1852.] Mohammad's Journey to Syria. 591 



as Ibn Is/taq would have it ? Or are we in spite of the sickly liberality 

 of modern times, to give due weight to the charges of the Christians 

 against him, and suppose that the esteem which the Musalmans had in 

 the earliest time for Sergius, was due to his connexion with Mo/^ammad 

 of which later ages were ashamed, being anxious to make their prophet 

 more and more supernatural. One tradition makes BaAyra die to get rid 

 of the charge, another sends Bibal, who was not yet born with Moham- 

 mad to Madynah, and a third one sends Abu Talib himself. The last 

 version runs smoothest, but it is the latest. The fact of Mohammad's 

 having been sent back to Makkah by Abu Talib was probably too well 

 known in the earliest ages of the Islam, than that it would have been 

 safe then to invent it. 



But even Arabic authors afford us some proofs that Ba/iyra was at 

 Makkah during the time of Mohammad. In the Bawdhat ala^bah he 

 has the Kunyah of Abu 'addas, that is to say, it is stated that he was 

 the father of 'addas, and we find at Makkah a Christian of that name 

 who plays a most mysterious part in the life of the prophet. Surely 

 had Ibn IsMq not had some thing to conceal regarding him, he would 

 not have trespassed so far on our credulity, as to try to make us believe 

 that though 'addas had all along lived at Makkah, it was only eleven 

 years after MoAammad had proclaimed himself a prophet that he 

 heard of it the first time ! — If my memory does not deceive me, 

 BaAyra is mentioned in a Zaydian chronicle, which had been lent to 

 me by the late Mowlawy 'abd al-RaAym, among those persons who 

 died between the first revelation and the assumption of the prophetic 

 office of Mohammad. Ibn iJajr says of Ba^yra in the Icabah (jrp 1 *° 

 $ j* | &lxd\ dfjii " I do not know whether he lived to the mission or not." 

 An important fact is related in the Icabah on the authority of Ma- 

 wardy and Abu Musa. Abrahah the king of Abyssinia sent a depu- 

 tation to MoAammad which was headed by Ja'far, among those who 

 composed it, we find the name of BaAyra. The learned Ibn al-Athyr 

 identifies him with BaAyra of Bostra. The author of the Icabah 

 thinks, that they are two distinct persons, but his sole reason for such 

 distinction is, that the one was in Abyssinia, and the other in Syria. If 

 BaAyra came to Makkah with Mohammad, and remained there until 

 the persecution against the new doctrine began, he would have had no 

 other choice than to take flight to Abyssinia with or before the other 



