204 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 



orphan boy with paternal affection. The pure air 

 and hardy nutriment of the desert (the Arabian chil- 

 dren Avent quite naked) had already laid the founda- 

 tion of a robust constitution ; the elements of a 

 rough and scanty education were now supplied by 

 the kindness of his relative. 



A blank of five years has been filled up with in- 

 ventions. We can only conclude that being designed 

 for a mercantile life his instructions were likely to 

 be suitable to his profession. At the age of thir- 

 teen he made a commercial journey to Syria in the 

 caravan of his uncle. This expedition is barren of 

 facts, but the void is occupied with imaginary ad- 

 ventures. Certain it is, that here the youthful 

 merchant had an opportunity of signalizing his cou- 

 rage, or rather serving his first campaign in the 

 ranks of his clansmen. But tradition has made this 

 journey still more remarkable by several wonderful 

 indications of his future elevation. It was in the 

 fair of Bosra that he is alleged to have met the cele- 

 brated Nestorian monk, Felix or Sergius, surnamed 

 Bahira, who is accused by the Christian writers of 

 afterward assisting him in the contrivance and com- 

 position of the Koran. Till his twenty-fifth year 

 nothing further is recorded of his history. Some 

 modern writers, such as the Count Boulainvilliers, 

 during this interval, have schooled him in martial 

 exercises ; inured him to hunting and other manly 

 pastimes, and carried him in imaginary voyages 

 over all the East ; but these we omit, as they have 

 not the sanction of any Arabian author. | 



His probity and talents for business introduced 1 

 him to the acquaintance of Kadijah, a rich widow in | 

 Mecca. She was of noble extraction, her father, 

 Kowailed, being of the tribe of the Koreish. En- 



Prelimin. Discoiirse, sect. ii. p. 50). Abulfeda makes Hamza 

 and Al Abbas both older than Abu Taleb, and younger than 

 Abdallah. — Gagnier, p. 67. 



