Mr . Mars dew on % &c. 415 
met, then* prophet, from Mecca, in Arabia Petraea, to Me- 
dina, at that time called Yatreb, which was the thirteenth 
of his pretended million, the year of Chrift 622, and of the 
Julian period 5335. This event, but little memorable in 
itfelf, and deriving no celebrity from the circumflances imme- 
diately attending it, was, eighteen years after, didinguifhed 
by the Caliph Omar, as the crilis of their new religion, 
and edabliffied as an epoch, to which the dates of all the 
tranfa&ionsot the faithful fhould have reference in future ( a ) *. 
Previous to this, the people had been accudomed to compute 
from the commencement of a particular war, the day of a 
remarkable battle, or other occaiional event of importance to 
their little communities ( b ). Accordingly, Mahomet is faid 
to have been born in the fil'd year of the era of the Elephant, 
fo called from an attack on the city and temple of Mecca, by 
a king of Abyffinian race,, in which thole animals were em- 
ployed ; and twenty years after this, the Impious war, in 
which the animolity of two contending tribes occasioned 
them to violate the facred or interdi&ed months, appeared of 
confequence Sufficient to give rife to a new era. The uncer- 
tainty and condition produced by this flu&uation demanded a 
reform, and more forcibly in proportion as the intereds and 
concerns of the growing empire extended themfelves. A dis- 
pute between two individuals, refpedting the year in which the 
term of an obligation for money Should be underdood to ex- 
pire (the parties being agreed as to the month), pointed out to 
the Caliph, to whofe tribunal it was referred, the immediate 
neceffity of enjoining the obfervance of a determinate era, in 
which the dronged prejudices of the people diould be made to 
* See the authorities, at the end, under this and the fubfequent letters. 
- concur 
