MOHAMMED. 



MOHA.MMED. 



212 



Christian religion, and was well acquainted with the Old and Kew 

 Testament. (Abulfeda, 'Annales,' i. 263; Marraccius, 'Prodromus,' 

 1, 44.) 



In the fortieth year of his age Mohammed assumed the prophetic 

 office, and displayed his views and principles to his own domestic 

 circle. His first efforts were successful, for his wife Khadija, Waraka, 

 Abubeker, his cousin-german Ali-ben-Abi Taleb, and several other 

 members of the family, readily acknowledged bis divine mission, and 

 himself as the apoatle of Allah. After being three years silently 

 employed in the conversion of his nearest friends, he invited the most 

 illustrious men of the family of Hashem to his house; and after 

 having conjured them to leave idolatry for the worship of one God, 

 he publicly proclaimed his calling, and declared that by the command 

 of that one God, revealed to him by the angel Gabriel, he felt com- 

 pelled to impart to his countrymen the most precious gift, and the 

 only means of their future salvation. Far from being persuaded, the 

 assembly was struck silent with surprise mingled with contempt. 

 The young and enthusiastic All alone, throwing himself at the feet of 

 Mohammed, with a solemn vow offered to be his companion ; but his 

 father, the mild and sober Abu Taleb, seriously advised the prophet 

 to abstain from his strange and fanatical design. Mohammed replied 

 that, even if the sun should be placed on hia right hand and the moon 

 on his left, they should never divert him from his career. Stimulated 

 rather than iutiuiidated by the resistance of his relations, the reformer 

 soon began to frequent the public places of Mecca, and openly to 

 preach the unity of God, calling upon the citizens to repent of their 

 idolatry, exhorting them to devote themselves to the service of a 

 supreme and most merciful Being, and reciting fragments of the Koran 

 or affixing them at the doors of the Caaba. It is reported that he had 

 the honour of thus converting the celebrated poet Lebid, who, struck 

 with the sublime beauty of a passage thus promulgated, declared it 

 far superior to any production of human genius, and willingly joined 

 in the profession of Islam. The people listened to the precepts of 

 the moralist, and though they were enraptured by the force of hia 

 eloquence, very few were yet inclined to desert their hereditary and 

 long-cheriabed ceremonies, and to adopt a spiritual faith the internal 

 evidence of which they were unable to comprehend. Mohammed was 

 repeatedly urged by them to confirm his divine mission by miracles, 

 but he prudently appealed to the internal truth of bis doctrine, and 

 expressly declared that wonders and signs would depreciate the merit 

 of faith and aggravate the guilt of infidelity. The only miraculous act 

 which Mohammed professed to have accomplished, and which has 

 Win greatly exaggerated by his credulous adherents, is a nocturnal 

 journey from the temple of Mecca to Jerusalem, and thence through 

 the heavens, which he pretended to have performed on an imaginary 

 animal like an ass, called Borak (lightning) ; but we need scarcely 

 remark that the simple words of the Koran (' Sur.' xviL) may as well 

 be taken in the allegorical sense of a vision. 



In the meantime several of the noblest citizens, such as Abu Obeida, 

 Hamza, an uncle of Mohammed, Othman, and the stern and inflexible 

 Omar, were successively gained by the moderation and influence of 

 Abubeker, with whom, by marrying hia only daughter Ayesha, the 

 prophet had become more nearly allied after the death of his wife 

 Khadija. Nevertheless for more than ten years the new faith made 

 little progress within the walls of Mecca, and might have been extin- 

 guished in its birth if the jealous leaders of the Koreishites had not 

 Directed their animosity and violence against the whole line of Hashem. 

 Although menaces and persecution, too often repeated to be minutely 

 related here, had compelled the few votaries of Mohammed to retire 

 into Abysiiuia, the spirit of party continually kindled the flame of 

 dissension. At last a revolt, which threatened the life of Mohammed, 

 broke out at Mecca, and the prophet took bis flight to Yatreb, after- 

 ward* known by the name of Medina (Mediuat-al-uabi), or the City of 

 the Prophet. This retreat happened on the Kith of July b'22, and 

 has been adopted as the Mohammedan era, called Hejra. The citizens 

 of Medina, among whom the seeds of Islam had been sown by some 

 converted pilgrims returning from Mecca, were readily inclined to 

 embrace the cause of tlie reformer, whom they had often invited by 

 several previous deputations, and to whom they had promised their 

 alliance and protection against hia enemies. Accordingly they 

 advanced in procession to meet the banished prophet, invested him 

 with the regal and sacerdotal office, and offered their assistance in 

 propagating by force the tenets of his new religion. From this moment 

 a vast theatre opened to the enthusiasm and ambition of Mohammed. 

 HU revelations assumed a much higher claim ; he inculcated as a 

 matter of religion and of faith the waging of war against the infidels ; 

 and the sword once drawn at the command of Heaven, from that time 

 remained unsheathed until the tribes of all Arabia and the adjacent 

 countries bad joined in the profesaion that there is no God but Allah, 

 and that Mohammed is his apostle. 



After various enterprises and petty excursions, three great battlea 

 were fought with the Koreishites under Abu Sophian, the most im- 

 placable foe of Mohammed and of the Hashemitic line, who, after the 

 death of Abu Taleb, had succeeded to the principality of Mecca. A 

 military force of nearly a thousand men Lad been collected by Abu 

 Sophian, in order to protect a wealthy caravan on its way to Syria, 

 and to attack the daring band of the prophet, who, with only three 

 hundred warriors, awaited them in the valley of Beder, twenty miles 



from Medina. The Moslems, inflamed with enthusiasm and expecta- 

 tion of booty, furiously assailed the enemy, who, after a short battle, 

 were totally defeated and dispersed, leaving a rich spoil to the con- 

 querors. To avenge this disgraceful defeat Abu Sophian advanced in 

 tbe following year (Hejr. 3) with an army of three thousand men 

 towards Medina, and a bloody action, in which Mohammed was 

 severely wounded, took place near Mount Ohud. The Koreishites 

 were now victorious, but the Moslems soon rallied in the field, and a 

 third war, during which the city of Medina was besieged for twenty 

 days, was terminated by a single combat of the valorous Ali. Sur- 

 rounded by a number of roving clans secretly favouring the new 

 cause, or at least of a doubtful disposition, the idolaters either wanted 

 strength or courage to protract hostilities, and accordingly an armistice 

 of ten years was agreed upon by both parties. This interval Mo- 

 hammed employed in converting or subduing the principal Jewish 

 tribes, namely, those of Kainokao, Koraidha, Nadhir, and Chaibar. 

 (Abulfeda, ' Vita Moham.,' p. 67 ; Pococke, ' Specimen Hist. Arabum,' 

 p. 11.) 



The castles and towns of the unwarlike Jews were rapidly taken 

 and plundered, and the unhappy people, being unwilling to embrace 

 the religion of the conqueror, were driven out, or persecuted and 

 slaughtered with the utmost cruelty. But the prophet paid dearly 

 for this, as he never entirely recovered from the effects of poison pre- 

 pared for him by a Jewish female of Chaibar. Thus advancing among 

 the tribes of his native country, the power of the fierce and ambitious 

 apostle increased like an avalanche, and as the Koreishites had been 

 guilty of violating the truce, he proceeded at the head of ten thousand 

 warriors towards Mecca (Hejr. 8). The town surrendered without 

 resistance, and yielding to the victorious banners of Islam, the people 

 unanimously hailed, as the sovereign of Mecca, the prophet whom 

 they had driven from bin paternal hearth. Mohammed readily for- 

 gave his converted brethren the insults which he had formerly received 

 from them, and after having broken the three hundred and sixty idols 

 round the Caaba, and destroyed every vestige of idolatry, he ailorued 

 and consecrated the temple to the worship of God. In doing this he 

 himself set an example of the most earnest prayer and devotion, and 

 strictly fulfilled the religious duties and ceremonies which the pilgrims 

 to the holy shrine had theretofore invariably observed. The con- 

 quest of Mecca, and a subsequent prosperous expedition against the 

 hostile fortress of Tayof, were speedily followed by the submission of 

 the idolatrous tribes over all Arabia, and even the petty chiefs of the 

 neighbouring provinces presented gifts or offered their friendship and 

 alliance to the victorious prophet. Intoxicated with ambitious pride, 

 Mohammed now despatched his ambassadors to Khosru Parviz, king 

 of Persia, to Heraclius of Byzantium, 'and to the king of Abyssinia, 

 solemnly inviting them to tlio profession of Islam, or threatening 

 them with war. Accordingly an army of three thousand Moslems 

 invaded the eastern territories of Palestine, aud although this and a 

 subsequent expedition to the west were only momentary excursions, a 

 number of foreign tribes and cities willingly submitted. This arose 

 principally from the clemency and moderation of the prophet towards 

 the Christians, from whom he claimed only a moderate tribute, and 

 to whom he granted his protection, security and freedom of trade, and 

 toleration of their worship, and Whose conversion to his religion he 

 rather expected than enforced. On this occasion a patent in favour 

 of hia Christian subjects, known under the name of ' Testamentum 

 Mohammedis,' was formally published, which, whatever may be 

 thought of its authenticity, is at least in accordance with many 

 passages of the Koran, declaring that " no force shall be employed in 

 religion : that the prophet is nothing but a teacher and adinouisher 

 of the people, who shall not be governed by violence, aud that the 

 believers shall leave those who do not believe to the punishment of 

 God, for He is the only arbiter, and will reward every one as he 

 deserves." ('Sur.' il, 257; xlv., 14; Ixxxviii., 21, &c.) Returning from 

 these military expeditions, aud having onco more accomplished a 

 solemn pilgrimage to the temple of Mecca, Mohammed retired to 

 Medina, where, to the great consternation of his followers, he died. 

 This event happened, after a severe fever of fourteen days, on the 8th 

 of June, 632, m the sixty-third year of his age. Omar, with many 

 enthusiastic disciples, firmly believed that a prophet could never die ; 

 and it required all the authority of the sober and prudent Abubeker 

 to refute so absurd an opinion. " Is it Mohammed," he exclaimed to 

 the frantic multitude, " or the God of Mahommed, whom you wor- 

 ship ? The God of Mohammed liveth for ever, but the apostle was a 

 mortal like ourselves, and has experienced the common fate of all 

 mortality." 



Having thus rapidly sketched the political life of the Arabian 

 prophet, by whose lofty aspirations and intrepid courage the hostile 

 tribes of an immense country were for the first time united in faith 

 and obedience; and before discussing the principles of a religion, 

 which, during the space of a century, displayed its victorious banners 

 over all Arabia, Syria, Asia Minor, Persia, Egypt, and the coasts of 

 Africa, and whose precepts even now are zealously followed from the 

 Gauges to the Atlantic by more than a hundred and twenty millions 

 of people we feel it necessary to take a short retrospective view of 

 the state of Arabia previous to the introduction of Islam. The abori- 

 ginal inhabitants of the peninsula had, from time immemorial, been 

 divided into a great number of free and wandering claas, limited 



