MAHOMETANISM. 139 
file will bring with her the rod of Mofes and the feal of 
Solomon ; and, being fo fwift that none can overtake 
or efcape her, will with the firft ftrike all the believers on 
the face, and mark them with the word Mumen, i.e. believer; 
and with the latter will mark the unbelievers on the face 
likewife, with the word Cafer, i. e. infidel; that every per- 
fo'ii may be known for what he really is. They add, that 
the fame beaft is to demonltrate the vanity of all religions 
except Iflarn, and to fpeak Arabic. All this fluff feems. 
to be the refult of a confuted idea of the beaft in the Re¬ 
velation. 3. War with the Greeks, and the taking Con- 
ftantinople by 70,000 of the pofterity of Ifaac, who fliall 
not win that city by force of arms, but the walls fhall fall 
down while they cry out, “ There is no God but God ; 
God is raoft great!” As they are dividing the fpoil, news 
will come to them of the appearance of Antichrift ; vujiere- 
npon they fliall leave all, and return back. 4. The com¬ 
ing of Antichrift, whom the Mahometans call Maftb al 
Dajjal, i. e. the Falfe or Lying Chrift, and Amply alDajjal. 
He is to be one-eyed, and marked on the forehead with 
the letters C. F. R. fignifying Cafer, or infidel. They 
fay that the Jews give him the name of Mejfah Ben David ; 
and pretend he is to come in the laft days, and to be lord 
both of land and fea, and that he will reftorethe kingdom 
to them. 5. The defcent of Jefus on earth. They pretend 
that he is to defcend near the white tower to the ealt of 
Uamafcus, when the people are returned from the taking 
of Conftantinople : that he is to embrace the Mahometan 
religion, marry a wife, get children, kill Antichrift; and 
at length die after forty years, or according to others 
twenty-four years, continuance on earth. Under him, 
they fay, there will be great fecurity and plenty in the 
world. a H hatred and malice being laid afide ; when lions 
and camels, bears and fheep, fliall live in peace, and a child 
fhall play with ferpents unhurt. 6. War with the Jews ; 
of whom the Mahometans are to make a prodigious /laugh¬ 
ter, the very trees and (tones difcovering fuch of them as 
hide tliemfelves, except only the tree called ghafkad, which 
is the tree of the Jews. 7. The irruption of Gog and 
Magog, or, as they are called in the eaft, Yajuj and Ma- 
juj ; of whom many things are related in the Koran and 
the traditions of Mahomet. Thefe barbarians, they tell 
us, having palled the lake of Tiberias, which the vanguard 
of their vaft army will drink dry, will come to Jeruialem, 
and there greatly diftrefs Jefus and his companions; till, 
at his requeft, God will deftroy them, and fill the earth 
with their carcafes, which, after fome time, God will fend 
birds to carry away, at the prayers of Jefus and his fol¬ 
lowers. Their bows, arrows, and quivers, the Moflems will 
burn for feven years together; and, at laft, God will fend 
a rain to cleanfe the earth, and to make it fertile. 8. A 
fmoke which fliall fill the whole earth. 9. An eclipfe of 
the moon. Mahomet is reported to have faid, that there 
would be three eclipfes before the laft hour; one to be 
feen in the eaft, another in the weft, and the third in Ara¬ 
bia. 10. The returning of the Arabs to the worfliip of 
Allat and Al Uzza, and the reft of their ancient idols, af. 
ter the deceaie of every one in wliofe heart there was faith 
equal to a grain of muftard-feed ; none but the very word 
of men being left alive. For God, they fay, will fend a 
cold odoriferous wind, blowing from Syria Damafcena, 
which (hall fweep away the fouls of all the faithful, and 
the Koran itfelf, fo that men will remain in the groffeft 
ignorance for 100 years. 11. The difcovery of a vaft 
heap of gold and filver by the retreating of the Euphrates, 
which will be the deltruclion of many. 32. The demo¬ 
lition of the Caaba, or temple of Mecca, by the Ethiopi¬ 
ans. 13. The fpeaking of beads and inanimate things. 
34. The breaking out of fire in the province of Hejaz ; or, 
according to others, in Yaman. 15. The appearance of 
a man of the defendants of Kahtan, who (hall drive men 
before him with his ftaff. 16. The coming of the Moh- 
di, or direflor ; concerning whom Mahomet prophelied, 
that the world fhould not have an end till one of his own 
family Ihould govern the Arabians, whofename fhould bs 
the fame with his own name,and whofe father’s namelhould 
alfo be the fame with his father’s name; and who fhould 
fill the earth with righteoufnefs. This perfon the Shiites be¬ 
lieve to be now alive, and concealed in fome fecret place till 
the time of his manifeftation; for they fuppofe him no other 
than the laft of the twelve imams, named Mahomet Abulkafem, 
as their prophet was ; and the fon of Haffan al Afkeri, the 
eleventh of that fucceflion. He was born at Sermaurai, 
in the 255th year of the Hegira. From this tradition, it 
is to be prefumed, an opinion pretty current among the 
Chriftians took its rife, that the Mahometans are in ex¬ 
pectation of their prophet’s return. 
Thefe are the greater figns, which, according to their 
dottrine, are to precede the refurrection, but ftill leave 
the hour of it uncertain ; for the immediate fign of its 
being come will be the firft blaft of the trumpet, which 
they believe will be founded three times. The firft they 
call the blajl of conjlernation ; at the hearing of which all 
creatures in heaven and earth fhall be ftruck with terror, 
except thofe whom God fhall pleafe to exempt from it. 
The effects attributed to this firft found of the trumpet 
are very wonderful; for they fay the earth will be fhaken, 
and not only all buildings, but the very mountains, le¬ 
velled ; that the heavens fhall melt, the fun be darkened, 
the ftars fall, on the death of the angels, who, as fome 
imagine, hold them fufpended between heaven and earth; 
and the fea fhall be troubled and dried up, or, according 
to others, turned into flames, the fun, moon, and ftars, 
being thrown into it; the Koran, to exprefs the greatnefs 
of the terror of that day, adds, that women who give fuck 
fhall abandon the care of their infants, and even the fhe- 
camels which have gone ten months with young (a mofi 
valuable part of the fubftance of that nation) fliall be ut¬ 
terly negleCted. A farther effeCt of this blaft will be that 
concourfeof beafts mentioned in the Koran, though fome 
doubt whether it be to precede the refurreCtion or not. 
They who fuppofe it will precede, think that all kinds of 
animals, forgetting their refpeCtive natural fiercenefs and 
timidity, will run together into one place, being terrified 
by the found of the trumpet and the hidden fliock of na¬ 
ture. The Mahometans believe that this firft blaft will be 
followed by a fecond, which they call the blajl of exinani¬ 
tion ; by which all creatures both in heaven and earth fhall 
die or be annihilated, except thofe which God fliall pleafe 
to exempt from the common fate; and this, they fay, fhall 
happen in the twinkling of an eye, nay, in an inftant; 
nothing furviving except God alone, with paradife and 
hell, and the inhabitants of thofe two places, and the 
throne of glory. The laft who fliall die, will be the angel 
of death. Forty years after this will be heard the blaft of 
refurredion, when the trumpet fhall be founded the third 
time by Ifrafil; who, together with Gabriel and Michael, 
will be previoufly reftored to life, and, Handing on the 
rock of the temple of Jerufalem, fhall, at God’s command, 
call together all the dry and rotten bones, and other dif- 
perfed parts of the bodies, and the very hairs, to judgment. 
This angel having, by the divine order, fet the trumpet 
to his mouth, and called together all the fouls from all 
parts, will throw them into his trumpet, from whence, on his 
giving the laft found, at the command of God, they will 
fly forth like bees, and fill the whole fpace between heaven 
and earth, and then repair to their refpeCtiye bodies, w'hich 
the opening earth will fuffer to arife; and the firft who 
fliall lo arile, according to a tradition of Mahomet, will 
be himfelf. For this birth the earth will be prepared by 
the rain above mentioned, which is to fall continually for 
forty years, and will refeinble the feed of a man, and be 
fupplied from the water under the throne of God, which 
is called living water ; by the efficacy and virtue of which 
the dead bodies fhall fpring forth from their graves as they 
did in their mother’s wombs, or as corn fprouts forth by 
common rain, till they become perfeft ; after which breath 
will be breathed into them, and they will fleep in their 
lepulchres till they are raifed to life at the laft trumpet. 
When thole who have fifen Hull have waited the limited 
siraej 
