212 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 



it was doled out in morsels as suited his convenience. 

 This sage manceuvre gave him a complete mastery 

 over the oracles of Heaven ; for he could make 

 them speak according to circumstances. The Ro- 

 man pontiff, who at this very time (A. D. 606) had 

 begun to assert his claim to universal supremacy, 

 might boast of the keys of Peter ; but Mohammed 

 held the keys of Providence, with which he could 

 shut or unlock the gates of revelation at pleasure. 



This pretended interview with the archangel 

 rested solely on the suspicious authority of his own 

 assertion. The first person to whom he related the 

 tidings was Kadijah. The dutiful wife believed, or 

 affected to believe, the sacred fable, with all its glo- 

 rious accompaniments ; and with a solemn oath she 

 declared her conviction that he was the true apostle 

 of his nation. " Among men," said the Prophet on 

 this occasion, " many have been found perfect ; but 

 of women only four — Asia, the daughter of Pharaoh; 

 Mary, the daughter of Amran ; Kadijah, the wife, and 

 Fatima, the daughter, of Mohammed ;" where it will 

 be observed that, with singular modesty, he includes 

 the half of these female paragons in his own family. 

 The second proselyte was his cousin, Ali, the son 

 of Abu Taleb, then only eleven years of age, whom 

 he had brought up in his own family with a fatherly 

 tenderness. His slave, Zaid, was the third convert. 

 Whatever might have been his scruples, they were 

 overcome by the promise of liberty ; and the grate- 

 ful domestic recognised with joy the divinity of a 

 master from whom he expected and obtained his 

 freedom. 



The next and most important of his conversions 

 was that of Abdallah, surnamed Abu Beker, an 

 opulent citizen of Mecca. He was a most zealous 

 Mussulman ; and, being a person of great authority 

 among the Korcish, he prevailed on five of the prin- 

 cipal men in tlie city — Othman, Abdalrahman, Saad, 

 Zobeir. and Telha — to join tlie standard of the Pro- 



