 
 could diversify the fourscore names of 
 hone}^, the two hundred of a serpent, 
 the five hundred of a lion, the thousand 
 of a sword, at a time when this copious 
 dictionary was intrusted to the memory 
 of an illiterate people. The monu- 
 ments of the Homerites were inscribed 
 with an obsolete and mysterious char- 
 acter ; but the Cufic letters, the ground- 
 work of the present alphabet, were in- 
 vented on the banks of the Euphrates ; 
 and the recent invention was taught at 
 Mecca by a stranger who settled in that 
 city after the birth of Mahomet. The 
 arts of grammar, of metre, and of 
 rhetoric, were unknown to the free-born 
 eloquence of the Arabians ; but their 
 penetration was sharp, their fancy luxu- 
 riant, their wit strong and sententious," 
 
 • Btatod from the one hundred and sixty-nine sentence! 
 
Life of Mahomet, 41 
 
 and their more elaborate compositions 
 were addressed with energy and effect 
 to the minds of tlieir hearers. The 
 genius and merit of a rising poet was 
 celebrated by the applause of his own 
 and the kindred tribes. A solemn 
 banquet was prepared, and a chorus of 
 women, striking their tymbals, and dis- 
 playing the pomp of their nuptials, sung 
 in the presence of their sons and hus- 
 bands the felicity of their native tribe — 
 that a champion had now appeared to 
 vindicate their rights — that a herald 
 had raised his voice to immortalize 
 their renown. The distant or hostile 
 tribes resorted to an annual fair, which 
 was abolished by the fanaticism of the 
 first Moslems — a national assembly that 
 must have contributed to refine and 
 harmonize the barbarians. Thirty days 
 
 |f Ali (translated by Ockley, London, 1718), which afford a 
 Just and favorable specimen of Arabian wit. ' 
 
 » Compare the Arabic proverbs translated by BHtckhardt. 
 Condon, 1830.— M. 
 
42 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 were employed in the exchange, not 
 only of corn and wine, but of eloquence 
 and poetry. The prize was disputed 
 by the generous emulation of the bai'ds ; 
 the victorious performance was deposit- 
 ed in the archives of princes, and 
 emirs ; and we may read in our own 
 language, the seven original poems 
 which were inscribed in letters of gold, 
 and suspended in the temple of Mecca. 
 L^, The Arabian poets were the historians 
 and moralists of the age ; and if they 
 s^^mpathized with the prejudices, tliey 
 inspired and crowned the virtues, of 
 their countrymen. The indissoluble 
 union of generosity and valor was the 
 darling theme of their song ; and when 
 they pointed their keenest satire against 
 a despicable race, they affirmed, in the 
 . bitterness of reproach, that the men 
 knew not how to give, nor the w^omen 
 to deny. The same hospitality, which 
 was practised by Abraham, and cele 
 
Life of Mahomet. 43 
 
 brated by Homer, is still renewed in 
 the camps of the Arabs. The ferocious 
 Bedoweens, tlie terror of the desert, 
 embrace, without inquiry or hesitation, 
 the stranger who dares to confide in 
 their honor and to enter their tent. 
 His treatment is kind and respectful ; 
 he shares the wealth, or the poverty, of 
 his host ; and, after a needful repose, 
 he is dismissed on his way, with thanks, 
 with blessings, and perhaj)s with gifts. 
 The heart and hand are more largely 
 expanded by the wants of a brother or 
 a friend ; but the heroic acts that could 
 deserve the public applause, must have 
 surpassed the narrow measure of dis- 
 cretion and experience. A dispute 
 had arisen, who, among the citizens of 
 Mecca, was entitled to the prize of gen- 
 erosity ; and a successive application was 
 made to the three who were deemed most 
 yorthy of the trial. Abdallah, the son 
 of Abdas, had undertaken a distant 
 
14 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 journey, and his foot was in the stirrup 
 when he heard the voice of a suppliant, 
 " O son of the uncle of the apostle of 
 God, I am a traveller and in distress !" 
 He instantly dismounted, to present the 
 pilgrim with his camel, her rich ca- 
 parison, and a purse of four thousand 
 pieces of gold, excepting only the 
 sword, either for its intrinsic value, or 
 as the gift of an honored kinsman. 
 The servant of Kais informed the second 
 suppliant that his master was asleep ; 
 but he immediately added, " Here is a 
 purse of seven thousand pieces of gold, 
 (it is all we have in the house,) and 
 here is an order, that will entitle you 
 to a camel and a slave ;" the master, as 
 soon as he awoke, praised and enfran- 
 chised his faithful steward with a ofentle 
 reproof, that by respecting his slumbers 
 he had stinted his bounty. The thira 
 of these heroes, the blind Arabah, at 
 the hour of prayer, was supporting his 
 
Life of Mahomet. 45 
 
 Bteps on the shoulders of two slaves. 
 " Alas !" he replied, '* my coffers are 
 empty ! but these you may sell ; if you 
 refuse, 1 renounce them." At these 
 words, pushing away the youths, he 
 groped along the w^all with his staff. 
 The character of Hatem is the perfect 
 model of Arabian virtue ; * he was brave 
 and liberal, an eloquent poet, and a 
 successful robber: forty camels were 
 roasted at his hospitable feasts ; and at 
 the prayer of a suppliant enemy, he 
 restored both the captives and the spoil. 
 The freedom of his countrymen disdain- 
 ed the laws of justice ; they proudly 
 indulged the spontaneous impulse of 
 pity and benevolence. 
 
 The religion of the Arabs, as well as 
 of the Indians, consisted in the worship 
 of the sun, the moon, and the fixed 
 
 * See tlie translation of the amusing Persian romance ol 
 Hatim Tai, by Duncan Forbes, Esq., among the works pub* 
 Sished by the Oriental Translation Fund.— M. 
 
46 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 stars; a primitive and specious mode 
 of superstition. The bright luminaries 
 of the sky display the visible image of 
 the Deity : their number and distance 
 convey to a philosophic, or even a 
 vulgar, eye, the idea of boundless 
 space : the character of eternity is 
 marked on these solid globes, that seem 
 incapable of corruption or decay : the 
 regularity of their motions may be as- 
 cribed to a principle of reason or in- 
 stinct ; and their real or imaginary in- 
 fluence encourages the vain belief that 
 the earth and its inhabitants are the 
 object of their peculiar care. The 
 science of astronomy was cultivated at 
 Babylon ; but the school of the Arabs 
 was a clear firmament and a naked 
 plain. In their nocturnal marches, 
 they steered by the guidance of the 
 etars ; their names, and order, and 
 daily station, were familiar to the curi 
 osity and devotion of th*- Bedoween 
 
I^^f^ of Mahomet. 47 
 
 and he was taught by experience to 
 divide in twenty-eight parts the zodiac 
 of the moon, and to bless the constella- 
 tions who refreshed, with salutary rains, 
 the thirst of the desert. The reign of 
 the heavenly orbs could not be extend* 
 ed beyond the visible sphere ; and some 
 metaphysical powers were necessary to 
 sustain the transmigration of souls and 
 the resurrection of bodies : a camel was 
 left to perish on the grave, that he might 
 serve his master in another life ; and 
 the invocation of departed spirits im- 
 plies that they were still endowed with 
 consciousness and power. I am igno- 
 rant, and I am careless, of the blind 
 mythology of the barbarians ; of the 
 local deities, of the stars, the air, ana 
 the earth, of their sex or titles, their 
 attributes, or subordination. Eacn 
 ♦■ribe, each family, each independent 
 warrior, created and changed the ritep 
 and the object of his fantastic worship 
 
48 Life cf Mahomet. 
 
 but the nation, in every age, has bowed 
 to the religion, as well as to the lan- 
 guage, of Mecca. The genuine antiquity 
 of the Caaba ascends beyond th 
 Christian era : in describing the coas 
 of the Red Sea, the Greek historian 
 Diodorus has remarked, between the 
 Thamudites and the Sabians, a famous 
 temple,^ whose superior sanctity was 
 revered by all the Arabians ; the linen 
 or silken veil, which is annually renew- 
 ed by the Turkish emperor, was first 
 offered by a pious king of the Homer- 
 ites, who reigned seven hundred years 
 before the time of Mahomet. A tent, 
 or a cavern, might suffice for the wor- 
 ship of the savages, but an edifice of 
 
 » Mr. Forster (Geography of Arabia, vol. ii. p. 118 et 
 fr3q.) has raised an objection, as I thinlc, fatal to this hypo- 
 thesis of Gibbon. The temple, situated in the country of the 
 Banizomeneis, was not between the Thamudites and the 
 Babians, but higher up than the coast inhabited by the for- 
 mer. Mr. Forster would place it as far north as Moilah. I 
 am not quite satisfied that this will agree 'f?ith the whol« 
 :lescription of Diodorus. — M. 1845. 
 
Life of Mahomet. 49 
 
 Btone and clay has been erected in its 
 place ; and the art and power of the 
 monarchs of the east have been con- 
 fined to the simplicity of the original 
 model. A spacious portico includes 
 the quadrangle of the Caaba — a square 
 chapel, twenty -four cubits long, twenty- 
 three broad, and twenty-seven high : a 
 door and a window admit the light ; 
 the double roof is supported by three 
 pillars of wood ; a spout (now of gold) 
 discharges the rain-water, and the well 
 Zemzem is protected by a dome from 
 accidental pollution. The tribe of 
 Koreish, by fraud or force, had ac- 
 quired the custody of the Caaba : the 
 sacerdotal office devolved through four 
 lineal descents to the grandfather of 
 Mahomet ; and the family of the 
 Hashemites, from whence he sprung, 
 was the most respectable and sacred 
 in the eyes of their country. The pre- 
 nncts of Mecca enjoyed the rights of 
 5 
 
50 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 Banctuaiy; and, in the last month of 
 each year, the city and temple were 
 crowded with a long train of pilgrims, 
 who presented their vows and offerings 
 in the house of God. The same rites, 
 which are now accomplished by the 
 faithful rnussulman, were invented and 
 practised by the superstition of the 
 idolaters. At an awful distance they 
 cast away their garments : seven times, 
 with hasty steps, they encircled the 
 Caaba, and kissed the black stone: 
 seven times they visited and adored the 
 adjacent mountains : seven times they 
 threw stones into the valley of Mina : 
 and the pilgrimage was achieved, as at 
 the present hour, by a sacrifice of sheep 
 and camels, and the burial of their hair 
 and nails in the consecrated ground. 
 Each tribe either found or introduced 
 in the Caaba their domestic worship ; 
 the temple was adorned, or defiled, with 
 three hundred and sixty idols of men 
 
Life, of Mahomet, 51 
 
 eagles, lions, and antelopes ; and most 
 conspicuous was the statue of Hebal, of 
 red agate, holding in his hand seven 
 arrows, without heads or feathers, the 
 instruments and symbols of profane 
 divination. But this statue was a 
 monument of Syrian arts: the devotion 
 of the ruder ages was content with a 
 pillar or a tablet : and the rocks of the 
 desert were hewn into gods or altars, in 
 imitation of the black stone of Mecca, 
 wliich is deeply tainted with the re- 
 proach of an idolatrous origin. From 
 Japan to Peru, the use of sacrifice has 
 universally prevailed ; and the votary 
 has expressed his gratitude, or fear, by 
 viestroying, or consuming, in honor of 
 the gods, the dearest and most precious 
 vf their gifts. The life of a man is the 
 most precious oblation to deprecate a 
 public calamity ; the altars of Phoenicia 
 dnd Egypt, of Rome and Cartilage, have 
 been polluted with human gore ; the 
 
62 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 cruel practice was long preserved 
 among the Arabs ; in the third century, 
 a boy was annually sacrificed by the tribe 
 of Diunatians ; and a royal captive was 
 piously slaughtered b}^ the prince of 
 the Saracens, the ally and soldier of 
 the emperor Justinian/ A parent who 
 drags his son to the altar, exhibits the 
 most painful and sublime effort of fa- 
 naticism ; the deed, or the intention,was 
 sanctified by the example of saints and 
 heroes ; and the father of Mahomet 
 himself was devoted by a rash vow, 
 and hardly ransomed for the equivalent 
 of a hundred camels. In the time of 
 ignorance, the Arabs, like the Jews 
 and Egyptians, abstained from the taste 
 of swine's flesh ; they circumcised their 
 children at the age of puberty : the 
 
 > A writer in the ' Calcutta Eeview ' (No. xlill. p. 15' 
 maintains that the sacrifice of human beings in Arabia waa 
 #nly incidental, and in the case of violent and cruel tyrants 
 wrhero it is alleged to have been done uniformly and on 
 iriuciple. the autliority seems doubtful. — S. 
 
Life of Mahomet, 63 
 
 same customs, without the censure or 
 the precept of the Koran, have been 
 Bilently transmitted to their posterity 
 and proselytes. It has been sagaciously 
 conjectured, that the artful legislatoj 
 indulged the stubborn prejudices ot 
 his countrymen. It is more simple to 
 believe that he adhered to the habits 
 and opinions of his youth, without 
 foreseeing that a practice congenial to 
 the climate of Mecca, might become 
 useless or inconvenient on the banks of 
 the Danube or the Yolga. 
 
 Arabia was free : the adjacent king- 
 doms were shaken by the storms of con- 
 quest and tyranny, and the persecuted 
 Beets fled to the happy land where they 
 might profess what they thought, and 
 practise what they professed. The re- 
 ligions of the Sabians and Magians, of 
 the Jews and Christians, were dissemi- 
 nated from the Persian gulf to the Eed 
 Sea. In a remote period of antiquity. 
 
54 Lif& of Mahomet. 
 
 X 
 
 Sabianism was diffused over Asia by 
 the science of the Chaldeans and the 
 arms of the Assyrians. From the ob- 
 servations of two thousand years, the 
 priests and astronomers of Babylon de- 
 duced the eternal laws of nature and 
 providence. They adored the seven 
 gods, or angels, who directed the course 
 of the seven planets, and shed their 
 irresistible influence on the earth. The 
 attributes of the seven planets, with the 
 twelve signs of the zodiac, and the 
 twenty-four constellations of the north- 
 ern and southern hemisphere, were rep- 
 resented by images and talismans ; the 
 seven days of the week were dedicated 
 to their respective deities : the Sabians 
 prayed thrice each day ; and the tem- 
 ple of the moon at Haran w^as the term 
 of their pilgrimage. But the flexible 
 genius of their faith was always ready 
 either to teach or to learn : in the tra- 
 dition of the creation, the deluge, and 
 
Life of Mahomet, 65 
 
 the patriarchs, they held a singular 
 agreement with their Jewish captives ; 
 they appealed to the secret books of 
 Adam, Seth, and Enoch ; and a slight 
 infusion of the gospel has transformed 
 the last remnant of the polytheists into 
 the Christians of St. John, in the ter- 
 ritory of Bassora/ The altars of Babylon 
 were overturned by the Magians ; but 
 the injuries of the Sabians were reveng- 
 ed by the sword of Alexander ; Persia 
 groaned above live hundred years under 
 a foreign yoke ; and the purest disciples 
 of Zoroaster escaped from the conta- 
 gion of idolatry, and breathed with 
 their adversaries the freedom of the 
 desert. Seven hundred years before 
 the death of Mahomet, the Jews were 
 ettled in Arabia ; and a far greater 
 
 » The Codex Nasiraeus, their sacred book, has been pub- 
 tshed by Norberg, whose researches contain almost all that 
 Tsnown of this singular people. But their origin is almost 
 •8 obscure as ever : if ancient, their creed has been so cor- 
 Ti.pted with mysticism and Mahometanism, that its native 
 .ieaments are very indistincrt. — M. 
 
56 Life' of Mahomet, 
 
 multitude was expelled from the holy 
 land in the wars of Titus and Hadrian. 
 The industrious exiles aspired to liberty 
 and power : they erected synagogues 
 in the cities, and castles in the wilder- 
 ness ; and their Gentile converts were 
 confounded with the children of Israel, 
 whom they resembled in the outward 
 mark of circumcision. The Christian 
 missionaries were still more active and 
 successful : the Catholics asserted their 
 universal reign ; the sects whom they 
 oppressed successively retired beyond 
 the limits of the Roman empire ; the 
 Marcionites and the Manichseans dis- 
 persed their jphantasiic opinions and 
 apocryphal gospels ; the churches of 
 Yemen, and the princes of Hira and 
 Gassan, were instructed in a purer 
 creed by the Jacobite and JN'estorian 
 bishops. The liberty of choice was 
 presented to the tribes ; each Arab was 
 free to elect or to compose his private 
 
Life of Mahomet » 67 
 
 religion ; and the rude superstition of 
 his house was mingled with the sublime 
 theology of saints and philosophers. 
 A fundamental article of faith was in- 
 culcated by the consent of the learned 
 strangers ; the existence of one supreme 
 God, who is exalted above tlie powers 
 of heaven and earth, but who has often 
 revealed himself to mankind by the 
 ministry of his angels and prophets, and 
 whose grace or justice has interrupted, 
 by seasonable miracles, the order of 
 nature. The most rational of the Arabs 
 acknowledged his power, though the^^ 
 neglected liis worship ; and it was habit 
 rather than conviction that still attach- 
 ed them to the relics of idolatr3^ The 
 Jews and Christians were the people 
 of the hook; the Bible was already 
 translated into the Arabic language, 
 und the volume of the Old Testament 
 was accepted by the concord of these 
 viiiplacable enemies. In the story of 
 
58 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 the Hebrew patriarchs, the Arabs were 
 pleased to discover the fathers of their 
 nation. Thej applauded the birth and 
 promises of Ismael ; revered the faith 
 and virtue of Abraham ; traced his 
 pedigree and their own to the creation 
 of the first man, and imbibed with equal 
 credulit}" the prodigies of the holy text, 
 and the dreams and traditions of the 
 Jewish rabbis. 
 
 The base and plebeian origin of Ma- 
 homet is an unskilful calumny of the 
 Christians/ who exalted instead of de- 
 grading the merit of their adversary. 
 His descent from Ismael was a national 
 privilege or fable ; but if the first steps 
 of the pedigree are dark and doubtful, 
 he could produce many generations of 
 pure and genuine nobility : he sprung 
 from the tribe of Koreish'' and the 
 
 » The most orthodox Mahometans only reckon back th« 
 ancestry of the prophet, for twenty generations, to Adnan. 
 'Weil, Mohammed der Prophet, p. 1).— M. 1845. 
 
 ^ According to the usually received tradition, Koreisb 
 
Life of Mahomet, 59 
 
 familj of Hashem, the most illustrious 
 of the Arabs, the princes of Mecca, and 
 the hereditary guardians of the Caaba.* 
 The grandfather of Mahomet was Abdol 
 Motalleb, the son of Hashem, a wealthy 
 and generous citizen, who relieved the 
 distress of famine with the supplies of 
 commerce. Mecca, which had been 
 
 was originally an epithet conferred upon Fihr (born about 
 A. D. 200), who was the ancestor, at the distance of eight 
 generations, of the famous Kussai mentioned in the next 
 note. Sprenger, however, maintains that the tribe of Korcish 
 was first formed by Kussai, and that the members of the 
 new tribe called themselves the children of Fihr as a symbol 
 of unity. He regards Fihr as a mythical personage. (See 
 Caussin de Perceval, vol. i. p. 42 ; Calcutta Eeview, No. xli. 
 p. 42 ; Sprenger, Life of Mohammed, p. 42). — S. 
 
 1 Kussai, (born about A. D. 400), great-grandfather of 
 Abdol Motalleb, and consequently fifth in the ascending line 
 from Mahomet, obtained supreme power at Mecca. Hia 
 ofiice and privileges were— to supply the numerous pilgrims 
 with food and fresh water, the latter a rare article at Mecca; 
 to conduct the business of the temple ; and to preside in the 
 lenate or council. His revenues were a tenth of all mer« 
 shandise brought to Mecca. After the death of Kussai these 
 offices became divided among his descendants ; and, though 
 Ihe branch from which Mahomet sprang belonged to the 
 reigning line, yet his family, especially after the death cf his 
 ^andfather, had but little to do with the actual government 
 tf Mecca. (Weil, Mohammed pp. 4 and 12).— S. 
 
60 ^^f^ of Mahomet, 
 
 fed by the liberality of the father, was 
 saved by the courage of the son. The 
 kingdom of Yemen was subject to the 
 Christian princes of Abyssinia : tlieir 
 vassal Abrahah was provoked by an in- 
 Rult to avenge the honor of the cross; 
 and the holy city was invested by a 
 train of elephants, and an army of 
 Africans. A treaty was proposed ; and, 
 in the first audience, the grandfather 
 of Mahomet demanded the restitution 
 of his cattle. " And why," said Abra- 
 hah, " do you not rather implore my 
 clemency in favor of your temple, which 
 I have threatened to destroy ? " " Be- 
 cause," replied the intrepid chief, " the 
 cattle are my own ; the Caaba belongs to 
 the gods, and they will defend their 
 house from injury and sacrilege." The 
 want of provisions, or the valor of the 
 Koreish, compelled the Abyssinians to 
 a disgraceful retreat : their discomfiture 
 has been adorned with a miraculous 
 
Life of Mahomet, 61 
 
 flight of birds, who showered down 
 stones on the heads of the infidels ; and 
 the deliverance was long commemo- 
 rated by the era of tlie elephant/ The 
 glory of Abdol Motalleb was crowned 
 with domestic happiness ; his life was 
 prolonged to the age of one hundred and 
 ten years,' and he became the father of 
 six daughters and thirteen sons. His 
 best beloved Abdallah was the most 
 beautiful and modest of the Arabian 
 youth; and in the first night, when he con- 
 summated his marriage with Amina,' 
 of the noble race of the Zahrites, two 
 hundred virgins are said to have ex- 
 
 1 The apparent miracle was nothing else but the small- 
 pox, which broke out in the army of Abrahah. (Sprenger, 
 Life of Mohammed, p. 35, who quotes Wakidi ; Weil, Mo- 
 hammed, p. 10.) This seems to have been the first appear- 
 ance of the small-pox in Arabia. (Eeiske, Opuscula Medica 
 sx monumentis Arabum, Halae, 1776, p. 8).— S. 
 
 2 Weil sets him down at about eighty-two at his death- 
 ^Mohammed, p. 28).— S. 
 
 3 Amina was of Jewish birth. (Von Hammer, Geschichte 
 uer Assass., p. 10).— M. 
 
 Von Hammer gives no authority for this important fact 
 
32 Life of Mahomet , 
 
 pired of jealousy and despair. Ma- 
 homet, or more properly Mohammed,' 
 the only son of Abdallali and Amina, 
 was born'' at Mecca, four years after the 
 death of Justinian, and two months 
 after the defeat of the Abyssinians, 
 whose victory would have introduced 
 
 which seems hardly to agree with Sprenger's account that 
 she was a Koreishite, and the daughter of Wahb, an elder 
 of the Zohrah family.— S. 
 
 1 Mohammed means "praised," the name given to him 
 by his grandfather on account of the favorable omen attend- 
 ing his birth. When Amina had given birth to the prophet, 
 she sent for his grandfather, and related to him that she had 
 seen in a dream a light proceeding from her body, which 
 illuminated the palaces of Bostra. (Sprenger, p. 76.) We 
 learn from Burckhardt that among the Arabs a name is 
 given to the infant immediately on its birth. The name is 
 derived from some trifling accident, or from some object 
 which had struck the fancy of the mother or any of the 
 women present at the child's birth. (Notes on the Bedouins, 
 vol. i. p. 97).— S. 
 
 2 All authorities agree that Mohammed was born on a 
 Monday, in the first half of Eaby' I. ; but they differ on the 
 year and on the date of the month. Most traditions say that 
 ne di(d at an age of sixty-three years. If this is correct, he 
 ivas born in 571.* There are, however, good traditions in 
 Bokhari, Moslim, and Tirmidzy, according to which he 
 »ttained an age of sixty -five yeara, which would place bii 
 
 * This is the year which Weil decides upon. 
 
Life of Mahomet, 63 
 
 into the Caaba the religion of the 
 Christians. In his early infancj,' he 
 
 birth in 569. With reference to the date, his birth Jay i» 
 celebrated on the 12th of Eaby' I. by the Musalmans, and for 
 this day are almost all traditions. This was a Thursday in 
 571, and a Tuesday in 569 ; and, supposing the new moon of 
 Eaby'I. was seen one day sooner than expected, it was a 
 Monday in 569. A tradition of Abfl Ma'shar is for the 2d of 
 Raby' I., which was a Monday in 571 ; but Abii Ma'shar was 
 a mathematician, and his account may possibly be a calcula- 
 tion, and not a tradition. There are also traditions for the 
 first Monday, and for the 10th day of the month." (Sprenger 
 p. 75.) 
 
 In reference, however, to this subject, it is important to 
 observe that Caussin de Perceval has brought forward rea 
 sons for believing that the Meccan year was originally a 
 lunar one, and continued so till the beginning of the fifih 
 century, when, in imitation of the Jews, it was turned by 
 the intercalation of a month at the close of every third year, 
 into a luni-solar period. (C, de Perceval, Essai, &c., vol. i. p. 
 49 ; Journal Asiatique, April, 1843, p. 342.) Hence it follows 
 that all calculations up to the end of Mahomefs life must be 
 made in luni-solar years, and not in lunar years, involving 
 a yearly difference of ten days. Hence also we can explain 
 certain discrepancies in Mahomet's life, some historians cal- 
 culating by the luni-solar year in force in the period under 
 narration, others adjusting such periods by the applicatiou 
 of the lunar year subsequently adopted. Thus some mak» 
 their prophet to have lived sixty-three or sixty-three and a 
 talf years, others sixty -five— the one possibly being luni- 
 Bolar, the other lunar years. (See Calcutta Eeview, No. xli. 
 •>. 49).— S. 
 
 1 The father of Mahomet died two months before hit 
 
64 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 — ' V 
 
 was deprived of his father, his mother, 
 and his grandfather ; his uncles were 
 strong and numerous ; and in the 
 division of the inheritance, the orphan's 
 share was reduced to five camels and 
 an Ethiopian maid-servant.* At home 
 and abroad, in peace and war, Abu 
 Taleb, the most respectable of his 
 uncles, was the guide and guardian of 
 his youth ; in his twentj-iifth year, he 
 entered into the service of Cadijah, a 
 rich arid noble widow of Mecca, who 
 
 birth ; and to the ill state of health which the shock of this 
 premature bereavement entailed on his widow, Sprcnger 
 attributes the sickly and nervous temperament of Mahomet. 
 His mother died in his seventh year (p. 79) ; his grandfather 
 two years later. — 8. 
 
 1 Sprenger, however, (p. 81), ascribes his poverty not to 
 the injustice of his uncles, who, on the contrary, were anx- 
 ious to bring him forwards, but to his own inactivity and 
 unfitness for the ordinary duties of life. He had the same 
 patrimony with which his father began life, viz., a house, five 
 camels, a flock of sheep, and a female slave ; yet he was re- 
 iuced to the necessity of pasturing sheep, an occupation 
 considered by the Arabs as peculiarly humiliating. (Com- 
 pare Weil, p. 33.) The l-att^r author adds that Mahomed 
 afterwards entered into the linen trade, in partnership witi 
 a man named Saib.— S. 
 
Life, of Mahomet. 65 
 
 »ooii rewarded his fidelity with the gift 
 of her hand and fortune. The marriage 
 contract, in the simple style of antiquity, 
 recites the mutual love of Mahomet and 
 Cadijah ; describes him as the most ac- 
 complished of the tribe of Koreish ; and 
 stipulates a dowry of twelve ounces of 
 gold and twenty camels, which was 
 supplied by the liberality of his uncle. 
 By this alliance, the son of Abdallah 
 was restored to the station of his an- 
 cestors ; and the judicious matron was 
 content with his domestic virtues, till, 
 in the fortieth year of his age, he as- 
 sumed the title of a prophet, and pro- 
 claimed the religion of the Koran. 
 
 According to the tradition of his com- 
 panions, Mahomet was distinguished 
 by the beauty of his person, an out- 
 ward gift which is seldom despised, 
 except by those to whom 't has been 
 refused. Before h« spoke, the orator 
 engaged on his side the affections of a 
 
S6 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 public or private audience. They ap- 
 plauded his commanding presence, his 
 majestic aspect, his piercing eye, his 
 gracious smile, his flowing beard, his 
 countenance that painted every sensa- 
 tion of the soul, and his gestures that 
 enforced each expression of the tongue/ 
 
 1 To the general characteristics of Mahomet's person here 
 recorded by Gibbon, it may not be uninteresting to add the 
 more particular traits derived from the researches of modern 
 orientalists, " Mohammed," says Dr. Sprenger, " was of 
 middling size, had broad shoulders, a wide chest, and large 
 bones, and he was fleshy "but not stout. The immoderate 
 size of his head was partly disguised by the long locks of hair, 
 which in slight curls came nearly down to the lobes of his 
 ears. His oval face, though tawny, was rather fair for an 
 Arab, but neither pale nor high colored. The forehead was 
 broad, and his fine and long, but narrow, eyebrows were 
 separated by a vein, which you could see throbbing if he 
 was angry. Under long eyelashes sparkled bloodshot black 
 eyes through wide-slit eyelids. His nose was large, promi- 
 nent, and slightly hooked, and the tip of it seemed to be 
 turned up, but was not so in reality. The mouth was wide, 
 and he had a good set of teeth, and the fore-teeth were 
 asunder. His beard rose from the cheek-bones and came 
 down to the collarbone ; he clipped his mustachios, but did 
 not shave them. He stooped, and was slightly humpbacked. 
 H.s gait was careless, and he walked fast but heavily, as if 
 he were ascending a hill ; * and if he looked back, he turned 
 
 ♦ "Weil's description, which agrees in other particulars, 
 differs in this : " His hands and feet," says that writer, 
 *were very large, yet his step was so light that his foot left 
 no mark behind in the sand." — p. 341. 
 
Life of Mahomet, 67 
 
 In the familiar offices of life iie Bcru' 
 pulously adhered to the grave and cere- 
 monious politeness of his country : his 
 respectful attention to the rich and 
 powerful was dignified by his conde- 
 scension and affability to the poorest 
 citizens of Mecca : the frankness of his 
 manner concealed the artifice of his 
 views ; and the habits of courtesy were 
 imputed to personal friendship, or uni- 
 versal benevolence. His memory was 
 capacious and retentive, his wit easy 
 and social, his imagination sublime, his 
 judgment clear, rapid, and decisive. 
 He possessed the courage both of 
 
 his whole body. The mildness of his countenance gained 
 him the confidence of every one ; but he could not look 
 Btraight into a man's face ; he turned his eyes usually out« 
 wards. On his back he had a round, fleshy tumor of the 
 Bize of a pigeon's egg ; its farrowed surface was covered 
 with hair, and its base was surrounded by black moles. 
 This was considered as the seal of his prophetic mission, at 
 least during the latter part of his career, by his followers 
 Vho were so devout that they found a cure for their ailings 
 ji drinking the water in which ne had bathed ; and it must 
 have been very refreshing, for he perspired profusely, and 
 kis skin exhaled a strong smell." (Life of Mohammed, p. 84] 
 
88 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 thought and action ; and, although his 
 designs might gradually expand with 
 his success, the first idea which he en- 
 tertained of his divine mission bears 
 the stamp of an original and superior 
 genius. The son of Abdallah was 
 educated in the bosom of the noblest 
 race, in the use of the purest dialect of 
 Arabia ;^ and the fluency of his speech 
 was corrected and enhanced by the 
 practice of discreet and seasonable 
 silence. With these powers of elo- 
 quence, Mahomet was an illiterate bar- 
 barian : his youth had never been in- 
 structed in the arts of reading and 
 writing;'' the common ignorance ex- 
 
 1 Namely, both as being a Koreishite, and as having been 
 suckled five years in the desert by his foster-mother Haly- 
 mah, of the tribe of Banu Sad, which spoke the purest dia 
 lect. (Sprenger, p. 77). — 3. 
 
 "^ Modern orientalists are inclined to answer the question 
 whether Mahomet could read and write in the affirmative. 
 The point hinges upon the critical interpretation of certain 
 passages of the Koran, and upon the authority of traditiona 
 the 96th Sura, adduced by Gibbon in suppor* of his view 
 
Life of Mahomet. 69 
 
 empted him from shame or reproach^ 
 but he was reduced to a narrow circle 
 of existence, and deprived of those 
 faithful mirrors, which reflect to our 
 mind the minds of sages and heroes. 
 Yet the book of nature and of man was 
 open to his view ; and some fancy has 
 
 Is interpreted by Silvestre de Sacy as an argument on the 
 opposite side, (Mem. de T Acad, des Inscr. L., p. 95), and his 
 opinion is supported by Weil (p. 46, note 50). Moslem au- 
 thors are at variance on the subject. Almost all the modern 
 •writers, and many of the old, deny the ability of their pro- 
 phet to read and write ; but good authors, especially of the 
 Shiite sect, admit that he could read, though they describe 
 him as an unskilful penman. The former class of writers 
 support their opinion by perverting the texts of the Koran 
 which bear upon the subject " Several instances," says 
 Dr. Sprenger, "in which Mohammed did read and write, are 
 recorded by Bokhari, Nasay, and others. It is, however, 
 certain that he wished to appear ignorant, in order to raise 
 the elegance of the composition of the Koran into a mira- 
 cle " (p. 102). The same wish would doubtless influence 
 the views of the more orthodox Musulman commentators. 
 It may be further remarked, that reading and writing were 
 far from being so rare among the citizens of Mecca in the 
 •ime of Mahomet as Gibbon represents (Sprenger, p. 37). 
 Kor, on a general view, does it appear probable that a work 
 like the Koran, containing frequent references to the Scrip- 
 tures and other books, should have been composed by " as 
 Illiterate barbarian."— a 
 
VO Life of Mahomet, 
 
 been indulged in the political and 
 philosophical observations which are 
 ascribed to the Arabian traveller. He 
 compares the nations and the religions 
 of the earth ; discovers the weakness 
 of the Persian and Roman monarchies ; 
 beholds, with pity and indignation, the 
 degeneracy of the times ; and resolves to 
 unite, under one God and one king, the 
 invincible spirit and primitive virtues of 
 the Arabs. Our more accurate inquiry 
 will suggest, that instead of visiting the 
 courts, the camps, the temples of the 
 east, the two journeys of Mahomet into 
 Syria were confined to the fairs of Bostra 
 and Damascus ; that he was only thir- 
 teen years of age when he accompanied 
 the caravan of his uncle ; and that his 
 duty compelled him to return as soon 
 HB he had disposed of the merchandise 
 of Cadijah. In these hasty and super 
 ficial excursions, the eye of genius might 
 discern some objects invisible to his 
 
L^f^ of Mahomet, 71 
 
 grosser companions ; some seeds of 
 knowledge might be cast upon a fruit- 
 ful soil ; but bis ignorance of tbe Sjriac 
 language must have checked bis curi- 
 osity ; and I cannot perceive, in the 
 life or v^ritings of Mahomet, that bis 
 prospect was far extended beyond the 
 limits of tbe Arabian world. From 
 every region of that solitary world, tbe 
 pilgrims of Mecca were annually assem- 
 bled, by the calls of devotion and com- 
 merce : in the free concourse of multi- 
 tudes, a simple citizen, in bis native 
 tongue, might study tbe political state 
 and character of the tribes, the theory 
 and practice of tbe Jews and Christians. 
 Some useful strangers might be tempted, 
 or forced, to implore the rites of hos- 
 pitality ; and the enemies of Mahomet 
 nave named the Jew, the Persian, and 
 tbe Syrian monk, whom they accuse of 
 lending their secret aid to tbe compo- 
 lition of tbe Koran. Conversation en 
 
72 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 riches the understanding, but solitude is 
 the school of genius ; and the uniformity 
 of a work denotes the hand of a single 
 artist. From his earliest youth Ma- 
 liomet was addicted to religious con- 
 templation ; each year, during the 
 month of Ramadan, he withdrew from 
 the world, and from the arms of Cadi- 
 jah : in the cave of Hera, three miles 
 from Mecca, he consulted the spirit of 
 fraud or enthusiasm, whose abode is 
 not in the heavens, but in the mind of 
 the prophet. The faith which, under 
 the name of Islam,^ he preached to his 
 family and nation, is compounded of an 
 
 1 Isldm is the verbal noun, or infinitive, and Mbslim, 
 whicli has been corrupted into Musalman or Musulman, is 
 the participle of the causative form of salm, which means 
 immunity, peace. The signification of IslAm is therefore to 
 make peace, or to obtain immunity, either by compact, oi 
 by doing homage to the stronger, acknowledging his supe- 
 riority, and surrendering to him the object of the dispute. It 
 also means simply to surrender. In the Koran it signifies 
 .'n most instances to do homage to God, to acknowledge him 
 as our absolute Lord, to the exclusion of idols. Sometimes^ 
 Aowever, it occurs in that book in its technical meaning, ai 
 L\ie name of a religion. (Sprenger, p. 168).— S. 
 
Life of Mahomet. 73 
 
 eternal truth, and a necessary fiction, 
 That there is only one God, and that 
 Mahomet is the apostle of God. 
 
 It is the boast of the Jewish apolo- 
 gists, that while the learned nations of 
 antiquity were deluded by the fables 
 of polytheism, their simple ancestors of 
 Palestine preserved the knowledge and 
 worship of the true God. The moral 
 attributes of Jehovah may not easily be 
 reconciled with the standard of human 
 virtue ; his metaphysical qualities are 
 darkly expressed ; but each page of the 
 Pentateuch and the Prophets is an evi- 
 dence of his power : the nnity of his 
 name is inscribed on the first table of 
 the law ; and his sanctuary was never 
 defiled by any visible image of the 
 invisible essence. After the ruin of 
 the temple, the faith of the Hebrew 
 exiles was purified, fixed, and enlight- 
 ened, by the spiritual devotion of the 
 synagogue ; and the authority of Ma- 
 
Y4 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 hornet will not justify his perpetual 
 reproach, that the Jews of Mecca or 
 Medina adored Ezra as the son of God. 
 But the children of Israel had ceased to 
 be a people ; and the religions of the 
 world were guilty, at least in the eyes 
 of the prophet, of giving sons, or daugh- 
 ters, or companions, to the supreme 
 God. In the rude idolatry of the Arabs, 
 the crime is manifest and audacious : 
 the Sabians are poorly excused by the 
 pre-eminence of the first planet, or in- 
 telligence, in their celestial hierarchy ; 
 and in the Magian system the conflict 
 of the two principles betrays the im- 
 perfection of the conqueror. The 
 Christians of the seventh century had 
 Insensibly relapsed into a semblance of 
 paganism ; their public and private 
 vows were addressed to the relics and 
 images that disgraced the temples of 
 the east : the throne of the Almighty 
 was darkened by a cloud of martyrs 
 
Life of Mahomet, 15 
 
 and saints, and angels, the objects of 
 popular veneration ; and the Collyri- 
 dian heretics, who flourished in the 
 fruitful soil of Arabia, invested the 
 Virgin Mary with the name and 
 honors of a goddess. The mysteries 
 of the Trinity and Incarnation appear 
 to contradict the principle of the divine 
 nnity. In their obvious sense, they in- 
 ti'oduce three equal deities, and trans- 
 form the man Jesus into the substance 
 of the Son of God : an orthodox com- 
 mentary will satisfy only a believing 
 mind : intemperate curiosity and zeal 
 had torn the veil of the sanctuary: 
 and each of the Oriental sects was eager 
 to confess that all, except themselves, 
 deserved the reproach of idolatry and 
 polytheism. The creed of Mahomet is 
 free from suspicion or ambiguity ; and 
 the Koran is a glorious testimony to the 
 unity of God. The prophet of Mecca 
 rejected the worship of idols and men, 
 
76 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 of stars and planets, on the rational 
 principle that whatever rises must set, 
 that whatever is born must die, that 
 whatever is corruptible must decay and 
 30 perish. In the Author of the universe, 
 
 V r^^ his rational enthusiasm confessed and 
 ^^^wO^ adored an infinite and eternal being, 
 without form or place, without issue or 
 similitude, present to our most secret 
 thoughts, existing by the necessity of 
 his own nature, and deriving from him- 
 self all moral and intellectual perfection. 
 These sublime truths, thus announced 
 in the language of the prophet, are 
 firmly held by his disciples, and defined 
 with metaphysical precision by the 
 interpreters of the Koran. A philo- 
 sophic theist might subscribe the popu- 
 lar creed of the Mahometans : a creed 
 too sublime perhaps for our present 
 faculties. What object remains for the 
 Cancy, or even the understanding, when 
 we have abstracted from the unknowr 
 
Life of Mahomet. 11 
 
 substance all ideas of time and space, 
 of motion and matter, of sensation and 
 reflection ? The first principle of reason 
 and revelation was confirmed by the 
 voice of Mahomet : his proselytes from 
 India to Morocco, are distinguished by 
 the name of Unita7'ians j and the 
 danger of idolatry has been prevented 
 by the interdiction of images. The 
 doctrine of eternal decrees and absolute 
 predestination is strictly embraced by 
 the Mahometans ; and they struggle 
 with the common difficulties, how to 
 reconcile the prescience of God with 
 the freedom and responsibility of man ; 
 how to explain the permission of evil 
 under the reign of infinite power and 
 infinite goodness.^ 
 
 > This sketch of the Arabian prophet and his doctrines is 
 drawn with too mach partiality, and requires to be modified 
 by the researches and opinions of later inquirers. Gibbon 
 was probably led by his noticn that Mahomet was a " philu- 
 lophic theist," to regard him with such evident favor. 
 Nothing, however, can be more at variance with the pro- 
 phet's enthusiastic temperament than such a character. Hla 
 
78 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 The God of nature has written his 
 existence on all his works, and his law 
 in the heart of man. To restore the 
 knowledge of the one, and the practice 
 of the other, has been the real or pre- 
 
 apparently deistical opinions arose merely from Ws belief in 
 the Mosaic revelation, and Ms rejection of that of Christ. 
 He was thus a deist in the sense that any Jew may be called 
 a d«ist. On this point Sprenger well remarks, " He never 
 could reconcile his notions of God with the doctrine of the 
 ■Trinity and with the divinity of Christ ; and he was dis- 
 gusted with the monkish institutions and sectarian disputes 
 of the Christians. His creed was : 'He is God alone, the 
 eternal God ; he has not begotten, and is not begotten ; and 
 none is his equal.' Nothing, however, can be more errone- 
 ous than to suppose that Mohammed was, at any period of 
 his early career, a deist. Faith, when once extinct, cannot 
 be revived ; and it was his enthusiastic faith in inspiration 
 that made him a prophet." (p. 104). And that Mahomet's 
 Ideas of God were far from being of that abstract nature 
 which might suit a " philosophic theist," is evident from hia 
 ascribing to the Omnipotent ninety-nine attributes, thus 
 regarding him as a being of the most concrete kind, 
 (lb. p. 90). 
 
 With regard, again, to the originality of Mahomet's doc- 
 trines, there is reason to think that it was not so completa 
 as Gibbon would lead us to believe by characterizing the 
 Koran as the work " of a single artist," and by representing 
 Mahomet as cut off from all subsidiary sources in conse- 
 quence of his inability to read. The latter point has been 
 already examined ; and it now remains to show that Ma- 
 homet was not without predecessors, who hud not only heW 
 
Life of Mahomet. 79 
 
 » ■ 
 
 tended aim of the propliets of every 
 age : the liberality of Mahomet allowed 
 to his predecessors the same credit 
 which he claimed for himself; and the 
 chain of inspiration was prolonged from 
 
 the same tenets, but even openly preached theui. Gibbon 
 admits, indeed, that before Mahomet's time " the most 
 rational of the Arabs acknowledged God's power, though 
 they neglected his worship ; " and that it was habit rather 
 than conviction that still attached them to the relics of 
 Idolatry, {supra, p. 57). But the new creed had made still 
 more active advances. The Koreishites charged Mahomet 
 with taking his whole doctrine from a book called the 
 " Asatyr of the Ancients," which is several times quoted in 
 the Koran, and appears to have contained the doctrine of 
 the resurrection. (Sprenger, p. 100.) At the fair of Okatz, 
 Qoss had preached the unity of God before Mahomet as- 
 sumed the prophetic office ; and contemporary with him 
 was Omayah of Tayef, to whose teaching Mahomet allowed 
 that his own bore a great similarity. (lb. pp. 5, 38, 89.) Zayd 
 the sceptic was another forerunner of Mahomet, and his 
 followers were among the prophet's first converts, (p. 167) 
 Sprenger concludes his account of the Prae-Mahometans — oi 
 Eeformers before the Keformation— as follows : " From the 
 preceding account of early converts, and it embraces nearly 
 all those who joined Mohammed during the first six years, 
 It appears that the leading men among them held the tenet? 
 which form the basis of the religion of the Arabic prophet 
 long before he preached them. They were not his tools, but 
 his constituents. He clothed the sentiments which he had 
 'U common with them in poetical language ; and his m^alady 
 fave divine sanction to his oracles. Even when he was ao 
 
80 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 the fall of Adam to the promulgation 
 of the Koran. During that period, some 
 rays of prophetic light had been im- 
 parted to one hundred and twent3^-four 
 thousand of the elect, discriminated by 
 their respective measure of virtue and 
 grace ; three hundred and thirteen 
 apostles were sent with a special com- 
 mission to recall their country from 
 idolatry and vice ; one hundred and 
 four volumes have been dictated by 
 
 knowledged as the messenger of God, Omar had as much or 
 more influence on the development of the Islam as Moham- 
 med himself. He sometimes attempted to overrule tho 
 convictions of these men, but he succeeded in very few in- 
 stances. The Islam is not the work of Mohammed ; it is 
 not the doctrine of the impostor ; it embodies tho faith and 
 sentiments of men who for their talents and virtues must 
 be considered as the most distinguished of their nation, and 
 who acted under all circumstances so faithful to the spirit 
 of the Arabs, that they must be regarded as their represen- 
 tatives. The Islam is, therefore, the oflFspring of the spirit 
 of the time, and the voice of the Arabic nation. And it is 
 this which made it victorious, particularly among nations 
 whose habits resemble those of the Arabs, like the Berbers 
 end Tatars. There is, however, no doubt that the impos- 
 tor has defiled it by his immorality and perverseness of 
 mind, and that most of the objectionable doctrines are hia. 
 ^. 174).— S. 
 
Life of Mahomet, 81 
 
 the Holj Spirit; and six legislators 
 of transcendent brightness ha^e an- 
 nounced to mankind the six successive 
 revelations of various rites, but of one 
 immutable religion. The authority and 
 station of Adam, Noah, Abraham, 
 Moses, Christ, and Mahomet, rise in 
 just gradation above each other; but 
 whosoever hates or rejects any one of 
 the prophets is numbered with the infi- 
 dels. The writings of the patriarchs 
 were extant only in the apocryphal 
 copies of the Greeks and Syrians: the 
 conduct of Adam had not entitled him 
 to the gratitude or respect of his chil- 
 dren ; the seven precepts of Koah w^ere 
 observed by an inferior and imperfect 
 class of the proselytes of the synagogue ; 
 and the memory of Abraham was ob- 
 scurely revered by the Sabians in his 
 native land of Chaldsea : ^f the myriads 
 of prophets, Moses and Christ alone 
 ived and reigned ; and the remnant of 
 6 
 
82 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 the inspired writings was comprised in 
 the books of the Old and New Tes- 
 tament. The miraculous story of Moses 
 is consecrated and embellished in the 
 Koran ; and the captive Jews enjoy 
 the secret revenge of imposing their 
 own belief on the nations whose recent 
 creeds they deride. For the author of 
 Christianity 5 the Mahometans are taught 
 by the prophet to entertain a high and 
 mysterious reverence. " Yerily, Christ 
 Jesus, the son of Mary, is the apostle 
 of God, and his word, which he convey- 
 ed unto Mary, and a Spirit proceeding 
 from him : honorable in this world, 
 and in the world to come ; and one ot 
 those who approach near to the presence 
 of God." The wonders of the genuine 
 and apocryphal gospels are profusely 
 heaped on his head ; and the Latin 
 Church has • not disdained to borrow 
 from the Koran the immaculate concep- 
 tion of his virgin mother. Yet Jesua 
 
L^f<^ of Mahomet. 83 
 
 was a mere mortal ; and, at the day of 
 judgment, his testimony will serve to 
 condemn both the Jews, who reject him 
 as a prophet, and the Christians, who 
 adore him as the Son of God. The 
 malice of his enemies aspersed his 
 reputation, and conspired against his 
 life ; but their intention only was guilty, 
 a phantom or a criminal was substitut- 
 ed on the cross, and the innocent saint 
 was translated to the seventh heaven. 
 During six hundred years the gospel 
 was the way of truth and salvation ; but 
 the Christians insensibly forgot both 
 the laws and the example of their 
 founder ; and Mahomet was instructed 
 by the Gnostics to accuse the church, 
 as well as the synagogue, of corrupting 
 the integrity of the sacred text. The 
 piety of Moses and of Christ rejoiced in 
 the assurance cf a future prophet, more 
 illustrious than themselves ! the evan- 
 ejelic promise of the Paraclete^ or Holy 
 
84 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 Ghost, was prefigured in the name, and 
 accomplished in the person, of Mahomet, 
 the greatest and last of the apostles of 
 God. 
 
 The communication of ideas requires 
 a similitude of thought and language 
 the discourse of a philosopher would 
 vibrate without effect on the ear of a 
 peasant ; jet how minute is the distance 
 of tJieiT understandings, if it be com- 
 pared with the contact of an infinite and 
 finite mind, with the word of God ex- 
 pressed by the tongue or the pen of a 
 mortal ! The inspiration of the Hebrew 
 prophets, of the apostles and evangelists 
 of Christ, might not be incompatible 
 with the exercise of their reason and 
 memory ; and the diversity of their 
 genius is stron/^ly marked in the style 
 and compositi/-.n of the books of the Old 
 and Kew T/:stament. But Mahomet 
 was cortei't with a character more 
 humUe^ yet more sublime, of a simple 
 
^^f^ of Mahomet. 85 
 
 editor : the substance of ' tlie Koran,' 
 according to himself or his disciples, is 
 uncreated and eternal ; subsisting in 
 the essence of the Deitj, and inscribed 
 with a pen of light on the table of his 
 everlasting decrees. A paper copy, in 
 a volume of silk and gems, was brought 
 down to the lowest heaven by the angel 
 Gabriel, who, under the Jewish econo- 
 my, had indeed been despatched on the 
 most important errands ; and this trusty 
 messenger successively revealed the 
 chapters and verses to the Arabian 
 prophet. Instead of a perpetual and 
 perfect measure of the divine will, the 
 fragments of the Koran were produced 
 at the discretion of Mahomet; each, 
 revelation is suited to the emergencies^ 
 of his policy or passion ; and all con^ 
 tradiction is removed by the saving 
 maxim, that any text of scripture is 
 abrogated or modified by any subsequent 
 passage. The word of God, and of the 
 
86 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 apostle, was diligently recorded by 
 his disciples on palm-leaves, and the 
 shoulder-bones of mutton ; and the 
 pages, without order and connection, 
 were cast into a domestic chest in 
 the custody of one of his wives. Two 
 years after the death of Mahomet, the 
 sacred volume was collected and pub- 
 lished by his friend and successor 
 Abubeker : * the work was revised by 
 the caliph Othman, in the thirtieth 
 year of the Hegira ; '^ and the various 
 
 1 Abubeker, at the suggestion of Omar, gave orders for 
 its collection and publication ; but the editorial labor was 
 actually performed by Zeid Ibn Thabit, who had been ono 
 ■)f Mahomet's secretaries. He is related to have gathered 
 the text — "from date-leaves, and tablets of white stone, and 
 from the breasts of men." (Weil, p. 848 ; Calcutta Eeview, 
 No. xxxvii. p. 9).— S. 
 
 2 The recension of Othman has been handed down to us 
 •inaltered. Bo carefully, indeed, has it been preserved, that 
 there are no variations of importance — we might almost say 
 no variations at all— amongst the innumerable copies of the 
 Koran scattered throughout the vast bounds of the empire 
 of Iblam. Contending and embittered factions, originating 
 in the murder of Othman himself, within a quarter of a cen- 
 Miry.from the death of Mahomet, have ever since rent the 
 ♦lahoraetan world. Yet but one Koran has always been 
 
-^*/^ ^f Mahomet. 87 
 
 editions of the Koran assert the same 
 miraculous privilege of a uniform and 
 incorruptible text. In the spirit of 
 enthusiasm or vanity, the prophet rests 
 the truth of his mission on the merit of 
 his book, audaciously challenges both 
 men and angels to imitate the beauties 
 of a single page, and presumes to assert 
 that God alone could dictate this in- 
 comparable performance. This argu- 
 ment is most powerfully addressed to a 
 devout Arabian, whose mind is attuned 
 to faith and rapture, whose ear is de- 
 lighted by the music of sounds, and 
 whose ignorance is incapable of corn- 
 current amongst them ; and the consentaneous use of it by- 
 all, up to the present day, is an irrefragable proof that we 
 have now before us the self-same text prepared by the com- 
 mands of that unfortunate caliph. There is probably no 
 other work which has remained twelve centuries with so 
 Dure a text. The various readings are wonderfully few in 
 iiumber, and are chiefly confined to diflFerences in the vowpI 
 points and diacritical signs ; but as these marks were in- 
 vented at a later date, and did not exist at all in the early 
 copies, they can hardly be said to affect the text of Othman. 
 •Calcutta Eeview, No. xxxvii. p. 11).— S. 
 
88 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 paring the productions of human ge- 
 nius. The harmony and copiousness 
 of style will not reach, in a version, the 
 European infidel : he will peruse with 
 impatience the endless incoherent 
 rhapsody of fable, and precept, and 
 declamation, which seldom excites a 
 sentiment or an idea, which sometimes 
 crawls in the dust, and is sometimes 
 lost in the clouds. The divine attributes 
 exalt the fancy of the Arabian mission- 
 ary ; but his loftiest strains must yield 
 to the sublime simplicity of the book 
 of Job, composed in a remote age, in 
 the same country, and in the same 
 language.^ K the composition of the 
 Koran exceed the faculties of a man, to 
 what superior intelligence should we 
 ascribe the Iliad of Homer, or the 
 
 1 The age of the book of Job is still, and probably -wiU 
 
 •till be disputed. Eosenmuller thus states his own opinion: 
 
 Certe serioribus republicae temporibus assignandum esse 
 
 Ubrum, suadere videtur ad Chaldaismum vergens sermo. 
 
 ^et the observations of Kosegarten, which Eosenmuller haf 
 
Life of Mahomet. 89 
 
 Philippics of Demosthenes % In all re- 
 ligions the life of the founder supplies 
 the silence of his written revelation : 
 the sayings of Mahomet were so many 
 lessons of truth ; his actions so many 
 examples of virtue ; and the public 
 and private memorials were preserved 
 by his wives and companions. At the 
 end of two hundred years, the Sonna^ 
 or oral law, was fixed and consecrated 
 by the labors of Al Bochari, who dis • 
 criminated seven thousand two hundred 
 and seventy-five genuine traditions, 
 from a mass of three hundred thousand 
 reports, of a more doubtful or spurious 
 character.* Each day the pious author 
 prayed in the temple of Mecca, and per- 
 
 given in a note, and common reason, suggest that this Chal- 
 flaism may be the native form of a much earlier dialect; or 
 the Chaldaic may have adopted the poetical archaisms of a 
 dialect diflFering from, but not less ancient than the Hebrew. 
 (See EosenmMler, Proleg. on Job, p. 41.) The poetry appears 
 to me to belong to a much earlier period, — M. 
 
 * The numbers were much more disproportionate than 
 Wiese. Out of 600,000 traditions, Bokhari found only 4000 
 "O be ffenuine. (Weil, Gesch. der Chalifen, vol. i. p. 291).— 8. 
 
90 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 formed his ablutions with the water of 
 Zeinzem : the pages were successively 
 deposited on the pulpit, and the sep- 
 ulchre of the apostle ; and the work 
 has been approved by the four orthodox 
 sects of the Sonnites. 
 
 The mission of the ancient prophets, 
 of Moses and of Jesus, had been con- 
 firmed by many splendid prodigies ; 
 and Mahomet was repeatedly urged, 
 by the inhabitants of Mecca and Medina, 
 to produce a similar evidence of his 
 divine legation ; to call down from 
 heaven the angel or the volume of his 
 revelation, to create a garden in the 
 desert, or to kindle a conflagration in 
 the unbelieving city. As often as he is 
 pressed by the demands of the Koreish, 
 le involves himself in the obscure boast 
 of vision and prophecy, appeals to the 
 internal proofs of his doctrine, and 
 fields himself behind the providence 
 of God, who refuses those signs and 
 
Life of Mahomet. 91 
 
 wonders that would depreciate the merit 
 of faith, and aggravate the guilt of infi- 
 delity. But the modest or angry tone 
 of his apologies betrays his weakness 
 and vexation ; and these passages of 
 scandal establish, beyond suspicion, the 
 integrity of the Koran. The votaries 
 of Mahomet are more assured than him- 
 self of his miraculous gifts, and their 
 confidence a-nd credulity increase as 
 they are further removed from the time 
 and place of his spiritual exploits. They 
 believe or affirm that trees went forth 
 to meet him ; that he was saluted by 
 stones ; that water gushed from his 
 fingers ; that he fed the hungry, cured 
 the sick, and raised the dead ; that a 
 beam groaned to him ; that a camel 
 complained to him ; that a shoulder of 
 mutton informed him of its being poi- 
 soned ; and that both animate and in- 
 ?Lnimate nature were equally subject to 
 the apostle of God. His dream of a 
 
92 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 nocturnal journey is seriously described 
 as a real and corporeal transaction. A 
 mysterious animal,' the Borak, conveyed 
 him from the temple of Mecca to that 
 of Jerusalem : with his companion 
 Gabriel, he successively ascended the 
 seven heavens, and received and re- 
 paid the salutations of the patriarchs, 
 the prophets, and the angels, in their 
 respective mansions. Beyond the 
 seventh heaven, Mahomet alone was 
 permitted to proceed ; he passed the 
 veil of unity, approached within two 
 bow-shots of the throne, and felt a cold 
 that pierced him to the heart, when his 
 shoulder was touched by the hand of 
 God. After this familiar though im- 
 portant conversation, he again descend- 
 ed to Jerusalem, remounted the Borak, 
 returned to Mecca, and performed in 
 the tenth part of a night the journey of 
 many thousand years. According to 
 another legend, the apostle confounded 
 
Life of Mahomet. 93 
 
 in a national assembly the malicious 
 challenge of the Koreish. His resistless 
 word split asunder the orb of the moon : 
 the obedient planet stooped from her 
 station in the sky, accomplished the 
 seven revolutions round the Caaba, sa- 
 luted Mahomet in the Arabian tongue, 
 and suddenly contracting her dimen- 
 sions, entered at the collar, and is- 
 sued forth through the sleeve, of his 
 shirt. The vulgar are amused with the 
 marvellous tales ; but the gravest of 
 the Musulman doctors imitate the 
 modesty of their master, and indulge a 
 latitude of faith or interpretation. They 
 might speciously allege, that in preach- 
 ing the religion, it was needless to vio- 
 late the harmony of nature ; that a 
 creed unclouded with mystery may be 
 excused from miracles ; and that the 
 sword of Mahomet was not less potent 
 than the rod of Moses. 
 The polytheist is oppressed and die- 
 
94 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 tracted by the variety of superstition : 
 a thousand rites of Egyptian origin 
 were interwoven with the essence of 
 the Mosaic law ; and the spirit of the 
 gospel had evaporated in the pageantry 
 of the church. The prophet of Mecca 
 was tempted by prejudice, or policy, or 
 patriotism, to sanctify the rites of the 
 Arabians, and the custom of visiting 
 the holy stone of the Caaba. But the 
 precepts of Mahomet himself inculcate 
 a more simple and rational piety : 
 prayer, fasting, and alms, are the re- 
 ligious duties of a Musulman ; and he 
 is encouraged to hope that prayer will 
 carry him half way to God, fasting will 
 bring him to the door of his palace, and 
 alms will gain him admittance. I. Ac- 
 cording to the tradition of the noctur- 
 nal journey, the apostle, in his personal 
 conference with the Deity, was com- 
 manded to impose on his disciples the 
 daily obligation of fifty prayers. By 
 
L^f^ of Mahomet. 95 
 
 the advice of Moses, lie applied for an 
 alleviation of this intolerable burthen ; 
 the number was gradually reduced to 
 five ; without any dispensation of busi- 
 ness or pleasure, or time or place : the 
 devotion of the faithful is repeated at 
 daybreak, at noon, in the afternoon, in 
 the evening, and at the first watch of 
 the night ; and in the present decay of 
 religious fervor, our travellers are edi- 
 fied by the profound humility and at- 
 tention of the Turks and Persians. 
 Cleanliness is the key of prayer : the 
 frequent lustration of the hands, the 
 face, and the body, which was practised 
 of old by the Arabs, is solemnly en- 
 joined by the Koran : and a permission 
 is formally granted to supply with sand 
 the scarcity of water. The words and 
 attitudes of supplication, as it is per- 
 formed either sitting, or standing, or 
 prostrate on the ground, are prescribed 
 by custom or authority, hut the prayer 
 
36 Xt/6 of Mahomet, 
 
 is poured forth in short and fervent 
 ejaculations; the measure of zeal is not 
 exhausted by a tedious liturgy ; and 
 each mussulman, for his own person 
 is invested with the character of ? 
 priest. Among the theists, who reject 
 the use of images, it has been found 
 necessary to restrain the wanderings of 
 the fancy, by directing the eye and the 
 thought towards a kehla^ or visible point 
 of the horizon. The prophet was at 
 first inclined to gratify the Jews by 
 the choice of Jerusalem ; but he soon 
 returned to a more natural partiality ; 
 and five times every day the eyes of 
 the nations at Astracan, at Fez, at Delhi, 
 are devoutly turned to the holy temple 
 of Mecca. ^ Yet e^ery spot for the 
 
 1 Mahomet at first granted tlie Jews many privileges in 
 observing their ancient customs, and especially their Sab- 
 bath ; and he himself kept the fast of ten days with which 
 the Jewish year begins. But, when he found himself de« 
 eeived in his expectations of converting them, these privi 
 eges were withdrawn. Mecca was substituted for Jerusalem 
 w th« kebla^ or quarter to which the face is directed durinj 
 
Life of Mahomet. 97 
 
 service of God is equally pure : the 
 Mahometans indifferently pray in their 
 chamber or in the street. As a dis- 
 tinction from the Jews and Christians 
 the Friday in each week is set apart 
 for the useful institution of public wor- 
 Bhij) : the people are assembled in the 
 mosch : and the imam, some respect- 
 able elder, ascends the pulpit, to begin 
 the prayer and pronounce the sermon. 
 But the Mahometan religion is destitute 
 of priesthood or sacrifice ;' and the in- 
 
 prayer ; and, in place of the Jewish fast, that of Eamadhan 
 was instituted. (Weil, Mohammed, p. 90). — S. 
 
 1 Mr. Forster (Mahometanism Unveiled, vol. i. p. 416) 
 has severely rebuked Gibbon for his inaccuracy in saying 
 that "the Mahometan religion is destitute of priesthood or 
 'sacrifice ; " but this expression must be understood of the 
 general practice of the Mahometans. The occasion of the 
 jilgrimage to Mecca formed an exception ; and Gibbon has 
 himself observed {supra, p. 48) that " the pilgrimage was 
 achieved, as at the present hour, by a sacrifice of sheep and 
 eamels." The Koran sanctions sacrifice on th occasion; 
 »nd Mahomet himself, in his last pilgrimage to Mecca, set 
 Jie example, by oflfering up with his own hand the sixty- 
 three camels which he had brought with him from Medina, 
 %rdering Ali to do the like with the thirty-seven which he 
 tad brought from Yemen. (Weil, Mohammed, pp. 294, 317.) 
 
 7 
 
98 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 dependent spirit of fanaticism looks 
 down with contempt on the ministers 
 and slaves of superstition. 11. The 
 voluntary penance of the ascetics, the 
 torment and glory of their lives, was 
 odious to a prophet who censured in his 
 companions a rash vow of abstaining 
 from flesh, and women, and sleep ; and 
 firmly declared, that he would suffer no 
 monks in his religion. Yet he insti- 
 tuted, in each year, a fast of thirty days ; 
 and strenuously recommended the ob- 
 servance, as a discipline which purifies 
 the soul and subdues the body, as a 
 salutary exercise of obedience to the 
 will of God and his apostle. During 
 the month of Ramadan, from the rising 
 
 This ordinance was probably a sort of political compromise 
 with the ancient idolatrous rites of Mecca. It may be fur- 
 ther remarked, that there were two kinds of pilgrimage 
 '.•iz., Hadj and Umra. The rites accompanying them, how 
 ever, were exactly similar— tho only distinction being that 
 the former took place only on the appointed festivals, whils* 
 the latter might be performed all the year round. (lb. p 
 490).— S. 
 
Life of Mahomet. 99 
 
 to the setting of the sun, the Musul- 
 man abstains from eating, and drinking, 
 and women, and baths, and perfumes ; 
 from all nourishment that can restore 
 his strength, from all pleasure that can 
 gratify his senses. In the revolution 
 of the lunar year, the Kamadan coin- 
 cides, by turns, with the winter cold 
 and the summer heat ; and the patient 
 martyr, without assuaging his thirst 
 with a drop of water, must expect the 
 close of a tedious and sultry day. The 
 interdiction of wine, peculiar to some 
 orders of priests or hermits, is con- 
 verted by Mahomet alone into a posi- 
 tive and general law ; and a considera- 
 ble portion of the globe has abjured, 
 at his command, the use of that salu- 
 tary, though dangerous, liquor. These 
 painful restraints are, doubtless, in- 
 fringed by the libertine, and eluded by 
 the hypocrite ; but the legislator, by 
 whom they are enacted, cannot surely 
 
100 Life of Mahomet , 
 
 be accused of alluring his proselytes by 
 the indulgence of their sensual appe- 
 tities.* in. The charity of the Ma- 
 hometans descends to the animal crea- 
 tion ; and the Koran repeatedly incul- 
 cates, not as a merit, but as a strict 
 and indispensable duty, the relief of 
 the indigent and unfortunate. Ma- 
 homet, perhaps, is the only law -giver 
 who has defined the precise measure of 
 charity : the standard may vary with 
 the degree and nature of property, as 
 it consists either in money, in corn or 
 cattle, in fruits or merchandise ; but 
 the Musulman does not accomplish the 
 law, unless he bestows a tenth of his 
 revenue ; and if his conscience accuses 
 him of fraud or extortion, the tenth, 
 under the idea of restitution, is enlarged 
 
 * Forster points out the inconsistency of this passage 
 with the one on page 250 : " His voice invited the Arabs t< 
 freedom and victory, to arms and rapine, to the indulgence 
 Df their darling passions in this world and the other." (M» 
 tometanism Unveiled, voL ii. p. 498.)— 9. 
 
Life of Mahomet, 101 
 
 to a fifth. Benevolence is the founda- 
 tion of justice, since we are forbid to 
 inj ure th ose whom we are bound to as- 
 Bist. A prophet maj reveal the secrets 
 of heaven and of futurity ; but in his 
 moral precepts he can only repeat the 
 lessons of our own hearts. 
 
 The two articles of belief, and the 
 four practical duties of Islam* are guard- 
 ed by rewards and punishments ; and 
 the faith of the Musulman is devoutly 
 fixed on the event of the judgment and 
 the last day. The prophet has not pre- 
 sumed' to determine the moment of that 
 awful catastrophe, though he darkly 
 announces the signs, both in heaven and 
 earth, which will precede the universal 
 dissolution, when life shall be destroyed, 
 and the order of creation shall be con- 
 
 » The/<wtr practical duties are prayer, fasting, alms, and 
 /lilgrimago. (Weil, Mohammed, p. 288, note.) It is here ob- 
 vious that Gibbon had not overlooked the last, though he 
 has omitted it in the preceding enumeration of the ordi 
 ■nary and constant duties of a Musulman.— S. 
 
102 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 founded in the primitive chaos. At 
 the blast of the trumpet, new worlds 
 will start into being ; angels, genii, and 
 men, will arise from the dead, and the 
 human soul will again be united to the 
 body. The doctrine of the resurrection 
 was first entertained by the Egyptians ; 
 and their mummies were embalmed, 
 their pyramids were constructed, to pre- 
 serve the ancient mansion of the soul, 
 during a period of three thousand years. 
 But the attempt is partial and una- 
 vailing ; and it is with a more philo- 
 Bophic spirit that Mahomet relies on 
 the omnipotence of the Creator, whose 
 word can reanimate the breathless 
 clay, and collect the innumerable atoms, 
 that no longer retain their form or 
 Bubstance. The intermediate state of 
 the soul it is hard to decide ; and those 
 who most firmly believe her immaterial 
 aature, are at a loss to understand how 
 
L^f^' of Mahomet, 103 
 
 Blie can think or act without the agency 
 of the organs of sense. 
 
 The reunion of the soul and body will 
 be followed by the final judgment of 
 mankind; and, in his copy of the 
 Magian picture, the prophet has too 
 faithfully represented the forms of pro- 
 ceeding, and even the slow and suc- 
 cessive operations, of an earthly tri- 
 bunal. By his intolerant adversaries 
 he is upbraided for extending, even to 
 themselves, the hope of salvation, for 
 asserting \h.Q blackest heresy, that every 
 man who believes in God, and accom- 
 plishes good works, may expect in the 
 last day a favorable sentence. Such 
 rational indifference is ill adapted to 
 the character of a fanatic ; nor is it 
 probable that a messenger from heaven 
 ehould depreciate the value and neces- 
 sity of his own revelation. In the idiom 
 of the Koran, the belief of God is in- 
 separable from that of Mahomet : the 
 
104 Zife of Mahomet. 
 
 good works are those which he. had en 
 joined ; and the two qualifications im 
 ply the profession of Islam, to which 
 all nations and all sects are equally in- 
 vited. Their spiritual blindness, though 
 excused by ignorance, and crowned 
 with virtue, will be scourged with ever- 
 lasting torments ; and the tears which 
 Mahomet shed over the tomb of his 
 mother, for whom he was forbidden to 
 pray, display a striking contrast of hu- 
 manity and enthusiasm. The doom of 
 the infidels is common : the measure 
 of their guilt and punishment is de- 
 termined by the degree of evidence 
 which they have rejected, by the mag- 
 nitude of the errors which they have 
 entertained : the eternal mansions of 
 the Christians, the Jews, the Sabians, 
 the Magians, and the idolaters, are sunk 
 Delow each other in the abyss ; and the 
 lowest hell is reserved for the faithless 
 hypocrites who have assumed the mask 
 
Life of Mahomet. 105 
 
 of religion. After the greater part of 
 mankind has been condemned for their 
 opinions, the true believers only wiP. 
 be judged by their actions. The gooa 
 and evil of each Musulman will be ac- 
 curately weighed in a real or allegori- 
 cal balance, and a singular mode of 
 compensation will be allowed for the 
 payment of injuries : the aggressor will 
 refund an equivalent of his own good 
 actions, for the benefit of the person 
 whom he has wronged ; and if he should 
 be destitute of any moral property, the 
 weight of his sins will be loaded with 
 an adequate share of the demerits of 
 the sufi*erer. According as the shares 
 of guilt or virtue shall preponderate, 
 the sentence will be pronounced, and 
 all, without distinction, will pass over 
 the sharp and perilous bridge of the 
 ftbyss; but the innocent, treading in 
 vhe footsteps of Mahomet,will gloriously 
 enter the gates of paradise, while the 
 
106 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 guilty will fall into the first and mildest 
 of the seven hells. The term of expia- 
 tion will vary from nine hundred to 
 seven thousand years ; but the prophet 
 has judiciously promised, that all his 
 disciples, whatever may be their sins, 
 shall be saved, by their own faith, and 
 his intercession,from eternal damnation. 
 It is not surprising that superstition 
 should act most powerfully on the fears 
 of her votaries, since the human fancy 
 can paint with more energy the misery 
 than the bliss of a future life. With 
 the two simple elements of darkness 
 and fire, we create a sensation of pain, 
 which may be aggravated to an infinite 
 degree by the idea of endless duration. 
 But the same idea operates with an 
 opposite effect on the continuity of 
 pleasure ; and too much of our present 
 enjoyments is obtained from the relief, 
 or the comparison, of evil. It is natural 
 enough that an Arabian prophet should 
 
Life of Manomet. 107 
 
 dwell with rapture on the groves, the 
 fountains, and the rivers, of paradise ; 
 but instead of inspiring the blessed in- 
 habitants with a liberal taste for har- 
 mony and science, conversation and 
 friendship, he idly celebrates the pearls 
 and diamonds, tlie robes of silk, palaces 
 of marble, dishes of gold, rich wines, 
 artificial dainties, numerous attendants, 
 and the whole train of sensual and costly 
 luxury, which becomes insipid to the 
 owner, even in the short period of this 
 mortal life. Seventy-two houris^ or 
 black-eyed girls, of resplendent beauty, 
 blooming youth, virgin purity, and ex- 
 quisite sensibility, will be created for 
 the use of the meanest believer ; a mo- 
 ment of pleasure will be prolonged to 
 a thousand years, and his faculties will 
 be increased a hundred-fold, to render 
 him worthy of his felicity. ITotwith- 
 Btanding a vulgar prejudice, the gates 
 »f heaven will be open to both sexes ; 
 
108 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 but Mahomet has not specified the 
 male companions of the female elect, 
 lest he should either alarm the jealousy 
 of their former husbands, or disturb 
 their felicity, by the suspicion of an 
 everlasting marriage. This image of a 
 carnal paradise has provoked the indig- 
 nation, perhaps the envy, of the monks ; 
 they declaim against the impure re- 
 ligion of Mahomet ; and his modest 
 apologists are driven to the poor excuse 
 of figures and allegories. But the 
 sounder and more consistent party ad- 
 here, without shame, to the literal in- 
 terpretation of the Koran : useless would 
 be the resurrection of the body, unless 
 it were restored to the possession and 
 exercise of its worthiest faculties ; and 
 the union of sensual and intellectual 
 enjoyment is requisite to complete the 
 happiness of the double animal, the 
 perfect man. Yet the joys of the Ma- 
 hometan paradise will not be confined 
 
Life of Mahomet. 109 
 
 CO the indulgence of luxury and appe- 
 tite ; and the prophet has expressly de- 
 clared, that all meaner happiness will 
 be forgotten and despised by the saints 
 and martyrs, who shall be admitted to 
 the beatitude of the divine vision. 
 
 The first and most arduous conquests 
 of Mahomet * were those of his wife, 
 
 1 The original materials for a Life of Mahomet are— I. 
 The Koran.— II. The traditions of Mahomet's followers. — 
 III. Some poetical works. — IV, The earliest Arabian biog- 
 raphies of the prophet. 
 
 I. The Koran, respecting the general integrity and au- 
 thenticity of which Oriental scholars are agreed, is the great 
 storehouse for the opinions and character of Mahomet ; but 
 the events of his outward life, and their connection, are de- 
 rived almost entirely from tradition. 
 
 II. After Mahomet's death, such of his followers as had 
 been much about his person {^Ashab^ " companions "), were 
 surrounded by pupils who had not seen and conversed with 
 him, but who were desirous of acquiring information from 
 those who had enjoyed that advantage. This second gen- 
 eration, who were called Tabiys (Tabiun, "successors"), 
 transmitted in turn to others the information thus acquired. 
 Great care was employed in comparing and sifting these 
 traditions, which were derived from various and often dis- 
 tant sources; and, as a guarantee of authenticity, the name 
 of the person on whose authority they rested was transmit- 
 ted along with them. It is possible that some of them may 
 save been committed to writing in Mahomet's lifetime; but 
 
110 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 his servant, his pupil, and his friend ; 
 since he presented himself as a prophet 
 to those who were most conversant with 
 
 the first formal collection of them was made about a century 
 after his death, by command of the Caliph Omar II. They 
 multiplied rapidly ; and it is said that the books of the his- 
 torian Bokhari — who died only about two centuries after 
 Mahomet — which consisted chiefly of these traditions, filled 
 six hundred boxes, each a load for two men. The most im 
 portant among these collections are the six canonical ones 
 of the Sunnies and four of the Shiahs. The former were 
 compiled under the infiuence of the Abasside caliphs, and 
 were begun in the reign of Al Mamun. The Shiahs were 
 somewhat later, and are far less trustworthy than the Sun- 
 nies, being composed with the party view of supporting the 
 claims of All and his descendants to supreme power. 
 
 III. Some extant Arabic poems were probably composed 
 by Mahomet's contemporaries. They are of much value, as 
 adding confirmation to the corresponding traditions; bul 
 there are no facts in the prophet's life the proof of whicl 
 depends upon these historical remains. Although, there 
 fore, they are valuable because confirmatory of tradition 
 their practical bearing upon the biographical elements of th« 
 prophet's life is not of so much interest as might have beer 
 expected. They deserve, indeed, deep attention, as tha 
 earliest literary remains of a period which contained th& 
 gsrm of such mighty events, but they give its little new 
 Insight into the history or character of Mahomet. (Calcutta 
 Eeview, No. xxxvii. p. 66.) 
 
 IV. It seems that regular biographies of Mahomet begaj 
 to be composed towards the end of the first, or early in the 
 second century of the Hegira ; but the earliest biographical 
 fflTriters, whose works are extant more or less in their origl 
 
Life of Mahomet. Ill 
 
 his infirmities as a man. Yet Cadijah 
 believed the words, and cherished the 
 glory, of her husband ; the obsequious 
 
 nal state, are— 1. Ibn Ishae; 2. n»n Hisham; 3. Wackidi 
 and his secretary ; 4. Tabari. — 1. Ibn Isbac, a Tabiy, died 
 A. H. 151 (A. D. 763). His work, which was composed for 
 the caliph Al Mansur, enjoys a high reputatio]i among the 
 Moslems ; and its statements have been incorporated into 
 most of the subsequent biographies of the prophet. Dr. 
 Sprenger, however, (p. 69,) though hardly, perhaps, on suffl 
 cient grounds, regards him as little trustworthy, and doubts 
 whether his book has come down to us in its original form 
 — 2. Ibn Ishac was succeeded by Ibn Hisham (died A. H. 213 
 A. D. 828), whose work, still extant, is founded on that ol 
 his predecessor, but bears the reputation of being still le» 
 trustworthy.— 3. Wackidi, born at Medina about A. H. 129 
 compiled several books relating to Mahomet, but no worft 
 of his has come down to us in its original form. The fruift 
 of his researches were, however, collected into fifteen lar^ 
 quarto volumes by his secretary, Mohammed Ibn Saaa 
 The first of these, containing the SArat or biography of Ma 
 hornet, including accounts of his companions, has been pr» 
 served in its genuine form, and is one of the best sources of 
 Information respecting the prophet. This valuable work 
 was discovered by Dr. Sprenger at Cawnpore. Dr. Sprenger 
 observes that " this is by far the best biography of thfr 
 Arabic prophet, but, being rare, it has never been used by 
 aa European scholar. The veracity and knowledge of the 
 •uthor have never been impugned by his contemporaries, 
 ^or by good early writers." It is generally quoted under 
 the name of " Wackidi," probably for the sake of brevity. 
 The carefully collected traditions of Wackidi must not b 
 eonfounded with the romances of the eighth century which 
 
112 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 and affectionate Zeid was tempted by 
 the prospect of freedom ; the illus- 
 trious Ali, the son of Abu Taleb, em- 
 bear the same name, and which form the basis of Ockley'g 
 work. — 4. Tabari, the most celebrated of all the Arabic his 
 torians, died A. II. 310 (A. D. 929). A short account of this 
 writer is given by Gibbon himself (ch. li. note 11). Tabari 
 wrote an account both of Mahomet's life and of the progress 
 of Islam. The latter has long been known ; and a portion 
 of it, in the original Arabic, was published, with a Latin 
 translation, by Kosegarten in 1831. But the earlier part, re- 
 lating to Mahomet, could be read only in an untrustworthy 
 Persian translation even so late as 1851, when Dr. Sprenger 
 published his Life of Mahomet. It has, however, been sub 
 Bequently discovered in the original language by that gentle- 
 man, during his mission by the Indian Government to search 
 the native libraries of Lucknow. To Dr. Sprenger, therefore, 
 belongs the honor of having discovered two of the most 
 valuable works respecting the history of Mahomet. 
 
 But even the most authentic traditions respecting Ma- 
 homet have been corrupted by superstition, faction, and 
 other causes ; and it is hardly necessary to say that a Euro- 
 pean writer must exercise the most careful and discrimi- 
 nating criticism in the use of them. Inattention to this 
 •)oint is the defect of Gagnier's otherwise excellent work. 
 
 The later Arabic biographers of Mahomet are entitled to 
 no credit as independent authorities. They could add no 
 true information, but they often add many spurious tradi- 
 tons and fabricated stories of later days. Hence such a 
 writer as Abulfeda, whom Gibbon frequently quotes, is of 
 no value as an authority. 
 
 The best recent biographies of Mahomet by European» 
 jre Dr. Sprenger's Life of Mohammed from original sources 
 
Life of Mahomet. 113 
 
 oraced the sentiments of his cousin with 
 the spirit of a youthful hero ; ^nd the 
 wealth, the moderation, the veracity of 
 Abubeker,* confirmed the religion of 
 the prophet whom he was destined to 
 succeed. By his persuasion, ten of the 
 most respectable citizens of Mecca 
 were introduced to the private lessons 
 of Islam ; they yielded to the voice of 
 
 Allahabad, 1851, and Dr. Weil's Mohammed der Prophet 
 Stuttgart, 1843. Dr. Sprengers Life (part i.) only goes down 
 to the flight from Mecca, but it is a very valuable contribu- 
 tion to Oriental literature, and has been of great service to 
 the editor of this work. — S. 
 
 ^ Abubeker, or, more properly, Abu Bakr, literally, " the 
 father of the virgin "—so called because his daughter Ayesha 
 was the only maiden whom Mahomet married — was a 
 wealthy merchant of the Taym family, much respected for 
 his benevolence and straightforward dealing. He was one 
 of the first to accept the mission of the prophet, and is said 
 to have believed in the unity of God before that event 
 "The faith of Abu Bakr," says Dr. Sprenger, "is in my 
 opinion the greatest guarantee of the sincerity of Mohammed 
 »t the beginning of his career; and he did more for the suc- 
 »ess of Islam than the prophet himself. His having joined 
 Mohammed lent respectability to his cause ; he sp\ it seven- 
 eighths of his property, which amounted to 40,000 dirhams, 
 &t a thousand pounds, when he embraced the new faith, 
 towards its promotion at Mecca, and he continued the same 
 'ourse of liberality at Medina." (p. 171.)— S. 
 
114 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 reason and entliusiasm ; they repeated 
 the fundamental creed, "there is but 
 one God, and Mahomet is the apostle 
 of God ;" and their faith, even in this 
 life, was rewarded with riches and 
 honors, with the command of armies 
 and the government of kingdoms. 
 Three years were silently employed in 
 the conversion of fourteen proselytes, 
 the first-fruits of his mission ; but in 
 the fourth year he assumed the pro- 
 phetic office, and resolving to impart 
 to his family the light of divine truth, 
 he prepared a banquet, a lamb, as it is 
 said, and a bowl of milk, for the enter- 
 tainment of forty guests of the race of 
 Hashem. " Friends and kinsmen," 
 Baid Mahomet to the assembly, " I 
 offer you, and I alone can offer, the 
 most precious of gifts, the treasures of 
 this world and of the world to come. 
 God has commanded me to call you tc 
 his service. Who among you will sup 
 
Life of Mahomet. 116 
 
 port iny burthen ? Who among you will 
 be my companion and my vizir ? " !N^o 
 answer was returned, till the silence 
 of astonishment, and doubt, and con- 
 tempt, was at length broken by the 
 impatient courage of Ali, a youth in 
 the fourteenth year of his age. " O 
 prophet, I am the man : whosoever 
 rises against thee, I will dash out his 
 teeth, tear out his eyes, break his legs, 
 rip up his belly. O prophet, I will 
 be thy vizir over them." Mahomet 
 accepted his offer with transport, and 
 Abu Taleb was ironically exhorted to 
 respect the superior dignity of his son. 
 In a more serious tone, the father of Ali 
 advised his nephew to relinquish his 
 impracticable design. " Spare your 
 remonstrances," replied the intrepid 
 fanatic to his uncle and benefactor ; " il 
 they should place the sun on my right- 
 hand, and the moon on my left, they 
 nhould not divert me from my courBe." 
 
116 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 He persevered ten years in the exercise 
 of his mission ; and the religion which 
 has overspread the East and West, ad 
 vanced with a slow and painful prog- 
 ress within the walls of Mecca. Ye 
 Mahomet enjoyed the satisfaction of 
 beholding the increase of his infan 
 congregation of Unitarians, who re 
 vered him as a prophet, and to 
 whom he seasonably dispensed the 
 spiritual nourishment of the Koran. 
 The number of proselytes may be esti- 
 mated by the absence of eighty-three 
 men and eighteen women, who retired 
 to Ethiopia in the seventh year of his 
 mission, ' and his party was fortified 
 
 ^ There were two emigrations to Abyssinia. The first 
 was in the fifth year of the proph3t's mission, when twelve 
 men and four women emigrated. They returned to Mecca 
 In the couree of the same year, upon hearing that a recon- 
 ciliation had taken place between the prophet and his ene- 
 mies. The second emigration was in the seventh year of 
 the mission, and is the one mentioned in the text. Omar 
 had been converted in the preceding year, the sixth of the 
 mission ; and after his conversion the number of the faithfui 
 vas almost immediately doubled. (Sprenger, p. 1S2-189).— 8 
 
Life of Mahomet, llY 
 
 Dy the timely conversion of his uncle 
 Hamza, and of the fierce and inflexible 
 Omar, who signalized in the cause of 
 Islam the same zeal which he had ex- 
 erted for its destruction. ITor was the 
 charity of Mahomet confined to the 
 tribe of Koreish, or the precincts of 
 Mecca : on solemn festivals, in the 
 days of pilgrimage, he frequented the 
 Caaba, accosted the strangers of every 
 tribe, and urged, both in private con- 
 verse and public discourse, the belief 
 and worship of a sole Deity. Conscious 
 of his reason and of his weakness, he 
 asserted the liberty of conscience, and 
 disclaimed the use of religious violence ; 
 but he called the Arabs to repentance, 
 and conjured them to remember the 
 ancient idolaters of Ad and Thamud, 
 whom the divine justice had swept away 
 from the face of the earth. 
 
 The people of Mecca were hardened 
 •n their unbelief by superstition and 
 
118 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 envy. The eiders of the city, the un- 
 cies of the propliet, affected to despise 
 the presumption of an orphan, the re- 
 former of his country : the pious ora- 
 tions of Mahomet in the Caaba were 
 answered by the clamors of Abu Taleb. 
 " Citizens and pilgrims, listen not to 
 the tempter, hearken not to his im- 
 pious novelties. Stand fast in the wor- 
 ship of Al Lata and Al TJzzah." Yet 
 the son of Abdallah was ever dear to 
 the aged chief; and he protected the 
 fame and person of his nephew against 
 the assaults of the Koreishites, who had 
 long been jealous of the pre-eminence 
 of the family of Hashem.» Their malice 
 was colored with the pretence of reli- 
 gion : in the age of Job, the crime of 
 impiety was punished by the Arabian 
 magistrate ; and Mahomet was guilty 
 
 1 On one occasion Mahomet narrowly escaped being 
 strangled in the Caaba; and Abu Bekr, who came to hia 
 aid, was beaten with sandals till his nose was flattened 
 Well, p. 56.)— S. 
 
Life of Mahomet, 119 
 
 of deserting and denying the national 
 deities. But so loose was the policy of 
 Mecca, that the leaders of the Koreish, 
 instead of accusing a criminal, were 
 compelled to employ the measures of 
 persuasion or violence. They repeatedly 
 addressed Abu Taleb in the style of re- 
 proach and menace. " Thy nephew 
 reviles our religion; he accuses our 
 wise forefathers of ignorance and folly ; 
 silence him quickly, lest he kindle 
 tumult and discord in the city. If he 
 persevere, we shall draw our swords 
 against him and his adherents, and thou 
 wilt be responsible for the blood of thy 
 fellow-citizens." The weight and mod- 
 eration of Abu Taleb eluded the vio- 
 lence of religious faction ; the most 
 helpless or timid of the disciples retired 
 to Ethiopia, and the prophet withdrew 
 himself to various places of strength in 
 town and country. ^ As he was still 
 
 • Especially to a fortress or castle in a defile near Mecca, 
 
120 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 Bupported by his family, the rest of the 
 tribe of Koreish engaged themselves to 
 renounce all intercourse with the chil- 
 dren of Hashem, neither to buy nor 
 sell, neither to marry nor to give in mar- 
 riage, but to pursue them with impla 
 cable enmity ,till they should deliver the 
 person of Mahomet to the justice of the 
 gods. The decree was suspended in 
 the Caaba before the eyes of the nation ; 
 the messengers of the Koreish pursued 
 the Musulman exiles in the heart of 
 Africa : they besieged the prophet and 
 his most faithful followers, intercepted 
 their water, and inflamed their mutual 
 animosity by the retaliation of injuries 
 and insults. A doubtful truce restored 
 the appearances of concord, till the 
 death of Abu Taleb abandoned Ma- 
 homet to the power of his enemies, a<" 
 
 In which he seems to have spent nearly three years, often 
 In want of the neoessarlos of life, and obliged to change his 
 led every night for fear of being surprised by 
 (Weil, p. 63.)-S. 
 
Life of Mahomet. 121 
 
 the moment when he was deprived of 
 his domestic comforts by the loss of his 
 faithful and generous Cadijah. Abu 
 Sophian, the chief of the branch of 
 Ommiyah, succeeded to the principality 
 of the republic of Mecca. A zealous 
 votary of the idols, a mortal foe of the 
 line of Hashem, he convened an as- 
 sembly of the Koreishites and their 
 allies, to decide the fate of tlie apostle. 
 His imprisonment might provoke the 
 despair of his enthusiasm ; and the exile 
 of an eloquent and popular fanatic 
 would diffuse the mischief through the 
 provinces of Arabia. His death was 
 resolved ; and they agreed that a sword 
 from each tribe should be buried in his 
 heart, to divide the guilt of his blood, 
 and baffle the vengeance of the Ha- 
 shemites. An angel or a spy reveal- 
 ed their conspiracy, and flight was the 
 ^nly resource of Mahomet. At the 
 aead of night, accompanied by his 
 
122 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 friend Abubeker, he silently escaped 
 from his house : the assassins watched 
 at the door ; but they were deceived 
 by the figure of Ali, who reposed on 
 the bed, and was covered with the 
 green vestment of the apostle. The Ko- 
 reish respected the piety of the heroic 
 youth ; but some verses of Ali, which 
 are still extant, exhibit an interesting 
 picture of his anxiety, his tenderness, 
 and his religious confidence. Three 
 days Mahomet and his companion were 
 concealed in the cave of Thor, at the 
 distance of a league from Mecca ; and 
 in the close of each evening, they re- 
 ceived, from the son and daughter of 
 Abubeker, a secret supply of intelli- 
 gence and food. The diligence of the 
 Koreish explored every haunt in the 
 neighborhood of the city : they arrived 
 at the entrance of the cavern ; but the 
 providential deceit of a spider's web 
 and a pigeon's nest, is supposed to con 
 
Life of Mahomet. 123 
 
 vince them that the place was solitary 
 and inviolate.^ " We are only two," 
 Baid the trembling Abubeker. " There 
 is a third," replied the prophet ; " it is 
 God himself." No sooner was the pur- 
 suit abated, than the two fugitives is- 
 sued from the rock, and mounted their 
 camels : on the road to Medina, they 
 were overtaken by the emissaries of the 
 Koreish ; they redeemed themselves 
 with prayers and promises from their 
 hands. In this eventful moment, the 
 lance of an Arab might have changed 
 the history of the world. The flight of „ 
 the prophet from Mecca to Medina has 
 fixed the memorable era of the Hcgwa* 
 which, at tlie end of twelve centuries, 
 
 1 According to another legend, whicli ia less known, a 
 I. ee grew up before the entrance of the cavern, at the com- 
 viand of the prophet. (Weil, p. 79, note 96.)— S. 
 
 a The Regiy'a was instituted by Omar, the second caliph, 
 n imitation of the era of the martyrs of the Christians 
 (D'Herbelot, p. 444) ; and properly commenced sixty-eight 
 ■^ys before the flight of Mahomet, with the first of Mohar- 
 ren, or first day of that Arabian year, which coincides 
 with Friday, July 16th, A. D. 622. (Abulfoda, Vit. Moham. 
 
124 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 Btill discriminates the lunar years of the 
 Mahometan nations. 
 
 The religion of the Koran might have 
 perished in its cradle, had not Medina 
 embraced with faith and reverence the 
 holy outcasts of Mecca. Medina, or 
 the city^^ known under the name of 
 Yathreb, before it was sanctified by the 
 throne of the prophet, was divided be 
 tween the tribes of the Charegites" and 
 the Awsites, whose hereditary feud was 
 rekindled by the slightest provocations : 
 two colonies of Jews, who boasted a 
 sacerdotal race, were their humble 
 allies, and without converting the 
 Arabs, they introduced the taste of 
 science and religion, which distinguish- 
 ed Medina as the city of the Book. 
 
 c. 22, 23, p. 45-60 ; and Greaves's edition of Ullug Beg's 
 Epochs Arabum, &c. c. 1, p. 8, 10, &c.) 
 
 1 It was at first called Medinatalnabi, " tJie city of the 
 prophet;" and afterwards simply " the city." (Conde, Hist 
 de la Domination des Arabes, i. 44. note.)— S. 
 
 3 More properly Chasrajites, of the tribe Chazr^j. (Spren 
 ger, p. 203, Weil, p. 71.)— S. 
 
L^f^ of Mahomet, 125 
 
 Some of her noblest citizens, in a pil- 
 grimage to the Caaba, were converted 
 by the preaching of Mahomet : on theii 
 return they diffused the belief of God 
 and his prophet, and the new alliance 
 was ratified by their deputies in two 
 secret and nocturnal interviews on a 
 hill in the suburbs of Mecca. In the 
 first, ten Charegites and two Awsites 
 united in faith and love, protested in 
 the name of their wives, their children, 
 and their absent brethren, that they 
 w^ould for ever profess the creed, and 
 observe the precepts, of the Koran.* 
 The second was a politi cal association, 
 the first vital spark of the empire of the 
 Saracens. Seventy-three men and two 
 women of Medina held a solemn con- 
 ference with Mahomet, his kinsmen, and 
 his disciples ; and pledged themselves 
 to each other by a mutual oath of fidel- 
 
 * This first alliance waa called " the agreement of wo- 
 men," because it did not contain the duty of fighting for the 
 Islam. (Sprenger, p. 203.)— S. 
 
126 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 ity. They promised in the name of the 
 city, that if he should be banished, they 
 would receive him as a confederate, 
 obey him as a leader, and defend him 
 to the last extremity, like their wives 
 and children. " But if you are recalled 
 by your country," they asked with a 
 flattering anxiety, " will you not aban- 
 don your new allies ? " "All things," 
 replied Mahomet with a smile, "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 honor and interest. I am your 
 friend, and the enemy of your foes." 
 " But if we are killed in your service, 
 what," exclaimed the deputies of Me- 
 dina, " will be our reward ? " " Para- 
 dise," replied the prophet. "Stretch 
 forth thy hand." He stretched it forth, 
 and they reiterated the oath of alle- 
 giance and fidelity. Their treaty was 
 ratified by the people, who unanimous- 
 
Life of Mahomet. 127 
 
 \j embraced the profession of Islam ; 
 they rejoiced in the exile of the apostle, 
 but thej trembled for his safety, and 
 impatiently expected his arrival. After 
 a perilous and rapid journey along the 
 sea-coast he halted at Koba, two miles 
 from the city, and made his public entry 
 into Medina, sixteen days after his flight 
 from Mecca. Five hundred of the citi- 
 zens advanced to meet him; he was 
 hailed with acclamations of loyalty and 
 devotion ; Mahomet was mounted on a 
 she-camel, an umbrella shaded his head, 
 and a turban was unfurled before him 
 to supply the deficiency of a standard. 
 His bravest disciples, who had been 
 scattered by the storm, assembled round 
 his person ; and the equal though vari- 
 ous merit of the Moslems was dis- 
 tinguished by the names of Mohageri- 
 ans and Ansars, the fugitives of Mecca, 
 and the auxiliaries of Medina. To 
 eradicate the seeds of jealousy, Ma- 
 
128 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 hornet judiciously coupled his principal 
 followers with the rights and obligations 
 of brethren, and when AH found him- 
 self without a peer, the prophet tender- 
 ly declared, that he would be the com- 
 panion and brother of the noble youth. 
 The expedient was crowned with suc- 
 cess ; the holy fraternity was respected 
 in peace and war, and the two parties 
 vied with each other in a generous 
 emulation of courage and fidelity. Once 
 only the concord was slightly ruffled 
 by an accidental quarrel ; a patriot of 
 Medina arraigned the insolence of the 
 strangers, but the hint of their expul- 
 sion was heard with abhorrence, and his 
 own son most eagerly offered to lay at 
 the apostle's feet the head of his 
 father. 
 
 Fi-om his establishment at Medina, 
 Mahomet assumed the exercise of the 
 regal and sacerdotal office ; and it was 
 Impious to appeal from a judge who8« 
 
Life of Mahomet. 129 
 
 decrees were inspired by the divine wis- 
 dom. A small portion of ground, tlie pa- 
 trimony of two orphans, was acquired by 
 gift or purchase ; on that chosen spot, 
 he built a house and a mosch, more 
 venerable in their rude simplicity than 
 the palaces and temples of the Assyrian 
 caliphs. His seal of gold, or silver, 
 was inscribed with the apostolic title ; 
 when he prayed and preached in the 
 weekly assembly, he leaned against the 
 trunk of a palm-tree ; and it was long 
 before he indulged himself in the use 
 of a chair or pulpit of rough timber. 
 After a reign of six years, fifteen hun- 
 dred Moslems, in arms and in the 
 field, renewed their oath of allegi- 
 ance ; and their chief repeated the as- 
 surance of protection till the death 
 of the last member, or the final disso- 
 'ution of the party. It was in the same 
 «amp that the deputy of Mecca was 
 astonished by the attention of the faith 
 
 
130 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 ful to the words aud looks of the 
 prophet, by the eagerness with which 
 they collected his spittle, a hair that 
 dropt on the ground, the refuse water 
 of his lustrations, as if they participated 
 in some degree of the prophetic virtue. 
 " I have seen," said he, " the Chosroes 
 of Persia and the Caesar of Eome, but 
 never did I behold a king among his 
 subjects like Mahomet among his com- 
 panions." The devout fervor of enthu- 
 siasm acts with more energy and truth 
 than the cold and formal servility of 
 courts. 
 
 In the state of nature every man has 
 a right to defend, by force of arms, his 
 person and his possessions ; to repel, or 
 even to prevent, the violence of his 
 enemies, and to extend his hostilities to 
 a reasonable measure of satisfaction and 
 retaliation. In the free society of the 
 Arabs, the duties of subject and citizen 
 imposed a feeble restraint ; and Ma 
 
Life of Mahomet. 131 
 
 hornet, in the exercise of a peaceful and 
 benevolent mission, had been despoiled 
 and banished by the injustice of his 
 countrymen. The choice of an inde- 
 pendent people had exalted the fugitive 
 of Mecca to the rank of a sovereign ^ 
 and he was invested with the just pre 
 rogative of forming alliances, and of 
 waging offensive or defensive war. 
 The imperfection of human rights was 
 supplied and armed by the plenitude 
 of divine power : the prophet of Me- 
 dina assumed, in his new revelations, 
 a fiercer and more sanguinary tone, 
 which proves that his former modera- 
 tion was the effect of weakness: the 
 means of persuasion had been tried, 
 the season of forbearance was elapsed, 
 and he was now commanded to propa- 
 gate his religion by the sword, to destroy 
 the monuments of idolatry, and, with- 
 out regarding the sanctity of days or 
 months, to pursue the unbelieving 
 
132 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 nations of the earth. The same bloody 
 precepts, so repeatedly inculcated in 
 the Koran, are ascribed by the author 
 to the Pentateuch and the Gospel. 
 But the mild tenor of the evangelic 
 style may explain an ambiguous text, 
 that Jesus did not bring peace on the 
 earth, but a sword : his patient and 
 humble virtues should not be confound- 
 ed with the intolerant zeal of princes 
 and bishops, who have disgraced the 
 name of his disciples. In the prosecu- 
 tion of religious war, Mahomet might 
 appeal with more propriety to the ex- 
 ample of Moses, of the judges and the 
 kings of Israel. The military laws of 
 the Hebrews are still more rigid Ihan 
 those of the Arabian legislator. The 
 Lord of hosts marched in person before 
 the Jews : if a city resisted their sum- 
 mons, the males, without distinction, 
 were put to the sword : the seven 
 nations of Caanan were devoted to 
 
Life of Mahomet. 133 
 
 destruction; and neither repentance 
 nor conversion could shield them from 
 the inevitable doom, that no creature 
 within their precincts should be left 
 alive. The fair option of friendship, or 
 submission, or battle, was proposed to 
 the enemies of Mahomet. If they pro- 
 fessed the creed of Islam, they were ad- 
 mitted to all the temporal and spiritual 
 benefits of his primitive disciples, and 
 marched under the same banner to ex- 
 tend the religion which they had em- 
 braced. The clemency of the prophet 
 was decided by his interest, yet he sel- 
 dom trampled on a prostrate enemy ; 
 and he seems to promise, that, on the 
 payment of a tribute, the least guilty of 
 his unbelieving subjects might be in- 
 dulged in their worship, or at least 
 in their imperfect faith. In the first 
 months of his reign, he practised the 
 lessons of holy warfare, and displayed 
 his white banner before the gates of 
 
134 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 Medina : the martial apostle fought in 
 person at nine battles or sieges ; and 
 Hftj enterprises of war were achieved 
 in ten years by himself or his lieutenants. 
 The Arab continued to unite the pro- 
 fessions of a merchant and a robber ; 
 and his petty excursions for the defence 
 or the attack of a caravan insensibly 
 prepared his troops for the conquest of 
 Arabia. The distribution of the spoil 
 was regulated by a divine law ; the 
 whole was faithfully collected in one 
 common mass : a fifth of the gold and 
 silver, the prisoners and cattle, the 
 movables and immovables, was reserved 
 by the prophet for pious and charitable 
 uses ; * the remainder was shared in 
 adequate portions by the soldiers who 
 had obtained the victoiy or guarded the 
 camp : the rewards of the slain devolved 
 
 1 Before the time of Mahomet it was customary for the 
 head of the tribe, or general, to retain one-fourth of the 
 oooty ; 80 that this new regulation must have been regarded 
 with favor by the army. (Weil, p. 111.)— S. 
 
Zife of Mahomee. 136 
 
 » - — 
 
 vo their widows and orphans ; and the 
 increase of cavalry was encouraged by 
 the allotment of a double share to the 
 horse and to the man. From all sides 
 the roving Arabs were allured to the 
 standard of religion and plunder : the 
 apostle sanctified the licence of embrac- 
 ing the female captives as their wives 
 or concubines ; and the enjoyment of 
 wealth and beauty was a feeble type of 
 the joys of paradise prepared for the 
 valiant martyrs of the faith. " The 
 sword," says Mahomet, " is the key of 
 heaven and of hell : a drop of blood 
 shed in the cause of God, a night spent 
 in arms, is of more avail than two 
 months of fasting or prayer : whosoever 
 falls in battle, his sins are forgiven : at 
 the day of judgment his wounds shall 
 be resplendent as vermilion, and odor- 
 iferous as musk ; and the loss of hia 
 limbs shall be supplied by the wings of 
 angels and cherubim." The intrepid 
 
136 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 Bouls of the Arabs were fired with 
 entliusiasm : the picture of the invisible 
 world was strongly painted on their 
 imagination ; and the death which they 
 had always despised became an object 
 of hope and desire. The Koran incnl 
 cates, in the most absolute sense, the 
 tenets of fate and predestination, which 
 would extinguish both industry and 
 virtue, if the actions of man were gov- 
 erned by his speculative belief. Yet 
 their influence in every age has exalted 
 the courage of the Saracens and Turks. 
 The first companions of Mahomet ad 
 vanced to battle with a fearless confi- 
 dence : there is no danger where there 
 is no chance : they were ordained to 
 perish in their beds ; or they were safe 
 and invulnerable amidst the darts of 
 the enemy. 
 
 Perhaps the Koreish would have 
 been content with the flight of Mahomet, 
 had they not been provoked and alarm 
 
Life of Mahomet. 137 
 
 ed bj the vengeance of an enem j, who 
 could intercept their Syrian trade as it 
 passed and repassed through the terri- 
 tory of Medina. Abu Sophian himself, 
 with only thirty or forty followers, con- 
 ducted a wealthy caravan of a thousand 
 camels ; the fortune or dexterity of his 
 march escaped the vigilance of Ma- 
 homet ; but the chief of the Koreish 
 was informed that the holy robbers 
 were placed in ambush to await his re- 
 turn. He despatched a messenger to 
 his brethren of Mecca, and they were 
 roused, by the fear of losing their mer- 
 chandise and their provisions, unless 
 they hastened to his relief with the 
 military force of the city. The sacred 
 band of Mahomet was formed of three 
 hundred and thirteen Moslems, of whom 
 seventy-seven were fugitives, and the 
 vest auxiliaries : they mounted by turns 
 a train of seventy camels (the camels 
 of Yathreb were formidable in war) ; 
 
138 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 but such was the poverty of his first disci- 
 ples that only two could appear on horse- 
 back in the field. In the fertile and 
 famous vale of Beder, three stations 
 from Medina, he was informed by his 
 scouts of the caravan that approached 
 on one side ; of the Koreish, one hun 
 dred horse, ei^ht hundred and fifty 
 foot,' who advanced on the other. 
 After a short debate, he sacrificed the 
 prospect of wealth to the pursuit of 
 glory and revenge ; and a slight in- 
 trenchment was formed, to cover his 
 troops, and a stream of fresh water that 
 glided through the valley. " O God," 
 he exclaimed, as the numbers of the 
 Koreish descended from the hills, " O 
 God, if these are destroyed, by whom 
 wilt thou be worshipped on the earth ? — - 
 Courage, my children, close your ranks ; 
 
 » Of these, however, 300 of the tribe of Zohra returned 
 to Mecca before the engagement, and were joined by many 
 fthers. The battle began with a fight, like that of tb e Hora 
 tiiand Curiatii, of throe on each side. (Weil, p. 105-111.)— 8. 
 
Life of Mahomet. 139 
 
 discharge your arrows, and the day is 
 your own." At these words he placed 
 himself, with Abubeker, on a throne of 
 pulpit, 1 and instantly demanded the 
 succor of Gabriel and three thousand 
 angels. His eyes were fixed on the 
 field of battle : the Musulmans fainted 
 and were pressed : in that decisive mo- 
 ment the prophet started from his 
 
 1 Weil (p. 103) calls it a hut (Hutte), which his followers 
 had erected for him on a gentle eminence near the field of 
 battle. Gibbon is solicitous for the reputation of Mahomet, 
 whom he has before characterized {supra, p. 67,) as pos- 
 sessing "the courage both of thought and action." Weil, 
 however, draws a very different portrait of him (p. 344.) 
 "According to his Musulman biographers, whom Euro- 
 peans have followed without further inquiry, his physical 
 strength was accompanied with the greatest valor ; yet not 
 only is this assertion destitute of all proof, but his behavior 
 in his diflferent campaigns, as well as in the first years of his 
 appearance as a prophet, and also towards thp close of hia 
 life, when he was become very powerful, compel us, despite 
 his endurance and perseverance, to characterize him as very 
 timorous. It was not till after the conversion of Omar and 
 Hamza that he ventured openly to appear in the mosque 
 along with the professors of his faith, as a Moslem. He not 
 only took no part in the fight in the battle of Bedr, but 
 kept at some distance from the field, and had some drome- 
 daries ready before his tent, in order to fly in case of a re« 
 ««r6e."— 8. 
 
140 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 throne, mounted his horse, and cast a 
 handful of sand into the air ; "let their 
 faces be co\^ered with confusion." 
 Both armies heard the thunder of his 
 voice : their fancy beheld the angelic 
 warriors : the Koreish trembled and 
 fled : seventy of the bravest were slain ; 
 and seventy captives adorned the first 
 victory of the faithful. ^ The dead 
 bodies of the Koreish were despoiled 
 and insulted : two of the most obnox- 
 ious prisoners were punished with death; 
 and the ransom of the others, four 
 thousand drachms of silver, compensa- 
 ted in some degree the escape of the 
 caravan. But it was in vain that the 
 camels of Abu Sophian explored a new 
 road through the desert and along the 
 Euphrates : they were overtaken by the 
 
 1 According to others, 44. ("Weil, p. 109.) Among the 
 captives was Abbas, the rich uncle of Mfvhomet, who was 
 obliged to pay ransom, although he alleged that inwardly 
 he was a believer, and had been forced to take part in the 
 expedition. He returned to Mecca, where, it is said, h« 
 served Mahomet as a spy. (lb. p. 109-114.)— S. 
 
Life of Mahomet, 141 
 
 diligence of the Mnsiilmans ; and 
 wealthy must have been the prize, if 
 twenty thousand drachms could be set 
 apart for the fifth of the apostle. Tlie 
 resentment of the public and private 
 loss stimulated Abu Sophian to collect 
 a body of three thousand men, seven 
 hundred of whom were armed with 
 cuirasses, and two hundred were mount- 
 ed on horseback ; three thousand camels 
 attended his march ; and his wife 
 Henda, with fifteen matrons of Mecca, 
 incessantly sounded their timbrels to 
 animate the troops, and to magnify the 
 greatness of Hobal, the most popular 
 deity of the Caaba. The standard of 
 God and Mahomet was upheld by nine 
 hundred and fifty believers: the dis- 
 proportion of numbers was not more 
 alarming than in the field of Beder; 
 and their presumption of victory pre- 
 vailed against the divine and human 
 Bense of the apostle.* The second bat- 
 
 « But on this occasion Abd Allah, with 200 men abon- 
 
142 Life of Mahomet . 
 
 tie was fought on Mount Ohud, six 
 miles to the north of Medina: the 
 Koreish advanced in the form of a 
 crescent ; and the right wing of cavalry 
 was led by Caled, the fiercest and most 
 successful of the Arabian warriors. 
 The troops of Mahomet were skilfully 
 posted on the declivity of a hill, and 
 their rear was guarded by^a detachment 
 of fifty archers. The weight of their 
 charge impelled and broke the centre 
 of the idolaters ; but in the pursuit they 
 lost the advantage of their ground : the 
 archers deserted their station: the 
 Musulmans were tempted by the 
 spoil, disobeyed their general, and dis- 
 ordered their ranks. The intrepid 
 Caled, wheeling his cavalry on their 
 flank and rear, exclaimed, with a loud 
 voice, that Mahomet was slain. He 
 was indeed wounded in the face with a 
 
 doned Mahomet, so hat the disproportion of forces was 
 vastly greater than at Bedr. See note * supra, page 189. 
 (Weil, p. 124.)-S. 
 
Life of Mahomet, 143 
 
 javelin : two of his teeth were shatter- 
 ed with a stone ; * yet, in the midst of 
 tumult and dismay, he reproached the 
 infidels with the murder of a prophet, 
 and blessed the friendly hand that 
 stanched his blood, and conveyed him 
 to a place of safety.^ Seventy martyrs 
 died for the sins of the people : they 
 fell, said the apostle, in pairs, each 
 brother embracing his lifeless compan- 
 ion ; their bodies were mangled by the 
 inhuman females of Mecca ; and the 
 
 1 Two of Mahomet's teeth are (or were) preserved at 
 Constantinople ; but as, according to the 'best authorities, he 
 only lost one on this occasion, one-half at least of these rel- 
 ics must be regarded with the same suspicion that attaches 
 to most other articles of the same description. (See Weil, 
 p. 127.)— S. 
 
 2 The person of the prophet was protected by a helmet 
 and double coat of mail. He was recognized among the 
 vounded by Caab, the son of Malek ; by whom, Abu Bakr, 
 Omar, and ten or twelve others, he was carried to a cave 
 upon an eminence. Here he was pursued by Ubejj Ibn 
 Challa^ who had long been keeping a horse in extraordinary 
 condition for the purpose of surpris'ag and killing Ma- 
 homet ; but the latter dealt him a blow of which he died. 
 This was the only time that Mahomet took any personal 
 jhare in an action. (Weil, p. 128.)— S. 
 
144 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 wife of Abii Sophian tasted the entrails 
 of Hamza, the uncle of Mahomet. They 
 might applaud their superstition, and 
 satiate their fury ; but the Musulmans 
 soon rallied in the field, and the Koreish 
 warkted strength or courage to under- 
 take the siege of Medina. It was at- 
 tacked the ensuing year by an army of 
 ten thousand enemies ; and this third 
 expedition is variously named from the 
 vmtionSj which marched under the 
 banner of Abu Sophian, from the ditch 
 which was drawn before the city, and 
 a camp of three thousand Musulmans. 
 The prudence of Mahomet declined a 
 general engagement : the valor of AH 
 was signalized in single combat; and 
 >,he war was protracted twenty days, till 
 •lie final separation of the confederates. 
 L tempest of wind, rain, and hail, over- 
 turned their tents ; their private quar- 
 rels were fomented by an insidious 
 adversary ; and the Koreish, deserted 
 
L ife of Mahomet. 146 
 
 Dj their allies, no longer hoped to sub- 
 vert the throne, or to check the con- 
 quests, of their invincible exile. 
 
 The choice of Jerusalem for the first 
 kebla of prayer discovers the early pro- 
 pensity of Mahomet in favor of the 
 Jews ; and happy would it have been 
 for their temporal interest, had they 
 recognized, in the Arabian prophet, the 
 hope of Israel and the promised Mes- 
 siah. Their obstinacy converted his 
 friendship into implacable hatred, with 
 which he pursued that unfortunate 
 people to the last moment of his life ; 
 and in the double character of an 
 apostle and a conqueror, his persecution 
 was extended to both worlds. The 
 Kainoka dwelt at Medina under the 
 protection of the city ; he seized the 
 occasion of an accidental tumult, and 
 summoned them to embrace his re- 
 ligion, or contend with him in battle. 
 ''Alas," replied the trembling Jews, 
 30 
 
146 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 " we are ignorant of the use of arms, 
 but we persevere in the faith and wor- 
 ship of our fathers ; why wilt thou re- 
 duce us to the necessity of a just de- 
 fence ? " The unequal conflict was ter- 
 minated in fifteen days ; and it was 
 with extreme reluctance that Mahomet 
 yielded to the importunity of his allies, 
 and consented to spare the lives of the 
 captives. But their riches were con- 
 fiscated, their arms became more effec- 
 tual in the hands of the Musulmans ; 
 and a wretched colony of seven hun- 
 dred exiles was driven with their wives 
 and children to implore a refuge on the 
 confines of Syria. The Nadhirites 
 were more guilty, since they conspired 
 in a friendly interview to assassinate 
 the prophet. He besieged their castle 
 three miles from Medina, but their res- 
 olute defence obtained an honorable 
 3apitulation ; and the garrison, sounding 
 their trumpets and beating their drums, 
 
Life of Mahomet, 147 
 
 vras permitted to depart with the 
 honors of war. The Jews had excited 
 and joined the war of the Koreish: no' 
 sooner had the nations retired from the 
 ditcli^ than Mahomet, without laying 
 aside his armor, marched on the same 
 day to extirpate the hostile race of the 
 children of Koraidha. After a resist- 
 ance of twenty-five days, they sur- 
 rendered at discretion. They trusted 
 to the intercession of their old allies of 
 Medina: they could not be ignorant 
 that fanaticism obliterates the feelings 
 of humanity. A venerable elder, to 
 whose judgment they appealed, pro- 
 nounced the sentence of their death : 
 seyen hundred Jews were dragged in 
 chains to the market-place of the city ; 
 they descended alive into the grave 
 prepared for their execution and burial ; 
 and the apostle beheld with an inflexible 
 eye the slaughter of his helpless en- 
 emies. Their sheep and camels were 
 
148 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 inherited by the Musuhnans: three 
 hundred cuirasses, five hundred pikes, 
 a thousand lances, composed the most 
 useful portion of the spoil. Six days' 
 journey to the north-east of Medina, 
 the ancient and wealthy town of Chai- 
 bar, was the seat of the Jewish power 
 in Arabia : the territory, a fertile spot 
 in the desert, was covered with planta- 
 tions and cattle, and protected by eight 
 castles, some of which were esteemed 
 of impregnable strength. The forces 
 of Mahomet consisted of two hundred 
 horse and fourteen hundred foot : in 
 the succession of eight regular and 
 painful sieges they were exposed to 
 danger, and fatigue, and hunger ; and 
 the most undaunted chiefs despaired of 
 the event. The apostle revived their 
 faith and courage by the example of 
 Ali, on whom he bestowed the surname 
 of the Lion of God : perhaps we may 
 jelieve that a Hebrew champion of 
 
Life of Mahomet, 149 
 
 gigantic stature was cloven to the 
 chest bj his irresistible scymitar ; but 
 we cannot praise the modesty of ro- 
 mance, which represents him as tearing 
 from its hinges the gate of a fortress, 
 and wielding the ponderous buckler in 
 his left hand. After the reduction of 
 the castles, the town of Chaibar sub- 
 mitted to the yoke. The chief of the 
 tribe was tortured, in the presence of 
 Mahomet, to force a confession of his 
 hidden treasure : the industry of the 
 shepherds and husbandmen was re- 
 warded with a precarious toleration : 
 they were permitted, so long as it 
 should please the conqueror, to im« 
 prove their patrimony, in equal shares, 
 for his emolument and their own. Un- 
 der the reign of Omar, the Jews of 
 Chaibar were transplanted to Syria ; 
 and the caliph alleged the injunction 
 of his dying master, that one and the 
 
160 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 true religion should be professed in his 
 native land of Arabia. 
 
 Five times each day the eyes of 
 Mahomet were turned towards Mecca, 
 and he was urged by the most sacred 
 and powerful motives to revisit, as a 
 conqueror, the city and temple from 
 whence he had been driven as an exile. 
 The Caaba was present to his waking 
 and sleeping fancy : an idle dream was 
 translated into vision and prophecy ; he 
 unfurled the holy banner ; and a rash 
 promise of success too hastily dropped 
 from the lips of the apostle. His march 
 from Medina to Mecca displayed the 
 peaceful and solemn pomp of a pilgri- 
 mage : seventy camels chosen and be- 
 decked for sacrifice, preceded the van ; 
 the sacred territory was respected ; 
 and the captives were dismissed with- 
 out ransom to proclaim his clemency 
 and devotion. But no sooner did Ma 
 hornet descend into the plain, within a 
 
Life of Mahomet. 151 
 
 day's journey of the city, than he ex> 
 claimed, "they have clothed themselves 
 with the skins of tigers : " the numbers 
 and resolution of the Koreish opposed 
 his progress ; and the roving Arabs 
 of the desert might desert or betray 
 a leader whom they had followed for 
 the hopes of spoil. The intrepid fanatic 
 sunk into a cool and cautions politi- 
 cian : he waved in the treaty his title 
 of apostle of God/ concluded with the 
 Koreish and their allies a truce of ten 
 years, engaged to restore the fugitives 
 of Mecca who should embrace his re- 
 ligion, and stipulated only, for the en- 
 suing year, the humble privilege of 
 entering the city as a friend, and of 
 remaining three days to accomplish the 
 rites of the pilgrimage. A cloud of 
 Bhame and sorrow hung on the retreat 
 of the Musulmans, and their disap- 
 
 ' He strnck out the title with hia own htnd^ as All had 
 ■afhsed to do it. (Weil, p. l^S.)— 8. 
 
152 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 pointment might j ustly accuse the fail- 
 ure of a prophet who had so often 
 appealed to the evidence of success. 
 The faith and hope of the pilgrims 
 were rekindled bj the prospect of Mec- 
 ca ; their swords were sheathed : seven 
 times in the footsteps of the apostle 
 they encompassed the Caaba : the Ko- 
 reish had retired to the hills, and Ma- 
 homet, after the customary sacrifice, 
 evacuated the city on the fourth day. 
 The people was edified by his devotion ; 
 the hostile chiefs were awed, or divid- 
 ed, or seduced ; and both Caled and 
 Amrou, the future conquerors of Syria 
 and Egypt, most seaonably deserted 
 the sinking cause of idolatry. The 
 power of Mahomet was increased by 
 the submission of the Arabian tribes ; 
 ten thousand soldiers were assembled 
 for the conquest of Mecca ;* and the 
 
 » The expedition of Mahomet against Mecca took place 
 In the 10th Ramadhan of the 8th Hegira (1 Jan. 6S0). ("WeH, 
 p. 212.)— S. 
 
Lif^' of Mahomet, 153 
 
 idolaters, the weaker party, were easily 
 convicted of violating the truce. En- 
 thusiasm and discipline impelled the 
 march and preserved the secret, till the 
 blaze of ten thousand fires proclaimed 
 to the astonished Koreish the design, 
 the approach, and the irresistible force 
 of the enemy. The haughty Abu So- 
 phian presented the keys of the city ; 
 admired the variety of arms and en- 
 signs that passed before him in review ; 
 observed that the son of Abdallah had 
 acquired a mighty kingdom ; and con- 
 fessed,under the scymitar of Omar, that 
 he was the apostle of the true God. 
 The return of Marius and Sylla was 
 Btained with the blood of the Romans : 
 the revenge of Mahomet was stimulated 
 by religious zeal, and his injured follow- 
 ers were eager to execute or to prevent 
 the order of a massacre. Instead of 
 indulging their passions and his own, 
 the victorious exile forgave the guilt, 
 
164 Life 0/ Mahomet, 
 
 and united the factions of Mecca. His 
 troops, in tiiree divisions, marched into 
 the city : eight and twenty of the in- 
 habitants were slain by the sword of 
 Caled ;^ eleven men and six women 
 were proscribed by the sentence of 
 Mahomet ;'' but he blamed the cruelty 
 
 1 These men— their numbers are variously given at less 
 and more — were slain on the hill called Chandama, "before 
 the entrance of Chaled into the city, which they had op- 
 posed. It was on a different occasion that Chaled incurred 
 the censure of Mahomet. The prophet had sent him on an 
 expedition to the province of Tehama, and, on passing 
 through the territoiy of the Beni Djasima, Chaled caused a 
 considerable number of them to be put to death, although 
 they were already Musulmans. Unfortunately, when re- 
 quired to confess their faith, they had, from ancient cus- 
 tom, used the word Saba' na, (converts or renegades,) in- 
 stead of the usual Moslem expression, Asktmna. On hear- 
 ing of the act, Mahomet raised his hands to heaven, and ex- 
 claimed, " O God, I am pure before thee, and have taken 
 no part in Chaled's deed." Mahomet compensated the Beni 
 Djasima for the Blaughter of their kinsmen ; but the ser- 
 vices of Chaled obliged him to overlook his offence. (Weil, 
 p. 230.)— S. 
 
 2 Eleven men and four women ; but the sentence was 
 executed only on three of the former and one of the latter. 
 (Weil, p. 220.) Mahomet remained two or three weeks in 
 Mecca, during which he sent his captains to destroy the 
 Idols in the surrounding country, and to summon the Ara- 
 bians tj> aabmission and beliefl (Weil, p. 228.-8.) 
 
Life of Mahomet. 155 
 
 of his lieutenant ; and several of the 
 most obnoxious victims were indebted 
 for their lives to his clemency or con- 
 tempt. The chiefs of the Koreish 
 were prostrate at his feet. "What 
 mercy can yon expect from the man 
 whom you have wronged ? " " We con- 
 fide in the generosity of our kinsman." 
 " And you shall not confide in vain : 
 begone ! your are safe, you are free." 
 The people of Mecca deserved their 
 pardon by the profession of Islam ; and 
 after an exile of seven years, the fugi- 
 tive missionary was enthroned as the 
 prince and prophet of his native coun- 
 try. But the three hundred and sixty 
 idols of the Caaba were ignominiously 
 broken : the house of God was purified 
 and adorned ; as an example to future 
 times, the apostle again fulfilled the du- 
 ties of a pilgrim ; and a perpetual law 
 was enacted that no unbeliever should 
 
156 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 dare to set his foot on the territory of 
 the holy city. 
 
 The conquest of Mecca determined 
 the faith and obedience of the Arabian 
 tribes ; who, according to the vicissi- 
 tudes of fortune, had obeyed, or disre- 
 garded, the eloquence or the arms of 
 the pBophet. Indifference for rites and 
 opinions still marks the character of 
 the Bedoweens ; and they might accept, 
 as loosely as they hold, the doctrine of 
 the Koran. Yet an obstinate remnant 
 still adhered to the religion and liberty 
 of their ancestors, and the war of Ho- 
 nain derived a proper appellation from 
 the idols^ whom Mahomet had vowed to 
 destroy, and whom the confederates of 
 Tayef had sworn to defend. Four thou- 
 sand pagans advanced with secrecy and 
 speed to surprise the conqueror : they 
 pitied and despised the supine negli 
 gence of the Koreish, but they depended 
 on the wishes, and perhaps the aid, of 
 
Life of Mahomet. 157 
 
 a people who had so lately renounced 
 their gods, and bowed beneath the 
 yoke of their enemy. The banners of 
 Medina and Mecca were displayed by 
 the prophet ; a crowd of Bedoweens in- 
 creased the strength or numbers of the 
 army, and twelve thousand Musul- 
 mans entertained a rash and sinful pre- 
 sumption of their invincible strength. 
 They descended without precaution into 
 the valley of Honain : the heights had 
 been occupied by the archers and siing- 
 ers of the confederates ; their numbers 
 were oppressed, their discipline was 
 confounded, their courage was appalled, 
 and the Koreish smiled at their im- 
 pending destruction. The prophet on 
 his white mule, was encompassed by the 
 enemies : he attemped to rush against 
 their spears in search of a glorious 
 death : ten of his faithful companions 
 mterposed their weapons and their 
 breasts ; three of these fell dead at his 
 
158 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 feet: "O my brethren," he repeatedly 
 cried with sorrow and indignation, "1 
 am the son of Abdallah, I am the apos- 
 tle of truth ! O man, stand fast in the 
 faith ! O God, send down thy suc- 
 cor!" His uncle Abbas, who, like 
 the heroes of Homer, excelled in the 
 loudness of his voice, made the valley 
 resound with the recital of the gifts and 
 promises of God : the flying Moslems 
 returned from all sides to the holy 
 standard ; and Mahomet observed with 
 pleasure, that the furnace was again re- 
 kindled : his conduct and example re- 
 stored the battle, and he animated his 
 victorious troops to inflict a merciless 
 revenge on the authors of their shame. 
 From the field of Honain, he marched 
 without delay to the siege of Tayef, sixty 
 miles to the south-east of Mecca, a for- 
 tress of strength, whose fertile lands 
 produce the fruits of Syria in the 
 midst of the Arabian desert. A friend 
 7 
 
Life of Mahomet. 159 
 
 ly tribe, instructed (I know not how) 
 in the art of sieges, supplied him with 
 a train of battering rams and military 
 engines, with a body of five hundred 
 artificers. But it was in vain that he 
 offered freedom to the slaves of Tayef ; 
 that he violated his own laws by the 
 extirpation of the fruit-trees ; that the 
 ground was opened by the miners ; 
 that the breach was assaulted by the 
 troops. After a siege of twenty days, 
 the prophet sounded a retreat ; but he 
 retreated with a song of devout tri- 
 umph, and affected to pray for the re- 
 pentance and safety of the unbelieving 
 city. Tlie spoil of this fortunate expe- 
 dition amounted to six thousand cap- 
 tives, twenty-four thousand camels, 
 forty thousand sheep, and four thousand 
 ounces of silver : a tribe who had fought 
 at Honain redeemed their prisoners by 
 the sacrifice of their idols : but Mahomet 
 compensated the loss, by resigning to 
 
160 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 the soldiers his tifth of the plunder, 
 and wished, for their sake, that he pos- 
 sessed as many head of cattle as there 
 were trees in the province of Tehama. 
 Instead of chastising the disaffection of 
 the Koreish, he endeavored to cut out 
 their tongues, (his own expression,) 
 and to secure their attachment by a 
 superior measure of liberality : Abu So- 
 phian alone was presented with three 
 hundred camels and twenty ounces of 
 silver ; and Mecca was sincerely con- 
 verted to the profitable religion of the 
 .Koran. 
 
 The fugitives and auxiliaries com- 
 plained, that they who had borne the 
 burthen were neglected in the season 
 of victory. " Alas," replied their art- 
 ful leader, " suffer me to conciliate these 
 recent enemies, these doubtful prose- 
 lytes, by the gift of some perishable 
 goods. To your guard I intrust my 
 life and fortunes. You are the com 
 
I^^f^ of Mahomet. 161 
 
 paiiions of mj exile, of my kingdom, 
 of my paradise." * He was followed by 
 the deputies of Tayef, who dreaded the 
 repetition of a siege.'^ " Grant iis, O 
 
 ^ Weil gives this address of Mahomet's differently (from 
 the Insan Al Ujun, and Sirat Arrasul), observing that it has 
 not before been presented to the European reader. His ver- 
 Bion is as follows : — " Were ye not wandering in the paths 
 of error when I came unto you, and was it not through me 
 that you obtained the guidance of God^? Were ye not poor, 
 and are ye not now rich ? Were ye not at variance, and are 
 ye not now united ? " They answered, " Surely, Prophet 
 of God, thou hast overloaded us with benefits." Mahomet 
 proceeded : — " Lo I ye auxiliaries, if ye would, ye might 
 with all truth object to me. Thou camest to us branded for 
 a liar, yet we believed in thee ; as a persecutor, and wo pro- 
 tected thee ; as a fugitive, and we harbored thee ; as one in 
 need of assistance, and we supported thee. Yet such are 
 not your thoughts; how, then, can ye find fault with me be- 
 cause I have given a few worldly toys to some persons in 
 order to win their hearts ? Are ye not content, ye auxilia- 
 ries, if these people return home with sheep and camels, 
 whilst ye return with the prophet of God in the midst of 
 you ? By him in whose hand is Mohammed's soul, were it 
 not the reward of the fugitives, I should wish to belong to 
 you ; and, when all the world went one way and you 
 another, I would choose yours. God be merciful unto you, 
 and to your children, and your children's children I " At 
 these words the auxiliaries sobbed aloud, and exclaimed, 
 ** We are content with our lot." (Well, p. 241.)— S. 
 
 a The deputation from Taif, as well as from Innumerable 
 %ther tribes, for the most part to tender their subnaissioii, 
 
 11 
 
162 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 apostle of God ! a truce of three years, 
 with the toleration of our ancient wor- 
 Bhip." "Not a month, not an hour." 
 " Excuse us at least from the obliga- 
 tion of prayer." " Without prayer re- 
 ligion is of no avail." They submitted 
 in silence : their temples were demol- 
 ished, and the same sentence of destruc- 
 tion was executed on all the idols of 
 Arabia. His lieutenants, on the shores 
 of the Red Sea, the ocean, and the gull 
 of Persia, were saluted by the acclama- 
 tions of a faithful people ; and the am- 
 bassadors who knelt before the throne 
 of Medina, were as numerous (says the 
 Arabian proverb) as the dates that fall 
 from the maturity of a palm-tree. The 
 \iation submitted to the God and the 
 Bceptre of Mahomet : the opprobrious 
 name of tribute was abolished : the 
 spontaneous or reluctant oblations of 
 
 took place in the following year, which, on this account, ha« 
 been called " the year of deputations." (See Weil, p. 243 
 
 m-)-8. 
 
Life of Mahomet. 163 
 
 alms and tithes were applied to the ser- 
 vice of religion ; and one hundred and 
 fourteen thousand Moslems accompa- 
 nied the last pilgrimage of the apostle.' 
 When Heraclius returned in tri- 
 umph from the Persian war, he enter 
 tained, at Emesa, one of the ambassa- 
 dors of Mahomet, who invited the 
 princes and nations of the earth to the 
 profession of Islam. On this founda- 
 tion the zeal of the Arabians has sup- 
 posed the secret conversion of the Chris- 
 tian emperor ; the vanity of the Greeks 
 has feigned a personal visit to the prince 
 of Medina, who accepted from the royal 
 bounty a rich domain, and a secure 
 retreat in the province of Syria. But 
 the friendship of Heraclius and Ma- 
 homet was of short continuance : the 
 new religion had inflamed rather than 
 
 1 The more probable traditions mention 40,000. This, 
 ^e last pilgrimage of Mahomet, took place in the tenth year 
 If the Hegira. (Weil, ch. 8.)— S. 
 
164 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 assuaged the rapacious spirit of the 
 Saracens ; and the murder of an envoy 
 afforded a decent pretence for invad- 
 ing, with three thousand soldiers, the 
 territory of Palestine, that extends to 
 the eastward of the Jordan. The holy 
 banner was intrusted to Zeid ; and such 
 was the discipline or enthusiasm of the 
 rising sect, that the noblest chiefs serv- 
 ed without reluctance under the slave 
 of the prophet. On the event of his de- 
 cease, Jaafar and xlbdallah were suc- 
 cessively substituted to the command ; 
 and if the three should perish in the 
 war, the troops were authorized to elect 
 their general. The three leaders were 
 slain in the battle of Muta, the first mil- 
 itary action which tried the valor of 
 the Moslems against a foreign enemy 
 Zeid fell, like a soldier, in the fore- 
 most ranks : the death of Jaafar was 
 heroic and memorable : he lost his 
 nght-hand : he shifted the standard to 
 
Life of Mahomet. 165 
 
 his left ; the left was severed from hia 
 body : he embraced the standard with 
 his bleeding stumps, till he was trans- 
 fixed to the ground with fifty honor- 
 able wounds. " Advance," cried Ab- 
 dallah, who stepped into the vacant 
 place, " advance with confidence : either 
 victory or paradise is our own." The 
 lance of a Roman decided the alterna- 
 tive ; but the falling standard was res- 
 cued by Caled, the proselyte of Mecca : 
 nine swords were broken in his hand ; 
 and his valor withstood and repulsed 
 the superior numbers of the Christians. 
 In the nocturnal council of the camp 
 he was chosen to command : his skilful 
 evolutions of the ensuing day secured 
 either the victory or the retreat of the 
 Saracens ; and Caled is renowned 
 among his brethren and his enemies 
 by the glorious appellation of the Sword 
 Qf God. In the pulpit, Mahomet de- 
 scribed, with prophetic rapture, the 
 
166 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 crowns of the blessed martyrs ; but in 
 private he betrayed the feelings of hu- 
 man nature : he was surprised as he 
 wept over the daughter of Zeid : " What 
 do I see ? " said the astonished votary. 
 " You see," replied the apostle, " a friend 
 who is deploring the loss of his most 
 faithful friend." After the conquest of 
 Mecca,^ the sovereign of Arabia affected 
 to prevent the hostile preparations of 
 Heraclius ; and solemnly proclaimed 
 war against the Romans, without at- 
 tempting to disguise the hardships and 
 dangers of the enterprise. The Mos- 
 lems were discouraged : they alleged 
 the want of money, or horses, or provis- 
 ions ; the season of harvest, and the in- 
 tolerable heat of the summer : " Hell 
 
 1 The battle of Muta took place hefore the conquest of 
 Mecca, as Gibbon here rightly assumes, though Von Ham. 
 mer places it after that event. (Weil, p. 206, note 818.) 
 Weil supposes that the defeat of the Musulmans on that 
 occasion encouraged the Meccans to violate the truce. (lb. 
 
Life of Mahomet. 161 
 
 is much hotter," said the indignant 
 prophet. He disdained to compel their 
 service : but on his return he admon- 
 ished the most guilty, by an excommu- 
 nication of fifty days. Their desertion 
 enhanced the merit of Abubeker, 0th- 
 man, and the faithful companions who 
 devoted their lives and fortunes ; and 
 Mahomet displayed his banner at the 
 head of ten thousand horse and twenty 
 thousand foot. Painful indeed was the 
 distress of the march : lassitude and 
 thirst were aggravated by the scorching 
 and pestilential winds of the desert : ten 
 men rode by turns on the same camel ; 
 and they were reduced to the shameful 
 necessity of drinking the water from 
 the belly of that useful animal. In the 
 mid-way, ten days' journey from Medina 
 and Damascus, they reposed near the 
 grove and fountain of Tabuc. Beyond 
 ihat place Mahomet declined the pros- 
 ecution of the war : he declared himself 
 
168 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 Batisfied with the peaceful intentions, 
 he was more probably daunted by the 
 martial array, of the emperor of the 
 East/ But the active and intrepid Ca- 
 led spread around the terror of his 
 name ; and the prophet received the 
 submission of the tribes and cities. 
 
 1 The expedition of Tabuc was undertaken in the month 
 of Eadjab of the ninth year of the Hegira (A. D. 631). Ma- 
 homet's more devoted friends gave a great part of their sub- 
 stance towards defraying its expenses. Abu Bekr gave 
 the whole of his property, consisting of 4,000 drachms; 
 and when Mahomet inquired, " What then hast thou left 
 for thy family ? " he answered, " God and his prophet." 
 The traditions vary exceedingly respecting the number of 
 the army assembled on this occasion. Thirty thousand is 
 the lowest number assigned ; but even this is probably ex- 
 aggerated, and a large part deserted at the commencement 
 of the march. (Weil, Mahom., p. 260.) When Mahomet, at 
 Tabuc, consulted his companions as to the further prosecu- 
 tion of the enterprise, Omar said, " If you aro commanded 
 by God to go farther, do it." Mahomet answered, " If I had 
 the command of God, I should not ask your advice." Omar 
 replied, "0 prophet of Godl the Gieeks are a numerous 
 people, and there is not a single Musulman among them. 
 Moreover we have already nearly approached them, and 
 your neighborhood has struck them with terror. This year 
 therefore, let us return, till you find it convenient to under- 
 take another 'ampaign against them, or till God offers 
 mportunity." (Weil, note 405.)— S, 
 
Life of Mahomet, 169 
 
 from the Euphrates to Ailah, at the 
 head of the Red Sea. To his Christian 
 Bubjects, Mahomet readily granted the 
 security of their persons, the freedom 
 of their trade, the property of their 
 goods, and the toleration of their wor 
 ship. The weakness of their Arabian 
 brethren had restrained them from op- 
 posing his ambition ; the disciples ol 
 Jesus were endeared to the enemy of 
 the Jews ; and it was the interest of a 
 conqueror to propose a fair capitulation 
 to the most powerful religion of the 
 earth. 
 
 Till the age of sixty-three years, the 
 strength of Mahomet was equal to the 
 temporal and spiritual fatigues of his 
 mission. His epileptic fits, an absurd 
 calumny of the Greeks, would be an 
 object of pity rather than abhorrence;* 
 
 * The opinion, however, of modern Oriental scholars 
 ^nds the other way. Dr. Sprenger (p. 77) shows, on the 
 authority of Ibn Ishac, that Mahomet, whilst still an infant 
 >4nder the care of his footer mother, had an attack which at 
 
no Life of Mahomet, 
 
 but he seriously believed that he was 
 poisoned at Chaibar by the revenge of 
 a Jewish female. During four years, 
 the health of the prophet declined ; his 
 infirmities increased; but his mortal 
 disease was a fever of fourteen days, 
 which deprived him by intervals of the 
 use of reason. As soon as he was con 
 Bcious of his danger, he edified his breth- 
 ren by the humility of his virtue or peni- 
 tence. " If there be any man," said the 
 apostle from the pulpit, " whom I have 
 unjustly scourged, I submit my own 
 back to the lash of retaliation. Have I 
 aspersed the reputation of a Musulman ? 
 let him proclaim my faults in the face 
 of the congregation. Has any one been 
 
 all events very much resembled epilepsy. Three other fits 
 are recorded (lb. p. 78, note 4). Dr. Weil (Mohammed, p. 
 26, note 11) remarks that the word Ussiba, which Abulfeda 
 uses with regard to Mahomet, is particularly used of epilep- 
 tic attacks. The same author has collected several instance* 
 of these fits, (lb. p. 42, note 48, and in the Journal Asiat- 
 Ique, Juillet, 1842,) and is of opinion that his visions werA 
 fit the Tiost part, connected with them. — 8. 
 
Life of Mahomet, 171 
 
 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, " I am 
 entitled to three drachms of silver." 
 Mahomet heard the complaint, satisfied 
 the demand, and thanked his creditor 
 for accusing him in this world rather 
 than at the day of judgment. He be 
 held with temperate firmness the ap- 
 proach of death ; enfranchised his slaves 
 (seventeen men, as they are named, 
 and eleven women) ; minutely directed 
 the order of his funeral, and moderated 
 the lamentations of his weeping friends, 
 on whom he bestowed the benediction 
 of peace. Till the third day before his 
 death, he regularly performed the func- 
 tion of public prayer : the choice of 
 Abubeker to supply his place appeared 
 to mark that ancient and faithful friend 
 as his successor in the sacerdotal and 
 regal office ; but he prudently declined 
 
172 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 the risk and envj of a more explicit 
 nomination. At a moment when his 
 faculties were visibly impaired, he 
 called for pen and ink to write/ or more 
 properly, to dictate, a divine book, the 
 sum and accomplishment of all his 
 revelations : a dispute arose in the 
 chamber, whether he should be al- 
 lowed to supersede the authority of the 
 Koran ; and the prophet was forced to 
 reprove the indecent vehemence of his 
 disciples. If the slightest credit may 
 be afforded to the traditions of his wives 
 and companions, he maintained, in the 
 bosom of his family, and to the lastmo- 
 
 1 The tradition seems to be doubtful ; but, if true, it 
 proves, as Dr. "Weil remarks, Mabomefs ability to write. 
 There is no authority for Gibbon's addition, " or, more 
 properly, to dictate," which seems to be a salvo for his own 
 theory. According to one version be said, "Bring me 
 parchment, or a table, I will write something for Abu Bekr, 
 ;n order that nobody may oppose Mm." ("Weil, p. 330 and 
 Dote 526.) 
 
 Gagnier, whom Gibbon follows, has erroneously trans- 
 ited "book." It was only a short paper that Mahomet 
 wished to write, probably to name his successor. (lb. not« 
 627.)-S. 
 
Life of Mahomet, 173 
 
 ments of his life, the dignity of an apos- 
 tle, and the faith of an enthusiast ; de- 
 scribed the visits of Gabriel, who bade 
 an everlasting farewell to the earth, and 
 expressed his lively confidence, not only 
 of the mercy, but of the favor, of the 
 Supreme Being. In a familiar dis- 
 course he had mentioned his special 
 prerogative, that the angel of death was 
 not allowed to take his soul till he had 
 respectfully asked the permission of the 
 prophet. The request was granted; 
 and Mahomet immediately fell into the 
 agony of his dissolution : his head was 
 reclined on the lap of Ayesha, the best 
 beloved of all his wives ; he fainted 
 with the violence of pain ; recovering his 
 spirits, he raised his eyes towards the 
 roof of the house, and, with a steady look, 
 though a faltering voice, uttered the 
 last broken, though articulate, words : 
 " O Grod ! . . pardon my sins . . Yes, . . 
 [ come, . . . among my fellow-citizens 
 
174 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 on high ;" and thus peaceably expired 
 on a carpet spread upon the floor. An 
 expedition for the conquest of Syria 
 was stopped by this mournlul event: 
 the army halted at the gates of Medina ; 
 the chiefs were assembled round their 
 dying master. The city, more espe- 
 cially the house of the prophet, was a 
 scene of clamorous sorrow or silent 
 despair : fanaticism alone could suggest 
 a ray of hope and consolation. "How 
 can he be dead, our witness, our inter- 
 cessor, our mediator with God ? By God 
 he is not dead : like Moses and Jesus 
 he is wrapt in a holy trance, and speed- 
 ily will he return to his faithful people." 
 The evidence of sense was disregarded ; 
 and Omar, unsheathing his scymitar, 
 threatened to strike off the heads of the 
 infidels, who should dare to affirm that 
 the prophet was no more. The tumult 
 was appeased by the weight and mod 
 eration of Abubeker. " Is it Mahom 
 
Life of Mahomet. 175 
 
 et, " said lie to Omar and the multitude, 
 " or the God of Mahomet, whom you 
 worship ? The God of Mahomet liveth 
 for ever ; but the apostle was a mortal 
 like ourselves, and according to his own 
 prediction, he has experienced the com- 
 mon fate of mortality." ^ He was pious- 
 ly interred by the hands of his nearest 
 kinsman, on the same spot on w^hich he 
 expired.'' * Medina has been sanctified 
 
 1 After this address Abu Bekr read the following verse 
 from the Koran: — "Mohammed is only a prophet; many 
 prophets have departed before him ; will ye then, wlien he 
 has been slain, or died a natural death, turn upon your heels 
 (i. e. forsake his creed) ? He who does this cannot harm 
 God, but God rewards those who are thankful," (Sura iii. 
 V. 144.) The people seemed never to have heard of this 
 verse, yet they accepted it from Abu Bekr, and it ran from 
 mouth to mouth. Omar himself was so struck when he 
 heard it that he fell to the ground, and perceived that Ma- 
 homet was dead. Weil (p. 833) observes that this anecdote, 
 which is important to a critical view of the Koran, is en- 
 tirely new to Europeans. — S. 
 
 2 That is, in the house of his wife Ayesha ; but after the 
 tnlargement of the mosque by the chalif Walid, his grave 
 was comprehended within its walls. (Weil, p. 389.)— 8. 
 
 a The Greeks and Latins have in rented and propagated 
 Ibe vulgar and ridiculous story that Mahomet's iron tomb 
 8 suspAQded in the air at Mecca (jtrrjixa lUerewpt (Sfxeyop, 
 
176 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 by the death and burial of Mahomet ; 
 and the innumerable pilgrims of Mecca 
 often turn aside from the way, to bow, 
 in voluntary devotion, before the simple 
 tomb of the prophet. 
 
 At the conclusion of the life of Ma- 
 homet, it may perhaps be expected, 
 that I should balance his faults and vir- 
 tues, that I should decide whether the 
 title of enthusiast or impostor more 
 properly belongs to that extraordinary 
 man. Had I been intimately conver- 
 sant with the son of Abdallah, the task 
 would still be difficult, and the success 
 
 Laoniciis Chalcocondyles de Rebus Turcicis, 1. iii. p. 66.) by 
 the action of equal and potent loadstones, (Dictlonnaire de 
 Bayle, Mahomet, Eem. EE. FF.) Without any philosophi- 
 calinquiries, it may suffice, that, 1. The prophet was not 
 buried at Mecca ; and, 2. That his tomb at Medina, which 
 has been visited by millions, is placed on the ground. (Ee- 
 land. de Eelig. Moham. 1. ii. c 19. p. 209-211.) Gagnier. 
 (Vie de Mahomet, torn. iii. p. 263-268.)' 
 
 1 Most of the biographers of Mahomet state that he died 
 DD Monday the 12th Eabia-1-Awwl, in the year 11 of th« 
 Heglra, which answers to the 7th of June, A. D. 632. This, 
 however, fell on a Sunday, but, as a contemporary poem 
 mentions Monday as the day of his death, it is probable tha 
 a mistake has been made in the day of the month, and thai 
 •e died on the 8th of June. (Weil, p. 831.)— S. 
 
Life of Mahomet. 177 
 
 uncertain : at the distance of twelve 
 centuries, I darkly contemplate his 
 Bhade through a cloud of religious in- 
 cense ; and could I truly delineate the 
 portrait of an hour, the fleeting resem- 
 blance would not equally apply to the 
 solitary of mount Hera, to the preacher 
 of Mecca, and to the conqueror of 
 Arabia. The author of a mighty revo- 
 lution appears to have been endowed 
 with a pious and contemplative dispo- 
 sition : so soon as marriage had raised 
 him above the pressure of want, he 
 avoided the paths of ambition and 
 avarice ; and till the age of forty, he 
 lived with innocence, and would have 
 died without a name. The unity of 
 God is an idea most congenial to na- 
 ture and reason ; and a slight conver- 
 sation with the Jews and Christians 
 would teach him to despise and detest 
 the idolatry of Mecca. It was the duty 
 of a man and a citizen to impart the 
 12 
 
178 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 doctrine of salvation, to rescue his 
 countrj from tlie dominion of sin and 
 error. The energy of a mind inces- 
 santly bent on the same object, would 
 convert a general obligation into a par- 
 ticular call ; the warm suggestions of 
 the understanding or the fancy would 
 be felt as the inspirations of heaven ; 
 the labor of thought would expire in 
 rapture and vision ; and the inward sen- 
 sation, the invisible monitor, would be 
 described with the form and attributes 
 of an angel of God. From enthusiasm 
 to imposture, the step is perilous and 
 slippery ; the daemon of Socrates af- 
 fords a memorable instance, how a 
 wise man may deceive himself, how a 
 good man may deceive others, how the 
 conscience may slumber in a mixed and 
 middle state between self-illusion and 
 voluntary fraud. Charity may believe 
 that the original motives of Mahomet 
 H^ere those of pure and genuine benevo 
 
Life of Mahomet. 179 
 
 lence ; but a human missionaiy is in- 
 capable of cherishing the obstinate un- 
 believers who reject his claims, despise 
 his arguments, and persecute his life ; 
 he might forgive his personal adver- 
 Baries, he might lawfully hate the ene- 
 mies of God ; the stern passions of pride 
 and revenge were kindled in the bosom 
 of Mahomet, and he sighed, like the 
 prophet of Nineveh, for the destruc- 
 tion of the rebels whom he had con- 
 demned. The injustice of Mecca, and 
 the choice of Medina, transformed the 
 citizen into a prince, the humble 
 preacher into the leader of armies ; but 
 his sword was consecrated by the ex- 
 ample of the saints ; and the same God 
 who afflicts a sinful world with pesti- 
 lence and earthquakes, might inspire 
 for their conversion or chastisement 
 the valor of his servants. In the ex- 
 ercise of political government, he was 
 compelled to abate of the stern rigor 
 
180 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 of fanaticism, to comply in some meas 
 lire with the prejudices and passions of 
 his followers, and to employ even the 
 vices of mankind as the instruments of 
 their salvation. The use of fraud and 
 perfidy, of cruelty and injustice, were 
 often subservient to the propagation of 
 the faith ; and Mahomet commanded or 
 approved the assassination of the Jews 
 and idolaters who had escaped from the 
 field of battle. By the repetition of 
 such acts, the character of Mahomet 
 must have been gradually stained ; and 
 the influence of such pernicious habits 
 would be poorly compensated by the 
 practice of the personal and social vir- 
 tues which are necessary to maintain 
 the reputation of a prophet among his 
 eectai-ies and friends. Of his last years, 
 ambition was the ruling passion ; and 
 a politician will suspect that he secret- 
 ly smiled (the victorious impostor!) at 
 the enthusiasm of his youth, and the 
 
Life of Mahomet. 181 
 
 credulity of his proselytes. A philos- 
 opher will observe, that tTieir credu- 
 lity and his success would tend more 
 strongly to fortify the assurance of his 
 divine mission, that his interest and 
 religion were inseparably connected, 
 and that his conscience would be sooth- 
 ed by the persuasion, that he alone was 
 absolved by the Deity from the obliga- 
 tion of positive and moral laws. If he 
 retained any vestige of his native inno- 
 cence, the sins of Mahomet may be al- 
 ''owed as an evidence of his sincerity. 
 In the support of truth, the arts of fraud 
 and fiction maybe deemed less criminal; 
 and he would have started at the foul- 
 ness of the means, had he not been 
 satisfied of the importance and justice 
 of the end. Even in a conqueror or a 
 priest, I can surprise a word or action 
 of unafiected humanity ; and the de- 
 'sree of Mahomet, that, in the sale of 
 captives, the mothers should never be 
 
182 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 separated from their children, may sus- 
 pend, or moderate, the censure of the 
 historian.* 
 
 The good sense of Mahomet despised 
 the pomp of royalty ; the apostle of 
 God submitted to the menial offices of 
 the family ; he kindled the fire, swept 
 the floor, milked the ewes, and mended 
 
 1 It may be remarked that, in estimating Mahomet's 
 character, Gibbon entirely leaves out of sight his physical 
 temperament. Thus he indignantly rejects the accounts of 
 his epileptic seizures, and everywhere directs his attention 
 to the moral qualities of the prophet, either as a philosophi- 
 cal and contemplative enthusiast, or, as he seems to con- 
 sider him in the latter part of his career, as a political im- 
 postor. Yet the physical constitution of Mahomet was of 
 60 peculiar a kind, that it can hardly be passed over in a 
 complete and accurate sketch of his character, upon which 
 it must have undoubtedly exercised a wonderful influence ; 
 and we have, therefore, inserted the following interesting 
 details from the pages of Dr. Sprenger : — 
 
 " The temperament of Mohammed was melancholic and 
 In the highest degree nervous. He was generally low-spir- 
 ited, thinking, and restless ; and he spoke little, and never 
 without necessity. His eyes were mostly cast on the ground, 
 Vid he seldom raised them towards heaven. The excite- 
 ment under which he composed the more poetical Suras of 
 the Koran was so great, that he said that they had caused 
 him grey hair ; his lips were quivering and his hands shak- 
 ing whilst he received the inspirations. An offensive smeV 
 made him so uncomfortable, that he forbad persons who had 
 
Life of Mahomet. 183 
 
 with his own hands his shoes and his 
 woollen garments. Disdaining the 
 penance and merit of a hermit, he ob- 
 served, without effort or vanity, the 
 abstemious diet of an Arab and a sol- 
 eaten garlic or onions to come into his place of worship. In 
 a man of semi-barbarous habits this is remarkable. He had 
 a woollen garment, and was obliged to throw it away when 
 it began to smell of perspiration, on account of his delicate 
 constitution. When he was taken ill, he sobbed like a wo- 
 man in hysterics — or, as Ayesha says, he roared like a cam- 
 el ; and his friends reproached him for his unmanly bearing. 
 During the battle of Bedr, his nervous excitement seems to 
 have bordered on frenzy. The faculties of his mind were 
 very unequally developed ; he was unfit for the common 
 duties of life, and, even after his mission, he was led in all 
 practical questions by his friends. But he had a vivid im- 
 agination, the greatest elevation of mind, refined senti- 
 ments, and a taste for the sublime. Much as he disliked the 
 name, he was a poet ; and a harmonious language and sub- 
 lime lyric constitute the principal merits of the Koran. His 
 mind dwelt constantly on the contemplation of God ; he 
 saw his finger in the rising sun, in the falling rain, in the 
 jrowing crop; he heard his voice in the thunder, in the 
 nurmuring of the waters, and in ihe hymns which the 
 >irds sing to his praise ; and in the hmely deserts and ruins 
 of ancient cities he saw the traces of his anger." (Life ol 
 Mohammed, p. 89.) " The mental excitement of the prophet 
 was much increased during the fatrah (intermission of reve- 
 lations); and, like the ardent scholar in one of Schiller's 
 loems, who dared to lift the veil of truth, he was nearly an- 
 •uhilated by the light which broke in upon him. He UBU* 
 
 9 
 
184 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 dier. On solemn occasions he feasted 
 his companions with rustic and hospi- 
 table plenty ; but in his domestic life, 
 many weeks would elapse without a 
 fire being kindled on the hearth of the 
 
 ally wandered about in the hills near Mecca, and was so ab- 
 sent, that on one occasion his wife, being afraid that he was 
 lost, sent men in search of him. He suffered from halluci- 
 nations of his senses ; and, to finish his sufferings, he several 
 times contemplated suicide, by throwing himself down from 
 a precipice. His friends were alarmed at his state of mind. 
 Some considered it as the eccentricities of a poetical genius ; 
 others thought that he was a Jcahin, or soothsayer ; but the 
 majority took a less charitable view, and declared that he 
 was insane ; and as madness and melancholy are ascribed to 
 supernatural influence in the East, they said that he was in 
 the power of Satan and his agents the jinn." (lb. p. 105.) 
 " One day, whilst he was wandering about in the hills near 
 Mecca, with the intention of destroying himself, he heard a 
 voice, and on raising his head he beheld Gabriel between 
 heaven and earth ; and the angel assured him that he was 
 the prophet of God. Frightened by this apparition, he re- 
 turned home, and, feeling unwell, he called for covering. He 
 had a fit, and they poured cold water upon him, and when 
 he was recovering from it he received the revelation : — ' O 
 thou covered, arise and preach, and magnify thy Lord, and 
 cleanse thy garment, and fly every abomination ; ' and 
 henceforth, we are told, ho received revelations without in 
 termission, that is to say, the fatrah was at an end, and h* 
 assumed his oflSce." (p. 109.) " Some authors consider the 
 fits of the prophet as the principal evidence of his mission, 
 ui<l it is, therefore, necessary to say a few words on them. 
 
^^/^ of Mahomet. 185 
 
 prophet. The interdiction of wine was 
 confirmed by his example ; his hunger 
 was appeased with a sparing allowance 
 of barely-bread : he delighted in the taste 
 of milk and honey ; but his ordinary 
 food consisted of dates and water. Per- 
 fumes and women were the two sensual 
 enjoyments which his nature required, 
 and his religion did not forbid ; and 
 Mahomet affirmed, that the fervor of 
 
 They were preceded by great depression of spirits, and his 
 face was clouded ; and they were ushered in by coldness of 
 the extremities and shivering. He shook as if he were suf- 
 fering from ague, and called out for coTering. His mind 
 was in a most painfully excited state. He heard a tinkling 
 in his ears as if bells were ringing, or a humming as if bees 
 were swarming round his head, and his lips quivered, but 
 this motion was under the control of volition. If the at- 
 tack proceeded beyond this stage, his eyes became fixed and 
 staring, and the motions of his head convulsive and auto- 
 matic. At length perspiration broke out, which covered his 
 face in large drops ; and with this ended the attack. Some- 
 times, however, if he had a violent fit, he fell comatose to 
 tie ground, like a person who is intoxicated ; and (at least at 
 a later period of his life) his face was flushed, and his res- 
 piration stertorous, and he remained in that state for some 
 time. The bystanders sprinkled water in his face : but he 
 himself fancied that he would derive a great benefit from 
 *<;ing cupped on the head." (lb. p. 111.) — 8. 
 
186 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 his devotion was increased by these in- 
 nocent pleasures. The heat of the cli- 
 mate inflames the blood of the Arabs, 
 and their libidinous complexion has been 
 noticed by the writers of antiquity. 
 Their incontinence was regulated by 
 the civil and religious laws of the 
 Koran ; their incestuous alliances were 
 blamed ; the boundless licence of po- 
 lygamy w^as reduced to four legitimate 
 wives or concubines ; their rights both 
 of bed and dowry were equitably de- 
 termined ; the freedom of divorce was 
 discouraged ; adultery was condemned 
 as a capital offence ; and fornication, in 
 either sex, was punished with a hun- 
 dred stripes. Such were the calm and 
 rational precepts of the legislator; but 
 in his private conduct, Mahomet in- 
 dulged the appetites of a man, and 
 abused the claims of a prophet. A 
 special revelation dispensed him from 
 the laws which he had imposed on his 
 
Life of Mahomet, 187 
 
 nation ; the female sex, without re- 
 serve, was abandoned to his desires ; 
 and this singular prerogative excited 
 tlie envy rather than the scandal, the 
 veneration rather than the envy, of the 
 devout Musulmans. If we remember 
 the seven hundred wives and three 
 hundred concubines of the wise Solo- 
 mon, we shall applaud the modesty of 
 the Arabian, who espoused no more 
 than seventeen or fifteen wives ; eleven 
 are enumerated who occupied at Me- 
 dina their separate apartments round 
 the house of the apostle, and enjoyed 
 in their turns the favor of his conju- 
 gal society. What is singular enough, 
 they were all widows, excepting only 
 Ayesha, the daughter of Abubeker. 
 She was doubtless a virgin, since Ma- 
 homet consummated his nuptials (such 
 %s the premature ripeness of the climate) 
 when she was only nine years of age. 
 The youth, the beauty, the spirit of 
 
188 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 Ayeslia, gave her a superior ascendant: 
 she was beloved and trusted by the 
 prophet; and, after his death, the 
 daughter of Abubeker was long revered 
 as the mother of the faithful. Her 
 behavior had been ambiguous and in- 
 discreet : in a nocturnal march she 
 was accidentally left behind; and in 
 the morning Ayesha returned to the 
 camp with a man. The temper of Ma- 
 homet was inclined to jealousy ; but a 
 divine revelation assured him of her 
 innocence : he chastised her accusers, 
 and published a law of domestic peace, 
 that no woman should be condemned 
 unless four male witnesses had seen her 
 in the act of adultery.* In his adven- 
 tures with Zeineb, the wife of Zeid, and 
 
 » This law, however, related only to accusations by 
 strangers. By a subsequent law (Sura 24, v. 6-10) a hus- 
 band who suspected his wife might procure a divorce by 
 taking four oaths to the truth of his charge, and a fifth in- 
 voking God's curse upon himself if he had sworn falsely. 
 The woman escaped punishment if she took an oath of th« 
 iame description. (Weil, p. 278.)— S. 
 
Life of Mahomet, 189 
 
 with Maiy, an Egyptian captive, the 
 amorous prophet forgot the interest of 
 his reputation. At the house of Zeid, 
 his freedman and adopted son, he be- 
 held, in a loose undress, the beauty of 
 Zeinib, and burst forth into an ejacula- 
 tion of devotion and desire. The ser- 
 vile, or grateful, freedman understood 
 the hint, and yielded without hesitation 
 to the love of his benefactor. But as 
 the filial relation had excited some 
 doubt and scandal, the angel Gabriel 
 descended from heaven to ratify the 
 deed, to annul the adoption, and gently 
 to reprove the prophet for distrusting 
 the indulgence of his God. One of his 
 wives, Hafna, the daughter of Omar, 
 surprised him on her own bed, in the 
 embraces of his Egyptian captive : she 
 promised secrecy and forgiveness : he 
 swore that he would renounce the pos- 
 session of Mary. Both parties forgot 
 their engagements ; and Gabriel again 
 
190 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 descended with a chapter of the Koran, 
 to absolve him from his oath, and to 
 exhort him freely to enjoy his captives 
 and concubines, without listening to the 
 clamors of his wives. In a solitary- 
 retreat of thirty days, he labored, alone 
 with Mary, to fulfil the commands of 
 the angel. When his love and revenge 
 were satiated, he summoned to his 
 presence his eleven wives, reproached 
 their disobedience and indiscretion, and 
 threatened them with a sentence of di- 
 vorce, both in this world and in the 
 next — a dreadful sentence, since those 
 who had ascended the bed of the prophet 
 were forever excluded from the hope 
 of a second marriage. Perhaps the in- 
 continence of Mahomet may be palli- 
 ated by the tradition of his natural or 
 preternatural gift ; he united the manly 
 virtue of thirty of the children of Adam • 
 and the apostle might rival the thir- 
 teenth labor of the Grecian Hercules, 
 
Life of Mahomet. 191 
 
 A. more serious and decent excuse may 
 be drawn from his fidelity to Cadijah. 
 During the twenty-four years of their 
 marriage, her youthful husband ab- 
 stained from the right of polygamy, and 
 the pride or tenderness of the venerable 
 matron was never insulted by the 
 society of a rival. After her death, he 
 placed her in the rank of the four per- 
 fect women, with the sister of Moses, 
 the mother of Jesus, and Fatima, the 
 best beloved of his daughters. " Was she 
 not old ? " said Ayesha, with the inso- 
 lence of a blooming beauty ; " has not 
 God given you a better in her place ?" 
 " ]N"o, by God," said Mahomet, with an 
 effusion of honest gratitude, " there 
 never can be a better ! She believed in 
 me, when men despised me ; she re- 
 lieved my wants, when I was poor and 
 persecuted by the world." 
 
 In the largest indulgence of polygamy, 
 the founder of a religion and empire 
 
192 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 might aspire to multiply the chances 
 of a numerous posterity and a lineal 
 succession. The hopes of Mahomet 
 were fatally disappointed. The virgin 
 Ayesha, and his ten widows of mature 
 age and approved fertility, were barren 
 in his potent embraces. The four sons 
 of Cadijah died in their infancy. Mary, 
 his Egyptian concubine, was endeared 
 to him by the birth of Ibrahim. At 
 the end of fifteen months the prophet 
 wept over his grave ; but he sustained 
 with firmness the raillery of his enemies, 
 and checked the adulation or credulity 
 of the Moslems, by the assurance that 
 an eclipse of the sun was not occasioned 
 by the death of the infant. Cadijah 
 had likewise given him four daughters, 
 who were married to the most faithful 
 of his disciples : the three eldest died 
 before their father ; but Fatima, who 
 possessed his confidence and love, be- 
 came the wife of her cousin All, and 
 
Life of Mahomet. 193 
 
 the mother of an ilhistrious progeny. 
 The merit and misfortunes of Ali and 
 his descendants will lead me to antici- 
 pate, in this place, the series of the 
 Saracen caliphs, a title which describes 
 the commanders of the faithful as the 
 vicars and successors of the apostle of 
 God.^ 
 
 The birth, the alliance, the character 
 of Ali, which exalted him above the 
 rest of his countrymen, might justify 
 his claim to the vacant throne of Ara- 
 bia. The son of Abu Taleb was, in his 
 own right, the chief of the family of 
 Hashem, and the hereditary prince or 
 guardian of the city and temple of 
 Mecca. The light of prophecy was 
 extinct ; but the husband of Fatima 
 might expect the inheritance and bless- 
 
 1 The most valuable work since Gibbon's time upon the 
 Wstory of the Caliphs is "Weil's " Geschichte der Chalifen," 
 (Mannheim, 3 vols. 8vo. 1846, se^.,) founded upon original 
 jources. This work is referred to in subsequent notes under 
 ■Jie name of Weil.— 8. 
 
 13 
 
194 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 ing of her father : the Arabs had some- 
 times been patient of a female reign ; 
 and the two grandsons of the prophet 
 had often been fondled in his lap, and 
 shown in his pulpit, as the hope of his 
 ftge, and the chief of the youth of para- 
 dise. The first of the true believei*s 
 might aspire to march before them in 
 this world and in the next ; and if some 
 were of a graver and more rigid cast, 
 the zeal and virtue of All were 
 never outstripped by any recent pro- 
 celyte. He united the qualifications 
 of a poet, a soldier, and a saint : his 
 wisdom still breathes in a collection of 
 moral and religious sayings ; and every 
 antagonist, in the combats of the tongue 
 or of the sword, was subdued by his 
 eloquence and valor. From the first 
 hour of his mission to the last rites of 
 his funeral, the apostle was never for- 
 eaken by a generous friend, whom he 
 delighted to name his brother, his vice* 
 
Life of Mahomet. 195 
 
 gerent, and the faithful Aaron of a 
 second Moses. The son of Abu Taleb 
 was afterwards reproached for neglect- 
 ing to secure his interest by a solemn 
 declaration of his right, which would 
 have silenced all competition, and seal- 
 ed his succession bj the decrees of 
 Heaven. But the unsuspecting hero 
 confided in himself: the jealousy of 
 empire, and perhaps the fear of opposi- 
 tion, might suspend the resolutions of 
 Mahomet ; and the bed of sickness was 
 besieged by the artful Ayesha, the 
 daughter of Abubeker, and the enemy 
 of Ali/ 
 
 * Gibbon wrote chiefly from the Arabic or Sunnite ac- 
 count of these transactions, the only sources accessible at 
 the time when he composed his history. Major Price, writ- 
 ing from Persian authorities, affords us the advantage of 
 comparing throughout what may be fairly considered the 
 Bhiite version. The glory of Ali is the constant burden of 
 their strain. He was destined, and, according to some ac- 
 lounts, designated, for the caliphate by the prophet ; but 
 while the others were fiertely pushing their own interests, 
 A.li was watching the remains of Mahomet with pious fidel- 
 ty. His disinterested magnanimity, on each separate occa- 
 ion, declined the eceptre, and gave the noble example of 
 
196 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 The silence and death of the prophet 
 restored the liberty of the people ; and 
 his companions covened an assembly 
 to deliberate on the choice of his succes- 
 sor. The hereditary claim and lofty 
 spirit of Alij were offensive to an 
 aristocracy of elders, desirous of be- 
 stowing and resuming the sceptre by a 
 free and frequent election : the Koreish 
 could never be reconciled to the proud 
 pre-eminence of the line of Hashem : 
 the ancient discord of the tribes was re- 
 kindled : the fugitives of Mecca and the 
 auxiliaries of Medina asserted their re- 
 spective merits ; and the rash proposal 
 
 obedience to the appointed Caliph. He is described in re- 
 tirement, on the throne, and in the field of battle, as trans- 
 cendently pious, magnanimous, valiant and humane. He 
 lost his empire through his excess of virtue and love for the 
 faithful ; liis life through his confidence in God, and sub- 
 mission to the decrees of fate. 
 
 Compare the curious account of this apathy in Price, 
 thap. 2. It is to be regretted, I must add, that Major Price 
 has contented himself with quoting the names of the Per- 
 tian works which he follows, without any acconnt of the 
 Character, age, and authority. — M. 
 
Life of Mahomet, 197 
 
 of choosing two independent caliphs, 
 would have crushed in their infancy the 
 religion and empire of the Saracens. 
 The tumult was appeased by the dis- 
 interested resolution of Omar, who, 
 suddenly renouncing his own preten- 
 sions, stretched forth his hand, and de- 
 clared himself the first subject of the 
 mild and venerable Abubeker. The 
 urgency of the moment, and the ac- 
 quiescence of the people, might excuse 
 this illegal and precipitate measure ; 
 but Omar himself confessed from the 
 pulpit, that if any Musulman should 
 hereafter presume to anticipate the suf- 
 frage of his brethren, both the elector 
 and the elected would be worthy of 
 death.^ After the simple inauguration 
 
 a Ockley (Hist, of the Saracens, vol. i. p. 5, 6,) from an 
 Arabian MS. represents Ayesha as adverse to the substitu- 
 tion of her father in the place of the apostle.^ 
 
 » The anecdote here mentioned seems to bo an allusion 
 <o the following scene, which took place before the death of 
 Mahomet. Finding that he had not strength to offer up the 
 %vening prayer, the prophet ordered that Abu Bekr should 
 
198 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 of Abubeker, Lie was obeyed in Medina, 
 Mecca, and the provinces of Arabia : the 
 Hashemites alone declined the oath of 
 fidelity ; and their chief, in his own 
 house, maintained, above six months, a 
 sullen and independent reserve, with- 
 out listening to the threats of Omar, 
 who attempted to consume with fire 
 the habitation of the daughter of the 
 apostle. The death of Fatima, and the 
 decline of his party, subdued the indig- 
 nant spirit of Ali : he condescended to 
 salute the commander of the faithful, 
 accepted his excuse of the necessity of 
 subjugating their common enemies, and 
 wisely rejected his courteous offer of 
 abdicating the government of the Ara- 
 
 pray in his place ; Ayesha, however, several times requested 
 that Omar should perform the service, since her father was 
 BO touched that he could not pray aloud. But Mahomet 
 answered, " Thou art a second Potiphar's wife "—that is, as 
 p-eat a hypocrite as she ; since he well knew that she mus 
 wish her father, and nobody else, by offering up the prayers, 
 to appear in a certain degree as his representative. (Wei^ 
 Mohammed, p. 32T.)— S. 
 
Life of Mahomet, 199 
 
 bians. After a reign of two years, the 
 aged caliph Vas summoned b j the angel 
 of death. In his testament, with the 
 tacit approbation of his companions, he 
 bequeathed the sceptre to the firm and 
 intrepid virtue of Omar. " I have no 
 occasion," said the modest candidate, 
 " for the place." " But the place has 
 occasion for you," replied Abubeker ; * 
 who expired with a fervent prayer, that 
 the God of Mahomet would ratify his 
 choice, and direct the Musulmans in the 
 way of concord and obedience. The 
 prayer was not ineffectual, since Ali 
 himself, in a life of privacy and prayer, 
 professed to revere the superior worth 
 and dignity of his rival ; who comforted 
 him for the loss of empire, by the most 
 flattering marks of confidence and es- 
 teem. In the twelfth^ year of his reign, 
 
 1 Caliph in Arabic means "successor."— S. 
 
 ' Abu Bekr died on the 22d August, 634, after a reign of 
 *wo years, three months and a few days, (Weil, vol. I. p. 
 16 and 53.)-S. 
 
 » Eleventh. Gibbon's computation is wrong on his owa 
 
200 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 Omar received a mortal wound from 
 the hand of an assassin; he rejected 
 with equal impartiality the names of 
 his son and of Ali, refused to load his 
 conscience with the sins of his succes- 
 sor, and devolved on six of the most 
 respectable companions the arduous 
 task of electing a commander of the 
 faithful. On this occasion, Ali was 
 again blamed by his friends for sub- 
 mitting his right to the judgment o^ 
 men, for recognizing their jurisdiction 
 by accepting a place among the six 
 electors. He might have obtained their 
 suffrage, had he deigned to promise a 
 strict and servile conformity, not only 
 to the Koran and tradition, but likewise 
 to the determinations of two seniors.^ 
 
 showing. Omar's reign lasted ten lunar years, six months, 
 and four days. He died on the 8d November, 644 (Weil, 
 vol. i. p. 180, sq.)— S. 
 
 1 This conjecture of Q-ibbon's is confirmed by Dr. "Weil'a 
 aarrative of the election from Arabian authorities (voL L p. 
 153). The nomination was finally intrusted to Abd Errah 
 man, who had been appointed one of the six electors, bu 
 
Life of Mahomet, 201 
 
 With these limitations, Othman, the 
 Becretary of Mahomet, accepted the 
 government ; nor was it till after the 
 third caliph, twenty-four years after the 
 death of the prophet, that Ali was in- 
 vested, by the popular choice, with the 
 regal and sacerdotal office. The man- 
 ners of the Arabians retained their 
 primitive simplicity, and the son of Abu 
 Taleb despised the pomp and vanity of 
 this world. At the hour of prayer, he 
 repaired to the mosch of Medina, cloth- 
 ed in a thin cotton gown, a coarse turban 
 on his head, his slippers in one hand, 
 and his bow in the other, instead of a 
 walking-staff. The companions of the 
 prophet and the chiefs of the tribes 
 saluted their new sovereign, and gave 
 him their right hands as a sign of fealty 
 and allegiance. 
 
 The mischiefs that flow from the con- 
 
 yf\o declined for himself all pretensions to the caliphate. 
 He did not, however, discharge his office without first con- 
 Kilting the people. (lb. p. 130, 131, and 150-155.)— S. 
 
202 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 tests of ambition are usually confined 
 to the times and countries in which they 
 have been agitated. But the religious 
 discord of the friends and enemies of 
 Ali has been renewed in every age of 
 the Hegira, and is still maintained in 
 the immortal hatred of the Persians and 
 Turks. The former, who are branded 
 with the appellation of Shiltes or sec- 
 taries, have enriched the Mahometan 
 creed with a new article of faith ; and 
 if Mahomet be the apostle, his com- 
 panion Ali is the vicar, of God. In 
 their private converse, in their public 
 worship, they bitterly execrate the three 
 usurpers who intercepted his indefeasi- 
 ble right to the dignity of Imam and 
 Caliph ; and the name of Omar express- 
 es in their tongue the perfect accom- 
 plishment of wickedness and impiety.' 
 
 * The first sect that arose among the Moslems was a po- 
 Itical one, and had for its object the dethronement of Oth- 
 jian. It was founded in Egypt by Abdallah Ibn Saba, a na- 
 tive of Yemen, and of Jewish descent, whom Othman had 
 
Life of Mahomet, 203 
 
 The Sonnites, who are supported by the 
 general consent and orthodox traditions 
 of the Musulmans, entertain a more 
 impartial, or at least a more decent, 
 opinion. They respect the memory of 
 Abubeker, Omar, Othman, and Ali, 
 the holy and legitimate successors of 
 the prophet. But they assign the last 
 and most humble place to the husband 
 of Fatima, in the persuasion that the 
 order of succession was determined by 
 the degrees of sanctity. An historian 
 who balances the four caliphs with a 
 hand unshaken by superstition, will 
 calmly pronounce, that their manners 
 were alike pure and exemplary ; that 
 their zeal was fervent and probably sin- 
 cere ; and that, in the midst of riches 
 
 banished from Medina for finding fault with his govern- 
 ment. Abdallah maintained that Ali had been Mahomet's 
 »ssiv<»tant, or vizier, and as such was entitled to the caliphate, 
 dut of which he had been cheated by Abd Errahman, The 
 chief article of his speculative belief was that Mahomet 
 rould return to life, whence his sect was named that of 
 the return." (Weil, voL i. p. 173, sq.)— 8. 
 
204 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 and power, their lives were devoted to 
 the practice of moral and religions 
 duties. But the public virtues of Abu- 
 beker and Omar, the prudence of the 
 first, the severity of the second, main- 
 tained the peace and prosperity of their 
 reigns. The feeble temper and declin- 
 ing age of Othman were incapable of 
 sustaining the weight of conquest and 
 empire. He chose, and he was de- 
 ceived ; he trusted, and he was betray- 
 ed : the most deserving of the faithful 
 became useless or hostile to his govern- 
 ment, and his lavish bounty was pro- 
 ductive only of ingratitude and dis- 
 content. The spirit of discord went 
 forth in the provinces ; their deputies 
 assembled at Medina ; and the Chare- 
 gites, the desperate fanatics who dis- 
 claimed the 3^oke of subordination 
 and reason, were confounded among 
 the free-born Arabs, who demanded 
 the redress of their wrongs and 
 
Life of Mahomet. 205 
 
 the punishment of their oppressors. 
 From Cufa, from Bassora, from Egypt, 
 from the tribes of the desert, they 
 rose in arms, encamped about a 
 league from Medina, and despatched 
 a haughty mandate to their sovereign, 
 requiring him to execute justice, or 
 to descend from the throne.^ His 
 repentance began to disarm and dis- 
 perse the insurgents ; but their fury 
 was rekindled by the arts of his ene- 
 mies ; and the forgery of a perfidious 
 secretary was contrived to blast his 
 reputation and precipitate his fall. The 
 
 * The principal complaints of the rebels were that 0th- 
 man, on the occasion of his new edition of the Koran— 
 which probably contained some alterations — had caused all 
 the previous copies to be burned ; that he had enclosed and 
 appropriated the best pasturages ; that he had recalled Ha- 
 kam, who had been banished by Mahomet ; that he had ill- 
 treated some of the companions of the prophet ; and that he 
 had named several young persons as governors merely be- 
 cause they were his relations. He was likewise accused of 
 neglecting to tread in the footsteps of his predecessors, as 
 he had promised to do at his election ; and on this point 
 Abd Errahman himself^ who had nominated him, wa& hll 
 accuser. ("Weil, vol. i. p. 178.)— S. 
 
206 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 caliph had lost the only guard of his 
 predecessors, the esteem and confi- 
 dence of the Moslems ; during a siege 
 of six weeks his water and provisions 
 were intercepted, and the feeble gates 
 of the palace were protected only by 
 the scruples of the more timorous 
 rebels. Forsaken by those who had 
 abused his simplicity, the helpless and 
 venerable caliph expected the approach 
 of death ; the brother of Ayesha 
 marched at the head of the assassins ; 
 and Othman,^ with the Koran in his 
 lap, was pierced with a multitude of 
 woundsc A tumultuous anarchy of 
 five days was appeased by the inaugu- 
 ration of Ali : his refusal would have 
 provoked a general massacre. In this 
 painful situation he supported the 
 becoming pride of the chief of the 
 Hashemites ; declared that he had 
 
 1 Died June 17, 656 Othman was upwards of eighty 
 rears of age at the time of his death. (Weil, vol i. p. 185 
 -8. 
 
^^f^ ^f Mahomet. 20*7 
 
 rather serve than reign ; rebuked the 
 presumption of the strangers, and re- 
 quired the formal, if not the voluntary, 
 assent of the chiefs of the nation. He 
 has never been accused of prompting 
 the assassin of Omar ; though Persia 
 indiscreetly celebrates the festival of 
 that holy martyr. The quarrel be- 
 tween Othman and his subjects was 
 assuaged by the early mediation of 
 Ali ; and Hassan, the eldest of his 
 sons, was insulted and wounded in the 
 defence of the caliph. Yet it is doubt- 
 ful whether the father of Hassan was 
 strenuous and sincere in his opposition 
 to the rebels ; and it is certain that he 
 enjoyed the benefit of their crime. The 
 temptation was indeed of such magni- 
 tude as might stagger and corrupt the 
 most obdurate virtue. The ambitious 
 candidate no longer aspired to the bar- 
 ren sceptre of Arabia ; the Saracens 
 had been victorious in the East and 
 
208 I^if^ of Mahomet. 
 
 West ; and the wealthy kingdoms of 
 Persia, Syria, and Egypt, were the 
 patrimony of the commander of the 
 faithful. 
 
 A life of prayer and contemplatior. 
 had not chilled the martial activity ot 
 Ali ; but in a mature age, after a long 
 experience of mankind, he still be- 
 trayed in his conduct the rashness and 
 indiscretion of youth. In the first 
 days of his reign, he neglected to 
 secure, either by gifts or fetters, the 
 doubtful allegiance of Telha and Zo- 
 beir, two of the most powerful of the 
 Arabian chiefs. They escaped from 
 Medina to Mecca, and from thence to 
 Bassora ; erected the standard of re- 
 volt ; and usurped the government of 
 Irak, or Assyria, which they had 
 vainly solicited as the reward of their 
 services. The mask of patriotism is 
 allowed to cover the most glaring in 
 consistencies; and the enemies, per 
 
Lif^ of Mahomet, 209 
 
 haps the assassins, of Othman, now 
 demanded vengeance for his blood. 
 They were accompanied in their flight 
 by Ayesha, the widow of the prophet, 
 who cherished, to the last hour of her 
 life, an implacable hatred against the 
 husband and the posterity of Fatima.* 
 The most reasonable Moslems were 
 scandalized, that the mother of the 
 faithful should expose in a camp her 
 person and character ; but the super- 
 stitious crowd was confident that her 
 presence would sanctify the justice, 
 and assure the success, of their cause. 
 At the head of twenty thousand of his 
 loyal Arabs, and nine thousand valiant 
 auxiliaries of Cufa, the caliph encoun- 
 tered and defeated the superior num- 
 bers of the rebels under the walls of 
 
 * AU is said to have incurred ler hatred by remarking to 
 Mahomet, at the time when he ttos dejected by his suspi- 
 rions of her unfaithfulness— " "W hy do you take it so much 
 •X) heart? There are plenty moro women in the world." 
 Weil, vol. i. p. 196.)— S. 
 
 14 
 
210 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 Bassora.* Their leaders, Telha and 
 Zobeir,' were slain in the first battle 
 that stained with civil blood the arms 
 of the Moslems. After passing through 
 the ranks to animate the troops, Ay- 
 esha had chosen her post amidst the 
 dangers of the field. In the heat of 
 the action, seventy men, who held the 
 bridle of her camel, were successively 
 killed or wounded ;' and the cage, or 
 litter, in which she sat, was struck with 
 javelins and darts like the quills of a 
 porcupine. The venerable captive sus- 
 tained with firmness the reproaches of 
 the conqueror, and was speedily dis- 
 
 1 The reluctance of Ali to shed the blood of true believ- 
 ers is strikingly described by Major Price's Persian histo- 
 rians. (Price, p. 222.) -M. 
 
 2 See (in Price) the singular adventures of Zobeir. He 
 was murdered after having abandoned the army of the in- 
 surgents. Telha was about to do the same, when his leg 
 was pierced with an arrow by one of his own party. The 
 wound was mortal. (Price, p. 222.) — M. 
 
 ' According to Price, two hundred and eighty of th« 
 Bennl Beianziat alone lost a right hand in this servioe, p 
 i26.— M. 
 
Life of Mahomet, 211 
 
 missed to her proper station, at the 
 tomb of Mahomet, with the respect 
 and tenderness that was still due to the 
 widow of the apostle.^ After this vic- 
 tory, which was styled the Day of the 
 Camel," Ali marched against a more 
 formidable adversary ; against Moawi- 
 yah, the son of Abu Sophian, who had 
 assumed the title of caliph^ and whose 
 claim was supported by the forces of 
 Syria and the interest of the house of 
 Ommiyah. From the passage of Thap- 
 sacus, the plain of Siffin extends along 
 the western bank of the Euphrates. On 
 this spacious and level theatre, the two 
 competitors waged a desultory war of 
 one hundred and ten days. In the 
 course of ninety actions or skirmishes, 
 
 1 She was escorted by a guard of females disguised aa 
 Boldiers. When she discoverd tliis, Ayesha was as much 
 gratified by the delicacy of the arrangement as she had 
 <jeen offended by the familiar approach of so many men. 
 (Price, p. 229.)— M. 
 
 1 From the camel which Ayesha rode. (Well, voL L ■^ 
 I10.)-S. 
 
212 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 the loss of Ali was estimated at twenty- 
 five, that of Moawiyah at forty-five, 
 thousand soldiers ; and the list of the 
 slain was dignified with the names 
 of five-and- twenty veterans who had 
 fought at Beder, under the standard of 
 Mahomet. In this sanguinary contest, 
 the lawful^ caliph displayed a superior 
 character of valor and humanity. His 
 troops were strictly enjoined to await 
 the first onset of the enemy, to spare 
 their fiying brethren, and to respect the 
 bodies of the dead, and the chastity of 
 the female captives. He generously 
 proposed to save the blood of the 
 Moslems by a single combat ; but his 
 trembling rival declined the challenge 
 
 1 Weil remarks that it must not be forgotten that the 
 history of the first caliphs was collected or forged under the 
 reign of the Abassides, with whom it was a life and death 
 point to depress Moawiyah and the Ommijahds, and to elevate 
 Ali. If all is true that is related in Ali's praise, it is incom* 
 prehensible how he should have been set aside by Abu Bekr 
 Omai, and Othman, and should not even have been able t« 
 malDtain his ground when named caliph. (VoL 1. p. 254, sq.) 
 
Life of Mahomet, 213 
 
 as a sentence of inevitable death. The 
 ranks of the Syrians were broken by 
 the charge of a hero who was mounted 
 on a piebald horse, and wielded with 
 irresistible force his ponderous and 
 two-edged sword. As often as he smote 
 a rebel, he shouted the Allah Acbar, 
 " God is victorious ! " and in the tu- 
 mult of a nocturnal battle, he was 
 heard to repeat four hundred times 
 that tremendous exclamation. The 
 prince of Damascus already meditated 
 his flight ; but the certain victory was 
 snatched from the grasp of AH by the 
 disobedience and enthusiasm of his 
 troops. Their conscience was awed 
 by the solemn appeal to the books of 
 the Koran which Moawiyah exposed 
 on the foremost lances ; and Ali was 
 compelled to yield to a disgraceful 
 ruce and an insidious compromise. He 
 :^etreated with sorrow and indignation 
 o Cufa ; his party was discouraged • 
 
214 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 the distant provinces of Persia,^ of 
 Yemen, and of Egypt, were subdued 
 or seduced by bis crafty rival ; and the 
 stroke of fanaticism, which was aimed 
 against the three chiefs of the nation, 
 was fatal only to the cousin of Ma- 
 homet. In the temple of Mecca, 
 three Charegites," or enthusiasts, dis- 
 coursed of the disorders of the church 
 and state : they soon agreed, that the 
 deaths of Ali, of Moawiyah, and of his 
 friend Amrou, the viceroy of Egypt, 
 would restore the peace and unity of 
 religion. Each of the assassins chose 
 his victim, poisoned his dagger, de- 
 
 1 According to Weil, Ali retained Persia. (VoL i. p. 247.) 
 — S. 
 
 2 Chawarij, or Charijites (deserters, rebels), was the name 
 given to all those who revolted from the lawful Imam. 
 Gibbon seems here to confound them with the Chazrajites, 
 one of the two tribes of Medina. (See above, p. 125.) They 
 were divided into six principal sects ; but they aU agreed in 
 rejecting the authority both of Othman and Ali, and the 
 damnation of those caliphs formed their chief tenet. (Weil, 
 vol. i. p. 231.) They were very numerous, and had risen 
 In open rebellion against Ali, who was obliged to resort U 
 force to reduce them to obedience. (lb. p. 237.)— 8. 
 
Life of Mahomet. 215 
 
 voted his life, and secretly repaired to 
 the scene of action. Their resolution 
 was equally desperate : but the first 
 mistook the person of Amrou, and 
 Btabbed the deputy who occupied his 
 seat ; the prince of Damascus was 
 dangerously hurt by the second; the 
 lawful caliph J in the mosch of Cufa, 
 received a mortal wound from the hand 
 of the third. He expired in the sixty- 
 third year of his age,* and mercifully 
 recommended to his children, that they 
 would despatch the murderer by a 
 single stroke. The sepulchre of Ali 
 was concealed from the tyrants of the 
 house of Ommiyah : but in the fourth 
 age of the Hegira, a tomb, a temple, a 
 city, arose near the ruins of Cufa. 
 Many thousands of the Shiites repose 
 in holy ground at the feet of the vicar 
 of God ; and the desert is vivified by 
 
 ' On the 2l8t of January, 661, two days after the morta. 
 Wow. (Weil, vol. L p. 250.)— S. 
 
216 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 the numerous and annual visits of the 
 Persians, who esteem their devotion 
 not less meritorious than the pilgrim- 
 age of Mecca. 
 
 The persecutors of Mahomet usurped 
 the inheritance of his children ; and the 
 champions of idolatry became the su- 
 preme heads of his religion and empire. 
 The opposition of Abu Sophian had 
 been fierce and obstinate ; his conver- 
 sion was tardy and reluctant ; his new 
 faith was fortified by necessity and in- 
 terest; he served, he fought, perhaps 
 he believed ; and the sins of the time 
 of ignorance were expiated by the re- 
 cent merits of the family of Ommiyah. 
 Moawiyah, the son of Abu Sophian, 
 and of the cruel Henda, was dignified 
 in his early youth with the office or 
 title of secretary of the prophet : the 
 judgment of Omar intrusted him with 
 the government of Syria ; and he ad- 
 ministered that important province 
 
-^«/^ of Mahomet, 21'' 
 
 above forty years, either in a subordi- 
 nate or supreme rank. Without re- 
 nouncing the fame of valor and liber- 
 ality, he affected the reputation of hu- 
 manity and moderation ; a grateful peo- 
 ple were attached to their benefactor ; 
 and the victorious Moslems were en- 
 riched with the spoils of Cyprus and 
 Rhodes. The sacred duty of pursuing 
 the assassins of Othman was the engine 
 and pretence of his ambition. The 
 bloody shirt of the martyr was exposed 
 in the mosch of Damascus : the emir 
 deplored the fate of his injured kins- 
 man ; and sixty thousand Syrians were 
 engaged in his service by an oath of 
 fidelity and revenge. Amrou, the con- 
 queror of Egypt, himself an army, was 
 the first v/ho saluted the new monarch, 
 and divulged the dangerous secret, that 
 the Arabian caliphs might be created 
 <alsewhere than in the city of the 
 prophet./ The policy of Moawiyah 
 
218 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 eluded the valor of his rival ; and, after 
 the death of Ali, he negotiated the ab- 
 dication of his son Hassan, whose mind 
 was either above or below the govern- 
 ment of the world, and who retired 
 without a sigh from the palace of Cufa 
 to an humble cell near the tomb of his 
 grandfather. The aspiring wishes of 
 the caliph were finally crowned by the 
 important change of an elective to an 
 hereditary kingdom. Some murmurs 
 of freedom or fanaticism attested the 
 reluctance of the Arabs, and four citi- 
 zens of Medina refused the oath of 
 fidelity ;^ but the designs of Moawiyah 
 
 1 These were, Hosein, All's son ; Abd Allah, the son of 
 Zubeir ; Abd Errahman, son of Abu Bekr ; and Abd Allah, 
 son of Omar. Moawiyah. having failed in his attempts to 
 gain them over, caused them to be seized and led into the 
 mosch, each accompanied by two soldiers with drawn 
 Bwords, who were ordered to stab them if they attempted 
 to speak. Moawiyah then mounted the pulpit, and, ad- 
 dressing the assembly, said that he had seen the necessity of 
 having his son's title recognized before his death, but tha 
 be had not taken this step without consulting the four prin 
 eipal men in Mecca, who were then present, and who haa 
 
Life of Mahomet, 21& 
 
 were conducted with vigor and ad- 
 dress ; and his son Yezid, a feeble 
 and dissohite youth, was proclaimed as 
 the commander of the faithful and the 
 successor of the apostle of God. 
 
 A familiar storj is related of the 
 benevolence of one of the sons of Ali. 
 In serving at table, a slave had inad- 
 vertently dropt a dish of scalding broth 
 on his master : the heedless wretch 
 fell prostrate, to deprecate his punish- 
 ment, and repeated a verse of the 
 Koran : ^' Paradise is for those who 
 command their anger : " — " I am not 
 angry : " — " and for those who pardon 
 offences : " — " I pardon your offence : " 
 ; — " and for those who return good for 
 evil : " — " I give you your liberty, and 
 four hundred pieces of silver." With 
 
 entirely agreed with his views. He then called npon the 
 assembly to do homage to his son ; and as the four prisoners 
 did not venture to contradict his assertion, Tezid was ac- 
 knowledged by those present as Moawiyah's successor, 
 tWeil, voL i. p. 280, sq.)— S. 
 
220 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 an equal measure of piety, Hosein, the 
 younger brother of Hassan, inherited a 
 remnant of his father's spirit, and served 
 with honor against the Christians in the 
 fiiege of Constantinople. The primo- 
 geniture of the line of Hashem, and the 
 holy character of grandson of the apos- 
 tle, had centred in his person, and he 
 was at liberty to prosecute his claim 
 against Yezid, the tyrant of Damascus, 
 whose vices he despised, and whose 
 dtle he had never deigned to acknowl- 
 edge. A list was secretly transmitted 
 from Cufa to Medina, of one hundred 
 and forty thousand Moslems, who pro- 
 fessed their attachment to his cause, 
 and who were eager to draw their 
 swords so soon as he should appear on 
 the banks of the Euphrates. Against 
 the advice of his wisest friends, he re- 
 solved to trust his person and family in 
 the hands of a perfidious people. He tra- 
 versed the desert of Arabia with a time 
 
Life of Mahomet, 221 
 
 rous retinue of women and children ; 
 but as he approached the confines of 
 L'ak, he was alarmed by the solitary or 
 liostile face of the country, and suspect- 
 ed either the defection or ruin of his 
 party. His fears were just : Obeidol- 
 lah, the governor of Cufa, had extin- 
 guished the first sparks of an insurrec- 
 tion ; and Hosein, in the plain of Ker- 
 bela, was encompassed by a body of 
 ^\Q, thousand horse, who intercepted his 
 communication with the city and the 
 river. He might still have escaped to 
 a fortress in the desert, that had defied 
 the power of Csesar and Chosroes, and 
 confided in the fidelity of the tribe of 
 Tai, which would have armed ten thou- 
 sand warriors -in his defence. In a con- 
 ference with the chief of the enemy, he 
 proposed the option of three honorable 
 conditions ; that he should be allowed 
 to return to Medina, or be stationed in a 
 frontier garrison against the Turks, or 
 H 
 
222 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 safely conducted to the presence of 
 Yezid. But the commands of the 
 caliph, or his lieutenant, were stern and 
 ahsolute ; and Hosein was informed that 
 he must either submit as a captive and 
 a criminal to the commander of the 
 faithful, or expect the consequences of 
 his rebellion. " Do you think," replied 
 he, " to terrify me with death ? " And, 
 during the short respite of a night, he 
 prepared with calm and solemn resigna- 
 tion to encounter his fate. He checked 
 the lamentations of his sister Fatima, 
 who deplored the impending ruin of 
 his house. " Our trust," said Hosein, 
 " is in God alone. All things, both in 
 heaven and earth, must perish and re- 
 turn to their Creator. My brother, my 
 father, my mother, were better than 
 me, and every Musulman has an ex- 
 ample in the prophet." He pressed his 
 friends to consult their safety by a 
 timely flight : they unanimously refused 
 
Life of Mahomet. 223 
 
 to desert or survive their beloved mas- 
 ter ; and their courage was fortified by 
 a fervent prayer and the assurance of 
 paradise. On the morning of the fatal 
 day, he mounted on horseback, with 
 his sword in one hand and the Koran 
 in the other : his generous band of 
 martyrs consisted only of thirty-two 
 horse and forty foot ; but their flanks 
 and rear were secured by the tent-ropes, 
 and by a deep trench which they had 
 filled with lighted faggots, according to 
 the practice of the Arabs. The enemy 
 advanced with reluctance, and one of 
 their chiefs deserted, with thirty fol- 
 lowers, to claim the partnership pi in- 
 evitable death. In every close onset, 
 or single combat, the despair of the 
 Fatimites was invincible ; but the sur- 
 rounding multitudes galled them from 
 a distance with a cloud of arrows, and 
 the horses and men were successively 
 eJain ; a truce was allowed on both 
 
224 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 Bides for the hour of prayer ; and the 
 battle at length expired by the death 
 of the last of the champions of Hosein. 
 Alone, weary and wounded, he seated 
 himself at the door of his tent. As he 
 tasted a drop of water, he was pierced 
 in the mouth with a dart ; and his son 
 and nephew, two beautiful youths, were 
 killed in his arms. He lifted his hands 
 to heaven — they were full of blood — and 
 he uttered a funeral prayer for the liv- 
 ing and the dead. In a transport of 
 despair his sister issued from the tent, 
 and adjured the general of the Cufians, 
 that he would not suffer Hosein to be 
 murdered before his eyes : a tear trick- 
 led down his venerable beard ; and the 
 boldest of his soldiers fell back on every 
 side as the dying hero threw himself 
 among them. The rem-orseless Shamer, 
 a name detested by the faithful, re- 
 proached their cowardice ; and the 
 grandson of Mahomet was slain with. 
 
Life of Mahomet. 2ii 
 
 three and tliirtj strokes of lances and 
 Bwords. After thej had trampled on 
 his body, they carried his head to the 
 castle of Cufa, and the inhuman Obei- 
 dollah struck him on the mouth with 
 a cane : " Alas ! " exclaimed an aged 
 Musulraan, " on these lips have I seen 
 the lips of the apostle of God 1 " In a 
 distant age and climate the tragic scene 
 of the death of Hosein will awaken the 
 sympathy of the coldest reader. On 
 the annual festival of his martyrdom, 
 in the devout pilgrimage to his sepul- 
 chre, his Persian votaries abandon 
 their souls to the religious frenzy of 
 sorrow and indignation. 
 
 When the sisters and children of Ali 
 were brought in chains to the throne of 
 Damascus, the caliph was advised to 
 extirpate the enmity of a popular and 
 hostile race, whom he had injured be- 
 yond the hope of reconciliation. But 
 Yezid preferred the counsels of mercy ; 
 
226 Life of Mahomet, 
 
 and the mourning family was honorably 
 dismissed to mingle their tears with 
 their kindred at Medina. The glory 
 of martyrdom superseded the right of 
 primogeniture ; and the twelve imams, 
 or pontijffs, of the Persian creed, are 
 Ali, Hassan, Hosein, and the lineal de- 
 scendants of Hosein to the ninth gene- 
 ration. Without arms or treasures, or 
 subjects, they successively enjoyed the 
 veneration of the people, and provoked 
 the jealousy of the reigning caliphs ; 
 their tombs at Mecca or Medina, on the 
 banks of the Euphrates, or in the pro- 
 vince of Chorasan, are still visited by 
 the devotion of their sect. Their names 
 were often the pretence of sedition and 
 civil war ; but these royal saints de- 
 spised the pomp of the world, submit- 
 ted to the will of God and the injustice 
 of man, and devoted their innocent lives 
 to the study and practice of religion. 
 The twelfth and last of the Imams 
 
Life of Mahomei. 227 
 
 conspicuous by the title of Mahadi, 
 or the Guide, surpassed the solitude and 
 sanctity of his predecessors. He con- 
 cealed himself in a cavern near Bagdad : 
 the time and place of his death are un- 
 known ; and his votaries pretend that 
 he still lives, and will appear before the 
 day of judgment to overthrow the tyr- 
 anny of Dejal, or the Antichrist. In 
 the lapse of two or three centuries the 
 posterity of Abbas, the uncle of Ma- 
 homet, had multiplied to the number of 
 thirty-three thousand ; the race of Ali 
 might be equally prolific ; the meanest 
 individual was above the first and 
 greatest of princes ; and the most emi- 
 nent were supposed to excel the perfec- 
 tion of angels. But their adverse for- 
 tune, and the wide extent of the Musul- 
 tnan empire, allowed an ample scope 
 for every bold and artful impostor, who 
 claimed affinity with the holy seed ; the 
 eceptre of the Almohades in Spain and 
 
228 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 Africa, of the Fatiraites in Egypt and 
 Syria, of the sultans of Yemen, and of 
 the sophis of Persia, has been conse- 
 crated by this vague and ambiguous 
 title. Under their reigns it might be 
 dangerous to dispute the legitimacy of 
 their birth ; and one of the Fatimite 
 caliphs silenced an indiscreet question 
 by drawing his scymitar : " This," said 
 Moez, " is my pedigree ; and these," 
 casting a handful of gold to his soldiers, 
 — " and these are my kindred and my 
 children." In the various conditions of 
 princes, or doctors, or nobles, or mer- 
 chants, or beggars, a swarm of the 
 genuine or fictitious descendants of 
 Mahomet and Ali is honored with the 
 appellation of sheiks, or sherifs, or 
 emirs. In the Ottoman empire, they 
 are distinguished by a green turban, 
 receive a stipend from the treasury, are 
 judged only by their chief, and, how- 
 ever debased by fortune or character 
 
Life of Mahomet, 229 
 
 Btill assert the proud pre-eminence o:^ 
 their birth. A family of three hundred 
 persons, the pure and orthodox branch 
 of the caliph Hassan, is preserved with- 
 out taint or suspicion in the holy cities 
 of Mecca and Medina, and still retains, 
 after the revolutions of twelve centu- 
 ries, the custody of the temple and the 
 sovereignty of their native land. The 
 fame and raerrit of Mahomet would en- 
 noble the plebeian race, and the ancient 
 blood of the Koreish transcends the 
 recent majesty of the kings of the 
 earth. 
 
 The talents of Mahomet entitle him 
 to our applause, but his success has 
 perhaps too strongly attracted our ad- 
 miration. Are we surprised that a mul- 
 titude -of proselytes should embrace tha 
 doctrine and the passions of an eloquent 
 fanatic ? In the heresies of the church 
 the same seduction has been tried and 
 repeated from the time of the apostlea 
 
230 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 to that.of the reformers. Does it seem 
 incredible that a private citizen should 
 grasp the sword and the sceptre, subdue 
 his native country, and erect a mon- 
 archy by his victorious arms ? In the 
 moving picture of the dynasties of the 
 East, a hundred fortunate usurpers have 
 arisen from a baser origin, surmounted 
 more formidable obstacles, and filled a 
 larger scope of empire and conquest. 
 Mahomet was alike instructed to preach 
 and to fight, and the union of these op- 
 posite qualities, while it enhanced his 
 merit, contributed to his success : the 
 operation of force and persuasion, of 
 enthusiasm and fear, continually acted 
 on each other, till every barrier yielded 
 to their irresistible power. His voice 
 invited the Arabs to freedom and vic- 
 tory, to arms and rapine, to the indul- 
 gence of their darling passions in this 
 world and the other : the restraints 
 which he imposed were requisite to es* 
 
Life of Mahomet, 231 
 
 tablisli the credit of the prophet, and to 
 exercise the obedience of the people ; 
 and the only objection to his success 
 was his rational creed of the unity and 
 perfections of God. It is not the prop- 
 agation, but the permanency of his re- 
 ligion that deserves our wonder : the 
 same pure and perfect impression which 
 he engraved at Mecca and Medina, is 
 preserved after the revolutions of twelve 
 centuries, by the Indian, the African, 
 and the Turkish proselytes of the Ko- 
 ran. If the Christian apostles, St. Peter 
 or St. Paul, could return to the Yatican, 
 they might possibly inquire the name of 
 the Deity who is worshipped with such 
 mysterious rites in that magnificent 
 temple : at Oxford or Geneva, they 
 would experience less surprise ; but it 
 might still be incumbent on them to 
 peruse the catechism of the church, 
 and to study the orthodox commentators 
 on their own writings and the words (X 
 their Master. But the Turkish dome ci 
 
202 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 St. Sophia, with an increase of splendor 
 and size, represents the hnmble taberna- 
 cle erected at Medina by the hands of 
 Mahomet. The Mahometans have uni- 
 formly withstood the temptation of redu- 
 cing the objects of their faith and devo- 
 tion to a level with the sense and imagina- 
 tion of man. " I believe in one God, and 
 Mahomet the apostle of God," is the sim- 
 ple and invariable profession of Islam. 
 The intellectual image of the Deity 
 has never been degraded by any visible 
 idol; the honors of the prophet have 
 never transgressed the measure of hu- 
 man virtue ; and his living precepts have 
 restrained the gratitude of his disciples 
 within the bounds of reason and relig- 
 ion. The votaries of Ali have indeed 
 consecrated the memory of their hero, 
 his wife, and his children ; and some of 
 the Persian doctors pretend that the di- 
 vine essence was incarnate in the person 
 of the Imams ; but their superstition is 
 universally condemned by the Sonnites; 
 
Life of Mahomet. 233 
 
 and their impiety has afforded a seasona- 
 ble warning against the worship of saints 
 and martjrs. The metaphysical ques- 
 tions on the attributes of God, and the 
 liberty of man, have been agitated in 
 the schools of the Mahometans, as well 
 as in those of the Christians ; but among 
 the former they have never enraged the 
 passions of the people or disturbed the 
 tranquillity of the state. The cause of 
 this important difference may be found in 
 the separation or union of the regal and 
 sacerdotal characters. It was the in- 
 terest of the caliphs, the successors of the 
 prophet and commanders of the faithful, 
 to repress and discourage all religious 
 innovations : the order, the discipline, 
 the temporal and spiritual ambition of 
 the clergy, are unknown to the Moslems ; 
 and the sages of the law are the guides 
 of their conscience and the oracles of 
 their faith. From the Atlantic to the 
 Qanges the Koran is acknowledged as 
 the fundamental code, not only of the- 
 
234 Life of Mahomet. 
 
 ologj but of civil and criminal jurispru- 
 dence ; and the laws which regulate the 
 actions and the property of mankind, 
 are guarded by the infallible and im- 
 mutable sanction of the will of God. 
 This religious servitude is attended with 
 Bome practical disadvantage ; the illiter- 
 ate legislator had been often misled by 
 his own prejudices and those of his coun- 
 try ; and the institutions of the Arabian 
 desert may be ill adapted to the wealth 
 and numbers of Ispahan and Constan- 
 tinople. On these occasions, the Cadhi 
 respectfully places on his head the holy 
 volume, and substitutes a dexterous in- 
 terpretation more apposite to the prin- 
 ciples of equity, and the manners and 
 policy of the times. 
 
 His beneficial or pernicious influence 
 on the jpublic happiness is the last con- 
 Bideration in the character of Mahomet. 
 The most bitter or most bigoted of his 
 Christian or Jewish foes, will surely al- 
 low that he assumed a false commission 
 
Life of Mahomet. 235 
 
 to inculcate a salutary doctrine, less pep 
 feet only than their own. He piously 
 supposed, as the basis of his religion, 
 the truth and sanctity of their prior rev 
 elations, the virtues and miracles of their 
 founders. The idols of Arabia were 
 broken before the throne of God ; the 
 blood of human victims was expiated 
 by prayer, and fasting, and alms, the 
 laudable or innocent arts of devotion ; 
 and his rewards and punishments of a 
 future life were painted by the images 
 most congenial to an ignorant and car- 
 nal generation. Mahomet was perhaps 
 incapable of dictating a moral and po- 
 litical system for the use of his coun- 
 trymen: but he breathed among the 
 faithful a spirit of charity and friend- 
 ehip, recommended the practice of the 
 social virtues, and checked, by his laws 
 arid precepts, the thirst of revenge and 
 the oppression of widows and orphans. 
 The hostile tribes were united in faith 
 and obedience, and the valor which had 
 
236 Life of Mahomet. ^ 
 
 been idly sp^nt in domestic quarrels 
 was vigorously directed against a for- 
 eign enemy. Had the impulse been less 
 powerful, Arabia, free at home, and 
 formidable abroad, might have flourish- 
 ed under a succession of her native mon- 
 archs. Her sovereignty was lost by the 
 extent and rapidity of conquest. The 
 colonies of the nation were scattered over 
 the East and "West, and their blood was 
 mingled with the blood of their converts 
 and captives. After the reign of three 
 caliphs, the throne was transported from 
 Medina to the valley of Damascus and 
 the banks of the Tigris ; the holy cities 
 were violated by impious war ; Arabia 
 was ruled by the rod of a subject, per- 
 haps of a stranger ; and the Bedoweens 
 of the desert, awakening from their 
 dream of dominion, resumed their old 
 and solitary independence. 
 
 FINIS.