MOHAMMED, or MAHOMER, surnamed Abul-Cassem, prophet and legislator of the Moslemins, and founder of the Arabian empire, as well as of the religion to which he has given his name, was born at Mecca on the 10th of November 570 of our era, according to the more probable opinion. He came into the world under considerable disadvantages. His father Abd'allah was a younger son of Abd'almutalleb, and having died young, left his widow and infant son in very mean circumstances, his whole substance consisting only of five camels and one Ethiopian female slave. Abd'almutalleb was, therefore, obliged to take care of his grandchild Mahommed, which he not only did during his own lifetime, but at his death enjoined his eldest son Abu Taleb, who was brother to Abd'allah by the same mother, to provide for him in future, which he very affectionately did, and having instructed him in the business of a merchant, took him into Syria when he was only thirteen, with a view to engage him in that calling. He afterwards recommended him as factor to Khadijah, a noble and rich widow, in whose service he conducted himself so well, that she made him her husband, and thus raised him to an equality with the richest in Mecca.

Soon afterwards, when he began to live at his ease, in consequence of this advantageous match, he formed the scheme of establishing a new religion; or, as he expressed it, of replanting the only true and ancient faith professed by Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and all the prophets, by destroying the gross idolatry into which the generality of his countrymen had fallen, weeding out the corruptions and superstitions which the Jews and Christians had, as he thought, introduced into their religion, and restoring it to its original purity, which consisted chiefly in the worship of one only God.

Before he made any attempt abroad, however, he rightly judged that it was necessary for him to begin with the conversion of his own household. Having, therefore, retired with his family, as he had done several times before, to a cave in Mount Hara, he there opened the secret of his mission to his wife Khadijah, and informed 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, and mentioned those other circumstances of this first appearance which are related by the Mahomedan writers. Khadijah received the news with great joy, swearing by him in whose hands her soul was, that she trusted he would become the prophet of his nation; and she 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; whilst he as readily came into her opinion, assuring her that the same angel who had formerly appeared unto Moses was now sent to Mahommed. The first overture made by the prophet was in the month of Ramadan, in the fortieth year of his age, which is therefore usually called the year of his mission.

Encouraged by so good a beginning, he resolved to proceed, and try for some time what could be done 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, namely, his wife Khadijah, his servant Zeid Ebn Haretha, to whom he gave his freedom on that occasion, and his cousin and pupil Ali, the son of Abu Taleb, 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 to whom Mahommed applied was Abd'allah Ebn Abi Kohfa, surnamed Abu Bekr, a man of great authority amongst the Koreish, and one whose influence he well knew would be of great service to him. This soon appeared; for Abu Bekr having been gained over, prevailed also on Othman Ebn Affan, Abd'alrahman Ebn Awf, Saad Ebn Abbi Wakkas, Al Zobir Ebn al Awan, and Telha Ebn Obeid'allah, all principal men of Mekka, to follow his example. These were the six chief companions, who, with a few more, were converted in the space of three years; at the end of which, Mahommed having, as he hoped, a sufficient interest to support him, no longer kept his mission a secret, but gave out that God had commanded him to admonish his near relations; and in order to do it more conveniently, and with a greater prospect of success, he directed Ali to prepare an entertainment, and invite the sons and descendants of Abd'almal'taleb, intending then to open his mind to them. This was done, and about forty of them came; but Abu Labeck, one of his uncles, making the company break up before Mahommed 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, amongst you will be assistant 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. Upon this Mahommed 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 loud laughter, telling Abu Taleb that he must now pay obedience to his son.

This repulse, however, was so far from discouraging Mahommed, that he began to preach in public to the people, who heard him with some patience, until he came to upbraid them with the idolatry, obstinacy, and perverseness of themselves and their fathers; but this so highly incensed 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 which he was attempting to introduce; and when these proved ineffectual, they at length threatened him with an open rupture, if he did not prevail upon Mahommed 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 which he and his friends must otherwise run. But Mahommed 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 abandon his enterprise;" and Abu Taleb, seeing him so firmly resolved to proceed, used no further arguments, but promised to stand by him against all his enemies.

The Koreish, finding that they could not prevail either by fair words or menaces, tried what they could do by force and ill treatment, using Mahommed's followers so very injuriously, that it was not safe for them to continue any longer at Mekka; whereupon Mahommed gave leave to such of them as had not friends to protect them, to seek 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 amongst these were Othman Ebn Affan and his wife Rakiyah, Mahommed's daughter. This was the first flight; but afterwards several others followed, his adherents retiring one after another, to the number of eighty-three men and eighteen women, besides children. These refugees were kindly received by the Najashi, or king of Ethiopia, who refused to deliver them up to those whom the Koreish sent to demand them, and, as the Arabian writers unanimously attest, even professed the Mahommedan religion.

In the sixth year of his mission, Mahommed 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 Kattab, a person highly esteemed, and once a violent opponent of the prophet. As persecution generally advances, rather than obstructs the spreading of a religion, Islamism made so great progress amongst the Arabian tribes, that the Koreish, in order, if possible, to suppress it effectually, in the seventh year of Mahommed's mission, made a solemn league or covenant against the Hashemites and the family of Abd'almal'taleb, engaging themselves to contract no marriages with any of them, and to have no communication with them; and, to give this compact the greater sanction, reduced it into writing, and laid it up in the Kaaba. Upon this the tribe became divided into two factions; and the family of Hashem all repaired to Abu Taleb as their head, excepting only Abd'al Uzza, surnamed Abu Labeck, who, out of inveterate hatred to his nephew and his doctrine, went over to the opposite party, whose chief was Abu Sosian Ebn Harb, of the family of Ommeya.

The families continued thus at variance for three years; but in the tenth year of his mission, Mahommed 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 Mahommed had probably received 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 which they had entered into 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; upon which the league was 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 Mahommedanism, and produce some passages from his poetical compositions to confirm their assertion. About a month, or, as some state, only three days, after the death of this great benefactor and patron, Mahommed had the additional mortification to lose his wife Khadijah, who had so generously made his fortune; for which reason this year is denominated the "year of mourning."

On the death of these two persons, the Koreish began to be more troublesome than ever to the prophet, and especially some who had formerly been his intimate friends; insomuch that he found himself obliged to seek shelter elsewhere, and first pitched upon Tayef, about sixty miles east from Mekka, as the place of his retreat. Thither therefore he went, accompanied by his servant Zeid, and applied himself to two of the chief of the tribe of Thakif, who were the inhabitants of that place; but they received him very coldly. However, he staid 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 Mekka, where, on his arrival, he put himself under the protection of Al Motamam Ebn Adi.

This repulse greatly discouraged his followers. However, Mahommmed was not wanting to himself, but boldly continued to preach to the public assemblies at the pilgrimage, and gained several proselytes, amongst whom were six of the inhabitants of Yathreb, of the Jewish tribe of Khazraj, who, on their return home, failed not to speak much in commendation of their new religion, and exhorted their fellow-citizens to embrace the same.

It was in the twelfth year of his mission that Mahommmed gave out that he had made his night journey from Mekka to Jerusalem, and thence to heaven. Dr Prideaux thinks he invented this fable, either to answer the expectations of those who demanded some miracle as a proof of his mission, or else, by pretending to have conversed with God, to establish the authority of whatever he should think fit to leave behind by way of oral tradition, and make his sayings to serve the same purpose as the oral law of the Jews. But it does not appear that Mahommmed himself ever expected that so great respect should be paid to his sayings as his followers have since shown; and seeing that 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 in the mount, and to have received several institutions immediately from Him, whereas before he contented himself with persuading them that he had received all by the ministry of Gabriel.

However, this story seemed so absurd and incredible, that several of his followers left him on its promulgation; and it would probably have ruined the whole design, had not Abu Bekr vouched for his veracity, and declared, that if Mahommmed affirmed it to be true, he verily believed the whole. This 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 in future to impose on them. And this fiction, notwithstanding its extravagance, was one of the most artful contrivances Mahommmed ever put in practice, and what chiefly contributed to raise his reputation to the great height to which it afterwards attained.

In this year, called by the Mahommmedans the "accepted year," twelve men of Yathreb or Medina, of whom ten were of the tribe of Kahzraj, and the other two of that of Aws, came to Mekka, and took an oath of fidelity to Mahommmed at Al Akaba, a hill on the north of that city. This oath was called the "women's oath;" not that any women were present at this time, but because a man was not thereby obliged to take up arms in defence of Mahommmed or his religion. In fact, this was the same oath that was afterwards exacted of the women, the form of which we have in the Koran, and it is to this effect: That they should renounce all idolatry; that they should not steal nor commit fornication, nor kill their children (as the Pagan Arabs used to do when they apprehended they should not be able to maintain them); nor forge calumnies; and that they should obey the prophet in all things that were reasonable. When they had solemnly engaged to all this, Mahommmed sent home with them one of his disciples, named Masab Ebn Omair, to instruct them more fully in the grounds and ceremonies of his new religion. Masab being arrived at Medina, by the assistance of those who had been formerly converted, gained several proselytes, particularly Osaid Ebn Hodeira, a chief man of the city, and Sand Ebn Moadh, prince of the tribe of Aws; and Mahommmedanism spread so fast, that there was scarcely a house in which there were not some who had embraced it.

The next year, being the thirteenth of Mahommmed's mission, Masab returned to Mekka, accompanied by seventy-three men and two women of Medina who had professed Islamism, besides some others who were as yet unbelievers. On their arrival they immediately sent to Mahommmed, and offered him their assistance, of which he was now in great need; for by this time his adversaries were grown so powerful in Mekka, that he could not stay there much longer without imminent danger. Wherefore he accepted their proposal, and met them one night, by appointment, at Al Akaba above mentioned, attended by his uncle Al Abbas, who, though he was not then a believer, wished his nephew well, and made a speech to those of Medina, in which he told them, that as Mahommmed was obliged to quit his native city, and seek an asylum elsewhere, and they had offered him their protection, they would do well not to deceive him; that if they were not firmly resolved to defend, and not betray him, they had better declare their minds, and let him provide for his safety in some other manner. Upon their protesting their sincerity, Mahommmed swore to be faithful to them, on condition that they should protect him against all insults as heartily as they would their own wives and families. They then asked him what recompense they were to expect if they should happen to be killed in his quarrel; to which he answered, Paradise. They then pledged their faith to him, and so returned home, after Mahommmed had chosen twelve out of their number, who were to have the same authority amongst them as the twelve apostles of Christ had amongst his disciples.

Hitherto Mahommmed had propagated his religion by fair means, so that the whole success of his enterprise, prior to his flight to Medina, must be attributed to persuasion only, and not to compulsion. For, before the second oath of fealty or inauguration at Al Akaba, he had no permission to use any force at all; and in several places of the Koran, which he pretended were revealed during his stay at Mekka, he declares that his business was only to preach and admonish; that he had no authority to compel any person to embrace his religion; and that, whether people believed or not was no concern of his, but belonged solely unto God. And he was so far from allowing his followers to use force, that he exhorted them to bear patiently those injuries which were offered them on account of their faith; and, when persecuted himself, he chose rather to quit the place of his birth and retire to Medina, than to make any resistance. But this passiveness and moderation seem to have been entirely owing to his want of power, and the great superiority of his opponents for the first twelve years of his mission. For no sooner was he enabled, by the assistance of those of Medina, to make head against his enemies, than he gave out that God had allowed him and his followers to defend themselves against the infidels; and at length, as his forces increased, he pretended to have the divine permission to attack them, destroy idolatry, and set up the true faith by the sword. Finding, by experience, that his designs would proceed very slowly if they were not utterly overthrown, and knowing that innovators, when they depend solely on their own strength, and can employ compulsion, seldom run any risk, he scrupled not to do so; and hence Machiavelli has observed, that all the armed prophets have succeeded, and the unarmed ones have failed. Moses, Cyrus, Theseus, and Romulus, would not have been able to establish the observance of their institutions for any length of time, had they not been armed. The first passage of the Koran which gave Mahommed the permission of defending himself by arms, is said to have been that in the twenty-second chapter; after which a great number to the same purpose were opportunely revealed.

That Mahommed had a right to take up arms in his own defence against his unjust persecutors, may perhaps be allowed; but whether he ought afterwards to have made use of them for the establishing of his religion, it is not so easy to determine. How far the secular power may or ought to interpose in affairs of this nature, mankind are by no means agreed. The method of converting by the sword gives no very favourable idea of the faith which is so propagated, and is disallowed by everybody in those of another religion, though the same persons are willing to admit of it for the advancement of their own, supposing that, though a false religion ought not to be established by authority, yet a true one may; and accordingly force is almost as constantly employed in these cases by those who have the power in their hands, as it is constantly complained of by the parties who suffer the violence. It is certainly one of the most convincing proofs that Mahommedanism was no other than a human invention, that it owed its progress and establishment almost entirely to the sword; and it is one of the strongest demonstrations of the divine origin of Christianity, that it prevailed against all the force and powers of the world by the mere efficacy of its own truth, after having stood the assaults of all manner of persecutions, as well as other oppositions, for three hundred years together, and at length made the Roman emperors themselves submit to its authority. After this time, indeed, the proof seems to fail; Christianity being then established and Paganism abolished by public authority, a circumstance which has had great influence in the propagation of the one and the destruction of the other.

Mahommed having provided for the security of his companions as well as his own, by the league offensive and defensive which he had now concluded with those of Medina, directed them to repair thither, which they accordingly did; but he himself, along with Abu Bekr and Ali, staid behind, having not yet received the divine permission, as he pretended, to leave Mekka. The Koreish fearing the consequences of this new alliance, began to think it absolutely necessary to prevent Mahommed's escape to Medina; and having held a council thereon, after several milder expedients had been rejected, they came to a resolution that he should be killed, and agreed that a man should be chosen out of every tribe for the execution of this design, and that each man should have a blow at him with his sword, in order that the guilt of his blood might fall equally upon all the tribes, to whose united power the Hashemites were much inferior, and therefore durst not attempt to revenge their kinsman's death.

This conspiracy was scarcely formed, when, by some means or other, it came to Mahommed's knowledge; and he gave out that it had been revealed to him by the angel Gabriel, who had also ordered him to retire to Medina. Wherefore, to amuse his enemies, he directed Ali to lie down in his place, and wrap himself up in his green cloak, which he did; and Mahommed escaped, miraculously as they pretend, to Abu Bekr's house, unperceived by the conspirators, who had already assembled at the prophet's door. The latter, in the mean time, looking through the crevice, and seeing Ali, whom they took to be Mahommed himself, asleep, continued watching there till morning, when Ali arose, and they found themselves deceived.

From Abu Bekr's house Mahommed and he went to a cave in Mount Thur, to the south-east of Mekka, accompanied only by Amer Ebn Poheirah, Abu Bekr's servant, and Abd'allah Ebn Oreitah, an idolater whom they had hired as a guide. In this cave they lay concealed three days, to avoid the search of their enemies, which they very narrowly escaped, and not without the assistance of more miracles than one; for some say that the Koreish were struck with blindness, so that they could not find the cave, and others, that after Mahommed and his companions had got in, two pigeons laid their eggs at the entrance, and a spider covered the mouth of the cave with her web, which made them look no further. Abu Bekr seeing the prophet in such imminent danger, became very sorrowful; upon which Mahommed comforted him with these words, recorded in the Koran, "Be not grieved, for God is with us." Their enemies having retired, they left the cave, and set out for Medina by a by-road; and having fortunately, or, as the Mahommedans tell us, miraculously, escaped some who were sent to pursue them, arrived safely at that city, whither Ali followed them in three days, after he had settled some affairs at Mekka.

The first thing Mahommed did after his arrival at Medina, was to build a temple for his religious worship, and a house for himself, which he did upon a piece of ground that had before served to put camels in, or, as others tell us, for a burying-ground, and belonged to Sahal and Soheil, the sons of Amru, who were orphans. This action Dr Prideaux exclaims against, representing it as a flagrant instance of injustice; for, says he, Mahommed violently possessed these two orphans, the sons of an inferior artificer, of this ground, and so founded the first fabric of his worship with the same wickedness as he did his religion. But, to say nothing of the improbability that Mahommed should act in so impolitic a manner at such a time, and in such circumstances, the Mahommedan writers set this affair in a quite different light. One tells us that he treated with the youths about the price of the ground, but they desired he would accept it as a present; whilst other historians of good credit assure us that he actually bought it, and that the money was paid by Abu Bekr. Besides, had Mahommed accepted it as a present, the orphans were in circumstances sufficient to afford it; for they were of a very good family, of the tribe of Najjer, one of the most illustrious amongst the Arabs, and not the sons of a carpenter, as Dr Prideaux imagines, taking the word Najjer, which signifies a carpenter, for an appellative, whereas it is a proper name.

Mahommed, being securely settled at Medina, and able not only to defend himself against the insults of his enemies, but to attack them, began to send out small parties to make reprisals on the Koreish. The first party, consisting of no more than nine men, intercepted and plundered a caravan belonging to that tribe, and in the action took two prisoners. But what established his affairs, and proved the foundation on which he built all his succeeding greatness, was the gaining of the battle of Bedr, which was fought in the second year of the Hejira, and is so famous in the Mahommedan history. Some reckon no less than twenty-seven expeditions in which Mahommed was personally present, in nine of which he gave battle, besides several other expeditions in which he was not present. His forces he maintained partly by the contributions of his followers for this purpose, which he called by the name of zakat or alas, the payment of which he very artfully made one main article of his religion; and partly by ordering a fifth part of the plunder to be brought into the public treasury for that purpose, in which matter he also pretended to act by the divine direction.

In a few years, by the success of his arms, he raised considerably his credit and power. In the sixth year of the Hejira he set out with fourteen hundred men to visit the temple of Mekka, though not with any intent of committing hostilities. However, when he came to Al Hodeibiya, which is situated partly within and partly without the sacred territory, the Koreish sent to let him know that they would not permit him to enter Mekka unless he forced his way; upon which he called his troops around him, and they having all taken a solemn oath of fealty or homage to him, he resolved to attack the city; but those of Mekka sending Arwa Ebn Masum, prince of the tribe of Thakif, as their ambassador, to desire peace, a truce was concluded between them for ten years, by which any person was allowed to enter into a league either with Mahommed or with the Koreish, as he thought fit.

It may not be improper, in order to show the inconceivable veneration and respect the Mahommedans by this time had for their prophet, to mention the account which the above-mentioned ambassador, at his return, gave the Koreish of their behaviour. He said he had been at the courts both of the Roman emperor and of the king of Persia, and never saw any prince so highly respected by his subjects as Mahommed was by his companions; for, whenever he made the ablution, in order to say his prayers, they ran and caught the water which he had used; and whenever he spit, they immediately licked it up, and gathered every hair that fell from him, with the most eager superstition.

In the seventh year of the Hijra, Mahommed began to think of propagating his religion beyond the limits of Arabia, and sent messengers to the neighbouring princes, with letters to invite them to espouse Mahommedanism. Nor was this project without some success. Khosru Parviz, then king of Persia, received his letter with great disdain, and tore it in a passion, sending away the messenger very abruptly; which, when Mahommed heard, he said, "God shall tear his kingdom." And soon afterwards a messenger came to Mahommed from Badhan king of Yemen, who was a dependent on the Persians, to acquaint him that he had received orders to send him to Khosru. Mahommed put off his answer till the next morning, and then told the messenger that it had been revealed to him during the night that Khosru was slain by his son Shiruyeh; adding, that he was well assured his new religion and empire would rise to as great a height as that of Khosru; and therefore bade him advise his master to embrace Mahommedanism. The messenger having returned, Badhan in a few days received a letter from Shiruyeh, informing him of his father's death, and ordering him to give the prophet no further disturbance; upon which Badhan and the Persians along with him turned Mahommedans.

The Emperor Heraclius, as the Arabian historians assure us, received Mahommed's letter with great respect, laying it on his pillow, and dismissed the bearer honourably; and some pretend that he would have professed this new faith, had he not been afraid of losing his crown.

Mahommed wrote to the same effect to the king of Ethiopia, though, according to the Arabian writers, he had been converted before; and to Mokawkas, governor of Egypt, who gave the messenger a very favourable reception, and sent several valuable presents to Mahommed, and amongst the rest two girls, one of whom, named Mary, became a great favourite with him. He also sent letters of similar purport to several Arabian princes, particularly one to Al Hareth Ebn Abi Shamar, king of Ghassan, who returning for answer that he would go to Mahommed himself, the prophet said, "May his kingdom perish;" another to Hawdha Ebn Ali, king of Yemenah, who was a Christian; and a third to Al Monder Ebn Sawa, king of Bahrain, who embraced Mahommedanism, and all the Arabians of that country followed his example.

The eighth year of the Hijra proved very fortunate for Mahommed. In the beginning of it, Khaled Ebn al Walid and Amru Ebn al As, both excellent soldiers, the former of whom afterwards conquered Syria and other countries, and the latter Egypt, became proselytes to Mahommedanism. And soon afterwards the prophet sent three thousand men against the Grecian forces, to revenge the death of one of his ambassadors, who, being sent to the governor of Bosra, upon the same errand as those who went to the above-mentioned princes, was slain by an Arab of the tribe of Ghassan, at Muta, a town in the territory of Balka in Syria, about three days' journey eastward from Jerusalem, near which they encountered. The Grecians being vastly superior in number (for, including the auxiliary Arabs, they had an army of a hundred thousand men), the Mahommedans were repulsed in the first attack, and lost successively three of their generals, Zeid Ebn Haretha, Mahommed's freedman, Jaafar the son of Abu Taleb, and Abdallah Ebn Rawaha; but Khaled Ebn al Walid succeeding to the command, overthrew the Greeks with great slaughter, and brought away abundance of spoil. On occasion of this action Mahommed gave him the title of Seif min sayf Allah, one of the swords of God.

In this year also Mahommed took the city of Mekka, the inhabitants of which had broken the truce concluded two years before. For the tribe of Bekr, who were confederates with the Koreish, attacking those of Khoznah, who were allies of Mahommed, killed several of them, being supported in the action by a party of the Koreish themselves. The consequence of this violation was soon apprehended, and Abu Sosian himself made a journey to Medina on purpose to heal the breach and renew the truce; but in vain. Mahommed, glad of this opportunity, refused to see him; upon which he applied to Abu Bekr and Ali, but they gave him no answer, and he was obliged to return to Mekka as he came.

Mahommed immediately gave orders for preparations to be made, that he might surprise the Mekkans whilst they were unprovided to receive him. In a little time he began his march thither; and by the time he came near the city, his forces were increased to about ten thousand men. Those of Mekka, not being in a condition to defend themselves against so formidable an army, surrendered at discretion; and Abu Sosian saved his life by turning Mahommedan. About twenty-eight of the idolaters were killed by a party under the command of Khaled; but this happened contrary to Mahommed's orders, who, when he entered the town, pardoned all the Koreish on their submission, except only six men and four women, who were more obnoxious than the rest, some of them having apostatized, and been solemnly proscribed by the prophet himself; but of these no more than three men and one woman were put to death, the rest obtained pardon on their embracing Mahommedanism, and one of the women made her escape. The remainder of this year Mahommed employed in destroying the idols in and around Mekka, at the same time sending several of his generals on expeditions for that purpose, and to invite the Arabs to espouse Islamism; in which also they now met with great success.

The next year, being the ninth of the Hijra, the Mahommedans call "the year of embassies;" for the Arabs had been hitherto expecting the issue of the war between Mahommed and the Koreish; but as soon as that tribe, the principal of the whole nation, and the genuine descendants of Ishmael, whose prerogatives none offered to dispute, had submitted, they were satisfied that it was not in their power to oppose Mahommed, and therefore began to come in to him in great numbers, and to send embassies to make their submission to him, both at Mekka, whilst he stood there, and also at Medina, whither he returned this year. Amongst the rest, five kings of the tribe of Hamyar professed Mahommedanism, and sent ambassadors to notify their conversion.

In the tenth year, Ali was sent into Yemen, there to pro- pagate the Mahommedan faith; and, it is said, he converted the whole tribe of Hamdan in one day. Their example was quickly followed by all the inhabitants of that province, excepting only those of Najran, who, being Christians, chose rather to pay tribute. Thus was Mahommedanism established, and idolatry rooted out, even in Mahommed's lifetime, throughout all Arabia, excepting only Yemenah, where Mosailamah, who had set up also for a prophet as Mahommed's competitor, had formed a great party, and was not reduced until the caliphate of Abu Bekr. The Arabs being then united in one faith, and under one prince, found themselves in a condition to make those conquests which extended the Mahommedan faith over so large a portion of the world.

Until his sixty-third year, Mahommed had sustained with undiminished vigour all the fatigues of his extraordinary mission. The infirmities of age had not impaired his constitution, and though his health had suffered a decline, he still continued equal to the duties which he found himself called upon to perform. But though master of Arabia, dreaded by the Greeks and the Persians, and respected by his disciples as a tutelar divinity, this famous legislator did not long enjoy the empire of which he had just laid the foundation. Two months after his return to Medina, whilst in the house of Zainab, one of his wives, he was attacked with a violent pain in the head, accompanied with fever, the cause of which he attributed to poison, which he had taken three years before. He immediately caused himself to be removed to the house of Aichah, another of his wives, to whom he was strongly attached. But his malady was increased by the intelligence he received of the progress of two apostates from his religion, who had revolted on two different points; namely, Mosailamah, in the province of Yemenah, and Aswad-el-Ansi, in that of Yemen. Mahommed did not see the end of the first of these rebellions; but before closing his career he had the consolation to ascertain that the second of these revolts had been suppressed by the death of him who was at its head. To allay the heat which consumed him, Mahommed ordered his women to pour a large quantity of cold water on his body. The diffusion afforded him immediate relief, and he found himself so well in consequence, that next day, supported by Ali, and by Fudhih the son of Abba, he went to the mosque, where he celebrated the praises of God, humbly asked pardon of his sins, and expressed his readiness to make reparation to such as he might have unconsciously wronged. He prayed God for the Moslemins who had perished combating for the faith; and then gave his last orders to the most zealous and faithful of his disciples, recommending to them to expel all idolaters from Arabia, to grant to proselytes all the privileges enjoyed by natural-born Moslemins, and to be constant and regular in prayer. Notwithstanding his weakness, he continued to repair daily to the mosque; but on the Friday before his death, being no longer in a condition to perform the functions of imam, he ordered Abu Bekr to supply his place. One day, in an access of delirium, he demanded a pen and paper, in order to write a book which might serve as a guide to his disciples; but Omar opposed his request, because, said he, the Koran, which is the book of God, ought to be sufficient for this purpose. At length, after fifteen days of severe suffering, Mahommed having thrown a little water on his countenance, said, "Lord, be merciful to me, and place me amongst the number of those whom thou hast distinguished by thy grace and favour;" and immediately after expired. According to the most accurate computation, his death took place on the 13th of raby 1st, in the eleventh year of the Hejira (corresponding to the 8th of June 632 of the Christian era), after he had lived sixty-three years, prophesied twenty-three, commanded the Arabs about ten, and laid the foundations of an empire which, aggrandized by his successors, comprehended, in less than a century, more countries than the Romans had conquered during eight centuries; and also after he had seen established a religion which still predominates over the half of the ancient hemisphere. The death of Mahommed caused a great tumult at Medina. The people who besieged his door refused to believe that he was mortal, and pretended that he had been taken up into heaven like Jesus Christ; and this notion was espoused by Omar, who threatened to exterminate all those who should maintain the contrary opinion.

The personal appearance and private life of the prophet have been minutely described by the Arabian writers. He was of the middle height, and of a sanguine temperament; his head was large, and his complexion dark, but animated by ruddy hues; his features were regular and strongly formed, his eyes black, and full of fire; he had a prominent forehead, an aquiline nose, full cheeks, and well-proportioned jaws; his mouth, though rather wide, was well formed, and his teeth white but not closely set; his hair, before he had it shaved off, was black, and his thick bushy beard had scarcely begun to blanch at the time of his death; on the lower lip he had a small black mark, and between his eyebrows a vein which swelled under the excitement of cholera. His physiognomy was at once mild and majestic, and his gait free notwithstanding his stoutness. His bones were thick and solid; the soles of his feet and the palms of his hands were strong and coarse; his ear was acute, his voice fine and sonorous; and between the shoulders he had an excrecence or wen, which the Mahommedans called "the seal of the prophecy," and which disappeared after his death. Such is the portrait which the Arabian authors have left us of Mahommed, and of which the exactness seems to be attested by the minuteness of the details.

From the same source may also be collected the principal traits of his character. They dwell upon his penetration and prudence, as well as the equity and severe impartiality of his judgments; his love for the poor; his constant endeavours to revive the worship of the true God; his aversion to futile conversation; the gentleness and safety of his intercourse; his manners noble and polished with strangers, gay and familiar with his friends, affable and indulgent with his domestics. Simple and moderate in his habits, he did not hesitate to milk his own goats, and also to repair his dress and his sandals when they required it. His sobriety was so great, that he lived on barley-bread, abstained from entirely satisfying his appetite, and frequently, to overcome the sensation of hunger, compressed his stomach with a stone strongly attached to it. His family, imitating his temperance, abstained from all luxuries, living on dates and pure water. Endowed with admirable fortitude and patience, he received the favours of fortune and the frowns of adversity with equal resignation. During his first campaign, having lost his daughter Rakiyah, who had been married to Othman, he learned the tidings of her death without emotion, and said without a tear, "Let us render thanks to God, and receive as a blessing even the death of our children." Mahommed was not insensible to gratitude, and constant in his friendships; he knew how to preserve his friends in adversity, and how to win his enemies in prosperity. He was religious in the observance of treaties, and seldom abused the privilege of victory; unless when, compelled by necessity to provide for his own safety, he thought it his duty to strike terror into a perfidious tribe by a terrible example. His natural clemency rarely belied itself; and there is no instance of his having committed in cold blood any of those horrible atrocities which sully so many pages in the history of the best governed nations. Whatever Mahommed may be reproached withal, the impartial judgment of history must assign a distinguished place to that extraordinary man, who, by his genius alone, caused the most astonishing revolution recorded in the annals of the world; who not only exercised the greatest influence upon the age in which he lived, but has preserved it during the twelve centuries which have since elapsed; and whose doctrine, notwithstanding all its errors and imperfections, conveys noble ideas of the divinity, and recalls to man the dignity of his nature, and his final destination. The principal vice with which Mahommed is chargeable, is that of incontinence; a vice indeed of which his countrymen, and even the Koran itself, furnish indubitable proofs, and which, strange as it may appear, he first exhibited about the age of fifty, after the death of Khadijah, his first wife. It was then that he espoused successively some twelve or fifteen wives, although the Koran had only authorized four; and thus, by his example, gave great scandal to his followers.

To form a sound estimate of the character of Mahommed as the founder of a new religion and a new empire, we would require to know whether, from the commencement of this enterprise, he was moved by ambition, and the desire of conquest and domination; or whether, from the first, the only object which he proposed to himself was to substitute, for the idolatrous worship of his countrymen, a religion more worthy of the divinity, and more conformable to the interests of society and the nature of man. If attention be given to the conduct which he observed until the moment when the persecutions of his countrymen and neighbours forced him to seek an asylum at Medina, it will not be difficult to admit the second supposition as the more probable; and if he cannot be freed from the reproach of having deceived men by attributing to himself a divine mission which he had not received, it may perhaps be conceded that the end which he contemplated gives to his imposture a character less odious than would otherwise belong to it. The history, and the text even, of the Koran may satisfy us, that if, instead of abolishing a multitude of absurd or ridiculous practices which were in use amongst the Arabian idolaters, he had consecrated some of these by connecting them with the religion he preached, this would only have been an act of policy on his part, a species of condescension or accommodation which could not have entered into the plan of the religion he had at first formed, and which was but little removed from Judaism. We know not, it is true, what, upon this supposition, the public worship might have been; and it is possible that Mahommed, who had seen the Jews without altars, without priests, without victims, and without a ritual, might not at first have been disposed to think that a distinct scheme of worship, and ceremonies which speak to the senses, were necessary to form a national religion. But, however this may be, it should always be remembered that he abolished a great number of practices revolting to reason and humanity, and which ancient usage had naturalized amongst the inhabitants of Arabia. It is generally believed that Mahommed had declared that he had not received the power of working miracles in proof of the truth of his mission; and many passages of the Koran seem to justify this opinion. It was, in fact, the best means which Mahommed could employ to escape the impropriety of the Jews, and particularly of the Christians, who were accustomed to consider supernatural works as the only irrefragable proof of an extraordinary mission. But it must not be concluded from this that Mahommed never supposed that God had wrought wonders in his favour, and that he disdained this means of making proselytes, or confirming the confidence of his followers. Not to mention the divine origin claimed for his pretended revelation, and the frequent defiance addressed to his adversaries, whom he challenged to compose anything equal to the Koran in miraculous eloquence, and without adverting to the name of prodigies or signs given to each of the verses of that book; it is sufficient to observe, that the miraculous voyage of Mahommed to Jerusalem, and his nocturnal ascension into heaven, form the subject of an entire chapter, and that more than once he speaks of the divine succours which he received from heaven in different encounters with the infidels, especially on the sanguinary day of Bedr. There is reason to believe, then, that the recitals to be found in the most accredited writers, of the marvellous circumstances in the life of Mahommed, were circulated amongst the Moslems even during his life; and that if he himself did not invent these miracles, he at least permitted some of his first disciples to take advantage of the credulity of the people, in order to persuade them that at his voice the moon was cleft in twain, that the trees and the rocks had saluted him, and that the entrance of the cave where he lay concealed, with Abu Bekr, after he had quitted Mekka to repair to Medina, was immediately covered by a spider's web, to screen from his pursuers the place of his retreat. It is no doubt true that these recitals were afterwards surcharged with a multitude of circumstances still less credible, and altogether unknown to the first Moslems, and that new prodigies were hatched by fanaticism and the love of the marvellous; but this affords no reason for absolving Mahommed from a species of artifice so powerful over the multitude, or for acquitting his first disciples of a credulity which accords so well with their enthusiasm. And why should he who feigned divine revelations to excuse or to palliate the scandal of his incontinence, and to cloak the turpitude of his family, refuse or hesitate to employ also pretended prodigies to facilitate the success of his enterprise? Mahommed did not arrogate to himself the power of working miracles at pleasure, because such a part would have been too difficult to sustain; but he supposed miracles wrought in his favour, as he invented revelations, because his plan could only be realized by the concurrence of both these means. He also affected, though rarely, a knowledge of futurity; but he often boasted of having received from heaven the knowledge of ancient things, and, under this pretence, he employed a great part of the facts of sacred history, and of the Jewish traditions which he had collected in the conversations he held with both Jews and Christians.

We cannot conclude this account of the life of Mahommed without some notice of the Koran; that prodigy always subsisting, according to the Moslems,—that irresistible proof of the divinity of Islamism,—that book, in short, which, according to them, displays a sublime and truly celestial eloquence, that no man has ever been, or ever will be, able to reach. In support of this opinion, they have related a multitude of conversions operated by some verses of the Koran (amongst which that of Omar is the most celebrated), and the ecstasy of the poet Lebid at the reading of the second chapter, the most fanciful of all. But it has met with contradiction even in the bosom of Islamism itself; and it must be confessed that none but a Moslem could in good faith subscribe to this pretended excellence of the Koran. That it contains some passages truly sublime cannot be disputed; but these are of very rare occurrence, and in order to find them it is necessary to wade through masses of dulness and absurdity. The language of the Koran is said to be the purest Arabic; although, to say the truth, neither we nor the Arabs themselves can now pretend to judge of the matter, seeing that there remain but few monuments contemporary with the Koran; and that all those who have written since the time of Mahommed have considered the style of the Koran as the model which they ought to imitate. But as Mahommed himself lays great stress on the elegance of the language in which the Koran is written, it may be allowed to possess this merit. Elegance, however, is not that which essentially constitutes eloquence; and, assuredly, if clearness be the first merit in any composition, the Koran cannot pretend to a high degree of estimation, since a multitude of passages are so obscure that they admit of different and even contradictory interpretations. The slightest study of a commentary on the Koran, that of Beidhawi for instance, will be sufficient to establish the truth of what is here stated. Another cause of obscurity recognised by the commentators themselves is, that the Koran contains a number of expressions peculiar to the dialect of the Hedjaz, which, even at the period when it was composed, were unintelligible to the Arabians of other countries, and of which the true signification was early lost, or at least had become very problematical. In fine, it is only necessary to open the Koran, in order to be struck with the incoherence of the matters contained in a single chapter, the tedious repetition of the same narratives, and the vagueness which predominates in the legislative dispositions, not to mention contradictions and absurdities almost without number. These defects, however, may, in part at least, be ascribed to the manner in which the collection of the pretended revelations of Mahommed was made under Abu Bekr, by Zaid ben Thabet. Fanaticism rather than good taste presided in this undertaking. Every thing was religiously collected; fragments written on various substances, or preserved in the memory of those persons who alleged that they had received them immediately or immediately from the prophet; and when one and the same fragment was produced by several persons with certain differences, Zaid appears to have adopted all the variations, and distributed them in different chapters. This is very clearly and strikingly exemplified by the Baron de Sacy in his Life of Mahommed.

Those who wish for more ample details respecting the history of the Arabian legislator and conqueror, and to inform themselves of all that concerns him even to the most minute particulars, may consult, 1. The Life of Mahommed by Prideaux, 1697, in 8vo; 2. The Life of Mahommed, derived from the Annals of Abulfeda, and published by Gagnier under the title of Ismael Abulfeda de Vita et rebus gestis Mahommedis, Oxford, 1723, in folio; 3. The Life of Mahommed, translated from the Arabic of Abulfeda, by Murray, 1833; 4. Mahometis, auctoris Alcorani, vita rerumque gestarum Synopsis, prefixed to the work of Maracci, entitled Prodromus ad Refutationem Alcorani, Rome, 1691, in 8vo; 5. La Vie de Mahomet, avec des Réflexions sur la Religion Mahométane, by Boullainvilliers, London, 1730, in 8vo; 6. Histoire de la Vie de Mahomet, législateur de l'Arabie, by Turpin, Paris, 1773-1779, in three vols. 12mo; 7. Universal History, vol. xlii.; 8. The article Mahomet in the Biographie Universelle; and, 9. The Introduction or Preliminary Discourse to the English Translation of the Koran by George Sale, whom Gibbon has characterized as half a Moslem. "Mahomet" is also the title of one of the dramatic productions of Voltaire; but in this "tragedy," which embraces the truce and capitulation of Mekka, the poet has disfigured the history and character of the Arabian legislator. Sacrificing truth to scenic effect, and perhaps also to the pleasure of declaiming against what he calls fanaticism, he has represented his hero as a man of obscure origin, and a monster of cruelty and injustice, in order to present the contrast of extreme baseness with the most undeserved elevation. The poet's theory is "que celui qui fait la guerre à sa patrie au nom de Dieu est capable de tout."

name of several emperors of the Turks, of whom the most celebrated was,

Mahommed II. surnamed the Great, their seventh sultan. He was born at Adrianople on the 24th of March 1430, and is chiefly remembered for having taken Constantinople in 1453, and thereby driven many learned Greeks into the west, which was one great cause of the restoration of learning in Europe, into which the Greek literature was then introduced. He was one of the greatest men upon record, as far as regarded the qualities necessary to a conqueror; for mediating he conquered two empires, twelve kingdoms, and two hundred considerable cities. He was ambitious of the title of Great, which the Turks gave to him; and even the Christians have not disputed it; for he was the first of the Ottoman emperors whom the western nations dignified with the title of Grand Signior, or Great Turk, which posterity has preserved to his descendants. Italy had suffered greater calamities, but she had never felt terror equal to that which this sultan's victories inspired. The inhabitants seemed already condemned to wear the turban. It is certain that Pope Sixtus IV. represented to himself Rome as about to be involved in the dreadful fate of Constantinople, and thought of nothing but escaping into Provence, and once more transferring the holy see to Avignon. Accordingly, the news of Mahommed's death, which happened on the 3rd of May 1481, was received at Rome with the greatest joy. Sixtus caused all the churches to be thrown open, made the trades-people leave off their work, ordered a feast of three days, with public prayers and processions, commanded a discharge of the whole artillery of the castle of St. Angelo, and put a stop to his journey to Avignon.

He appears to have been the first sultan who was a lover of arts and sciences, and who also cultivated polite letters. He often read the History of Augustus, and the other Caesars; and he perused those of Alexander, Constantine, and Theodosius, with more than ordinary pleasure, because these had reigned in the same country with himself. He was fond of painting, music, and sculpture, and he applied himself to the study of agriculture. He was much addicted to astrology; and used to encourage his troops by giving out that the motion and influence of the heavenly bodies promised him the empire of the world. Contrary to the genius of his country, he delighted so much in the knowledge of foreign languages, that he not only spoke the Arabian, to which the Turkish laws, and the religion of their legislator Mahommed, are appropriated, but also the Persian, the Greek, and the Lingua Franca, a species of corrupted Italian. Landin, a knight of Rhodes, collected several letters which this sultan wrote in the Syriac, Greek, and Turkish languages, and translated them into Latin. Where the originals are, nobody knows; but the translation has been several times published, as at Lyons 1520, in 4to; at Basil, 1554, 12mo; in a collection published by Oporinus, at Marpurg, 1604, in 8vo; and at Leipzig, 1600, in 12mo. Melchior Junius, professor of eloquence at Strasbourg, published at Montbéliard, 1595, a collection of letters, in which there are three written by Mahommed II. to Scanderbeg. One cannot discover the least symptom of Turkish ferocity in these letters. They are written in as civil terms, and as obliging a manner, as the most polite prince in Christendom could have employed.

Mahommedanism, the system of religion established by Mahommed, and still adhered to by his followers. (See Mahommed, and Koran.) Mahommedanism is professed by the Turks, Persians, and several nations amongst the Africans, and by many amongst the East Indians.

The Mahommedans divide their religion into two general parts, faith and practice. Of these, the first is divided into six distinct branches; belief in God, in his angels, in his Scriptures, in his prophets, in the resurrection and final judgment, and in God's absolute decrees. The points relating to practice are, prayer with ablutions, alms, fasting, the pilgrimage to Mekka, and circumcision.

I. Of the Mahommedan faith. That both Mahommed and those amongst his followers who are reckoned orthodox, had and continue to have just and true notions of God and his attributes, appears so plain from the Koran itself, and all the Mahommedan divines, that it would be loss of time to refute those who suppose the God of Mu- Mahomedanism to be different from the true God, and only a fictitious deity or idol of his own creation.

The existence of angels, and their purity, are absolutely required to be believed in the Koran; and he is reckoned an infidel who denies that there are such beings, or hates any of them, or asserts any distinction of sexes amongst them. They believe them to have pure and subtile bodies, created of fire; that they neither eat nor drink, nor propagate their species; that they have various forms and offices, some adoring God in different postures, and others singing praises to him, or interceding for mankind. They hold, that some of them are employed in writing down the actions of men; others in carrying the throne of God, and performing various services besides. The four angels whom they look on as more eminently in God's favour, and often mention on account of the offices assigned them, are Gabriel, to whom they give several titles, particularly those of the Holy Spirit, and the Angel of Revelations, supposing him to be honoured by God with a greater confidence than any other, and to be employed in writing down the divine decrees; Michael, the friend and protector of the Jews; Azrael, the angel of death, who separates men's souls from their bodies; and Irsail, whose office it will be to sound the trumpet at the resurrection. The Mahomedans also believe that two guardian angels attend on every man, to observe and write down his actions; that they are changed every day, and therefore belong to al-Munkhabat, or the angels who continually succeed one another. The devil, whom Mahomed names Ebilis, from his despair, was once one of those angels who were nearest to God's presence, being called Azzal; and he fell, according to the doctrine of the Koran, for refusing to pay homage to Adam at the command of God. Besides angels and devils, the Mahomedans are taught by the Koran to believe in an intermediate order of creatures, which they call jin or genii, created also of fire, but of a grosser fabric than angels, since they eat and drink, and propagate their species, and are subject to death. Some of these are supposed to be good and others bad, and capable of future salvation or damnation, as men are; and hence Mahomed pretended to be sent for the conversion of genii as well as for that of men.

As to the Scriptures, the Mahomedans are taught by the Koran, that God, in different ages of the world, gave revelations of his will in writing to several prophets, the whole and every one of which it is absolutely necessary for a good Moslem to believe. The number of these sacred books was, according to them, a hundred and four. Of these, ten were given to Adam, fifty to Seth, thirty to Edris or Enoch, ten to Abraham; and the other four, being the Pentateuch, the Psalms, the Gospel, and the Koran, were successively delivered to Moses, David, Jesus, and Mahomed; but the last being the seal of the prophets, those revelations are now closed, and are no more to be expected. All these divine books, except the four last, they admit to be now entirely lost, and their contents unknown; though the Sabins have several books which they attribute to some of the antediluvian prophets. And of these four, the Pentateuch, Psalms, and Gospel have, according to them, undergone so many alterations and corruptions, that, though there may possibly be found therein some part of the true word of God, yet no credit is to be given to the present copies in the hands of the Jews and Christians. The Mahomedans have also a gospel in Arabic, attributed to St Barnabas, in which the history of Jesus Christ is related in a manner very different from that in which we find it narrated in the true gospels, and corresponding to those traditions which Mahomed has followed in his Koran. Of this gospel the Moriscos in Africa have a translation in Spanish; and there was, in the library of Prince Eugene of Savoy, a manuscript of some antiquity, containing an Italian translation of the same gospel, made, it is to be supposed, for the use of renegades. This book appears to be no original forgery of the Mahomedans; though they have, doubtless, interpolated and altered it since, the better to serve their purpose; and in particular, instead of the Paraclete, or Comforter, they have in this apocryphal gospel inserted the word Periclyte, meaning the "famous" or "illustrious," by which they pretend their prophet was foretold by name, that being the signification of "Mohammed" in Arabic; and this they say to justify that passage of the Koran where Jesus Christ is formally asserted to have foretold his coming, under his other name of Ahmed, which is derived from the same root as "Mohammed," and of the same import. From these, and some other forgeries of the same stamp, the Mahomedans quote several passages, of which there are not the least traces to be found in the New Testament.

The number of the prophets which have from time to time been sent by God into the world, amounts to no less than two hundred and twenty-four thousand according to one Mahomedan tradition, or to a hundred and twenty-four thousand according to another. Amongst these were three hundred and thirteen apostles, sent with special commissions to reclaim mankind from infidelity and superstition; whilst six, Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mahomed, introduced new laws or dispensations, which successively abrogated those that preceded them. All the prophets in general the Mahomedans believe to have been free from great sins and errors of consequence, and professors of one and the same religion, that is, Islamism, notwithstanding the different laws and institutions which they may have observed. They allow of degrees amongst them, and hold some to be more excellent and honourable than others. The first place they give to the authors and founders of new dispensations, and the next to the apostles. In this great number of prophets, they not only reckon various patriarchs and persons named in Scripture, but not recorded to have been prophets, such as Adam, Seth, Lot, Ishmael, Nun, Joshua, and others, and introduce some of them under different names, as Enoch, Heber, and Jethro, who are called, in the Koran, Edris, Hud, and Shoaib; but likewise several others whose very names do not appear in Scripture, though they endeavour to find some persons there with whom to connect them, as Saleh, Khedr, Dhu'lkaf, and others.

The belief of a general resurrection and a future judgment forms part of the creed of Islamism. When a corpse is laid in the grave, they say it is received by an angel, who gives notice of the coming of the two examiners, two black and livid angels, of a terrible appearance, named Monker and Nakir. These order the dead person to sit upright, and then examine him concerning his faith as to the unity of God, and the mission of Mahomed. If he answer rightly, they suffer the body to rest in peace, and it is refreshed by the air of paradise; but if otherwise, they beat him on the temples with iron maces, till from anguish he roars out so loudly that he is heard by all from east to west, excepting men and genii. They then press the earth on the corpse, which is gnawed and stung till the resurrection, by ninety-nine dragons, with seven heads each; or, as others say, their sins become venomous beasts, the more grievous ones stinging like dragons, the smaller like scorpions, and the others like serpents; circumstances which some understand in a figurative sense. As to the soul, they hold, that when it is separated from the body by the angel of death, who performs his office with ease and gentleness towards the good, and with violence towards the wicked, it enters into that which they call al-berszakh, or the interval between death and the resurrection. If the departed person was a believer, they say two angels meet the soul, and convey it to heaven, that its place there may be assigned, according to its merit and degree. They distinguish the souls of the faithful into three classes; the first, those of prophets, whose Mahommedanism.

Mahommedan spirits are admitted into paradise immediately; the second, those of martyrs, whose spirits, according to a tradition of Mahommed, rest in the crops of green birds, which eat of the fruits and drink of the rivers of paradise; and the third, those of other believers, concerning the state of whose souls before the resurrection there are various opinions.

Though some amongst the Mahommedans have thought that the resurrection will be merely spiritual, and no more than the returning of the soul to the place whence it first came, an opinion defended by Ebn Sina, and called by some the "opinion of the philosophers;" and others, who allow man to consist of body only, allege that it will be merely corporeal; the received opinion is, that both body and soul will be raised, and their doctors argue strenuously for the possibility of the resurrection of the body, and dispute with great subtlety concerning the manner of it. But Mahommed has taken care to preserve one part of the body, whatever becomes of the rest, to serve as a basis for the future edifice, or rather a leaven for the mass which is to be joined to it. He taught that a man's body was entirely consumed by the earth, excepting only the bone called al ajib, which we name the os coccygis, or rump-bone; and that, as it was the first formed in the human body, it will also remain uncorrupted till the last day, as a seed whence the whole is to be renewed; and this, he said, would be effected by a forty years' rain, which God would send, and which would cover the earth to the height of twelve cubits, and cause the bodies to sprout forth like plants. In this also Mahommed is beholding to the Jews, who say the same thing of the bone luz, excepting that what he attributes to a great rain will, according to them, be effected by a dew impregnating the dust of the earth.

The time of the resurrection the Mahommedans allow to be a perfect secret to all but to God alone; the angel Gabriel himself having acknowledged his ignorance on this point when Mahommed asked him about it. The approach of that day may, however, be known from certain signs which are to precede it. These signs are distinguished into two sorts, the lesser and the greater. The lesser signs are, the decay of faith amongst men; the advancing of the meanest persons to eminent dignity, a maid-servant becoming the mother of her mistress (or master), by which is meant, either that towards the end of the world men shall be much given to sensuality, or that the Mahommedans shall then take many captives; tumults and seditions; a war with the Turks; great distress in the world, so that a man, when he passes by another's grave, shall say, Would to God that I were in his place; the provinces of Irak and Syria refusing to pay their tribute; and the buildings of Medina reaching even unto Yathrib. Amongst the greater signs may be mentioned, the sun's rising in the west, which some have imagined it originally did; and the appearance of the beast, which shall rise out of the earth, in the temple of Mekka, or on Mount Safa, or in the territory of Tayef, or in some other place. This beast, they say, is to be sixty cubits in height; though others, not satisfied with so small a size, will have her reach to the clouds and to heaven, when her head only is out, and that she will appear for three days, but show only a third part of her body. They describe this monster as, in respect of form, a compound of various species, having the head of a bull, the eyes of a hog, the ears of an elephant, the horns of a stag, the neck of an ostrich, the breast of a lion, the colour of a tiger, the back of a cat, the tail of a ram, the legs of a camel, and the voice of an ass. Some say that this beast is to appear three times in several places, and that she will bring with her the rod of Moses and the seal of Solomon, and, being so swift that none can overtake or escape her, will with the first strike all the believers on the face, and mark them with the word mawen, or believer; and with the latter will likewise mark the unbelievers on the face with the word kafir, or infidel, that every person may be known for what he really is. They add, that the same beast is to demonstrate the vanity of all religions except Islamism, and to speak Arabic. All this stuff seems to be the result of a confused idea of the beast in the Revelation. The third sign is, war with the Greeks, and the taking of Constantinople by seventy thousand of the posterity of Isaac, who shall not win that city by force of arms, but the walls shall fall down whilst they cry out, "There is no God but God; God is most great." As they are dividing the spoil, tidings will come to them of the appearance of Antichrist, upon which they shall leave all, and return to the place whence they came. The fourth sign is the coming of Antichrist, whom the Mahommedans call Masib al Dajjal, that is, the false or lying Christ, and simply Al Dajjal. He is to be one-eyed, and marked on the forehead with the letters signifying kafir, or infidel. They say that the Jews give him the name of Messiah Ben David; and pretend that he is to come in the last days, and to be lord both of land and sea, and that he will restore to them the kingdom. The fifth sign is the descent of Jesus upon earth. They pretend that he is to descend near the white tower to the east of Damascus, when the people are returned from the taking of Constantinople; that he is to embrace the Mahommedan religion, marry a wife, beget children, kill Antichrist, and at length to die after forty years', or, according to others, twenty-four years', continuance on earth. Under him, they say, there will be great security and plenty in the world; all hatred and malice will then be laid aside; lions and camels, bears and sheep, shall live in peace, and a child shall play with serpents unhurt. The sixth sign is, war with the Jews, of whom the Mahommedans are to make a prodigious slaughter; the very trees and stones discovering such of them as hide themselves, excepting only the tree called gharkad, which is the tree of the Jews. The seventh sign is the irruption of Gog and Magog, or, as they are called in the east, Yajuj and Majuj, of whom many things are related in the Koran and in the traditions of Mahommed. These barbarians, we are told, having passed the lake of Tiberias, which the vanguard of their vast army are to drink dry, will come to Jerusalem, and there greatly distress Jesus and his companions; until, at his request, God shall destroy them, and fill the earth with their carcasses, which, after some time, birds of prey will be sent to carry away at the prayers of Jesus and his followers. Their bows, arrows, and quivers, the Moallemins will burn for seven years together; and at last God will send a rain to cleanse the earth and to make it fertile. The eighth sign is to be a smoke which shall fill the whole earth. The ninth is an eclipse of the moon. Mahommed is reported to have said, that there would be three eclipses before the last hour; one to be seen in the east, another in the west, and a third in Arabia. The tenth sign is the returning of the Arabs to the worship of Allat and Al Uzza, and the rest of their ancient idols, after the decease of every one in whose heart there was faith equal to a grain of mustard seed, none but the very worst of men being left alive; for God, they say, will send a cold odoriferous wind, blowing from Syria Damascena, which shall sweep away the souls of all the faithful, and the Koran itself; so that men will remain in the grossest ignorance for a hundred years. The eleventh sign is the discovery of a vast heap of gold and silver by the retreating of the Euphrates, which will be the destruction of many; the twelfth is the demolition of the Kaaba, or temple of Mekka, by the Ethiopians; the thirteenth, the speaking of beasts and inanimate things; the fourteenth, the breaking out of fire in the province of Hedjaz, or, according to others, in Yemen; the fifteenth, the appearance of one of the descendants of Kahtan, who shall drive men before him by Mahommedanism.

Mahomedanism means his staff; the sixteenth, the coming of the Mohdi, or the Director, concerning whom Mahommed prophesied, that the world should not have an end till one of his own family should govern the Arabs, whose name should be the same with his own name, and whose father's name should also be the same with his father's name, and who should fill the earth with righteousness. This person the Sheeites believe to be now alive, and concealed in some secret place till the time of his manifestation arrive; for they suppose him to be no other than the last of the twelve imams, named Mahommed Abu'l-Kasem, as their prophet was, and the son of Hassan al Askari, the eleventh of that succession, having been born at Sermanrai, in the 256th year of the Hejira. From this tradition it is to be presumed that an opinion pretty current amongst the Christians took its rise, namely, that the Mahommedans are in expectation of their prophet's return. The seventeenth sign is to be a wind which shall sweep away the souls of all who have but a grain of faith in their hearts, as has been mentioned under the tenth sign.

These are the greater signs, which, according to the doctrine of Islamism, are to precede the resurrection, but still leave the hour of it uncertain, for the immediate sign of its being come will be the first blast of the trumpet, which they believe will be sounded three times. The first they call the "blast of consternation," at the hearing of which all creatures in heaven and earth shall be struck with terror, excepting those whom God shall please to exempt from it. The effects attributed to this first sound of the trumpet are very wonderful. It is believed that the earth will be shaken, and not only all buildings, but the very mountains levelled; that the heavens shall melt, the sun be darkened, the stars fall, upon the death of the angels who, as some imagine, hold them suspended between heaven and earth; and that the sea shall be troubled and dried up, or, according to others, turned into flames, the sun, moon, and stars being thrown into it. The Koran, to express the greatness of the terror of that day, adds, that women who give suck shall abandon the care of their infants, and that even the she-camels which have gone ten months with young (a most valuable part of the substance of that nation) shall be utterly neglected. A further effect of this blast will be that concourse of beasts mentioned in the Koran, although some doubt whether it is to precede or to follow the resurrection. They who suppose it will precede, think that all kinds of animals, forgetting their natural fierceness or timidity, will run together into one place, being terrified by the sound of the trumpet and the sudden shock of nature. The Mahommedans believe that this first blast will be followed by a second one, which they call the "blast of examination," by which all creatures both in heaven and earth shall die or be annihilated, excepting those which God shall please to exempt from the common fate; and this, they say, shall happen in the twinkling of an eye, nay, in an instant, nothing surviving except God alone, with paradise and hell, and the inhabitants of those two places, and the throne of glory. The last who shall die will be the angel of death. Forty years after this will be heard the "blast of resurrection," when the trumpet shall be sounded for the third time by Israfil, who, together with Gabriel and Michael, will be previously restored to life, and, standing upon the rock of the temple of Jerusalem, shall, at God's command, call together all the dry and rotten bones, and other dispersed parts of the bodies, and the very hairs, to judgment. This angel having, by the divine order, set the trumpet to his mouth, and called together all the souls from every part, will throw them into his trumpet, whence, on his giving the last sound, at the command of God, they will fly forth like bees, and fill the whole space between heaven and earth, and then repair to their respective bodies, which the opening earth will suffer to arise; and the first who Mahomed shall so arise, according to a tradition of Mahommed, will be the prophet himself. For this birth the earth will be prepared by the rain above mentioned, which is to fall continually for forty years, and will resemble the seed of a man, and be supplied from the water under the throne of God, which is called "living water," by the efficacy and virtue of which the dead bodies shall spring forth from their graves as they did in their mother's womb, or as corn sprouts forth by common rain, until they become perfect; after which breath will be breathed into them, and they will sleep in their sepulchres till they are raised to life by the last trumpet.

When those who have risen shall have waited the limited time, the Mahommedans believe that God will at length appear to judge them; Mahommed undertaking the office of intercessor, after it shall have been declined by Adam, Noah, Abraham, and Jesus, who shall beg deliverance only for their own souls. They say, that upon this solemn occasion God will come in the clouds surrounded by angels, and will produce the books in which the actions of every person are recorded by their guardian angels, and will command the prophets to bear witness against those to whom they have been respectively sent. Then every one will be examined concerning all the words and actions uttered and done by him in this life; not as if God needed any information in these respects, but to oblige the person to make public confession and acknowledgment of God's justice. The particulars of which they are to give an account, as Mahommed himself enumerated them, are, 1st, of their time, how they spent it; 2d, of their wealth, by what means they acquired it, and how they employed it; 3d, of their bodies, in what they exercised them; and, lastly, of their knowledge and learning, what use they made of them. To the questions we have mentioned each person shall answer, and make his defence in the best manner he can, endeavouring to excuse himself by casting the blame of his evil deeds upon others; so that a dispute shall arise even between the soul and the body, to which of them their guilt ought to be imputed. The soul will say, "O Lord, my body I received from thee; for thou createdst me without a hand to lay hold with, a foot to walk with, an eye to see with, or an understanding to apprehend with, till I came and entered into this body; therefore punish it eternally, but deliver me." The body, on the other side, will make this apology: "O Lord, thou createdst me like a stock of wood, having neither hand that I could lay hold with, nor foot that I could walk with, till this soul, like a ray of light, entered into me, and my tongue began to speak, my eye to see, and my foot to walk; therefore punish it eternally, but deliver me." But God will propound to them the parable of the blind man and the lame man. A certain king having a pleasant garden, in which were ripe fruits, set two persons to keep it, one of whom was blind, and the other lame; the former not being able to see the fruit, nor the latter to gather it. The lame man, however, seeing the fruit, persuaded the blind man to take him upon his shoulders, and by that means he easily gathered the fruit, which they divided between them. The lord of the garden coming some time afterwards, and inquiring after his fruit, each began to excuse himself. The blind man said he had no eyes to see with; and the lame man, that he had no feet to approach the trees. But the king, ordering the lame man to be set on the blind, passed sentence on and punished them both. And in the same manner will God deal with the body and the soul. As these apologies will not avail on that day, so it will be in vain for any one to deny his evil actions, since men and angels, and his own members, nay, the very earth itself, will be ready to bear witness against him.

At this examination, the Mahommedans also believe that each person will have the book in which all the actions of his life are written delivered to him. These the righteous will receive into the right hand, and read with great pleasure and satisfaction; but the ungodly will be obliged to take them, against their will, in their left, which will be bound at their back, their right hand being tied up to their necks.

To show the exact justice which will be observed on this great day of trial, the next thing they describe is the balance, in which all things shall be weighed. It will be held by Gabriel; and it is of so vast a size that its two scales, one of which hangs over paradise, and the other over hell, are capacious enough to contain both heaven and hell. Though some are willing to understand what is said in the Koran concerning this balance allegorically, and only as a figurative representation of God's equity, yet the more ancient and orthodox opinion is, that the words are to be taken literally; and since words and actions, being mere accidents, are not capable of being themselves weighed, they say that the books in which they are written will be thrown into the scales, and according as those in which the good or evil actions are recorded shall preponderate, sentence will be given. Those whose balances laden with good works shall prove heavy, will be saved; but those whose balances are light, will be condemned. Nor will any one have cause to complain that God suffers good actions to pass unrewarded, because the wicked for the good they do have their reward in this life, and therefore can expect no favour in the next.

This examination being ended, and every one's works weighed in a just balance, that mutual retaliation will follow, according to which every creature will take vengeance one upon another, or have satisfaction made them for the injuries which they have suffered. And since there will then be no other way of returning like for like, the manner of giving this satisfaction will be by taking away a proportional part of the good works of him who offered the injury, and adding it to those of him who suffered it. This being done, if the angels by whose ministry it is to be performed say, "Lord, we have given to every one his due, and there remaineth of this person's good works so much as equalleth the weight of an ant," God will, of his mercy, cause it be doubled unto him, that he may be admitted into paradise; but if, on the contrary, his good works be exhausted, and there remain evil works only, and any who have not yet received satisfaction from him, God will order that an equal weight of their sins be added unto his, that he may be punished for them in their stead, and he will be sent to hell laden with both. This will be the method of God's dealing with mankind. As to brutes, after they shall have likewise taken vengeance upon one another, he shall command them to be changed into dust; wicked men being reserved to a more grievous punishment, so that they shall cry out, on hearing this sentence passed on the brutes, "Would to God that we were dust also." As to the genii, many Mahomedans are of opinion that such of them as are true believers will undergo the same fate as the irrational animals, and have no other reward than the favour of being converted into dust; and for this they quote the authority of their prophet.

These trials being over, and the assembly dissolved, the Mahomedans hold that those who are to be admitted into paradise will take the right-hand way, and those who are destined to hell-fire will take the left; but both of them must first pass the bridge called in Arabic Al Sirat, which they say is laid over the midst of hell, and describe to be finer than a hair, and sharper than the edge of a sword, so that it seems very difficult to conceive how any one shall be able to stand upon it; and, for this reason, most of the sect of the Motazalites reject it as a fable, though the orthodox think it a sufficient proof of the truth of this article, that it was seriously affirmed by him who never asserted a falsehood, meaning their prophet. To add to the difficulty mentioned of the passage, he has likewise declared that this bridge is beset on each side with briars and hooked thorns; which will, however, be no impediment to the good, for they shall pass with wonderful ease and swiftness, like lightning, or the wind, Mahommed and his Moslems leading the way; whereas, from the slipperiness and extreme narrowness of the path, the entangling of the thorns, and the extinction of the light which directed the good to paradise, the wicked will soon miss their footing, and fall down headlong into hell, which is gaping beneath them.

As to the punishment of the wicked, the Mahomedans are taught that hell is divided into seven stories or apartments, one below another, designed for the reception of as many distinct classes of the damned. The first, which they call Jehennam, will, according to them, be the receptacle of those who acknowledge one God, that is, the wicked Mahomedans, who, after having been there punished according to their demerits, will at length be released. The second, named Ladha, they assign to the Jews; the third, named Al Hotama, to the Christians; the fourth, named Al Sair, to the Sabians; the fifth, named Sakar, to the Magians; the sixth, named Al Jakim, to the idolaters; and the seventh, or lowest and worst of all, which is called Al Haneyat, to the hypocrites, or those who outwardly professed some religion, but who in their hearts believed none. Over each of these apartments they believe that there will be set a guard of angels, nineteen in number, to whom the damned will confess the just judgment of God, and beg them to intercede with him for some alleviation of their pain, or that they may be delivered by being annihilated.

his Koran and traditions, has been very exact in describing the various torments of hell, which, according to him, the wicked will suffer, both from intense heat and from excessive cold. We shall, however, enter into no detail respecting them here, but only observe, that the degrees of these pains will also vary in proportion to the crimes of the sufferer, and the apartment he is condemned to inhabit; and that he who is punished the most lightly of all will be shod with shoes of fire, the heat of which will cause his skull to boil like a cauldron. The condition of these unhappy wretches, as the same prophet teaches, cannot be properly called either life or death; and their misery will be greatly increased by their despair of being ever delivered from that place, since, according to the frequent expression of the Koran, "they shall remain therein for ever." It must be remarked, however, that the infidels alone will be liable to eternal damnation; for the Moslems, or those who have embraced the true religion, and have been guilty of heinous sins, will be delivered thence after they shall have expiated their crimes by their sufferings. According to a tradition handed down from their prophet, the time during which these believers shall be detained there, will not be less than nine hundred years, nor more than seven thousand. And as to the manner of their delivery, they shall be distinguished by the marks of prostration on those parts of their bodies with which they used to touch the ground in prayer, and over which the fire will therefore have no power; and that, being known by this characteristic, they will be released by the mercy of God, at the intercession of Mahommed and the blessed; upon which those who shall have been dead will be restored to life, and those whose bodies shall have contracted any filth from the flames and smoke of hell will be immersed in one of the rivers of paradise, called "the river of life," the waters of which will wash them whiter than pearls.

The righteous, as the Mahomedans are taught to believe, having surmounted the difficulties, and passed the sharp bridge above mentioned, before they enter paradise, will be refreshed by drinking at the reservoir of the prophet, who describes it as an exact square of a month's journey in compass; its water, which is supplied by two pipes from Al Cawthar, one of the rivers of paradise, being whiter than milk or silver, and more odoriferous than musk, with as many cups set around it as there are stars in the firmament, and of this water whoever drinks will thirst no more forever. This is the first taste which the blessed will have of their future and now approaching felicity.

Though paradise be so frequently mentioned in the Koran, yet it is a dispute amongst the Mahommedans whether it be already created, or only to be created hereafter; the Motazilites and some other sectaries asserting that there is not at present any such place in nature, and that the paradise which the righteous will inhabit in the next life will be different from that which Adam was expelled from. However, the orthodox profess the contrary; maintain that it was created even before the world; and describe it from their prophet's traditions. They say that it is situated above the seven heavens, or in the seventh heaven, and next under the throne of God; and to express the amenity of the place, they allege that the earth of it is of the finest wheat flour, or of the purest musk, or, as others will have it, of saffron; that its stones are pearls and jacinths, the walls of its buildings enriched with gold and silver; and that the trunks of all its trees are of gold, amongst which the most remarkable is the tree called Tuba, or the Tree of Happiness. Concerning this tree, they pretend that it stands in the palace of Mahommed, though a branch of it will reach to the house of every true believer; and that it will be laden with pomegranates, grapes, dates, and other fruits, of surprising largeness, and of tastes unknown to mortals; so that if a man desire to eat of any particular kind of fruit, it will be immediately presented to him; or, if he choose flesh, birds ready dressed will be set before him, according to his wish. They add, that the boughs of this tree will spontaneously bend down to the hand of the person who would gather of its fruits, and that it will supply the blessed not only with food, but also with silken garments, and beasts to ride on ready saddled and bridled, and adorned with rich trappings, which will burst forth from its fruits; and that this tree is so large, that a person, mounted on the fleetest horse, would not be able to gallop from one end of its shade to the other in a hundred years.

As plenty of water is one of the greatest additions to the pleasantness of any place, particularly in a burning climate, the Koran often speaks of the rivers of paradise as a principal ornament of that blessed place. Some of these rivers, they say, flow with water, some with milk, some with wine, and others with honey, and all take their rise from the root of the tree Tuba. But all these glories will be eclipsed by the resplendent and ravishing charms of paradise, called from their large black eyes, Hur-al-ayun, the enjoyment of whose society will be the principal felicity of the faithful. These, they say, are created, not of clay, as mortal women are, but of pure musk, being, as their prophet often affirms in his Koran, free from all natural impurities, defects, and inconveniences incident to the sex, of the strictest modesty, and secluded from public view in pavilions of hollow pearls, so large that, as some traditions have it, one of them extends no less than four parasangs in length, and as many in breadth.

The name which the Mahommedans usually give to this happy mansion is Al Jannat, or the Garden; and sometimes they call it, with an addition, Jannat al Ferdaws, the Garden of Paradise; Jannat Aden, or the Garden of Eden (though they generally interpret the word Eden, not according to its acceptation in Hebrew, but according to its meaning in their own tongue, in which it signifies a settled or perpetual habitation); Jannat al Mawa, the Garden of Abode; Jannat al Naim, the Garden of Pleasure, meadows, and the like. By these several appellations some understand so many different gardens, or at least places of different degrees of felicity (for they reckon no less than a hundred of them in all), the very meanest of which will afford its inhabitants so many pleasures and delights that one would conclude they must even sink under the enjoyment of them, had not Mahommed declared, that, in order to qualify the blessed for their happy state, God will give to every one the capabilities of enjoyment of a hundred men.

With regard to God's absolute decree and predestination both of good and evil, the orthodox doctrine is, that whatever has or shall come to pass in this world, whether it be good or whether it be evil, proceeds entirely from the divine will, and is irrevocably fixed and recorded from all eternity in the preserved table; God having secretly predetermined not only the adverse and prosperous fortune of every person in this world, in the most minute particulars, but also his faith or infidelity, his obedience or disobedience, and consequently his everlasting happiness or misery after death; a fate or predestination which it is not possible by any foresight or wisdom to avoid. Of this doctrine Mahommed makes great use in the Koran for the advancement of his designs; encouraging his followers to fight without fear, and even desperately, for the propagation of their faith, by representing to them, that all their caution cannot avert their inevitable destiny, or prolong their lives for a moment; and deterring them from disobeying or rejecting him as an impostor, by setting before them the danger they thereby incur of being, by the just judgment of God, abandoned to seduction, hardness of heart, and a reprobate mind, as a punishment for their obstinacy.

II. Of Religious Practice. In this the first point is Prayer, under which are also comprehended those legal washings or purifications which are necessary preparations thereto.

Of these purifications there are two degrees, one called ghust, being a total immersion or bathing of the body in water; and the other called wudu (by the Persians abdest), which is the washing of the face, hands, and feet, after a certain manner. The first is required in some extraordinary cases only, as after having lain with a woman, or being polluted by emission of semen, or by approaching a dead body; women are also obliged to perform it after menstruation or childbirth. The latter is the ordinary ablution in common cases, and before prayer, and must necessarily be employed by every person before he can enter upon that duty. It is performed with certain formal ceremonies, which have been described by some writers, but which are much more easily apprehended by ocular observation, than by the best description.

That his followers might be more punctual in this duty, Mahommed is said to have declared, that "the practice of religion is founded on cleanliness," which is the "one half of the faith," and the "key of prayer," without which it will not be heard by God. That these expressions may be the better understood, Al Ghazali reckons four degrees of purification; the first of which is the cleansing of the body from all pollution, filth, and excrements; the second, the cleansing of the members of the body from all wickedness and unjust actions; the third, the cleansing of the heart from all blamable inclinations and odious vices; and the fourth, the purging a man's secret thoughts from all affections which may divert their attendance on God. The body, according to him, is but as the outward shell, in respect to the heart, which is as the kernel.

Circumcision, though it be not once mentioned in the Koran, is yet held by the Mahommedans to be an ancient and divine institution, confirmed by the religion of Islam, and though not so absolutely necessary that it may not be dispensed with in some cases, yet highly proper and expedient. The Arabs used this rite for many ages before that of Mahommed, having probably learned it from Ishmael, though not only his descendants, but the Hamyarites and other tribes, practised the same rite. The Ishmaelites, we are told, used to circumcise their children, not on the eighth day, as is the custom of the Jews, but when about twelve or thirteen years old, at which age their father underwent that operation; and the Mahomedans imitate them so far as not to circumcise children before they are able distinctly to pronounce that profession of their faith, "There is no God but God, and Mahommed is the prophet of God;" but pitch on whatever age they please for the purpose, between six and sixteen or thereabouts.

Prayer was by Mahommed thought so necessary a duty, that he used to call it "the pillar of religion" and "the key of paradise:" and when the Thaklitites, who dwelt at Tayef, sent, in the ninth year of the Hejira, to make their submission to the prophet, after the keeping of their favourite idol had been denied them, they begged at least that they might be allowed to dispense with saying the appointed prayers; but the prophet answered, that "There could be no good in that religion in which there was no prayer."

That so important a duty, therefore, might not be neglected, Mahommed obliged his followers to pray five times every twenty-four hours, at certain stated times, viz. in the morning before sunrise; when noon is past, and the sun begins to decline from the meridian; in the afternoon before sunset; in the evening after sunset, and before the day be shut in; and after the day is shut in, and before the first watch of the night. For this institution he pretended to have received a divine command from the throne of God himself; when he took his night journey to heaven; and the observation of the stated times of prayer is frequently insisted on in the Koran, though they be not particularly prescribed therein. Accordingly, at the aforesaid times, of which public notice is given by the Muezzins or Criers, from the steeples of the mosques, every conscientious Moslemin prepares himself for prayer, which he performs either in the mosque, or in any other place, provided it be clean, after a prescribed form, and with a certain number of praises or ejaculations, which the more scrupulous count by a string of beads, at the same time using certain postures of worship; all which have been particularly set down and described, and ought not to be abridged, unless in special circumstances, as on a journey, in preparing for battle, and other cases of a similar kind.

For the regular performance of the duty of prayer amongst the Mahomedans, besides the particulars above mentioned, it is also requisite that they should turn their faces, whilst they pray, towards the temple of Mekka, the quarter where the same is situated being for that reason pointed out within their mosques by a niche, which they call Al Mehrob, and without, by the situation of the doors opening into the galleries of the steeples. There are also tables calculated for the ready finding of the Keblah, or part towards which they ought to pray, in places where they have no visible direction to guide them.

Secondly, Alms are of two sorts, legal and voluntary. The legal alms are of indispensable obligation, being commanded by the law, which directs and determines both the portion to be given, and of what things it ought to be given; but the voluntary alms are left to every one's choice, to give more or less as he shall think proper. The former kind of alms, some think, are properly called zacat, and the latter sadakat, though this last name be also frequently given to the legal alms. They are called zacat, either because they increase a man's store by drawing down a blessing thereon, and produce in his soul the virtue of liberality, or because they Mahommedans purify the remaining part of one's substance from pollution, mediastinum, and the soul from the filth of avarice; and sadakat, because they are a proof of a man's sincerity in the worship of God. Some writers have called the legal alms tithes, but improperly, since in some cases they fall short, and in others exceed the proportion of a tenth part.

Thirdly, Fasting is a duty of so great moment, that Mahommed used to say it was "the gate of religion," and that the "odour of the mouth of him who fasteth is more grateful to God than that of musk;" and Al Ghazali reckons fasting "one fourth part of the faith." According to the Mahomedan divines, there are three degrees of fasting; 1st, the restraining the belly and other parts of the body from satisfying their lusts; 2ndly, the restraining the ears, eyes, tongue, hands, feet, and other members, from sin; and, 3rdly, the fasting of the heart from worldly cares, and restraining the thoughts from everything besides God.

The Mahomedans are obliged, by the express command of the Koran, to fast during the whole month of Ramadan, from the time that the new moon first appears till the appearance of the next new moon; during which period they must abstain from eating, drinking, and women, from daybreak till night or sunset. And this injunction they observe so strictly, that, whilst they fast, they suffer nothing to enter their mouths, or other parts of their body, esteeming the fast broken and null if they smell perfumes, take a clyster or injection, bathe, or even purposely swallow their spittle; some being so cautious that they will not open their mouths to speak, lest they should breathe the air too freely. The fast is also deemed void if a man kiss or touch a woman, or if he vomit designedly. But after sunset they are allowed to refresh themselves, and to eat and drink, and enjoy the company of their wives till daybreak; though the more rigid begin the fast again at midnight. This fast is extremely rigorous and mortifying when the month of Ramadan happens to fall in summer (for the Arabian year being lunar, each month runs through all the different seasons in the course of thirty-three years); the length and heat of the days making the observance of it then much more difficult and uneasy than in winter. The reason given why the month of Ramadan was pitched on for this purpose is, that on that month the Koran was sent down from heaven. Some also pretend, that Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, received their respective revelations in the same month.

Fourthly, The pilgrimage to Mekka is so necessary a point of practice, that, according to a tradition of Mahommed, he who dies without performing it may as well die a Jew or a Christian; and the same is expressly commanded in the Koran.

The temple of Mekka stands in the midst of the city, and is honoured with the title Masjid al Haram, "the sacred or inviolable Temple." What is principally reverenced in this place, and gives sanctity to the whole, is a square stone building, denominated the Kaaba. To this temple every Mahomedan who has health and means sufficient ought, once in his life at least, to repair on a pilgrimage; nor are women excused from the performance of this duty. The pilgrims meet at different places near Mekka, according to the different parts whence they come, during the months of Shawal and Dhu'lhajja, being obliged to be there by the beginning of Dhu'lhajja, which, as its name imports, is peculiarly set apart for the celebration of this solemnity.

At the place above mentioned the pilgrims properly assume that character, when the men put on the Ibraim or sacred habit, which consists only of two woollen wrappers, one wrapped about the middle to cover their nakedness, and the other thrown over their shoulders, having their heads bare, and a kind of slippers which cover neither the heel nor the instep, and thus they enter the sacred territory in their way to Whilst they wear this habit they must neither hunt nor fowl, though they are allowed to fish; a precept which is so punctually observed, that they will not kill even vermin if they should find them on their bodies. There are some noxious animals, however, which they have permission to kill during their pilgrimage, as kites, ravens, scorpions, mice, and dogs given to bite. During the pilgrimage, it behoves a man to keep a constant guard upon his words and actions; to avoid all quarrelling or bad language, all converse with women, and all obscene discourse, and to apply his whole attention to the good work in which he is engaged.

The pilgrims, having arrived at Mekka, immediately visit the temple, and enter upon the performance of the prescribed ceremonies, which consist chiefly in going in procession round the Kaaba, in running between the Mounts Safa and Marwa, in making the station upon Mount Arafat, and slaying the victims and shaving their heads in the valley of Mina. In compassing the Kaaba, which they do seven times, beginning at the corner where the black stone is fixed, they use a short quick pace the first three times they go round it, and a grave ordinary pace the last four; a practice which, it is said, was ordered by Mahommed, that his followers might show themselves strong and active, to cut off the hopes of the infidels, who gave out that the immoderate heats of Medina had rendered them weak. The quick pace, however, they are not obliged to exert every time they perform this piece of devotion, but only at some particular times. As often as they pass by the black stone, they either kiss it, or touch it with their hand, and then kiss that member. The running between Safa and Marwa is also performed seven times, partly at a slow pace and partly with speed. They walk gravely till they come to a place between two pillars, and there they run, and afterwards walk again, sometimes looking back, and sometimes stooping, like one who had lost something, to represent Hagar seeking water for her son, the ceremony being said to be as ancient as her time.

On the ninth of Dhul'haia, after morning prayer, the pilgrims leave the valley of Mina, whither they had arrived the day before, and proceed in a tumultuous and rushing manner to Mount Arafat, where they stay to perform their devotions till sunset; then they go to Mozdalifa, an oratory between Arafat and Mina, and there spend the night in prayer and reading the Koran. The next morning by day-break they visit Al Masdar al Karam, or the Sacred Monument; and, departing thence before sunrise, hasten by Batn Mohasser to the valley of Mina, where they throw seven stones at three marks or pillars, in imitation of Abraham, who, meeting the devil in that place, and being by him disturbed in his devotions, or tempted to disobedience when he was going to sacrifice his son, was commanded by God to drive him away by throwing stones at him. But others pretend that this rite is as old as Adam, who also put the devil to flight in the same place, and by the same means. This ceremony being over, on the same day, the tenth of Dhul'haia, the pilgrims slay their victims in the valley of Mina; and of these they and their friends eat part, whilst the rest is given to the poor. The victims must be either sheep, goats, kine, or camels; males if of either of the two former kinds, and females if of either of the latter, and also of a proper age. When the sacrifices are ended, they shave their heads and cut their nails, after which the pilgrimage is looked upon as completed; though they again visit the Kaaba, in order to take their leave of that sacred building.

The rapid success which attended the propagation of this new religion was owing to causes which are sufficiently obvious, and must remove, or rather prevent, any surprise, when they are attentively considered. The terror of Mahommed's arms, and the repeated victories gained by him and his successors, were no doubt the irresistible arguments which persuaded such multitudes to embrace his religion and submit to his dominion. Besides, his law was artfully adapted to the corrupt nature of man, more particularly to the manners and opinions of the eastern nations, and the vices to which they were naturally addicted; for the articles of faith which it proposed were few in number, and extremely simple, and the duties which it required were neither many nor difficult, nor such as were incompatible with the empire of appetites and passions. It may also be observed, that the gross ignorance under which the Arabians, Syrians, Persians, and the greater part of the eastern nations, laboured at this time, rendered many an easy prey to the artifice and eloquence of this bold adventurer. To these causes may be added the bitter dissensions and cruel animosities which reigned amongst the Christian sects, particularly the Greeks, Nestorians, Eutychians, and Monophysites; dissensions which filled a great part of the East with carnage, assassinations, and other detestable enormities, which rendered the very name of Christianity odious. We may further add, that the Monophysites and Nestorians, full of resentment against the Greeks, from whom they had suffered the bitterest and most injurious treatment, assisted the Arabians in the conquest of several provinces, into which, of course, the religion of Mahommed was afterwards introduced. The contrast between Chistianity and Islamism is therefore abundantly striking.

The Christian religion is the religion of a civilized people, and is entirely spiritual; in it everything tends to mortify the senses, nothing to excite them. Islamism is the religion of a people in the infancy of civilization, and it appeals to the senses alone. Mahommed promised to his followers odoriferous baths, rivers of milk, black eyed houris, and groves of perpetual shade; and the Arab, thirsting for water, and parched by a burning sun, was ready to do anything for such a recompense. The reward which Christ promised to the elect was that they should see God face to face. Hence it may be justly said that the religion of Christ is a menace, whilst that of Mahommed is, on the other hand, a promise. The one seeks to mortify the senses and subdue the passions; the other to excite and inflame them by the promise of unlimited enjoyment. The essential difference of these religions is also strongly marked by the history of their respective establishment. The progress of Christianity was slow, and three or four centuries elapsed before it attained a firm footing in the world. It requires much time to destroy, by the mere influence of persuasion, a religion consecrated by time, and still more when the new faith neither appeals to any prejudices, nor kindles any passion, nor admits any temporal auxiliaries. The progress of Islamism was, on the other hand, rapid, and, even before the death of the prophet, it had established itself in the countries where it was first preached. Unlike Jesus Christ, who declared that his kingdom was not of this world, Mahommed became a king; and, having declared that the whole universe ought to be subjected to his sway, he ordered his followers to employ the sword to destroy idolaters and infidels. Hence, as soon as Islamism had triumphed at Melkka and Medina, it served as a rallying point to the different Arabic tribes; the idolaters of Arabia were soon converted or destroyed; the infidels in Asia, in Syria, and in Egypt, were attacked and conquered; and a whole nation, imbued with a fanatical spirit, precipitated itself upon its neighbours. Christianity proclaimed peace on earth, and good will to men. Islamism preached intolerance and the destruction of infidels. Accordingly, the one advanced slowly and imperceptibly; whilst the progress of the other was that of an overwhelming torrent, and the Arabian armies, impelled by fanaticism, at once attacked the Roman empire and that of Persia. In the history of its diffusion, Christianity presents the most striking evidence of its divine origin and the omnipotence of truth. But it is not so with Islamism, which, engendered in fanaticism, was propagated by the sword, and established by terror, by conquest, and by extermination.