268 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 



ocular evidence Avas adduced of four male wit- 

 nesses. His marriage with Zainab, the wife of his 

 slave and adopted son Zaid. was the dictate of an 

 illicit passion, and a shameful breach of the matri- 

 monial law of forbidden affinities. 



Besides his wives he had several concubines, the 

 most noted of whom was the Egyptian Mary. Her 

 charms were irresistible : and. notwithstanding the 

 prohibitions of the Koran, the apostle was too deeply 

 enamoui-ed to exercise the virtue of abstinence. To 

 avoid the scandal, he had recourse to secret intrigue ; 

 but Haphsa surprised him in her own chamber with 

 his favourite captive. He swore he would for ever 

 renounce the possession of his mistress, and she 

 promised silence and forgiveness. Both parties 

 forgot their engagements — the harem was in a flame 

 of jealousy and revenge : but Gabriel again inter- 

 posed with a sura to absolve him from his oath ; and 

 exhorted him to enjoy the bounty of an indulgent 

 and merciful Providence, without listening to the 

 clamours of his wives. To chastise their loquacious 

 indiscretion, Haphsa suffered a temporai-y divorce, 

 and the rest were condemned to the penance of a 

 solitary month ; during which time the Prophet met 

 with no obstruction in fulfilling the commands of the 

 angel. At the end of thirty days he summoned them 

 to his presence, reproached them for their disobedi- 

 ence, threatened them with eternal separation, both 

 in this world and the next, and hinted at the pos- 

 sibility of supplying their places by others more 

 faithful and devoted. This threat was the more ap- 

 palling, as no woman w-hom he had once espoused 

 was permitted to cherish the hope of a second mar- 

 riage. The main argimient by which his apologists 

 excuse his sensualities was the hope of multiplying 

 his descendants. Yet all the inmates of his harem 

 were childless ; and not a son survived to support 

 the decline of his life, or uphold, after his demise, 

 the dignities of priest and king. Of his eight chil- 



