A CHINESE LIFE OF MOHAMMED 1G5^ 



Meanwhile Abd ul Muttalib had gone to the Kaaba to 

 pray that all might go well with the mother and child, and 

 while there he saw a priest who, in great alarm, foretold that 

 all the world would come under the control of this infant, 

 and the religion of the priests would be destroyed. On his 

 way back to the house, Abd ul Muttalib saw two of the hills 

 near Mecca lifted up several feet from the earth, and he 

 heard a voice in space speaking to him saying that the rich 

 and noble of all the earth would come to him. On entering, 

 the room, the grandfather was about to embrace the child, 

 but a mysterious voice told him to' desist until after the 

 spirits had paid their court. Then the spirits of the nine 

 heavens and the seven earths gathered together and paid 

 homage to the Prophet. 



The mother and grandfather took the child to the Kaaba 

 and returned thanks to God for the Prophet's birth; the 

 whole city congratulated and a great feast was made. Sur- 

 prise was expressed at the name Mohammed, as such had 

 not previously been known among them. The Jews and 

 Christians were alarmed as they knew that this was the name 

 reserved for the final prophet; they also* knew that all the 

 signs agreed in showing this to be the expected One, but they 

 would not confess. 



In Syria some ministers of the king saw a strange star 

 and divined that the final prophet was about to* appear; the 

 same occurred in Abyssinia, whose king sent an envoy to* 

 congratulate and offer precious gifts. The fire-worshippers 

 of Persia were amazed on the day of Mohammed's birth, as- 

 their fires would not burn; they did not know that the Light 

 of the Prophet obscured and quenched their lights. 



The year in which Mohammed was born was known as 

 the Year of the Elephants, because in an attack made upon 

 Mecca that year, the enemy had used elephants. The 

 attackers were defeated on the very day of Mohammed's 

 birth, he appearing that day purposely to cause their defeat. 

 Our author identifies the Year of the Elephants with the Pin 

 Ying year of Chung Ta T'ung 'J* ^c ^ of the Liang §£ 

 dynasty, which would be A.D. 564. The correct year was 

 probably A.D. 570. Chronology is not our author's strong 

 point, but some allowance must be made for the difficulty of 

 harmonizing the several methods of time calculation with 

 which he had to deal, and to which we may refer later on. 



Mohammed, having safely entered this world, was tem- 

 porarily nursed by a slave girl who had previously nursed his 

 young uncle Hamza. But he was soon given over to the- 

 care of a country woman named Halima of the Bani Saad 

 tribe, who took him away from the city, as it was the custom 



