200 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 



these reveries with the name of history would be 

 an insult to common sense ; while to discard them 

 entirely would have shorn, in the opinion of all true 

 INIussuImans, the character of their prophet of its 

 greatest glory. We have deemed it the more proper 

 course to record the statements of these authors as 

 we found them ; satisfied that the broad line of 

 separation, between the probable and the miracu- 

 lous, will of itself point out to the reader what he 

 ought to reject and what to believe. It falls not to 

 the lot of ordinary mortals, for instance, to be 

 exempted from original sin, to converse familiarly 

 with angels, to split the moon, or make a personal 

 excursion through the seven heavens ; yet these and 

 other marvellous exploits are gravely ascribed to 

 the Arabian apostle. Such ridiculous extravagance 

 stands self-refuted, and requires no antidote or 

 contradiction. 



Mohammed (or ^Mahomet, as he is improperly 

 called) was born at Mecca ; but the precise date of 

 his birtli has been disputed. The computation most 

 generally approved has fixed it in the 569th year of 

 our chronology.* The calumny of his early Chris- 

 authors, are innnmerable. That by Dean Prideaux, published 

 in 1697, has been long popular ; it is learned but dull, compiled 

 from suspicious authorities, and tainted with prejudice. The 

 one by the Count de Boulainvilliers, which appeared iu 1730, is 

 deserving of no credit, either for its sentiments or its consistency 

 with fact. It is a preliminary essay or romance rather than a 

 history, being a mere fragment, and bringing the life of the Pro- 

 phet only down to the fifth year of his mission. The learned 

 Abbe Maracci prefixed a life, full of bitter invective, to his 

 Translation and Refutation of the Koran (ni 169S). Gagnier 

 compiled a biographv, in 2 vols., from the Koran and the best 

 Arabic authors, in 1732. He is impartial ; but he writes like a 

 Mussulman, — recording facts and fables, miracles and visions, 

 with the same imperturbable solemnity, and vrithout a single 

 remark. That prefixed to Savary's Translation of the Koran is 

 an excellent abridgment of the Prophet's Life. 



* Or in 571, the lunar reckoning of the Arabs making a dif- 

 ference of more than two years. Elmacin and Abulfarage adopt 



