12 



MOHAMMED. 



desired opportunity to lead against Mecca 10,000 well- 

 r.rmed soldiers, inspired by pious zeal. The terrified 

 Koreishites made little resistance, and received life 

 and liberty only on condition that they embraced the 

 Islam. The idols of the kaaba were demolished, but 

 the sacred touqh of the prophet made the black stone 

 again the object of the deepest veneration. The 

 temple became the principal sanctuary of the religion 

 of -Mohammed, and its professors alone are allowed 

 access to the holy city of Mecca. This important 

 event took place in the eighth year of the Hegira. 

 The destruction of some celebrated idols, and the sub- 

 jugation of various Arab tribes, now employed the 

 .Moslem arms. In the valley of Honain.not far from 

 Mecca, where Mohammed incurred great personal 

 danger, he achieved the victory only by the utmost 

 exertions. The following year the Mohammedans 

 call the " year of embassies," because a number of 

 Arab tribes announced by deputies their submission 

 and conversion. At the head of 30,000 men, among 

 whom were 10,000 cavalry, Mohammed was resolved 

 to anticipate the hostile plans of the emperor Hera- 

 clius. He marched into Syria to Tabuk, half way to 

 Damascus, but returned to Medina, and contented 

 himself with summoning the emperor in writing to 

 embrace his doctrines. After his return, he promul- 

 gated a new chapter of the Koran, revoked all 

 regulations in favour of idolaters, and declared 

 all the compacts concluded with them null. He 

 might now be regarded as master of the whole of 

 Arabia, although all the inhabitants had not yet 

 received his religion. He allowed the Christians 

 a free exercise of their worship on the payment 

 of a tribute. In the tenth year of the Hegira, 

 Mohammed undertook his farewell pilgrimage to 

 Mecca. On this occasion, he was surrounded with 

 the utmost splendour, and attended by 90,000, or, as 

 some say, 150,000 friends. This was the last impor- 

 tant event of his life. He died soon after his return 

 to Medina, in the arms of his wife Ayesha, in the 

 eleventh year of the Hegira, in his sixty-third year. 

 Of all his wives, the first alone bore him children, 

 of whom only his daughter Fatima, wife of Ali, sur- 

 vived him. - 



The Mohammedan writers undoubtedly exag- 

 gerate the corporeal and mental endowments of 

 their prophet : it is, however, very credible, that 

 there was a prepossessing majesty in his appearance, 

 and that he united much natural eloquence with a 

 decisive and enterprising mind. By these gifts, he 

 succeeded in exalting himself above his equals, and 

 gaining confidence and popularity. Compared with 

 his countrymen, he stands pre-eminent ; compared 

 with other legislators and monarchs, he holds but an 

 inferior rank. Whether he himself believed what he 

 promulgated as a divine revelation is a hard question 

 to answer. Most probably he ought to be regarded 

 as a religious enthusiast, who deemed himself actually 

 inspired by the Divinity, but was not so entirely 

 blinded as to overlook the means of making his doc- 

 trines acceptable to the people, and of confirming his 

 dominion over their minds. Thence the fabrication 

 of his interview with the angel Gabriel ; thence his 

 visionary journey through the seven heavens of para- 

 dise ; thence his indulgence of the sensual desires of 

 a sensual people. The first tenet of his creed was, 

 " Allah alone is God, and Mohammed is his prophet." 

 At the same time, Moses and Christ were regarded, 

 in his system, as divinely inspired teachers of former 

 times, and he by no means denied the authenticity of 

 the sacred histories and revelations of ancient Judaism 

 and Christianity, which he only believed to be cor- 

 rupted. The paradise which he promised to his 

 faithful adherents was a heaven of sensual pleasure ; 

 he himself perhaps anticipated no other. His moral- 



ity was comj iled from the ancient. Jewish and Chris- 

 tian systems. The faithful adoration of Allah as the 

 only God, unwavering obedience to the commands of 

 the prophet, the necessity of prayer, charity to the 

 poor, purifications, abstinence from forbidden enjoy- 

 ments (especially from strong drinks this prohibi- 

 tion was caused by the quarrels tliat arose among his 

 adherents), bravery, upholding even to death the 

 cause of God, and entire resignation to unavoidable 

 fate, are the chief points of his moral system. Of 

 solemnities, fasts, and usages such a religion for a 

 sensual people could not be destitute ; but the 

 injunction of a pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina 

 was unquestionably a political measure, in order to 

 sanctify for ever the original seat of the Islam, and 

 to secure permanently the political and religious 

 importance of Arabia. These doctrines are con- 

 tained in the Koran, to which was soon after added 

 a second collection, Sunna (second book of the 

 rules of life, founded on Mohammed's example.) 

 But all Mohammedans do not receive the latter : 

 those who do, are therefore called Sunnites. One 

 of the principal means of the rapid and extensive dif- 

 fusion of his doctrines and dominion was force, all 

 who did not submit of their own accord being com- 

 pelled to do so at the edge of the sword. Rarely do 

 we find in his history any traces of his having made 

 use of women for promoting his plans, although he 

 allowed polygamy, with some restrictions, ana con- 

 cubinage without any bounds. That he persuaded 

 his first wife that the attacks of epilepsy which he 

 had were celestial trances, and that she first procured 

 him adherents by the propagation of this fable, seems 

 to be a tale, devised by his Christian opponents, to 

 expose the prophet to contempt. Certain it is that 

 he himself declared he did not work miracles. His 

 disciples, nevertheless, aspribe to him the most absurd 

 miracles ; for example, that a part of the moon fell 

 into Irs sleeves, and that he threw it back to the 

 heavens ; that stones, trees, and animals proclaimed 

 him aloud to be the prophet of God, &c. ; but of such 

 fables we find abundance in the legends of the Chris- 

 tian saints. In a moral view, he can never be com- 

 pared with the divine Founder of Christianity. His 

 system has been widely propagated in Asia and 

 Africa. The reverence which the faithful Moslems 

 pay to the prophet, and all that is connected with 

 him in the remotest degree, is as great as the reve- 

 rence of relics has ever been in Christendom ; thus, 

 for example, the camel which carries the Koran to 

 the kaaba, and, in the territory of Mecca, an enor- 

 mous number of doves, which must not even be 

 scared from the fields, much less be killed, because 

 they are thought to be descended from the dove that 

 approached the ear of Mohammed, are objects of the 

 most sacred reverence. But the wonder-loving 

 populace alone gives credence to the fable that 

 Mohammed's coffin is suspended in the air : on the 

 contrary, he lies buried at Medina, where he died, 

 and an urn, enclosed in the holy chapel, constitutes 

 his sepulchre, which is surrounded with iron trellis 

 work, and is accessible to no one. The (so called) 

 Testament of Mohammed is a spurious work of later 

 times. Mohammed's doctrines have given rise to 

 many sects, among which the Sunnites and Shiites, 

 the chief ones, still entertain the most violent mutual 

 hatred among the Persians and Turks. See Hist, of 

 Mohammedanism, &c., by Charles Mills; also the 

 articles Koran, and Islam. 



MOHAMMED II., Turkish emperor, surnamed 

 Bujuk, the Great, born at Adrianople in 1430, suc- 

 ceeded his father, Amurath II., in 1451. He renewed 

 the peace made by his predecessor with the Greek 

 emperor, but resolved to complete the conquest of 

 the enfeebled Greek empire by the capture of Con- 



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