LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 259 



Sovereign of a considerable province, and beloved 

 by his subjects, he conceived the project of com- 

 mencing apostle on his own accoimt ; and scarcely 

 had he returned to his capital when he renounced 

 Islam, and began to assume the ensigns and prero- 

 gatives of a Divine messenger. Affecting to be 

 equal in honour and dignity with the Prophet, he 

 wrote him an epistle, modesth' proposing that the 

 earth should be divided between Moseilama and 

 INIohammed, the two " apostles of God." The latter 

 was too Avell confirmed in his empire to need an 

 associate, or tolerate this " piece of unparalleled 

 impudence." " Let jMosftlama, the liar, know," 

 was the replj', " that the earth belongs to the Lord, 

 who will give the victory to his true servant." 



Until his sixty-third year, INIohammed had sus- 

 tained, with vinabated vigour, the temporal and 

 spiritual fatigues of his mission. The infirmities 

 of age had not impaired his constitution, though his 

 health had suffered a gradual decline. His mortal 

 disease was a fever, of which he was seized in the 

 house of Zainab, one of his wives, while giving 

 directions to Osama to lead an expedition into Pales- 

 tine to avenge the death of Zaid, vrho had earned 

 the crowai of martyrdom at the battle of Muta. 

 Finding his malady increase, he requested to be 

 conveyed to the mansion of his favourite Ayesha, 

 whose tenderness might sooth his last moments. To 

 her he expressed his serious conviction that he owed 

 the cause of his distemper to the poisoned mutton 

 at Khaibar. For three days he suffered the tortures 

 of an intense and insupportable heat, which deprived 

 him at intervals of the use of reason. This parox- 

 ysm was succeeded by a more favourable crisis, 

 and he recovered so far as to officiate at p.rayers 

 in the mosque. His audience were edified by a 

 penitential acknowledgment of his willingness to 

 make restitution to such as he might have uncon- 

 sciously wronged. " If there be any man whom I 

 have unjustly scourged, I offer my back to the lash 



