LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 199 



bitter hostility, others in a style of panegyric, that 

 destroys all confidence in the'ir veracity. The nar- 

 ratives' of the Mussulmans themselves, from whom 

 it was natural to expect the most authentic and 

 satisfactory accounts, as being the coRectors, if not 

 the actual" witnesses, of the circumstances they 

 relate, are unsafe guides. These \raters had a deep 

 interest in the fame of their prophet, which has 

 tinged their histories with extreme partiaUty, and 

 must greatlv depreciate the value of their testimony. 

 The Christian annalists w^e can hardly suppose to 

 be more trustvrortliy in this particular thaii their 

 Mohammedan opponents. Hating both the creed 

 and the apostle of the infidels, it is not likely they 

 would give a fair representation even of the truth ; 

 or that they woidd spread any reports but such as 

 were to his prejudice, and wliich might tend to brmg 

 liis impious forgeries into derision. 



Though much uncertainty on this subject has 

 been removed by our increased acquaintance with 

 the literature of "^ the East, and a more candid spirit 

 of investiffation introduced, there still remains con- 

 siderable obscurity respecting the personal history 

 of Mohammed. The narratives of his hfe are broken 

 and disjointed, resting sometimes on equivocal evi- 

 dence, and verv- often enveloped in a thick cloud of 

 supernatural wonders, that makes it difficult to 

 separate between earth and heaven, or discriminate 

 the exact bounds of truth and fiction.* To dignify 



* The authors who have written Lives of Mohammed it 

 •would be tedious to enumerate. The best Arabic biography yet 

 discovered is that by Abulfeda, which was translated into Latin 

 in 1723, and illustrated with copious notes by John Gagnier, 

 Professor of Arabic at Oxford. This work, for a Mussulman, is 

 candid and judicious. Al Beidawi, Shahrestani, Al Jannabi 

 Nuvairi, Mircond, and most of the other oriental historians, are 

 full of leeends, and not worth noticing: here : they have been 

 consulted" and copiously used bv D'Herbelot and the authors of 

 the Universal History (Mod. Part, vol. i.). The Lives of Mo- 

 hamme<l, not mere transl.itions, but compiled from various 



