A CHINESE LIFE OF MOHAMMED 173 



Mohammed told his wife of this experience and she 

 rejoiced at it as an evidence of what she had been expecting. 

 These manifestations continued, and on one special occasion 

 when Mohammed was on Mount Hira he heard a noise in 

 the air and looking up he saw a venerable man of graceful 

 countenance, with a beautiful beard, sitting upon a brilliant 

 throne coming down from heaven; alighting upon the top of 

 the mount, he came down from the throne and assisted 

 Mohammed to ascend it, and put upon him an immortal robe 

 and crown. After recovering somewhat from his fear, 

 Mohammed asked the venerable man who he was, and was 

 told that he was Gabriel, the head of the hosts of heaven who 

 had been sent specially to confer the commission upon the 

 Prophet, and to begin delivering the True Classic — the 

 Koran — of which the first Sura was now given. The 

 Prophet at first found it difficult to repeat the words after 

 the angel, but Gabriel covered his head with a cloth and 

 shook him by the shoulder a few times, after which there 

 was no difficulty in remembering and repeating. Our author 

 here adds that the Koran has 6,600 chapters or Sura, the 

 Fatiha being the first one. In reality it is verses or lines he 

 means, as the Sura are only 114, and to count the whole 

 Fatiha of seven verses as only one of 6,600 portions is another 

 exaggeration. 



The Prophet suffered physical and mental distress when 

 the manifestations came, and these are described in some 

 .detail. Khadija was soon convinced that the revelations were 

 genuine and that her husband was the Appointed Prophet, 

 so she believed on him and was his first adherent. Moham- 

 med's friend Abu Bekr was one of the earliest and most 

 devoted followers; others were Ali the youngest son of Abu 

 Talib, and Othman; these three all eventually succeeding to 

 the Caliphate. When first the Prophet began propagating 

 the Faith he did net dare to do so openly, but confined 

 Tiimself to his near relatives and friends; after the third 

 year of the Prophetship he gradually entered upon more 

 open efforts. Many of the people of Mecca followed him, 

 wdiich disturbed the Jews and Christians, who went to com- 

 plain to Abu Talib about his nephew, but the uncle, while 

 not himself following the faith, yet defended the Prophet. 



Our author now, in a digression, tells us' how the Faith 

 .spread abroad, and the Moslem empire came into existence; 

 he says that of all the dependent countries of "T'ien Fang" 

 5c 2? — by which he means Mecca as the centre of the sub- 

 sequent Moslem empire — the central one was Arabia, and 

 .around were Persia and Hindustan, Egypt and Abyssinia, 

 Syria and Irak and the Roman territory. The people of all 



