Chapter L: Description Of Arabia And Its Inhabitants.—Part IV

The communication of ideas requires a similitude of thought and
language: the discourse of a philosopher would vibrate without
effect on the ear of a peasant; yet how minute is the distance of
their understandings, if it be compared with the contact of an
infinite and a finite mind, with the word of God expressed by the
tongue or the pen of a mortal! The inspiration of the Hebrew
prophets, of the apostles and evangelists of Christ, might not be
incompatible with the exercise of their reason and memory; and
the diversity of their genius is strongly marked in the style and
composition of the books of the Old and New Testament. But
Mahomet was content with a character, more humble, yet more
sublime, of a simple editor; the substance of the Koran, 91
according to himself or his disciples, is uncreated and eternal;
subsisting in the essence of the Deity, and inscribed with a pen
of light on the table of his everlasting decrees. A paper copy,
in a volume of silk and gems, was brought down to the lowest
heaven by the angel Gabriel, who, under the Jewish economy, had
indeed been despatched on the most important errands; and this
trusty messenger successively revealed the chapters and verses to
the Arabian prophet. Instead of a perpetual and perfect measure
of the divine will, the fragments of the Koran were produced at
the discretion of Mahomet; each revelation is suited to the
emergencies of his policy or passion; and all contradiction is
removed by the saving maxim, that any text of Scripture is
abrogated or modified by any subsequent passage. The word of God,
and of the apostle, was diligently recorded by his disciples on
palm-leaves and the shoulder-bones of mutton; and the pages,
without order or connection, were cast into a domestic chest, in
the custody of one of his wives. Two years after the death of
Mahomet, the sacred volume was collected and published by his
friend and successor Abubeker: the work was revised by the caliph
Othman, in the thirtieth year of the Hegira; and the various
editions of the Koran assert the same miraculous privilege of a
uniform and incorruptible text. In the spirit of enthusiasm or
vanity, the prophet rests the truth of his mission on the merit
of his book; audaciously challenges both men and angels to
imitate the beauties of a single page; and presumes to assert
that God alone could dictate this incomparable performance. 92
This argument is most powerfully addressed to a devout Arabian,
whose mind is attuned to faith and rapture; whose ear is
delighted by the music of sounds; and whose ignorance is
incapable of comparing the productions of human genius. 93 The
harmony and copiousness of style will not reach, in a version,
the European infidel: he will peruse with impatience the endless
incoherent rhapsody of fable, and precept, and declamation, which
seldom excites a sentiment or an idea, which sometimes crawls in
the dust, and is sometimes lost in the clouds. The divine
attributes exalt the fancy of the Arabian missionary; but his
loftiest strains must yield to the sublime simplicity of the book
of Job, composed in a remote age, in the same country, and in the
same language. 94 If the composition of the Koran exceed the
faculties of a man to what superior intelligence should we
ascribe the Iliad of Homer, or the Philippics of Demosthenes? In
all religions, the life of the founder supplies the silence of
his written revelation: the sayings of Mahomet were so many
lessons of truth; his actions so many examples of virtue; and the
public and private memorials were preserved by his wives and
companions. At the end of two hundred years, the Sonna, or oral
law, was fixed and consecrated by the labors of Al Bochari, who
discriminated seven thousand two hundred and seventy-five genuine
traditions, from a mass of three hundred thousand reports, of a
more doubtful or spurious character. Each day the pious author
prayed in the temple of Mecca, and performed his ablutions with
the water of Zemzem: the pages were successively deposited on the
pulpit and the sepulchre of the apostle; and the work has been
approved by the four orthodox sects of the Sonnites. 95

91 (return) [ For the Koran, see D’Herbelot, p. 85-88. Maracci,
tom. i. in Vit. Mohammed. p. 32-45. Sale, Preliminary Discourse,
p. 58-70.]

92 (return) [ Koran, c. 17, v. 89. In Sale, p. 235, 236. In
Maracci, p. 410. * Note: Compare Von Hammer Geschichte der
Assassinen p. 11.-M.]

93 (return) [ Yet a sect of Arabians was persuaded, that it might
be equalled or surpassed by a human pen, (Pocock, Specimen, p.
221, &c.;) and Maracci (the polemic is too hard for the
translator) derides the rhyming affectation of the most applauded
passage, (tom. i. part ii. p. 69-75.)]

94 (return) [ Colloquia (whether real or fabulous) in media
Arabia atque ab Arabibus habita, (Lowth, de Poesi Hebraeorum.
Praelect. xxxii. xxxiii. xxxiv, with his German editor,
Michaelis, Epimetron iv.) Yet Michaelis (p. 671-673) has detected
many Egyptian images, the elephantiasis, papyrus, Nile,
crocodile, &c. The language is ambiguously styled
Arabico-Hebraea. The resemblance of the sister dialects was much
more visible in their childhood, than in their mature age,
(Michaelis, p. 682. Schultens, in Praefat. Job.) * Note: The age
of the book of Job is still and probably will still be disputed.
Rosenmuller thus states his own opinion: “Certe serioribus
reipublicae temporibus assignandum esse librum, suadere videtur
ad Chaldaismum vergens sermo.” Yet the observations of
Kosegarten, which Rosenmuller has given in a note, and common
reason, suggest that this Chaldaism may be the native form of a
much earlier dialect; or the Chaldaic may have adopted the
poetical archaisms of a dialect, differing from, but not less
ancient than, the Hebrew. See Rosenmuller, Proleg. on Job, p. 41.
The poetry appears to me to belong to a much earlier period.—M.]

95 (return) [ Ali Bochari died A. H. 224. See D’Herbelot, p. 208,
416, 827. Gagnier, Not. ad Abulfed. c. 19, p. 33.]

The mission of the ancient prophets, of Moses and of Jesus had
been confirmed by many splendid prodigies; and Mahomet was
repeatedly urged, by the inhabitants of Mecca and Medina, to
produce a similar evidence of his divine legation; to call down
from heaven the angel or the volume of his revelation, to create
a garden in the desert, or to kindle a conflagration in the
unbelieving city. As often as he is pressed by the demands of the
Koreish, he involves himself in the obscure boast of vision and
prophecy, appeals to the internal proofs of his doctrine, and
shields himself behind the providence of God, who refuses those
signs and wonders that would depreciate the merit of faith, and
aggravate the guilt of infidelity But the modest or angry tone of
his apologies betrays his weakness and vexation; and these
passages of scandal established, beyond suspicion, the integrity
of the Koran. 96 The votaries of Mahomet are more assured than
himself of his miraculous gifts; and their confidence and
credulity increase as they are farther removed from the time and
place of his spiritual exploits. They believe or affirm that
trees went forth to meet him; that he was saluted by stones; that
water gushed from his fingers; that he fed the hungry, cured the
sick, and raised the dead; that a beam groaned to him; that a
camel complained to him; that a shoulder of mutton informed him
of its being poisoned; and that both animate and inanimate nature
were equally subject to the apostle of God. 97 His dream of a
nocturnal journey is seriously described as a real and corporeal
transaction. A mysterious animal, the Borak, conveyed him from
the temple of Mecca to that of Jerusalem: with his companion
Gabriel he successively ascended the seven heavens, and received
and repaid the salutations of the patriarchs, the prophets, and
the angels, in their respective mansions. Beyond the seventh
heaven, Mahomet alone was permitted to proceed; he passed the
veil of unity, approached within two bow-shots of the throne, and
felt a cold that pierced him to the heart, when his shoulder was
touched by the hand of God. After this familiar, though important
conversation, he again descended to Jerusalem, remounted the
Borak, returned to Mecca, and performed in the tenth part of a
night the journey of many thousand years. 98 According to another
legend, the apostle confounded in a national assembly the
malicious challenge of the Koreish. His resistless word split
asunder the orb of the moon: the obedient planet stooped from her
station in the sky, accomplished the seven revolutions round the
Caaba, saluted Mahomet in the Arabian tongue, and, suddenly
contracting her dimensions, entered at the collar, and issued
forth through the sleeve, of his shirt. 99 The vulgar are amused
with these marvellous tales; but the gravest of the Mussulman
doctors imitate the modesty of their master, and indulge a
latitude of faith or interpretation. 100 They might speciously
allege, that in preaching the religion it was needless to violate
the harmony of nature; that a creed unclouded with mystery may be
excused from miracles; and that the sword of Mahomet was not less
potent than the rod of Moses.

96 (return) [ See, more remarkably, Koran, c. 2, 6, 12, 13, 17.
Prideaux (Life of Mahomet, p. 18, 19) has confounded the
impostor. Maracci, with a more learned apparatus, has shown that
the passages which deny his miracles are clear and positive,
(Alcoran, tom. i. part ii. p. 7-12,) and those which seem to
assert them are ambiguous and insufficient, (p. 12-22.)]

97 (return) [ See the Specimen Hist. Arabum, the text of
Abulpharagius, p. 17, the notes of Pocock, p. 187-190.
D’Herbelot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 76, 77. Voyages de
Chardin, tom. iv. p. 200-203. Maracci (Alcoran, tom. i. p. 22-64)
has most laboriously collected and confuted the miracles and
prophecies of Mahomet, which, according to some writers, amount
to three thousand.]

98 (return) [ The nocturnal journey is circumstantially related
by Abulfeda (in Vit. Mohammed, c. 19, p. 33,) who wishes to think
it a vision; by Prideaux, (p. 31-40,) who aggravates the
absurdities; and by Gagnier (tom. i. p. 252-343,) who declares,
from the zealous Al Jannabi, that to deny this journey, is to
disbelieve the Koran. Yet the Koran without naming either heaven,
or Jerusalem, or Mecca, has only dropped a mysterious hint: Laus
illi qui transtulit servum suum ab oratorio Haram ad oratorium
remotissimum, (Koran, c. 17, v. 1; in Maracci, tom. ii. p. 407;
for Sale’s version is more licentious.) A slender basis for the
aerial structure of tradition.]

99 (return) [ In the prophetic style, which uses the present or
past for the future, Mahomet had said, Appropinquavit hora, et
scissa est luna, (Koran, c. 54, v. 1; in Maracci, tom. ii. p.
688.) This figure of rhetoric has been converted into a fact,
which is said to be attested by the most respectable
eye-witnesses, (Maracci, tom. ii. p. 690.) The festival is still
celebrated by the Persians, (Chardin, tom. iv. p. 201;) and the
legend is tediously spun out by Gagnier, (Vie de Mahomet, tom. i.
p. 183-234,) on the faith, as it should seem, of the credulous Al
Jannabi. Yet a Mahometan doctor has arraigned the credit of the
principal witness, (apud Pocock, Specimen, p. 187;) the best
interpreters are content with the simple sense of the Koran. (Al
Beidawi, apud Hottinger, Hist. Orient. l. ii. p. 302;) and the
silence of Abulfeda is worthy of a prince and a philosopher. *
Note: Compare Hamaker Notes to Inc. Auct. Lib. de Exped.
Memphides, p. 62—M.]

100 (return) [ Abulpharagius, in Specimen Hist. Arab. p. 17; and
his scepticism is justified in the notes of Pocock, p. 190-194,
from the purest authorities.]

The polytheist is oppressed and distracted by the variety of
superstition: a thousand rites of Egyptian origin were interwoven
with the essence of the Mosaic law; and the spirit of the gospel
had evaporated in the pageantry of the church. The prophet of
Mecca was tempted by prejudice, or policy, or patriotism, to
sanctify the rites of the Arabians, and the custom of visiting
the holy stone of the Caaba. But the precepts of Mahomet himself
inculcates a more simple and rational piety: prayer, fasting, and
alms, are the religious duties of a Mussulman; and he is
encouraged to hope, that prayer will carry him half way to God,
fasting will bring him to the door of his palace, and alms will
gain him admittance. 101 I. According to the tradition of the
nocturnal journey, the apostle, in his personal conference with
the Deity, was commanded to impose on his disciples the daily
obligation of fifty prayers. By the advice of Moses, he applied
for an alleviation of this intolerable burden; the number was
gradually reduced to five; without any dispensation of business
or pleasure, or time or place: the devotion of the faithful is
repeated at daybreak, at noon, in the afternoon, in the evening,
and at the first watch of the night; and in the present decay of
religious fervor, our travellers are edified by the profound
humility and attention of the Turks and Persians. Cleanliness is
the key of prayer: the frequent lustration of the hands, the
face, and the body, which was practised of old by the Arabs, is
solemnly enjoined by the Koran; and a permission is formally
granted to supply with sand the scarcity of water. The words and
attitudes of supplication, as it is performed either sitting, or
standing, or prostrate on the ground, are prescribed by custom or
authority; but the prayer is poured forth in short and fervent
ejaculations; the measure of zeal is not exhausted by a tedious
liturgy; and each Mussulman for his own person is invested with
the character of a priest. Among the theists, who reject the use
of images, it has been found necessary to restrain the wanderings
of the fancy, by directing the eye and the thought towards a
kebla, or visible point of the horizon. The prophet was at first
inclined to gratify the Jews by the choice of Jerusalem; but he
soon returned to a more natural partiality; and five times every
day the eyes of the nations at Astracan, at Fez, at Delhi, are
devoutly turned to the holy temple of Mecca. Yet every spot for
the service of God is equally pure: the Mahometans indifferently
pray in their chamber or in the street. As a distinction from the
Jews and Christians, the Friday in each week is set apart for the
useful institution of public worship: the people is assembled in
the mosch; and the imam, some respectable elder, ascends the
pulpit, to begin the prayer and pronounce the sermon. But the
Mahometan religion is destitute of priesthood or sacrifice; and
the independent spirit of fanaticism looks down with contempt on
the ministers and the slaves of superstition. 1011

II. The voluntary 102 penance of the ascetics, the torment and
glory of their lives, was odious to a prophet who censured in his
companions a rash vow of abstaining from flesh, and women, and
sleep; and firmly declared, that he would suffer no monks in his
religion. 103 Yet he instituted, in each year, a fast of thirty
days; and strenuously recommended the observance as a discipline
which purifies the soul and subdues the body, as a salutary
exercise of obedience to the will of God and his apostle. During
the month of Ramadan, from the rising to the setting of the sun,
the Mussulman abstains from eating, and drinking, and women, and
baths, and perfumes; from all nourishment that can restore his
strength, from all pleasure that can gratify his senses. In the
revolution of the lunar year, the Ramadan coincides, by turns,
with the winter cold and the summer heat; and the patient martyr,
without assuaging his thirst with a drop of water, must expect
the close of a tedious and sultry day. The interdiction of wine,
peculiar to some orders of priests or hermits, is converted by
Mahomet alone into a positive and general law; 104 and a
considerable portion of the globe has abjured, at his command,
the use of that salutary, though dangerous, liquor. These painful
restraints are, doubtless, infringed by the libertine, and eluded
by the hypocrite; but the legislator, by whom they are enacted,
cannot surely be accused of alluring his proselytes by the
indulgence of their sensual appetites. III. The charity of the
Mahometans descends to the animal creation; and the Koran
repeatedly inculcates, not as a merit, but as a strict and
indispensable duty, the relief of the indigent and unfortunate.
Mahomet, perhaps, is the only lawgiver who has defined the
precise measure of charity: the standard may vary with the degree
and nature of property, as it consists either in money, in corn
or cattle, in fruits or merchandise; but the Mussulman does not
accomplish the law, unless he bestows a tenth of his revenue; and
if his conscience accuses him of fraud or extortion, the tenth,
under the idea of restitution, is enlarged to a fifth. 105
Benevolence is the foundation of justice, since we are forbid to
injure those whom we are bound to assist. A prophet may reveal
the secrets of heaven and of futurity; but in his moral precepts
he can only repeat the lessons of our own hearts.

101 (return) [ The most authentic account of these precepts,
pilgrimage, prayer, fasting, alms, and ablutions, is extracted
from the Persian and Arabian theologians by Maracci, (Prodrom.
part iv. p. 9-24,) Reland, (in his excellent treatise de
Religione Mohammedica, Utrecht, 1717, p. 67-123,) and Chardin,
(Voyages in Perse, tom. iv. p. 47-195.) Marace is a partial
accuser; but the jeweller, Chardin, had the eyes of a
philosopher; and Reland, a judicious student, had travelled over
the East in his closet at Utrecht. The xivth letter of Tournefort
(Voyage du Levont, tom. ii. p. 325-360, in octavo) describes what
he had seen of the religion of the Turks.]

1011 (return) [ Such is Mahometanism beyond the precincts of the
Holy City. But Mahomet retained, and the Koran sanctions, (Sale’s
Koran, c. 5, in inlt. c. 22, vol. ii. p. 171, 172,) the sacrifice
of sheep and camels (probably according to the old Arabian rites)
at Mecca; and the pilgrims complete their ceremonial with
sacrifices, sometimes as numerous and costly as those of King
Solomon. Compare note, vol. iv. c. xxiii. p. 96, and Forster’s
Mahometanism Unveiled, vol. i. p. 420. This author quotes the
questionable authority of Benjamin of Tudela, for the sacrifice
of a camel by the caliph at Bosra; but sacrifice undoubtedly
forms no part of the ordinary Mahometan ritual; nor will the
sanctity of the caliph, as the earthly representative of the
prophet, bear any close analogy to the priesthood of the Mosaic
or Gentila religions.—M.]

102 (return) [ Mahomet (Sale’s Koran, c. 9, p. 153) reproaches
the Christians with taking their priests and monks for their
lords, besides God. Yet Maracci (Prodromus, part iii. p. 69, 70)
excuses the worship, especially of the pope, and quotes, from the
Koran itself, the case of Eblis, or Satan, who was cast from
heaven for refusing to adore Adam.]

103 (return) [ Koran, c. 5, p. 94, and Sale’s note, which refers
to the authority of Jallaloddin and Al Beidawi. D’Herbelot
declares, that Mahomet condemned la vie religieuse; and that the
first swarms of fakirs, dervises, &c., did not appear till after
the year 300 of the Hegira, (Bibliot. Orient. p. 292, 718.)]

104 (return) [ See the double prohibition, (Koran, c. 2, p. 25,
c. 5, p. 94;) the one in the style of a legislator, the other in
that of a fanatic. The public and private motives of Mahomet are
investigated by Prideaux (Life of Mahomet, p. 62-64) and Sale,
(Preliminary Discourse, p. 124.)]

105 (return) [ The jealousy of Maracci (Prodromus, part iv. p.
33) prompts him to enumerate the more liberal alms of the
Catholics of Rome. Fifteen great hospitals are open to many
thousand patients and pilgrims; fifteen hundred maidens are
annually portioned; fifty-six charity schools are founded for
both sexes; one hundred and twenty confraternities relieve the
wants of their brethren, &c. The benevolence of London is still
more extensive; but I am afraid that much more is to be ascribed
to the humanity, than to the religion, of the people.]

The two articles of belief, and the four practical duties, of
Islam, are guarded by rewards and punishments; and the faith of
the Mussulman is devoutly fixed on the event of the judgment and
the last day. The prophet has not presumed to determine the
moment of that awful catastrophe, though he darkly announces the
signs, both in heaven and earth, which will precede the universal
dissolution, when life shall be destroyed, and the order of
creation shall be confounded in the primitive chaos. At the blast
of the trumpet, new worlds will start into being: angels, genii,
and men will arise from the dead, and the human soul will again
be united to the body. The doctrine of the resurrection was first
entertained by the Egyptians; 106 and their mummies were
embalmed, their pyramids were constructed, to preserve the
ancient mansion of the soul, during a period of three thousand
years. But the attempt is partial and unavailing; and it is with
a more philosophic spirit that Mahomet relies on the omnipotence
of the Creator, whose word can reanimate the breathless clay, and
collect the innumerable atoms, that no longer retain their form
or substance. 107 The intermediate state of the soul it is hard
to decide; and those who most firmly believe her immaterial
nature, are at a loss to understand how she can think or act
without the agency of the organs of sense.

106 (return) [ See Herodotus (l. ii. c. 123) and our learned
countryman Sir John Marsham, (Canon. Chronicus, p. 46.) The same
writer (p. 254-274) is an elaborate sketch of the infernal
regions, as they were painted by the fancy of the Egyptians and
Greeks, of the poets and philosophers of antiquity.]

107 (return) [ The Koran (c. 2, p. 259, &c.; of Sale, p. 32; of
Maracci, p. 97) relates an ingenious miracle, which satisfied the
curiosity, and confirmed the faith, of Abraham.]

The reunion of the soul and body will be followed by the final
judgment of mankind; and in his copy of the Magian picture, the
prophet has too faithfully represented the forms of proceeding,
and even the slow and successive operations, of an earthly
tribunal. By his intolerant adversaries he is upbraided for
extending, even to themselves, the hope of salvation, for
asserting the blackest heresy, that every man who believes in
God, and accomplishes good works, may expect in the last day a
favorable sentence. Such rational indifference is ill adapted to
the character of a fanatic; nor is it probable that a messenger
from heaven should depreciate the value and necessity of his own
revelation. In the idiom of the Koran, 108 the belief of God is
inseparable from that of Mahomet: the good works are those which
he has enjoined, and the two qualifications imply the profession
of Islam, to which all nations and all sects are equally invited.

Their spiritual blindness, though excused by ignorance and
crowned with virtue, will be scourged with everlasting torments;
and the tears which Mahomet shed over the tomb of his mother for
whom he was forbidden to pray, display a striking contrast of
humanity and enthusiasm. 109 The doom of the infidels is common:
the measure of their guilt and punishment is determined by the
degree of evidence which they have rejected, by the magnitude of
the errors which they have entertained: the eternal mansions of
the Christians, the Jews, the Sabians, the Magians, and
idolaters, are sunk below each other in the abyss; and the lowest
hell is reserved for the faithless hypocrites who have assumed
the mask of religion. After the greater part of mankind has been
condemned for their opinions, the true believers only will be
judged by their actions. The good and evil of each Mussulman will
be accurately weighed in a real or allegorical balance; and a
singular mode of compensation will be allowed for the payment of
injuries: the aggressor will refund an equivalent of his own good
actions, for the benefit of the person whom he has wronged; and
if he should be destitute of any moral property, the weight of
his sins will be loaded with an adequate share of the demerits of
the sufferer. According as the shares of guilt or virtue shall
preponderate, the sentence will be pronounced, and all, without
distinction, will pass over the sharp and perilous bridge of the
abyss; but the innocent, treading in the footsteps of Mahomet,
will gloriously enter the gates of paradise, while the guilty
will fall into the first and mildest of the seven hells. The term
of expiation will vary from nine hundred to seven thousand years;
but the prophet has judiciously promised, that all his disciples,
whatever may be their sins, shall be saved, by their own faith
and his intercession from eternal damnation. It is not surprising
that superstition should act most powerfully on the fears of her
votaries, since the human fancy can paint with more energy the
misery than the bliss of a future life. With the two simple
elements of darkness and fire, we create a sensation of pain,
which may be aggravated to an infinite degree by the idea of
endless duration. But the same idea operates with an opposite
effect on the continuity of pleasure; and too much of our present
enjoyments is obtained from the relief, or the comparison, of
evil. It is natural enough that an Arabian prophet should dwell
with rapture on the groves, the fountains, and the rivers of
paradise; but instead of inspiring the blessed inhabitants with a
liberal taste for harmony and science, conversation and
friendship, he idly celebrates the pearls and diamonds, the robes
of silk, palaces of marble, dishes of gold, rich wines,
artificial dainties, numerous attendants, and the whole train of
sensual and costly luxury, which becomes insipid to the owner,
even in the short period of this mortal life. Seventy-two Houris,
or black-eyed girls, of resplendent beauty, blooming youth,
virgin purity, and exquisite sensibility, will be created for the
use of the meanest believer; a moment of pleasure will be
prolonged to a thousand years; and his faculties will be
increased a hundred fold, to render him worthy of his felicity.
Notwithstanding a vulgar prejudice, the gates of heaven will be
open to both sexes; but Mahomet has not specified the male
companions of the female elect, lest he should either alarm the
jealousy of their former husbands, or disturb their felicity, by
the suspicion of an everlasting marriage. This image of a carnal
paradise has provoked the indignation, perhaps the envy, of the
monks: they declaim against the impure religion of Mahomet; and
his modest apologists are driven to the poor excuse of figures
and allegories. But the sounder and more consistent party adhere
without shame, to the literal interpretation of the Koran:
useless would be the resurrection of the body, unless it were
restored to the possession and exercise of its worthiest
faculties; and the union of sensual and intellectual enjoyment is
requisite to complete the happiness of the double animal, the
perfect man. Yet the joys of the Mahometan paradise will not be
confined to the indulgence of luxury and appetite; and the
prophet has expressly declared that all meaner happiness will be
forgotten and despised by the saints and martyrs, who shall be
admitted to the beatitude of the divine vision. 110

108 (return) [ The candid Reland has demonstrated, that Mahomet
damns all unbelievers, (de Religion. Moham. p. 128-142;) that
devils will not be finally saved, (p. 196-199;) that paradise
will not solely consist of corporeal delights, (p. 199-205;) and
that women’s souls are immortal. (p. 205-209.)]

109 (return) [ A Beidawi, apud Sale. Koran, c. 9, p. 164. The
refusal to pray for an unbelieving kindred is justified,
according to Mahomet, by the duty of a prophet, and the example
of Abraham, who reprobated his own father as an enemy of God. Yet
Abraham (he adds, c. 9, v. 116. Maracci, tom. ii. p. 317) fuit
sane pius, mitis.]

110 (return) [ For the day of judgment, hell, paradise, &c.,
consult the Koran, (c. 2, v. 25, c. 56, 78, &c.;) with Maracci’s
virulent, but learned, refutation, (in his notes, and in the
Prodromus, part iv. p. 78, 120, 122, &c.;) D’Herbelot,
(Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 368, 375;) Reland, (p. 47-61;) and
Sale, (p. 76-103.) The original ideas of the Magi are darkly and
doubtfully explored by their apologist, Dr. Hyde, (Hist.
Religionis Persarum, c. 33, p. 402-412, Oxon. 1760.) In the
article of Mahomet, Bayle has shown how indifferently wit and
philosophy supply the absence of genuine information.]

The first and most arduous conquests of Mahomet 111 were those of
his wife, his servant, his pupil, and his friend; 112 since he
presented himself as a prophet to those who were most conversant
with his infirmities as a man. Yet Cadijah believed the words,
and cherished the glory, of her husband; the obsequious and
affectionate Zeid was tempted by the prospect of freedom; the
illustrious Ali, the son of Abu Taleb, embraced the sentiments of
his cousin with the spirit of a youthful hero; and the wealth,
the moderation, the veracity of Abubeker confirmed the religion
of the prophet whom he was destined to succeed. By his
persuasion, ten of the most respectable citizens of Mecca were
introduced to the private lessons of Islam; they yielded to the
voice of reason and enthusiasm; they repeated the fundamental
creed, “There is but one God, and Mahomet is the apostle of God;”
and their faith, even in this life, was rewarded with riches and
honors, with the command of armies and the government of
kingdoms. Three years were silently employed in the conversion of
fourteen proselytes, the first-fruits of his mission; but in the
fourth year he assumed the prophetic office, and resolving to
impart to his family the light of divine truth, he prepared a
banquet, a lamb, as it is said, and a bowl of milk, for the
entertainment of forty guests of the race of Hashem. “Friends and
kinsmen,” said Mahomet to the assembly, “I offer you, and I alone
can offer, the most precious of gifts, the treasures of this
world and of the world to come. God has commanded me to call you
to his service. Who among you will support my burden? Who among
you will be my companion and my vizier?” 113 No answer was
returned, till the silence of astonishment, and doubt, and
contempt, was at length broken by the impatient courage of Ali, a
youth in the fourteenth year of his age. “O prophet, I am the
man: whosoever rises against thee, I will dash out his teeth,
tear out his eyes, break his legs, rip up his belly. O prophet, I
will be thy vizier over them.” Mahomet accepted his offer with
transport, and Abu Taled was ironically exhorted to respect the
superior dignity of his son. In a more serious tone, the father
of Ali advised his nephew to relinquish his impracticable design.

“Spare your remonstrances,” replied the intrepid fanatic to his
uncle and benefactor; “if they should place the sun on my right
hand, and the moon on my left, they should not divert me from my
course.” He persevered ten years in the exercise of his mission;
and the religion which has overspread the East and the West
advanced with a slow and painful progress within the walls of
Mecca. Yet Mahomet enjoyed the satisfaction of beholding the
increase of his infant congregation of Unitarians, who revered
him as a prophet, and to whom he seasonably dispensed the
spiritual nourishment of the Koran. The number of proselytes may
be esteemed by the absence of eighty-three men and eighteen
women, who retired to Aethiopia in the seventh year of his
mission; and his party was fortified by the timely conversion of
his uncle Hamza, and of the fierce and inflexible Omar, who
signalized in the cause of Islam the same zeal, which he had
exerted for its destruction. Nor was the charity of Mahomet
confined to the tribe of Koreish, or the precincts of Mecca: on
solemn festivals, in the days of pilgrimage, he frequented the
Caaba, accosted the strangers of every tribe, and urged, both in
private converse and public discourse, the belief and worship of
a sole Deity. Conscious of his reason and of his weakness, he
asserted the liberty of conscience, and disclaimed the use of
religious violence: 114 but he called the Arabs to repentance,
and conjured them to remember the ancient idolaters of Ad and
Thamud, whom the divine justice had swept away from the face of
the earth. 115

111 (return) [ Before I enter on the history of the prophet, it
is incumbent on me to produce my evidence. The Latin, French, and
English versions of the Koran are preceded by historical
discourses, and the three translators, Maracci, (tom. i. p.
10-32,) Savary, (tom. i. p. 1-248,) and Sale, (Preliminary
Discourse, p. 33-56,) had accurately studied the language and
character of their author. Two professed Lives of Mahomet have
been composed by Dr. Prideaux (Life of Mahomet, seventh edition,
London, 1718, in octavo) and the count de Boulainvilliers, (Vie
de Mahomed, Londres, 1730, in octavo: ) but the adverse wish of
finding an impostor or a hero, has too often corrupted the
learning of the doctor and the ingenuity of the count. The
article in D’Herbelot (Bibliot. Orient. p. 598-603) is chiefly
drawn from Novairi and Mirkond; but the best and most authentic
of our guides is M. Gagnier, a Frenchman by birth, and professor
at Oxford of the Oriental tongues. In two elaborate works,
(Ismael Abulfeda de Vita et Rebus gestis Mohammedis, &c. Latine
vertit, Praefatione et Notis illustravit Johannes Gagnier, Oxon.
1723, in folio. La Vie de Mahomet traduite et compilee de
l’Alcoran, des Traditions Authentiques de la Sonna et des
meilleurs Auteurs Arabes; Amsterdam, 1748, 3 vols. in 12mo.,) he
has interpreted, illustrated, and supplied the Arabic text of
Abulfeda and Al Jannabi; the first, an enlightened prince who
reigned at Hamah, in Syria, A.D. 1310-1332, (see Gagnier Praefat.
ad Abulfed.;) the second, a credulous doctor, who visited Mecca
A.D. 1556. (D’Herbelot, p. 397. Gagnier, tom. iii. p. 209, 210.)
These are my general vouchers, and the inquisitive reader may
follow the order of time, and the division of chapters. Yet I
must observe that both Abulfeda and Al Jannabi are modern
historians, and that they cannot appeal to any writers of the
first century of the Hegira. * Note: A new Life, by Dr. Weil,
(Stuttgart. 1843,) has added some few traditions unknown in
Europe. Of Dr. Weil’s Arabic scholarship, which professes to
correct many errors in Gagnier, in Maracci, and in M. von Hammer,
I am no judge. But it is remarkable that he does not seem
acquainted with the passage of Tabari, translated by Colonel Vans
Kennedy, in the Bombay Transactions, (vol. iii.,) the earliest
and most important addition made to the traditionary Life of
Mahomet. I am inclined to think Colonel Vans Kennedy’s
appreciation of the prophet’s character, which may be overlooked
in a criticism on Voltaire’s Mahomet, the most just which I have
ever read. The work of Dr. Weil appears to me most valuable in
its dissection and chronological view of the Koran.—M. 1845]

112 (return) [ After the Greeks, Prideaux (p. 8) discloses the
secret doubts of the wife of Mahomet. As if he had been a privy
counsellor of the prophet, Boulainvilliers (p. 272, &c.) unfolds
the sublime and patriotic views of Cadijah and the first
disciples.]

113 (return) [ Vezirus, portitor, bajulus, onus ferens; and this
plebeian name was transferred by an apt metaphor to the pillars
of the state, (Gagnier, Not. ad Abulfed. p. 19.) I endeavor to
preserve the Arabian idiom, as far as I can feel it myself in a
Latin or French translation.]

114 (return) [ The passages of the Koran in behalf of toleration
are strong and numerous: c. 2, v. 257, c. 16, 129, c. 17, 54, c.
45, 15, c. 50, 39, c. 88, 21, &c., with the notes of Maracci and
Sale. This character alone may generally decide the doubts of the
learned, whether a chapter was revealed at Mecca or Medina.]

115 (return) [ See the Koran, (passim, and especially c. 7, p.
123, 124, &c.,) and the tradition of the Arabs, (Pocock,
Specimen, p. 35-37.) The caverns of the tribe of Thamud, fit for
men of the ordinary stature, were shown in the midway between
Medina and Damascus. (Abulfed Arabiae Descript. p. 43, 44,) and
may be probably ascribed to the Throglodytes of the primitive
world, (Michaelis, ad Lowth de Poesi Hebraeor. p. 131-134.
Recherches sur les Egyptiens, tom. ii. p. 48, &c.)]