ambition, and had his fellow citizens treated him less injuriously, and not obliged him by their persecutions to seek refuge elsewhere, and to take up arms against them in his own defence, he had perhaps continued a private person, and contented himself with the veneration and respect due to his prophetical office; but being once got at the head of a little army, and encouraged by success, it is no wonder if he raised his thoughts to attempt what had never before entered into his imagination. That Mohammed was, as the Arabs are by complexion, a great lover of women, we are assured by his own confession; and he is constantly upbraided with it by the controversial writers, who fail not to urge the number of women with whom he had to do as a demonstrative argument of his sensuality, which they think sufficiently proves him to have been a wicked man, and consequently an impostor. But it must be considered, that polygamy, though it be forbidden by the Christian religion, was in Mohammed's time frequently practised in Arabia and other parts of the east, and was not counted an immorality, nor was a man the worse esteemed on that account; for which reason Mohammed permitted the plurality of wives, with certain limitations, among his own followers, who argue for the lawfulness of it from several reasons, and particularly from the examples of persons allowed on all hands to have been good men; some of whom have been honoured with the divine correspondence. The several laws relating to marriages and divorces, and the peculiar privileges granted to Mohammed in his Korân, were almost all taken by him from the Jewish decisions, as will appear hereafter; and therefore he might think those institutions the more just and reasonable, as he found them practised or approved by the professors of a religion which was confessedly of divine original. But whatever were his motives, Mohammed had certainly the personal qualifications which were necessary to accomplish his undertaking. The Mohammedan authors are excessive in their commendations of him, and speak much of his religious and moral virtues; as his piety, veracity, justice, liberality, clemency, humility, and abstinence. His charity in particular, they say, was so conspicuous, that he had seldom any money in his house, keeping no more for his own use than was just sufficient to maintain his family; and he frequently spared even some part of his own provisions to supply the necessities of the poor; so that before the year's end he had generally little or nothing left." "God," says al Bokhâri, "offered him the keys of the treasures of the earth, but he would not accept them." Though the eulogies of these writers are justly to be suspected of partiality, yet this much, I think, may be inferred from thence, that for an Arab who had been educated in paganism, and had but a very imperfect knowledge of his duty, he was a man of at least tolerable morals, and not such a monster of wickedness as he is usually represented. And indeed it is scarce possible to conceive that a wretch of so profligate a character should ever have succeeded in an enterprise of this nature; a little hypocrisy and saving of appearances, at least, must have been absolutely necessary; and the sincerity of his intentions is what I pretend not to inquire into. He had indisputably a very piercing and sagacious wit, and was thoroughly versed in all the arts of insinuation. The eastern historians describe him to have been a man of an excellent judgment, and a happy memory; and these natural parts were improved by a great experience and knowledge of men, and the observations he had made in his travels. They say he was a Ammian. Marcell. lib. 14, c. 4. Vide Prid. Life of Mohammed, p. 105. D Vide Abu'lfeda Vit. Moham. p. 144, &c. person of few words, of an equal, cheerful temper, pleasant and familiar in conversation, of inoffensive behaviour towards his friends, and of great condescension towards his inferiors. To all which were joined a comely, agreeable person, and a polite address; accomplishments of no small service in preventing those in his favour whom he attempted to persuade. As to acquired learning, it is confessed he had none at all; having had no other education than what was customary in his tribe, who neglected, and perhaps despised, what we call literature; esteeming no language in comparison with their own, their skill in which they gained by use and not by books, and contenting themselves with improving their private experience, by committing to memory such passages of their poets as they judged might be of use to them in life. This defect was so far from being prejudicial or putting a stop to his design, that he made the greatest use of it; insisting that the writings which he produced as revelations from God, could not possibly be a forgery of his own; because it was not conceivable that a person who could neither write nor read should be able to compose a book of such excellent doctrine, and in so elegant a style; and thereby obviating an objection that might have carried a great deal of weight. And for this reason his followers, instead of being ashamed of their master's ignorance, glory in it as an evident proof of his divine mission, and scruple not to call him (as he is indeed called in the Korân itself') the illiterate prophet. The scheme of religion which Mohammed framed, and the design and artful contrivance of those written revelations (as he pretended them to be) which compose his Korân, shall be the subject of the following sections: I shall, therefore, in the remainder of this relate, as briefly as possible, the steps he took towards the effecting of his enterprise, and the accidents which concurred to his success therein. Before he made any attempt abroad, he rightly judged that it was necessary for him to begin by the conversion of his own household. Having therefore retired with his family, as he had done several times before, to the above-mentioned cave in Mount Hara, he there opened the secret of his mission to his wife Khadijah: and acquainted her that the angel Gabriel had just before appeared to him, and told him that he was appointed the apostle of God: he also repeated to her a passage' which he pretended had been revealed to him by the ministry of the angel, with those other circumstances of his first appearance which are related by the Mohammedan writers. Khadijah received the news with great joy ;* swearing by him in whose hands her soul was, that she trusted he would be the prophet of his nation: and immediately communicated what she had heard to her cousin Warakah Ebn Nawfal, who, being a Christian, could write in the Hebrew character, and was tolerably well versed in the Scriptures; and he as readily came into her opinion, assuring her that the same angel who had formerly appeared unto Moses was now sent to Mohammed. This first overture the prophet made in the month of Ramadân, in the fortieth year of his age, which is therefore usually called the year of his mission. • Vide Abulfed. ubi sup. See Korân, chap. xxix. Prid. Life of Moham. p. 28, &c. ⚫ Chap. vii. This passage is generally agreed to be the first five verses of the 96th chapter. I do not remember to have read in any eastern author, that Khadîjah ever rejected her husband's pretences as delusions, or suspected him of any imposture. Yet see Prideaux's Life of Mohammed, p. 11; &c. Vide Poc. Spec. p. 157. Vide Abulfed. Vit. Moham. p. 16. Where the learned translator has mistaken the meaning of this passage. Encouraged by so good a beginning, he resolved to proceed, and try for some time what he could do by private persuasion, not daring to hazard the whole affair by exposing it too suddenly to the public. He soon made proselytes of those under his own roof, viz. his wife Khadijah, his servant Zeid Ebn Hâretha (to whom he gave his freedom" on that occasion, which afterwards became a rule to his followers), and his cousin and pupil Ali, the son of Abu Tâleb, though then very young: but this last, making no account of the other two, used to style himself the first of believers. The next person Mohammed applied to was Abdallah Ebn Abi Kohâfa, surnamed Abu Becr, a man of great authority among the Koreish, and one whose interest he well knew would be of great service to him, as it soon appeared; for Abu Becr being gained over, prevailed also on Othmân Ebn Affan, Abd'alrahmân Ebn Awf, Saad Ebn Abi Wakkâs, al Zobeir Ebn al Awâm, and Telha Ebn Obeid'allah, all principal men in Mecca, to follow his example. These men were the six chief companions, who, with a few more, were converted in the space of three years; at the end of which Mohammed having, as he hoped, a sufficient interest to support him, made his mission no longer a secret, but gave out that God had commanded him to admonish his near relations, and in order to do it with more convenience and prospect of success, he directed Ali to prepare an entertainment, and invite the sons and descendants of Abd'almotalleb, intending then to open his mind to them; this was done, and about forty of them came, but Abu Laheb, one of his uncles, making the company break up before Mohammed had an opportunity of speaking, obliged him to give them a second invitation the next day; and when they were come, he made them the following speech: "I know no man in all Arabia who can offer his kindred a more excellent thing than I now do you; I offer you happiness both in this life, and in that which is to come: God Almighty hath commanded me to call you unto him; who, therefore, among you will be assisting to me herein, and become my brother, and my vicegerent?" All of them hesitating, and declining the matter, Ali at length rose up, and declared that he would be his assistant; and vehemently threatened those who should oppose him. Mohammed upon this embraced Ali with great demonstrations of affection, and desired all who were present to hearken to and obey him as his deputy; at which the company broke out into great laughter, telling Abu Taleb that he must now pay obedience to his son. This repulse, however, was so far from discouraging Mohammed, that he began to preach in public to the people, who heard him with some patience, till he came to upbraid them with the idolatry, obstinacy, and perverseness of themselves and their fathers; which so highly provoked them, that they declared themselves his enemies, and would soon have procured his ruin, had he not been protected by Abu Taleb. The chief of the Koreish warmly solicited this person to desert his nephew, making frequent remonstrances against the innovations he was attempting; which proving ineffectual, they at length threatened him with an open rupture if he did not prevail on Mohammed to desist. At this Abu Taleb was so far moved that he earnestly dissuaded his nephew from pursuing the affair any farther, representing the great danger he and his friends must otherwise run. But Mohammed was not to be intimidated, telling his uncle plainly, that if they set the sun against him on his right hand, and the moon on his left, he would not leave his enterprise: and Abu Taleb, seeing him so firmly For he was his purchased slave, as Abulfeda expressly tells us; and not his cousingerman, as M. de Boulainvilliers asserts (Vie de Moham. p. 273). Korân. c. 74. See the notes thereon. resolved to proceed, used no further arguments, but promised to stand by him against all his enemies." The Koreish finding they could prevail neither by fair words not menaces, tried what they could do by force and ill treatment; using Mohammed's followers so very injuriously that it was not safe for them to continue at Mecca any longer; whereupon Mohammed gave leave to such of them as had not friends to protect them to seek for refuge elsewhere. And accordingly in the fifth year of the prophet's mission, sixteen of them, four of whom were women, fled into Ethiopia: and among them Othmân Ebn Affan and his wife Rakîah, Mohammed's daughter. This was the first flight; but afterwards several others followed them, retiring one after another, to the number of eighty-three men and eighteen women, besides children. These refugees were kindly received by the Najâshi, or king of Ethiopia, who refused to deliver them up to those whom the Koreish sent to demand them, and as the Arab writers unanimously attest, even professed the Mohammedan religion. In the sixth year of his mission' Mohammed had the pleasure of seeing his party strengthened by the conversion of his uncle Hamza, a man of great valour and merit, and of Omar Ebn al Khattâb, a person highly esteemed, and once a violent opposer of the prophet. As persecution generally advances rather than obstructs the spreading of a religion, Islamism made so great a progress among the Arab tribes, that the Koreish, to suppress it effectually, if possible, in the seventh year of Mohammed's mission, made a solemn league or covenant against the Hashemites and the family of Al Motalleb, engaging themselves to contract no marriages with any of them, and to have no communication with them; and to give it the greater sanction, reduced it into writing, and laid it up in the Caaba. Upon this the tribe became divided into two factions; and the family of Hashem all repaired to Abu Taleb, as their head, except only Abd'al Uzza, surnamed Abu Laheb, who, out of his inveterate hatred to his nephew and his doctrine, went over to the opposite party, whose chief was Abu Sofiân Ebn Harb, of the family of Ommeya. The families continued thus at variance for three years; but in the tenth year of his mission, Mohammed told his uncle Abu Taleb, that God had manifestly showed his disapprobation of the league which the Koreish had made against them, by sending a worm to eat out every word of the instrument except the name of God. Of this accident Mohammed had probably some private notice, for Abu Taleb went immediately to the Koreish and acquainted them with it; offering, if it proved false, to deliver his nephew up to them; but in case it were true, he insisted that they ought to lay aside their animosity, and annul the league they had made against the Hashemites. To this they acquiesced, and, going to inspect the writing, to their great astonishment found it to be as Abu Taleb had said; and the league was thereupon declared void. In the same year Abu Taleb died, at the age of above fourscore; and it is the general opinion that he died an infidel, though others say, that when he was at the point of death he embraced Mohammedism, and produced some passages out of his poetical compositions to confirm their assertion. About a month, or, as some write, three days after the death of this great benefactor and patron, Mohammed had the additional mortification to lose Abulfeda ubi supra. Idem, Ebn Shohnah. Dr. Prideaux seems to take this word for a proper name, but it is only the title the Arabs give to every king of this country. See his Life of Mohammed, p. 55. Ebn Shohnah. Al Jannâbi. his wife Khadijah, who had so generously made his fortune. For which reason this year is called the year of mourning. On the death of these two persons, the Koreish began to be more troublesome than ever to their prophet, and especially some who had formerly been his intimate friends; insomuch that he found himself obliged to seek for shelter elsewhere, and first pitched upon Tâyef, about sixty miles east from Mecca, for the place of his treat. Thither therefore he went, accompanied by his servant Zeid, and applied himself to two of the chief of the tribe of Thakîf, who were the inhabitants of that place, but they received him very coldly. However, he stayed there a month; and some of the more considerate and better sort of men treated him with a little respect: but the slaves and inferior people at length rose against him, and bringing him to the wall of the city, obliged him to depart, and return to Mecca, where he put himself under the protection of al Motáam Ebn Adi. This repulse greatly discouraged his followers: however, Mohammed was not wanting to himself, but boldly continued to preach to the public assemblies at the pilgrimage, and gained several proselytes, and among them six of the inhabitants of Yathreb of the Jewish tribe of Khazraj, who on their return home, failed not to speak much in commendation ofir new religion, and exhorted their fellow-citizens to embrace the same. Ø In the twelfth year of his mission it was that Mohammed gave out that he had made his night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem, and thence to heaven much spoken of by all that write of him. Dr. Prideaux inks be in.d it either to answer the expectations of those who demanded some mile as a proof of his mission; or ise, by pretending to have conversed wa God, to establish the authority of whatever te should think fit to leave behind Ly way of oral tradition, and make is sayings to serve the same purpose as the oral law of the Jews. But I do not find that Mohammed himself ever expected so great a regard should be paid to his sayings as his fo' owes have since done: and seeing he all along disclaimed any power of performing miracles, it seems rather to have been a fetch of policy to raise his reputation, by pretending to have actually conversed with God in heaven, as Moses had heretofore done on the Mount, and to have received several institutions immediately from him, whereas before he contented himself with persuading them that he had all by the ministry of Gabriel. However, this story seemed so absurd and incredible that several of his followers left him upon it, and it had probably ruined his whole design, had not Abu P vouched for its veracity, and declared that if Mohammed affirmed. o oe true, he verily believed the whole. Which happy incident not only retrieved the prophet's credit, but increased it to such a degree, that he was secure of being able to make his disciples swallow whatever he pleased to impose on them for the future. And I am apt to think this fiction, notwithstanding its extravagance, was one of the most artful contrivances Mohammed ever put in practice, and what chiefly contributed to the raising of his reputation to that great height to which it afterwards arrived. In this year, called by Mohammedans the accepted year, twelve men of Yathreb or Medina, of whom ten were of the tribe of Khazraj, and the Abulfed. p. 28. Ebn Shohnah. chap. of the Korân. Ebn Shohnah. See the notes on the 17th |