DICTIONARY OF ISLĀM. (continued 22)

K͟hālid ibn al-Walīd, a name afterwards famous in Muslim history, commanding the right wing of the Quraish, attacked the Muslims, and raised the cry, “Muḥammad is slain!” The confusion of the Faithful was great, and defied all the efforts of Muḥammad to rally them. The Prophet himself was wounded in the face by two arrows. The Muslims were completely defeated, but the retreat was ably conducted by Abū Bakr, ʿUmar, and ʿUs̤mān, and the victorious Quraish did not attempt a pursuit.

Abū ʾl-Fidāʾ gives the following quaint account of the battle:—

“When the two armies engaged and approached each other, Hind, daughter of ʿUtbāh, the wife of Abū Sufyān, arose with the women that were with her, and they beat upon the tabors as they followed the men to battle. And Hind said, ‘Well done, ye sons of ʿAbdu ʾd-Dār, well done! Strike ye with every weapon ye possess.’ And Ḥamzah, the Prophet’s uncle, fought most valiantly that day; and he slew Artah, the standard-bearer of the unbelievers.”

“And Abū Kamiyah, the Lais̤ite slew Muṣʿab, the standard-bearer of the Muslims, and when Muṣʿab was slain, the Prophet gave the standard of Islām to ʿAlī, the son of Abū T̤ālib. Now, the archers were too eager for the spoil, and they left the position in which Muḥammad had posted them. And K͟hālid, the leader of the unbelievers, came with the cavalry to the rear of the Muslims, and raised a cry that Muḥammad was slain. So the Muslims were overcome by the unbelievers, and the Quraish gained the victory. The number of martyrs in the cause of Islām who fell at Uḥud was seventy. The number of the slain amongst the unbelievers was twenty-two. The enemy even struck Muḥammad. Their stones hit him and he fell. His foreteeth were struck out, and he was wounded in the face. Two nails of the helmet entered the face of Muḥammad. And Abū ʿUbaidah pulled one of the nails out of his face and one tooth dropped out; and he pulled out another nail and another tooth dropped out. And when Abū ʿUbaidah was taking out the teeth, Sunān Abū Saʿīd sucked the blood from Muḥammad’s face and swallowed it. Upon which the Prophet said, ‘Whosoever toucheth my blood, him shall the fire of hell never touch.’

“Then Hind and her companions fell on the Muslims who were slain, and cut off their noses and their ears. And Hind cut a slice from Ḥamzah’s liver and ate it. Then Abū Sufyān, the husband of Hind, stuck his spear into Ḥamzah’s body, and cried with a loud voice, ‘The fortunes of war are uncertain! The day of Uḥud for the day of Badr! Let the idol of Hubal be exalted!’ Then Muḥammad sought for the body of his uncle, and he found it lying on the ground with the belly ripped open and the ears and nose cut off. And the Prophet said, ‘God hath revealed to me concerning the Quraish. Verily, retaliation shall be made on thirty of them for the death of Ḥamzah, and verily Ḥamzah is now in the seventh heaven.’ Then Muḥammad prayed for Ḥamzah, and went to each of the bodies of the slain and prayed for them. Some of the Muslims wanted to carry their dead to al-Madīnah, but the Prophet said, ‘Bury them where they fell.’ ”

There is an allusion to the defeat at Uḥud in the third Sūrah of the Qurʾān: “What befell you when the two armies met by God’s permission. Count not those who are killed in the way of God as dead. They are living with their Lord.”

The fourth year of the Hijrah (A.D. 625) opened with the despatch of 500 Muslims against the tribe of Asd, who were making preparations to invade al-Madīnah. The enemy fled at the appearance of the Muslim troops, and the place was sacked.

During this year there were several expeditions. Amongst others, one against the Jewish tribe Banū Naẓīr, whose homes were spoiled, and the people banished, because they would not accept the mission of the “Apostle of God.” There is an allusion to this event in the second Sūrah of the Qurʾān. A second expedition was also made to Badr, but there was no fighting, although the event is known as the second battle of Badr; for after waiting eight days for an engagement with the Quraish, the Muslims returned in triumph to al-Madīnah.

It was about this time that Muḥammad made two additions to his ḥaram, by marrying Zainab, the widow of ʿUbaidah, who fell at Badr, as his fifth wife, and Ummu Salimah, the widow of Abū Salimah, who fell at the battle of Uḥud, for his sixth; thus exceeding the legal number of four wives, to which he restricted his followers.

Muḥammad being threatened by combined contingents of the Quraish, the Banū G͟hat̤fān and the Jewish tribes of Naẓīr and Quraiz̤ah, who advanced upon al-Madīnah with an army of 12,000 men, he, at the advice of a Persian named Salmān, caused a trench to be dug round the city, and then issued forth to defend it at the head of 3,000 Muslims. Both sides remained inactive for nearly a month, when, at last, the Quraish and their allies broke up the siege. This engagement is known in Muslim history as G͟hazwatu ʾl-K͟handaq, or the “Battle of the Ditch.” Special reference is made to this event in the Qurʾān, Sūrah xxxiii. 9, where the success of the Muslims is attributed to the intervention of God, “who sent a blast and a host that were not seen.”

The next expedition was against the Jewish tribe, the Banū Quraiz̤ah, when Muḥammad led an army of three thousand men with thirty-six horse. The Jews sustained a siege of some twenty-five days, but were at last compelled to capitulate. Their fate was left to the decision of the Prophet’s companion, Saʿd, whose sentence was that the male captives should be slain, the female captives and children sold into slavery, and the spoils divided amongst the army. The Prophet commended the cruel judgment of Saʿd, as a decision according to the judgment of God, given on high from the seven heavens; and about 700 captives were deliberately beheaded, in parties in the presence of Muḥammad. One of the female captives, Rīḥānah, whose husband and male relatives had perished in the massacre, the Prophet reserved for himself. This cruel massacre of the Banū Quraiz̤ah is commended in the XXXIIIrd Sūrah of the Qurʾān, verse 25.

Before the close of this year, Muḥammad married his cousin Zainab. The Prophet had previously given her in marriage to Zaid ibn Ḥāris̤ah, his freed man and adopted son. But upon visiting the house of Zaid, and not finding him at home, the Prophet accidentally cast his eyes on Zainab, and was so smitten with her beauty, that he exclaimed, “Praise belongeth unto God, who turneth the hearts of men even as He will.” Zainab saw that she had made an impression on the Prophet’s heart, and when her husband returned, recounted the circumstances to him. Zaid determined to part with her in favour of his friend and benefactor, and offered to divorce her. But the relations of the Arabs to their adopted children were so strict, that nothing but a revelation from heaven could settle the difficulty. It was to meet this domestic emergency that the Prophet produced the following verses of the Qurʾān, Sūrah xxxiii. 36–38, to sanction his own heart’s desire:—

“And it is not for a believer, man or woman, to have any choice in their affairs, when God and His Apostle have decreed a matter: and whoever disobeyeth God and His Apostle, erreth with palpable error. And, remember, when thou saidst to him unto whom God had shown favour, and to whom thou also hadst shown favour, ‘Keep thy wife to thyself, and fear God;’ and thou didst hide in thy mind what God would bring to light, and thou didst fear man; but more right had it been to fear God. And when Zaid had settled concerning her to divorce her, we married her to thee, that it might not be a crime in the faithful to marry the wives of their adopted sons, when they have settled the affair concerning them. And the behest of God is to be performed. No blame attacheth to the Prophet where God hath given him a permission. Such was the way of God with those prophets who flourished before thee.”

The scandal of the marriage was removed by the pretended revelation, and according to the Traditions, Zainab used to vaunt herself as the one wife of the Prophet’s ḥarīm who had been given in marriage by God Himself. At all events, she exchanged a husband who had a pug nose and was short and ill-favoured for one who was the leading chief of Arabia!

Muḥammad’s numerous marriages (four being the legal number—Sūrah iv. 3) were likely to excite the jealousy and opposition of less favoured Muslims, but an additional chapter of the Qurʾān avoided complications, and allowed the “Prophet of God” greater liberty in this respect! See Sūrah xxxiii. 49: “O Prophet, we have allowed thee thy wives whom thou hast dowered, and the slaves whom thy right hand possesseth … and any believing woman who has given herself up to the Prophet, if the Prophet desireth to wed her; a privilege for thee above the rest of the Faithful.”

About this time certain injunctions were issued for the seclusion of women, and for the regulation of social and domestic intercourse (Sūrah xxv.). These rules were made more stringent in the case of the Prophet’s own wives, who, in the case of incontinence, are threatened with double punishment (Sūrah xxxiii.). The jealousy of the Prophet, who was now getting old, was allayed by the Divine command, that his wives should, in the event of his death, never marry again. The obligation devolving on believers, to consort equally with their several wives, was also relaxed specially in the Prophet’s favour (Sūrah xlviii.).

In the sixth year of the Hijrah several military expeditions were made. Amongst others, to the Banū Quraiz̤ah and the Banū Laḥyān. On his return from the last expedition Muḥammad stopped for a few moments to visit the grave of his mother, and desired to pray for her soul. But a verse from the Qurʾān, alleged to have been revealed on this occasion, forbade his praying for the forgiveness of one who died an infidel. Sūrah ix. 114, 115:—

“It is not for the Prophet or the Faithful to pray for the forgiveness of those, even though they be of kin, who associate other beings with God, after it hath been made clear to them that they are to be the inmates of Hell. For neither did Abraham ask forgiveness for his father, but in pursuance of a promise which he had promised to him: but when it was shown him that he was an enemy to God, he declared himself clear of him. Yet Abraham was pitiful, kind.”

Muḥammad marched in person against the Banū ʾl-Muṣt̤aliq, and completely surprised and routed them. One thousand camels, five thousand sheep, and a great many women and children, became the spoil of the Muslims. One of the female captives, named Juwairīyah, fell to the lot of S̤ābit ibn Qais, who, as a meritorious act, offered to release her and give her her liberty, for a certain sum. On applying to Muḥammad to help her with the money to pay the ransom, he readily agreed to do so, and when she was freed he married her. Thereupon, the Muslims recognised the Banū ʾl-Muṣt̤aliq as allies. Juwairīyah survived Muḥammad forty-five years.

At the last stage, returning from the campaign against the Banū ʾl-Muṣt̤aliq, ʿĀyishah’s tent and litter were by inadvertence carried away, while she was for a moment absent, and on her return she found herself in the dark alone. Expecting the mistake to be discovered, she sat down to await the issue, when, after some delay, one of the followers came up, and finding her in this plight, bade her mount his camel, and so conducted her to al-Madīnah. The citizens drew sinister conclusions from the circumstance, and Muḥammad himself became estranged from ʿĀyishah, and she retired to her father’s home. Several weeks elapsed, when, at length, the Prophet was supernaturally informed of her innocence (Sūrah xxiv.). The law was then promulgated which requires four eye-witnesses to establish the charge of adultery, in default of which the imputation is to be punished as a slander, with eighty lashes. [QAZF.] ʿĀyishah was taken back to her home, and her accusers were beaten.

It was during the year A.H. 6, that Muḥammad conceived the idea of addressing foreign sovereigns and princes, and of inviting them to embrace Islām. His letter to the Emperor Heraclius has been handed down by Ibn ʿAbbās (Mishkāt, book xvii. ch. civ.), and is as follows:—

“In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful, Muḥammad, who is the servant of God, and His Apostle, to Hiraql, the Qaiṣar of Rūm. Peace be on whoever has gone on the straight road. After this I say, Verily, I call you to Islām. Embrace Islām, and God will reward you twofold. If you turn away from the offer of Islām, then on you be the sins of your people. O people of the Book (i.e. Christians), come towards a creed which is fit both for us and for you. It is this, to worship none but God, and not to associate anything with God, and not to call others God. Therefore, O ye people of the Book, if ye refuse, beware! We are Muslims, and our religion is Islām.

(Seal.)

“Muhammad, the Apostle of God.”

The letter was sent to the Governor of Buṣrā that he might convey it to Cæsar, but we have no record of a reply having been received.

He also wrote to Kasra-Parwiz, King of Persia, but Kasra tore the letter in pieces. On hearing the fate of his letter, Muḥammad said, “Even so shall his kingdom be shattered to pieces.” His third embassy was to Najāshī, the King of Abyssinia, who received the message with honour. The fourth was to Jarīḥ ibn Matta, the Muqauqis, or Governor, of Egypt. Jarīḥ sent a polite reply, and begged the Prophet’s acceptance of two beautiful Coptic slave girls. One of these, Shirīn, the Prophet gave to Ḥassān the poet, but he reserved the other, Māriyah, for himself. In due time, Māriyah presented the Prophet with a son, who was named Ibrāhīm, the birth of which made the mother a free woman, and placed her in the honourable position of the wife. But the Prophet’s extreme fondness for the recent addition to his already extensive ḥarīm was resented by his numerous wives. ʿĀyishah and Ḥafṣah were especially enraged, for the Prophet was in the habit of visiting Māriyah on the day due to one of these ladies. Ḥafṣah, who, being the daughter of ʿUmar, was a person of great political importance, took up the matter, and in order to pacify her the Prophet swore solemnly that he would never visit Māriyah again, and enjoined Ḥafṣah to keep the secret from the rest of his wives. She, however, revealed it in confidence to ʿĀyishah! Muḥammad was annoyed at finding his confidence betrayed, and separated himself for a whole month from his wives, and spent his time in Māriyah’s apartment. The situation was a difficult one, not merely on account of the complications caused in his own domestic circle, but because ʿUmar, the father of Ḥafṣah, was a most important political personage in those days. The only way out of the difficulty was to produce a third direct revelation from heaven, which appeared in the Sūratu ʾt-Taḥrīm, or the “Chapter of Prohibition” (lxvi.), of the Qurʾān, and reads as follows:—

“Why, O Prophet! dost thou hold that to be forbidden which God hath made lawful to thee, from a desire to please thy wives, since God is Lenient, Merciful? God hath allowed you release from your oaths; and God is your master; and He is the Knowing, Wise. When the Prophet told a recent occurrence as a secret to one of his wives (i.e. Ḥafṣah), and when she divulged it and God informed him of this, he acquainted her with part and withheld part. And when he had told her of it, she said, ‘Who told thee this?’ He said, ‘The Knowing, the Sage hath told it me. If ye both be turned to God in penitence, for now have your hearts gone astray … but if ye conspire against the Prophet, then know that God is his Protector, and Gabriel, and every just man among the faithful; and the angels are his helpers besides. Haply if he put you both (i.e. Ḥafṣah and ʿĀyishah) away, his Lord will give him in exchange other wives better than you, Muslims, believers, devout, penitent, obedient, observant of fasting, both known of men and virgins.’ ”

In the Muḥarram of A.H. 7, Muḥammad assembled a force of 1,600 men, and marched against K͟haibar, a fertile district inhabited by the Jews, and situated about six days’ march to the north-east of al-Madīnah. The attack on K͟haibar taxed both the energy and skill of the Warrior Prophet, for it was defended by several fortresses. The fort Qamuṣ was defended by Kinānah, a powerful Jewish chief, who claimed for himself the title of “King of the Jews.” Several assaults were made and vigorously repulsed by the besieged. Both Abū Bakr and ʿUmar were equally unsuccessful in their attempts to take the position, when the Prophet selected ʿAlī to lead a detachment of picked men. A famous Jewish warrior named Marhab, now presented himself, and challenged ʿAlī to single combat. The challenge was accepted, and ʿAlī, armed with his famous sword “Ẕū ʾl-Fiqār,” given to him by the Prophet, cleft the head of his adversary in twain, and secured a victory. In a few days all the fortresses of the district were taken, and K͟haibar was subjugated to Islām.

Amongst the female captives was Ṣafīyah, the widow of the chief Kinānah, who had fallen at Qamuṣ. One of Muḥammad’s followers begged her for himself, but the Prophet, struck with her beauty, threw his mantle over her, and took her to his ḥarīm.

The booty taken at K͟haibar was very considerable, and in order to secure the district to Muslim rule, the Jews of the district were exiled to the banks of the Jordan.

It was during the K͟haibar expedition that Muḥammad instituted Mutʿah, an abominable temporary marriage, to meet the demands of his army. This is an institution still observed by the Shīʿahs, but said by the Sunnīs to have been abolished by Muḥammad. [MUTʿAH.] It was at K͟haibar that an attempt was made, by a Jewess named Zainab, to poison Muḥammad. She dressed a kid, and having steeped it in deadly poison, placed it before the Prophet, who ate but a mouthful of the poisoned kid when the deed was discovered. Zainab was immediately put to death.

The subjugation of the Jewish districts of Fadak, Wādī ʾl-Qurā and Tannah, on the confines of Syria, followed that of K͟haibar. This year, in the sacred month of Ẕū ʾl-Qaʿdah, Muḥammad decided to perform the ʿUmrah, or religious visitation of Makkah [ʿUMRAH], and for this purpose he left al-Madīnah with a following of some 4,400 men. When they were within two days’ march of Makkah, their advance was checked by the hostile Quraish, and Muḥammad, turning to the west from ʿUsfān, encamped at al-Ḥudaibiyah, within seven miles of the sacred city. At this spot a truce was made, which is known as the treaty of al-Ḥudaibiyah, in which it was stipulated that all hostilities should cease for ten years, and that for the future the Muslims should have the privilege, unmolested, of paying a yearly visit of three days to the Kaʿbah.

After sacrificing the victims at al-Ḥudaibiyah, Muḥammad and his followers returned to al-Madīnah.

The advent of the holy month Ẕū ʾl-Qaʿdah, of the next year (A.H. 8), was eagerly expected by Muḥammad and his followers, for then, according to the terms of the truce of al-Ḥudaibiyah, they might, without molestation, visit the holy city, and spend three days in the performance of the accustomed rites. The number of the faithful swelled on the approach to nearly 2,000 men, and the Quraish thought it best to retire with their forces to the heights overlooking the valley. Seated on his camel al-Qaṣwā, which eight years before had borne him in his flight from the cave of S̤aur a hunted fugitive, the Prophet, now surrounded by joyous crowds of disciples, the companions of his exile, approached and saluted the holy shrine. Eagerly did he press forward to the Kaʿbah, touched with his staff the Black Stone, seven times made the circuit of the holy house, seven times journeyed between aṣ-Ṣafā and al-Marwah, sacrificed the victims, and fulfilled all the ceremonies of the lesser pilgrimage.

While at Makkah he negotiated an alliance with Maimūnah, his eleventh and last wife. His marriage gained him two most important converts—K͟hālid, the “Sword of God,” who before this had turned the tide of battle at Uḥud; and ʿAmr, destined afterwards to carry to foreign lands the victorious standards of Islām.

The services of these two important converts were quickly utilised. An envoy from Muḥammad to the Christian Prince of Bostra, in Syria, having been slain by the chief of Mūtah—a village to the south-east of the Dead Sea—a force of 3,000 men, under his adopted son Zaid, was sent to exact retribution, and to call the offending tribe to the faith. On the northward march, though they learnt that an overwhelming force of Arabs and Romans—the latter of whom met the Muslims for the first time—was assembling to oppose them, they resolved resolutely to push forward. The result was their disastrous defeat and repulse. Zaid and Jaʿfar, a brother of ʿAlī, fell defending the white banner of the Prophet. K͟hālid, by a series of manœuvres, succeeded in drawing off the army, and conducting it without further loss to al-Madīnah. A month later, however, ʿAmr marched unopposed through the lands of the hostile tribes, received their submission, and restored the prestige of Islām on the Syrian frontier. Muḥammad deeply felt the loss of Zaid and Jaʿfar, and exhibited the tenderest sympathy for their widows and orphans.

The defeat at Mūtah was followed, in the south, by events of the greatest moment to Muḥammad. Certain smouldering hostilities between tribes inhabiting the neighbourhood of Makkah broke forth about the end of the year. These were judged to be infractions of the treaty (some of these tribes being in league with the Quraish), and were eagerly seized upon by Muḥammad, as justifying those designs upon Makkah which the success of his arms, and the dominion he possessed over numberless tribes in the north, in the Ḥijāz, and Najd, now made it easy for him to carry out.

Having, therefore, determined to attack his native city, he announced his intention to his followers, and directed his allies among the Bedouin tribe, to join him on the march to Makkah. Although he took every precaution to prevent his preparations becoming known, the news reached the ears of the Quraish, who sent Abū Sufyān to deprecate his anger and to ask him to abandon his purpose. Humiliation and failure were the only result of this mission.

On the 1st January, A.D. 630, Muḥammad’s march commenced, and after eight days, through unfrequented roads and defiles, the army, swelled to the number of 10,000 men, halted and lighted their camp fires on the heights of Marru ʾz̤-Z̤ahrān, a day’s march from the sacred city. The Prophet had been joined on his march by his uncle al-ʿAbbās, and on the night of his arrival Abū Sufyān again presented himself, and besought an interview. On the morrow it was granted. “Has the time not yet come, O Abū Sufyān,” cried Muḥammad, “for thee to acknowledge that there is but one God, and that I am his Apostle.” He answered that his heart still felt some hesitancy; but seeing the threatening sword of al-ʿAbbās, and knowing that Makkah was at the mercy of the Prophet, he repeated the prescribed formula of belief, and was sent to prepare the city for his approach.

The Prophet made his public entry into Makkah on his favourite camel, having Abū Bakr on his right hand, Usaid on his left, and Usāmah walking behind him. On his way he recited the XLVIIIth Sūrah of the Qurʾān, known as the “Chapter of Victory.” He then entered the Sacred Mosque and circuited the Kaʿbah seven times, touching the Black Stone as he passed with his stick. Observing several pictures of angels inside the Kaʿbah, he ordered them to be removed, at the same time crying out with a loud voice, “God is great! God is great!” He then fixed the Qiblah [QIBLAH] at Makkah, and ordered the destruction of the 360 idols which the Makkan temple contained, himself destroying a wooden pigeon suspended from the roof, and regarded as one of the deities of the Quraish.

On the 11th day of the month of Ramaẓān, he repaired to Mount aṣ-Ṣafā, where all the people of Makkah had been assembled in order to take the oath of allegiance to him. ʿUmar, acting as his deputy, administered the oath, whereby the people bound themselves to obey Muḥammad, to abstain from theft, adultery, infanticide, lying, and backbiting.

During his stay at Makkah, Muḥammad sent small detachments of troops into the district, who destroyed the temples of al-ʿUzza, Suwaʿ, and Manāt, the three famous idol-temples of the neighbouring tribes. The Prophet had given strict orders that these expeditions should be carried out in a peaceable manner, and that only in cases of necessity should force of arms be used. K͟hālid ibn al-Walīd, however, who commanded 350 men, found himself opposed by the Jazimah tribe, for instead of saying as they were commanded, “We are Muslims,” they said, “We are Sabians”; and the impetuous general, whose name afterwards became so celebrated in history, ordered the whole tribe to be slain. Muḥammad, when he heard of this barbarity, exclaimed, “Oh! my God, I am innocent of this”; and he despatched a large sum of money for the widows and orphans of the slain, and severely rebuked K͟hālid.

The Prophet left Makkah after a fortnight’s residence, and at the head of 12,000 men attacked the Banī S̤aqīf and the Banī Hawāzin. Mālik ibn Ans, the chief of the S̤aqīf, made a bold stand, and the Prophet rallied his forces with the utmost difficulty, but having thrown a handful of dust in the direction of the enemy as a signal of victory, the Muslims renewed the charge, and 700 of the tribe were left dead on the field. This victory was followed immediately by one over the Banī Hawāzin, in the valley of Aut̤ās. (See Sūrah ix. 25, 26.)

The ninth year of the Hijrah is known as the year of deputations, as being the year in which the various tribes of Arabia submitted to the claim of the Prophet, and sent embassies of peace to him. It is also remarkable for numerous minor expeditions.

Hearing that the Romans were assembling in large force on their frontier, Muḥammad determined to attack them at Tabūk (a city between al-Madīnah and Damascus). The army sent to Tabūk was the largest employed in the time of the Prophet, for it is said to have numbered 20,000, and 10,000 cavalry. By the time the army had arrived at Tabūk, the rumoured invasion had been proved unfounded. Muḥammad, however, utilised a portion of the force by sending it, under the command of K͟hālid, to Dūmah, where he received the submission of the Jewish and Christian tribes. A treaty with John, the Christian Prince of Ailah, was made, and Ukaidar, the Christian chief of Dūmah was converted to Islām.

The gradual submission of Arabia, and the acknowledgment of the spiritual and temporal supremacy of the Prophet throughout the entire peninsula, followed. Indeed, in the complex system which he had established, the spiritual and secular functions were intimately blended, and involved in each other, and whilst in his humble home at al-Madīnah he retained still the simple manners of his earlier years, which, at his time of life, he had probably no inclination to alter, he exercised all those regal and sacerdotal powers which the victorious arms of his lieutenants, or the voluntary submission of the most distant provinces of Arabia, had caused to be universally acknowledged. Tax-collectors were appointed to receive the prescribed offerings or tithes, which generally amounted to “a tenth part of the increase.”

The city of at̤-T̤āʾif, trusting to its natural strength, constituted itself a centre of disaffection; but at last, driven to extremities, and seeing that all the neighbouring tribes had one by one submitted, its chief, after a vain attempt to obtain some relaxation in the rules of Islām, consented to the destruction of the adored idol al-Lāt, and adopted the new faith.

It was during the time of the next yearly pilgrimage (March, A.D. 631), that Muḥammad issued an important command, the crowning stone of the system he had raised, which shows at once the power he wielded, and the strong hold his doctrines had already taken throughout Arabia. Refusing to be present himself during the ceremonies of the pilgrimage, he commissioned ʿAlī to announce to the assembled multitudes in the valley of Minā, that, at the expiration of the four sacred months, the Prophet would hold himself absolved from every obligation or league with idolaters; that after that year no unbeliever would be allowed to perform the pilgrimage, or to visit the holy places; and further, he gave directions that either within or without the sacred territory, war was to be waged with them, that they were to be killed, besieged, and laid in wait for “wheresoever found.” He ordains, however, that if they repent and pay the legal alms, they are to be dismissed freely; but as regards “those unto whom the Scriptures have been delivered” (Jews and Christians, &c.), “they are to be fought against until they pay tribute by right of subjection, and are reduced low.”

“Such, then,” says Sir William Muir, “is the declared mission of Islam, arrived at by slow, though inevitable steps, and now imprinted unchangeably upon its banners. The Jews and Christians, and perhaps the Magians,—‘people of the book’—are to be tolerated, but held in subjection, and under tribute; but for the rest, the sword is not to be sheathed till they are exterminated, or submit to the faith which is to become ‘superior to every other religion.’ ”

About the middle of the year, a heavy grief fell upon Muḥammad, in the death of his little son Ibrāhīm.

On the return of the sacred month (March, A.D. 632), Muḥammad, accompanied by all his wives, selected his victims, assumed the pilgrim garb, and set out on what is called Ḥajjatu ʾl-Wadāʿ, or “The Valedictory Pilgrimage,” to the holy places, from which every trace of the old superstition had been removed, and which, in accordance with his orders of the previous year, no idolater was to visit. Approaching the Kaʿbah by the gate of the Banū Shaibah, he carefully performed all the ceremonies of the ʿUmrah, or “lesser Pilgrimage,” and then proceeded to consummate those of the greater. On the 8th of the holy month Ẕū ʾl-Ḥijjah, he rode to the Wādī Minā, some three miles east of Makkah, and rested there for the night. Next day, passing Muzdalifah, the midway station, he reached in the evening the valley in which stands the granite hill of ʿArafah. From the “summit he spoke to the pilgrims regarding its sacred precincts, announced to them the perfecting of their religion,” offered up the prescribed prayers, and hurried back to Muzdalifah for the night. On the 10th, proceeding to Minā, he cast the accustomed stones, slew the victims brought for sacrifice, had his head shaved and his nails pared, ordering the hair, &c., to be burnt; and, the ceremonies ended, laid aside the pilgrim garb. At Minā, during his three days’ stay, he preached to the pilgrims, called them to witness that he had faithfully fulfilled his mission, and urged them not to depart from the exact observances of the religion which he had appointed. Returning to Makkah, he again went through the ceremonies of the ʿUmrah, made the circuit of the temple, drank of the well Zamzam, prayed in the Kaʿbah, and thus, having rigorously performed all the ceremonies, that his example might serve as a model for all succeeding time, he turned to al-Madīnah.

The excitement and fatigue of his journey to the holy places told sensibly on his health, which for some time had shown indications of increasing infirmity. In the death of Ibrāhīm he had received a blow which weighed down his spirit; the poison of K͟haibar still rankled in his veins, afflicted him at times with excruciating pain, and bowed him to the grave. His life had been a hard and a stirring one, and now the important affairs of his spiritual and temporal kingdom, and the cares of his large domestic circle, denied him that quiet and seclusion for which he longed.

The news of the Prophet’s failing health was soon noised abroad, and tended to encourage his rivals to increased energy of action. Three different revolts, each headed by a dangerous competitor, were now on the point of breaking out. The first of these was led by Musailimah, a rival prophet, who now stated that Muḥammad had distinctly nominated him as his successor [MUSAILIMAH]; the second, by Aswad, a wealthy and eloquent rival, with a considerable following [ASWAD]; and the third, by T̤ulaiḥah, a famous warrior of Najd, who claimed the prophetic office.

In the Traditions it is related that Musailimah addressed a letter to Muḥammad, which ran:—

“Musailimah, the Prophet of God, to Muḥammad, the Prophet of God. Peace be to you. I am your associate. Let the exercise of authority be divided between us. Half the earth is mine, and half belongs to the Quraish. But the Quraish are a greedy people, and will not be satisfied with a fair division.”

To this presumptuous epistle Muḥammad replied:—

“Muḥammad, the Prophet of God, to Musailimah, the Liar. Peace be on those who follow the straight road. The earth is God’s, and He giveth it to whom He will. Those only prosper who fear the Lord.”

The opposition of Musailimah was, however, a formidable one, and after Muḥammad’s death he was slain by K͟hālid during the reign of Abū Bakr.

The health of Muḥammad grew worse, and he now requested that he might be permitted to remain in the home of ʿĀyishah, his beloved wife, an arrangement to which his other wives assented.

The account we now give of the closing scenes of Muḥammad’s life, is from the graphic pen of Sir William Muir (Life of Mahomet, new ed., p. 501 et seq.), and founded on the traditional histories of al-Wāqidī’s secretary, and Ibn Hishām.

“On the night of Saturday (11 Rabīʿu ʾl-Awwal, 6th June, A.D. 632), the sickness assumed a very serious aspect. The fever rose to such a pitch that the hand could hardly be kept upon his skin from its burning heat. His body was racked with pain; restless and moaning, he tossed about upon his bed. Alarmed at a severe paroxysm of the disease, Omm Salma, one of his wives, screamed aloud. Mahomet rebuked her:—‘Quiet!’ he said. ‘No one crieth out thus but an unbeliever.’ During the night, Ayesha sought to comfort him, and suggested that he should seek for consolation in the same lessons he had so often taught to others when in sickness: ‘O Prophet!’ she said, ‘if one of us had moaned thus, thou would’st surely have found fault with it.’ ‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘but I burn with the fever-heat of any two of you together.’ ‘Then,’ exclaimed one, ‘thou shalt surely have a double reward.’ ‘Yes,’ he answered, ‘I swear by Him in whose hands is my life, that there is not upon the earth a believer afflicted with any calamity or disease, but the Lord thereby causeth his sins to fall from him, even as leaves are shed in autumn from a tree.’ At another time he said, ‘Suffering is an expiation for sin. Verily, if the believer suffer but the scratch of a thorn, the Lord raiseth his rank thereby, and wipeth away from him a sin.’ ‘Believers,’ he would affirm, ‘are tried according to their faith. If a man’s faith be strong, so are his sufferings; if he be weak, they are proportioned thereunto. Yet in any case, the suffering shall not be remitted until he walk upon the earth without the guilt of a single transgression cleaving unto him.’

“Omar, approaching the bed, placed his hand on Mahomet’s forehead, and suddenly withdrew it, from the greatness of the heat: ‘O Prophet!’ he said, ‘how violent is the fever on thee!’ ‘Yea, verily,’ replied Mahomet, ‘but I have been during the night season repeating in praise of the Lord seventy Suras, and among them the seven long ones.’ Omar answered: ‘But the Lord hath forgiven thee all thy sins, the former and the latter; now, then, why not rest and take thine ease?’ ‘Nay,’ replied Mahomet, ‘for wherefore should I not be a faithful servant unto Him?’

“An attendant, while Mahomet lay covered up, put his hand below the sheet, and feeling the excessive heat, made a remark similar to that of Omar. Mahomet replied: ‘Even as this affliction prevaileth now against me, so shall my reward hereafter be enhanced.’ ‘And who are they,’ asked another, ‘that suffer the severest trials?’ ‘The prophets and the righteous,’ said Mahomet; and then he made mention of one prophet having been destroyed by lice, and of another who was tried with poverty, so that he had but a rag to cover his nakedness withal; ‘yet each of them rejoiced exceedingly in his affliction, even as one of you in great spoil would rejoice.’

“On the Sunday, Mahomet lay in a very weak and helpless state. Osâma, who had delayed his departure to see what the issue of the sickness might be, came in from Jorf to visit him. Removing the clothes from the Prophet’s face, he stooped down and kissed him, but there was no audible response. Mahomet only raised his hands to heaven in the attitude of blessing, and then placed them upon Osâma. So he returned to the camp.

“During some part of this day Mahomet complained of pain in his side, and the suffering became so great, that he fell into a state of unconsciousness. Omm Salma advised that physic should be given him. Asma, the sister of Meimûna, prepared a draught after an Abyssinian recipe, and they forced it into his mouth. Reviving from its effects, he felt the unpleasant taste in his mouth, and cried, ‘What is this that ye have done to me? Ye have even given me physic!’ They confessed that they had done so, and enumerated the ingredients of which Asma had compounded it. ‘Out upon you!’ he angrily exclaimed: ‘this is a remedy for the pleurisy, which she hath learned in the land of Abyssinia; but that is not a disease which the Lord will suffer to attack me. Now shall ye all partake of the same dose. Let not one remain in the house without being physicked, even as ye have physicked me, excepting only my uncle Abbâs.’ So all the women arose, and they poured the physic, in presence of the dying Prophet, into each other’s mouths.

“After this, the conversation turning upon Abyssinia, Omm Salma and Omm Habiba, who had both been exiles there, spoke of the beauty of a cathedral in that country, called the Church of Maria, and of the wonderful pictures on its walls. Mahomet listened quietly to them, and then said, ‘These, verily, are the people who, when a good man hath lived amongst them, build over his tomb a place of worship, and they adorn it with their pictures. These, in the eyes of the Lord, are the worst part of all the creation.’ He stopped, and covered himself with the bed-clothes; then casting them off in the restlessness and perhaps delirium of the fever, he said: ‘The Lord destroy the Jews and Christians! Let His anger be kindled against those that turn the tombs of their prophets into places of worship. O Lord, let not my tomb be an object of worship. Let there not remain any faith but that of Islam throughout the whole land of Arabia!’

“About this time, recognising Omar and some other chief men in the room, he called out, ‘Bring hither to me ink and paper, that I may record for you a writing which shall prevent your going astray for ever.’ Omar said, ‘He wandereth in his mind. Is not the Corân sufficient for us?’ But the women wished that the writing materials should be brought; and a discussion ensued. Thereupon one said, ‘What is his condition at this present moment? Come, let us see whether he speaketh deliriously or not.’ So they went and asked him what his wishes were regarding the writing he had spoken of; but he no longer desired to indite it. ‘Leave me thus alone,’ he said, ‘for my present state is better than that ye call me to.’

“In the course of this day, Mahomet called Ayesha to him, and said, ‘Where is that gold which I gave unto thee to keep?’ On her replying that it was by her, he desired that she should spend it at once in charity. Then he dozed off in a half-conscious state; and some time after asked if she had done as he desired her. On her saying that she had not yet done so, he called for the money (which was apparently a portion of the tithe income); she placed it in his hand, and counted six golden dinars. He directed that it should be divided among certain indigent families; and then lying down, he said, ‘Now I am at peace. Verily it would not have become me to meet my Lord, and this gold in my possession.’

“All Sunday night the illness of Mahomet continued unabated. He was overheard praying: one of the ejaculations was to this effect: ‘O my soul! Why seekest thou for refuge elsewhere than in God alone?’ The morning brought some measure of relief. The fever and the pain abated; and there was an apparent return of strength.

“The dangerous crisis of the Prophet’s sickness on the preceding night having become known throughout the city, the mosque was crowded in the morning, at the hour of prayer, by men and women, who came seeking anxiously for tidings. Abu Bakr, as usual, led the devotions; as Imâm he stood in the place of Mahomet before the congregation, his back turned towards them. He had ended the first Rakáat, or series of prostrations, and the people had stood up again for a second, when the curtain of Ayesha’s door (to the left of the audience, and a little way behind Abu Bakr) slowly moved aside, and Mahomet himself appeared. As he entered the assembly, he whispered in the ear of Fadhl (Faẓl), son of Abbas, who with a servant supported him: ‘The Lord verily hath granted unto me refreshment in prayer’; and he looked around with a gladsome smile, marked by all who at the moment caught a glimpse of his countenance. That smile no doubt was the index of deep emotion in his heart. What doubts or fears may have crossed the mind of Mahomet, as he lay on the bed of death, and felt that the time was drawing nigh when he must render an account to that God whose messenger he professed to be, tradition affords us no grounds even to conjecture. The rival claims of Aswad and Museilama had, perhaps, suggested misgivings, such as those which had long ago distracted his soul. What if he, too, were an impostor, deceiving himself and deceiving others also! If any doubts and questionings of this nature had arisen in his mind, the sight of the great congregation, in attitude devout and earnest, may have caused him comfort and reassurance. That which brings forth good fruit must itself be good. The mission which had transferred gross and debased idolaters into spiritual worshippers such as these, resigning every faculty to the service of the one great God; and which, wherever accepted and believed in, was daily producing the same wonderful change, that mission must be divine, and the voice from within which prompted him to undertake it must have been the voice of the Almighty, revealed through His ministering spirit. Perhaps it was a thought like this which passed at the moment through the mind of the Prophet, and lighted up his countenance with that smile of joy, diffusing gladness over the crowded courts of the mosque.

“Having paused thus for a moment at the door, Mahomet, supported as before, walked softly to the front, where Abu Bakr stood. The people made way for him, opening their ranks as he advanced. Abu Bakr heard the rustle (for he never when at prayer turned himself or looked to the right hand or the left), and, apprehending the cause which alone at that time could create so great sensation, stepped backwards to join the congregation and vacate the place of leader for the Prophet. But Mahomet motioned him to resume the post, and taking his hand, moved forward to the pulpit. There he sat on the ground by the side of Abu Bakr, who resumed the service, and finished it in customary form.

“When the prayers were ended, Abu Bakr entered into conversation with Mahomet. He rejoiced to find him to all appearance convalescent. ‘O Prophet,’ he said, ‘I perceive that, by the grace of God, thou art better to-day, even as we desire to see thee. Now this day is the turn of my wife, the daughter of Khârija; shall I go and visit her?’ Mahomet gave him permission. So he departed to her house at Al Sunh, a suburb of the upper city.

“Mahomet then sat himself down for a little while in the court-yard of the mosque, near the door of Ayesha’s apartment, and addressed the people, who, overjoyed to find him again in their midst, crowded round. He spoke with emotion, and with a voice still so powerful as to reach beyond the outer doors of the mosque. ‘By the Lord,’ he said, ‘as for myself, verily, no man can lay hold of me in any matter; I have not made lawful anything excepting what God hath made lawful; nor have I prohibited aught but that which God in His book hath prohibited.’ Osâma was there; when he came to bid farewell (before starting on an expedition against the Roman border), Mahomet said to him, ‘Go forward with the army; and the blessing of the Lord be with thee!’ Then turning to the women who sat close by, ‘O Fâtima!’ he exclaimed, ‘my daughter, and Safiâ, my aunt! Work ye both that which shall procure you acceptance with the Lord; for verily I have no power with him to save you in anywise.’ Having said this, he arose and re-entered the room of Ayesha.

“Mahomet, exhausted by the exertion he had undergone, lay down upon his bed; and Ayesha, seeing him to be very weak, raised his head from the pillow, and laid it tenderly upon her bosom. At that moment one of her relatives entered with a green tooth-pick in his hand. Ayesha observed that the eye of Mahomet rested on it, and, knowing it to be such as he liked, asked whether he wished to have it. He signified assent. Chewing it a little to make it soft and pliable, she placed it in his hand. This pleased him; for he took up the tooth-pick and used it, rubbing his teeth with his ordinary vigour; then he put it down.

“His strength now rapidly sank. He seemed to be aware that death was drawing near. He called for a pitcher of water, and, wetting his face, prayed thus: ‘O Lord, I beseech thee to assist me in the agonies of death!’ Then three times he ejaculated earnestly, ‘Gabriel, come close unto me!’

“At this time he began to blow upon himself, perhaps in the half-consciousness of delirium, repeating the while an ejaculatory form which he had been in the habit of praying over persons who were very sick. When he ceased, from weakness, Ayesha took up the task, and continued to blow upon him and recite the same prayer. Then, seeing that he was very low, she seized his right hand and rubbed it (another practice of the Prophet when visiting the sick), repeating all the while the earnest invocation. But Mahomet was too far gone to bear even this. He now wished to be in perfect quiet: ‘Take off thy hand from me,’ he said, ‘that cannot benefit me now.’ After a little he prayed in a whisper, ‘Lord grant me pardon; and join me to the companionship on high!’ Then at intervals: ‘Eternity in Paradise!’ ‘Pardon!’ ‘Yes; the blessed companionship on high!’ He stretched himself gently. Then all was still. His head grew heavy on the breast of Ayesha. The Prophet of Arabia was dead.

“Softly removing his head from her bosom, Ayesha placed it on the pillow, and rising up joined the other women, who were beating their faces in bitter lamentation.

“The sun had but shortly passed the meridian. It was only an hour or two since Mahomet had entered the mosque cheerful, and seemingly convalescent. He now lay cold in death.”

As soon as the intelligence of the Prophet’s death was published a crowd of people assembled at the door of the house of ʿĀyishah, exclaiming, “How can our Apostle be dead; he who was to be our witness in the Day of Judgment?” “No,” said ʿUmar, “he is not dead; he has gone to visit his Lord as the Prophet Moses did, when, after an absence of forty days, he reappeared to his people. Our Prophet will be restored to us, and those are traitors to the cause of Islām who say he is dead. If they say so, let them be cut in pieces.” But Abū Bakr entered the house at this juncture, and after viewing the body of the Prophet with touching demonstrations of affection, he appeared at the door and addressed the crowd thus: “O Muslims, if ye adore Muḥammad, know that Muḥammad is dead. If ye adore God, God is alive, and cannot die. Do ye forget the verse in the Qurʾān: ‘Muḥammad is no more than an apostle. Other apostles have already passed before him’? (see Sūrah iii. 138), and also the other verse, ‘Thou shalt surely die, O Muḥammad, and they also shall die?’ ” (see Sūrah xxxix. 31). ʿUmar acknowledged his error, and the crowd was satisfied and dispersed.

Al-ʿAbbās presided at the preparations for the burial, and the body was duly washed and perfumed. There was some dispute between the Quraish and the Anṣār as to the place of burial; but Abū Bakr silenced them, affirming that he had heard Muḥammad say that a prophet should be buried on the spot where he died. A grave was accordingly dug in the ground within the house of ʿĀyishah, and under the bed on which the Prophet died. This spot is now known as the Ḥujrah, or chamber, at al-Madīnah. The last rites were performed by ʿAlī and the two sons of al-ʿAbbās. [HUJRAH.]

The foregoing account of Muḥammad’s death is that of Sunnī traditionists. The Shīʿahs deny almost every word of it, and give the following as an authentic narrative of the Prophet’s death. The manifest object being to establish the claim of ʿAlī to be Muḥammad’s successor. It is translated from the Shīʿah book entitled the Ḥayātu ʾl-Qulūb (see Merrick’s translation, p. 368):—

“The Prophet returned to his house, and in the space of three days his sickness became severe. He then tied a bandage on his head, and leaning on the Commander of the Faithful (i.e. ʿAlī) and Fazl-ibn-Abbâs, went to the mesjed and ascended the mimber (or pulpit), and, sitting down, addressed the people thus: ‘The time is near when I shall be concealed from you. Whoever has any claim on me, let him now declare it. Verily, none can claim favour at the hand of God but by obeying Him, and none can expect to be safe without good works, or to enjoy the favour of God without obedience. Nothing but good works will deliver from divine wrath, and verily, if I should sin, I should go to hell. O Lord, I have delivered thy message.’ He then came down from the mimber and performed short prayers with the people, and returned to the house of Ummsalmah, where he remained one or two days. That cursed woman Auyeshah, having satisfied his other wives on the subject, came to the Prophet, and induced him by entreaties to go to her house, where his sickness became very oppressive. At the hour for morning prayers Bilâl shouted the aẕân, but the Prophet, near his departure to the holy world, heard it not. Auyeshah then sent to her father, Abubekr, to go to the mesjed, and lead the devotions of the people, and Hafsah sent the same message to Omar. As these two women were conversing about the matter before the Prophet, not seeming to suppose that he understood them, he interrupted them, saying, ‘Quit such talk; you are like the women that tried to lead Yusuf astray.’ Finding that, contrary to his orders, Abubekr and Omar were in the city with seditious designs, he was very sorrowful; and oppressed as he was with a severe disease, he rose, and leaning on Aly and Fazl-bin-Abbâs, with extreme difficulty went to the mesjed, lest Abubekr or Omar should perform prayers, and the people doubt who should be his successor. On arriving at the mesjed, he found that the cursed Abubekr had occupied the place of the leader of prayers, and already begun the devotions with the people. The Prophet, with his blessed hand, signed to Abubekr to remove, and he took his place, and from weakness sat down to perform prayers, which he began anew, regardless of Abubekr’s commencement.

“On returning to his house Muhammad summoned Abubekr, Omar, and some others, and demanded if he had not ordered them to depart with the army of Asâmah. They replied that he had. Abubekr said that he had gone and returned again; and Omar said that he did not go, for he did not wish to hear of the Prophet’s sickness from another. Muhammad then told them to go with the army of Asâmah, and three times pronounced a curse on any who should disobey. His exertions produced such exhaustion that he swooned, on which the Musalmans present and his wives and children wept and lamented aloud. At length the Prophet opened his blessed eyes, and said, ‘Bring me an inkstand and a sheep’s shoulder-blade, that I may write a direction which will prevent your going astray.’ One of the Companions of the Prophet rose to bring what he had ordered, but Omar said, ‘Come back, he speaks deliriously; disease has overcome him, and the book of God is sufficient for us.’ It is, however, a disputed matter whether Omar said this. However, they said to the Prophet, ‘Shall we bring what you ordered.’ He replied, ‘After what I have heard from you I do not need them, but I give you a dying charge to treat my family well, and not turn from them.’ [The compiler observes that this tradition about the inkstand and shoulder-blade is mentioned in several Sunnī books.]

“During the last sickness of the Prophet, while he was lying with his head in Aly’s lap, and Abbâs was standing before him and brushing away the flies with his cloak, he opened his eyes and asked Abbâs to become his executor, pay his debts, and support his family. Abbâs said he was an old man with a large family, and could not do it. Muhammad then proferred the same to Aly, who was so much affected that he could not command utterance for some time, but as soon as he could speak, promised with the greatest devotion to perform the Prophet’s request. Muhammad, after being raised into a sitting posture, in which he was supported by Aly, ordered Bilâl to bring his helmet, called Zool-jabeen (Ẕū ʾl-jabīn); his coat of mail, Zatûl-Fazool (Ẕātu ʾl-Fuẓūl); his banner, Akab; his sword, Zool-fakâr (Ẕū ʾl-fiqār); his turbans, Sahâb and Tahmeeah; his two party-coloured garments, his little staff, and his walking cane, Mamshook. In relating the story, Abbâs remarked that he had never before seen the party-coloured scarf, which was so lustrous as nearly to blind the eyes. The Prophet now addressed Aly, saying, ‘Jibraeel brought me this article and told me to put it into the rings of my mail, and bind it on me for a girdle.’ He then called for his two pairs of Arab shoes, one pair of which had been patched. Next he ordered the shirt he wore on the night of the Marâj, or ascent to heaven, and the shirt he wore at the battle of Ohod. He then called for his three caps, one of which he wore in journeying, another on festivals, and the third when sitting among his Companions. He then told Bilâl to bring his two mules, Shahba and Duldul, his two she-camels, Ghazbâ and Sahbâ, and his two horses, Jinah and Khyrdam.

“Jinah was kept at the door of the mesjed for the use of a messenger, and Khyrdam was mounted by the Prophet at the battle of Ohod, where Jibraeel cried, ‘Advance, Khyrdam.’ Last, he called for his ass Yafoor. Muḥammad now directed Abbâs to take Aly’s place, and support his back. He then said, ‘Rise, O Aly, and take these my property, while I yet live, that no one may quarrel with you about them after I am gone.’

“‘When I rose,’ said Aly, ‘my feet were so cramped that it was with the utmost difficulty that I could move. Having taken the articles and animals to my house, I returned and stood before the Prophet, who on seeing me took his ring from his right hand, pointing the way of truth, and put it on my right hand, the house being full of the Benu Hâshim and other Musulmans, and while from weakness his head nodded to the right and left, he cried aloud, “O company of Musulmans, Aly is my brother, my successor, and Khaleefah among my people and sect, he will pay my debts and cancel my engagements. O ye sons of Hâshim and Abdul-mutalib, and ye other Musulmans, be not hostile to Aly, and do not oppose him, lest ye be led astray, and do not envy him, nor incline from him to another, lest ye become infidels.” ’ He then ordered Abbâs to give his place to Aly. Abbâs replied, ‘Do you remove an old man to seat a child in his place?’ The Prophet repeated the order; and the third time Abbâs rose in anger, and Aly took his place. Muhammad, finding his uncle angry, said to him, ‘Do nothing to cause me to leave the world offended with you, and my wrath send you to hell.’ On hearing this, Abbâs went back to his place, and Muhammad directed Aly to lay him down.

“The Prophet said to Bilâl, ‘Bring my two sons Hasan and Husain.’ When they were presented he pressed them to his bosom, smelt and kissed those two flowers of the garden of prophecy. Aly, fearing they would trouble the Prophet, was about to take them away; but be said, ‘Let them be, that I may smell them, and they smell me, and we prepare to meet each other; for after I am gone great calamities will befall them, but may God curse those that cause them to fear and do them injustice. O Lord, I commit them to Thee and to the worthy of the Faithful, namely, Aly-bin-Abutalib.’ The Prophet then dismissed the people and they went away, but Abbâs and his son Fazl, and Aly-bin-Abutalib, and those belonging to the household of the Prophet, remained. Abbâs then said to the Prophet, ‘If the Khalâfat (K͟hilāfah) is established among us, the Benu Hâshim, assure us of it, that we may rejoice; but if you foresee that they will treat us unjustly and deprive us of the Khalâfat, commit us to your Companions.’ Muhammad replied, ‘After I am gone they will weaken and overcome you,’ at which declaration all the family wept, and, moreover, despaired of the Prophet’s life.

“Aly continued to attend Muhammad night and day, never leaving him except from the most imperative necessity. On one of these occasions, when Aly was absent, the Prophet said, ‘Call my friend and brother.’ Auyeshah and Hafsah sent for their fathers, Abubekr and Omar, but he turned from them and covered his face, on which they remarked, ‘He does not want us, he wants Aly,’ whom Fatimah called; and Muhammad pressed him to his bosom, and they mingled their perspiration together, and the Prophet communicated to him a thousand chapters of knowledge, each opening to a thousand more. One tradition declares that Muhammad kept Aly in his bed till his pure spirit left his body, his arm meanwhile embracing Aly.”

[In compiling this account of the life of Muḥammad, we must express our deep obligations to Sir William Muir’s Life of Mahomet (1st ed., 4 vols.; 2nd ed., 1 vol.; Smith, Elder and Co., London). In many cases we have given the ipsissima verba of his narrative, with his kind permission. The chief literature on the subject, in addition to Sir William Muir’s work, is: Das Leben und die Lehre des Moḥammad, A. Sprenger, Berlin, 1869; Specimen Historiæ Arabum, E. Pocock, Oxon. 1650; Ismael Abulfeda De Vita et Rebus gestis Mohamedis, J. Gagnier, Oxon. 1723; Life of Mahomet, Washington Irving, London, 1850; Life of Mahomed from Original Sources, A. Sprenger, Allahabad, 1851; Essays on the Life of Muhammad, Syud Ahmad Khan, C.S.I., London; A Critical Examination of the Life and Teachings of Muhammad, Syud Ameer Ali Moulla, LL.D., London, 1873; Islam and its Founder, S.P.C.K., 1878; Mahomet et le Coran, T. Barthelemy de St. Hilaire, 1865; The True Nature of the Imposture Fully Explained, H. Prideaux, London, 1718; the first three volumes of the modern part of An Universal History, London, 1770 (specially recommended by Dr. Badger); Tareek-i-Tabari, Zotenberg; Das Leben Mohammeds nach Ibn Ishāk, bearbeitet von Ibn Hischam, G. Weil, 2 vols., 1864. The earliest biographers whose works are extant in Arabic, are Ibn Isḥāq (A.H. 151), Ibn Hishām (A.H. 218), al-Wāqidī (A.H. 207), at̤-T̤abarī (A.H. 310).]

Muḥammad is referred to by name in four places in the Qurʾān:—

Sūrah iii. 138: “Muḥammad is but an apostle: apostles have passed away before his time; what if he die, or is killed, will ye retreat upon your heels?”

Sūrah xxxiii. 40: “Muḥammad is not the father of any of your men, but the Apostle of God, and the Seal of the Prophets.”

Sūrah xlvii. 2: “Those who believe and do right and believe in what is revealed to Muḥammad,—and it is the truth from their Lord,—He will cover for them their offences and set right their mind.”

Sūrah xlviii. 29: “Muḥammad is the Apostle of God.”

He is said to have been foretold by Jesus under the name of Aḥmad. Sūrah lxi. 6: “Giving you glad tidings of an Apostle who shall come after me whose name shall be Aḥmad.” [AHMAD.]

According to a tradition of Ibn ʿAbbās, the Prophet said: “My name in the Qurʾān is Muḥammad, and in the Injīl Aḥmad, and in the Taurāt Aḥyad (from the root حيد‎, “to shun”), and I am called Aḥyad because I shun hell-fire more than any of my people.” (An-Nawawī, Wüstenfeld’s edition, p. 28.)

MUḤAMMAD, The Character of. (1) Sir William Muir (Life of Mahomet, new ed. p. 537 et seqq.), has carefully collated from the traditions embodied by the secretary of al-Wāqidī, an account of the person and character of Muḥammad. “This account,” as Sir William Muir remarks, “illustrates generally the style and contents of the Muslim biographies of their Prophet.”

“When Ayesha was questioned about Mahomet she used to say: ‘He was a man just such as yourselves; he laughed often and smiled much.’ ‘But how would he occupy himself at home?’ ‘Even as any of you occupy yourselves. He would mend his clothes, and cobble his shoes. He used to help me in my household duties; but what he did oftenest was to sew. If he had the choice between two matters, he would choose the easiest, so as that no sin accrued therefrom. He never took revenge excepting where the honour of God was concerned. When angry with any person, he would say, “What hath taken such a one that he should soil his forehead in the mud!” ’

“His humility was shown by his riding upon asses, by his accepting the invitation even of slaves, and when mounted, by his taking another behind him. He would say: ‘I sit at meals as a servant doeth, and I eat like a servant: for I really am a servant’; and he would sit as one that was always ready to rise. He discouraged (supererogatory) fasting, and works of mortification. When seated with his followers, he would remain long silent at a time. In the mosque at Medîna they used to repeat pieces of poetry, and tell stories regarding the incidents that occurred in the ‘days of ignorance,’ and laugh; and Mahomet listening to them, would smile at what they said.

“Mahomet hated nothing more than lying; and whenever he knew that any of his followers had erred in this respect, he would hold himself aloof from them until he was assured of their repentance.

“His Speech.

“He did not speak rapidly, running his words into one another, but enunciated each syllable distinctly, so that what he said was imprinted in the memory of every one who heard him. When at public prayers, it might be known from a distance that he was reading by the motion of his beard. He never read in a singing or chanting style; but he would draw out his voice, resting at certain places. Thus, in the prefatory words of a Sura, he would pause after bismillâhi, after al Rahmân, and again after al Rahîm.

“Gait.

“He used to walk so rapidly that the people half ran behind him, and could hardly keep up with him.

“Habits in Eating.

“He never ate reclining, for Gabriel had told him that such was the manner of kings; nor had he ever two men to walk behind him. He used to eat with his thumb and his two forefingers; and when he had done, he would lick them, beginning with the middle one. When offered by Gabriel the valley of Mecca full of gold, he preferred to forego it; saying that when he was hungry he would come before the Lord lowly, and when full, with praise.

“Moderation.

“A servant-maid being once long in returning from an errand, Mahomet was annoyed, and said: ‘If it were not for the law of retaliation, I should have punished you with this tooth-pick’ (i.e. with an inappreciably light punishment).

“Customs at Prayer.

“He used to stand for such a length of time at prayer that his legs would swell. When remonstrated with, he said: ‘What! shall I not behave as a thankful servant should?’ He never yawned at prayer. When he sneezed, he did so with a subdued voice, covering his face. At funerals he never rode: he would remain silent on such occasions, as if conversing with himself, so that the people used to think he was holding communication with the dead.

“Refusal to make Personal Use of Tithes.

“While he accepted presents he refused to use anything that had been offered as alms; neither would he allow anyone in his family to use what had been brought as alms; ‘For,’ said he, ‘alms are the impurity of mankind’ (i.e. that which cleanses their impurity). His scruples on this point were so strong that he would not eat even a date picked up on the road, lest perchance it might have dropped from a tithe load.

“Food Relished.

“Mahomet had a special liking for sweetmeats and honey. He was also fond of cucumbers and of undried dates. When a lamb or a kid was being cooked, Mahomet would go to the pot, take out the shoulder, and eat it. He used to eat moist dates and cooked food together. What he most relished was a mess of bread cooked with meat, and a dish of dates dressed with butter and milk.

“Mahomet used to have sweet (rain) water kept for his use.

“Women and Scents.

“A great array of traditions are produced to prove that the Prophet was fond of women and scents, and liked these of all things in the world the best. Ayesha used to say: ‘The Prophet loved three things—women, scents, and food; he had his heart’s desire of the two first, but not of the last.’

“Straitened means at Medîna.

“Ayesha tells us that for months together Mahomet did not get a full meal. ‘Months used to pass,’ she says again, ‘and no fire would be lighted in Mahomet’s house, either for baking bread or cooking meat.’ ‘How, then, did ye live?’ ‘By the “two black things” (dates and water), and by what the citizens used to send unto us; the Lord requite them! Such of them as had milch cattle would send us a little milk. The Prophet never enjoyed the luxury of two kinds of food the same day; if he had flesh there was nothing else; and so if he had dates; so likewise if he had bread.’

“ ‘We possessed no sieves, but used to bruise the grain and blow off the husks.’

“Appearance, Habits, &c.

“He used to wear two garments. His izâr (under-garment) hung down three or four inches below his knees. His mantle was not wrapped round him so as to cover his body, but he would draw the end of it under his shoulder.

“He used to divide his time into three parts: one was given to God, the second allotted to his family, the third to himself. When public business began to press upon him, he gave up one half of the latter portion to the service of others.

“When he pointed he did so with his whole hand; and when he was astonished he turned his hand over (with the palm upwards). In speaking with another, he brought his hand near to the person addressed; and he would strike the palm of the left in the thumb of the right hand. Angry, he would avert his face; joyful, he would look downwards. He often smiled, and, when he laughed, his teeth used to appear white as hailstones.

“In the interval allotted to others, he received all that came to him, listened to their representations, and occupied himself in disposing of their business and in hearing what they had to tell him. He would say on such occasions: ‘Let those that are here give information regarding that which passeth to them that are absent; and they that cannot themselves appear to make known their necessities, let others report them to me in their stead; the Lord will establish the feet of such in the Day of Judgment.’

“Seal of Prophecy.

“This, says one, was a protuberance on the Prophet’s back of the size and appearance of a pigeon’s egg. It is said to have been the divine seal which, according to the predictions of the Scriptures, marked Mahomet as the last of the Prophets. How far Mahomet himself encouraged this idea it is impossible to say. From the traditions it would seem to have been nothing more than a mole of unusual size; and the saying of Mahomet, that ‘God had placed it there,’ was probably the germ of supernatural associations which grew up concerning it.

“Hair.

“His hair used to be combed; it was neither curling nor smooth. He had, says one, four curled locks. His hair was ordinarily parted, but he did not care if it was not so. According to another tradition, ‘The Jews and Christians used to let their hair fall down, while the heathen parted it. Now Mahomet loved to follow the people of the Book in matters concerning which he had no express command. So he used to let down his hair without parting it. Subsequently, however, he fell into the habit of parting it.’

“Moustache.

“Mahomet used to clip his moustache. A Magian once came to him and said: ‘You ought to clip your beard and allow your moustaches to grow.’ ‘Nay,’ said the Prophet, ‘for my Lord hath commanded me to clip the moustaches and allow the beard to grow.’

“Dress.

“Various traditions are quoted on the different colours he used to wear—white chiefly, but also red, yellow, and green. He sometimes put on woollen clothes. Ayesha, it is said, exhibited a piece of woollen stuff in which she swore that Mahomet died. She adds that he once had a black woollen dress; and she still remembered, as she spoke, the contrast between the Prophet’s fair skin and the black cloth. ‘The odour of it, however, becoming unpleasant, he cast it off, for he loved sweet odours.’

“He entered Mecca on the taking of the city (some say) with a black turban. He had also a black standard. The end of his turban used to hang down between his shoulders. He once received the present of a scarf for a turban, which had a figured or spotted fringe; and this he cut off before wearing it. He was very fond of striped Yemen stuffs. He used to wrap his turban many times round his head, and ‘the lower edge of it used to appear like the soiled clothes of an oil-dealer.’

“He once prayed in a silken dress, and then cast it aside with abhorrence, saying: ‘Such stuff it doth not become the pious to wear.’ On another occasion, as he prayed in a figured or spotted mantle, the spots attracted his notice; when he had ended, he said: ‘Take away that mantle, for verily it hath distracted me in my prayers, and bring me a common one.’ His sleeve ended at the wrist. The robes in which he was in the habit of receiving embassies, and his fine Hadhramaut mantle, remained with the Caliphs; when worn or rent, these garments were mended with fresh cloth; and in after times, the Caliphs used to wear them at the festivals. When he put on new clothes (either an under-garment, a girdle, or a turban), the Prophet would offer up a prayer such as this: ‘Praise be to the Lord who hath clothed me with that which shall hide my nakedness and adorn me while I live. I pray Thee for the good that is in this, and the good that hath been made for it; and I seek refuge from the evil that is in the same, and from the evil that hath been made for it.’

“Shoes.

“His servant, Anas, had charge of his shoes and of his water-pot. After his master’s death, Anas used to show his shoes. They were after the Hadhramaut pattern, with two thongs. In the year 100 or 110 A.H., one went to buy shoes at Mecca, and tells us that the shoemaker offered to make them exactly after the model of Mahomet’s, which he said he had seen in the possession of Fâtima, granddaughter of Abbâs. His shoes used to be cobbled. He was in the habit of praying with his shoes on. On one occasion, having taken them off at prayers, all the people did likewise, but Mahomet told them there was no necessity, for he had merely taken off his own because Gabriel had apprised him that there was some dirty substance attaching to them (cleanliness being required in all the surroundings at prayer). The thongs of his shoes once broke, and they mended them for him by adding a new piece; after the service, Mahomet desired his shoes to be taken away and the thongs restored as they were; ‘For,’ said he, ‘I was distracted at prayer thereby.’

“Tooth-picks.

“Ayesha tells us that Mahomet never lay down, by night or by day, but on waking he applied the tooth-pick to his teeth before he performed ablution. He used it so much as to wear away his gums. The tooth-pick was always placed conveniently for him at night, so that, when he got up in the night to pray, he might use it before his lustrations. One says that he saw him with the tooth-pick in his mouth, and that he kept saying áâ, áâ, as if about to vomit. His tooth-picks were made of the green wood of the palm-tree. He never travelled without one.

“Articles of Toilet.

“He very frequently oiled his hair, poured water on his beard, and applied antimony to his eyes.

“Armour.

“Four sections are devoted to the description of Mahomet’s armour,—his swords, coats of mail, shields, lances, and bows.

“Miscellaneous.

“The Prophet used to snuff simsim (sesamum), and wash his hands in a decoction of the wild plum-tree. When he was afraid of forgetting anything, he would tie a thread on his finger or his ring.

“Horses.

“The first horse which Mahomet ever possessed was one he purchased of the Bani Fazâra, for ten owckeas (ounces of silver); and he called its name sakb (running water), from the easiness of its paces. Mahomet was mounted on it at the battle of Ohod, when there was but one other horse from Medîna on the field. He had also a horse called Sabáha (Shamjah?); he raced it and it won, and he was greatly rejoiced thereat. He had a third horse, named Murtajis (neigher).

“Riding Camels.

“Besides Al Caswa (al-Qaṣwā), Mahomet had a camel called Adhba (al-ʿAẓbā), which in speed outstripped all others. Yet one day an Arab passed it when at its fleetest pace. The Moslems were chagrined at this; but Mahomet reproved them, saying, ‘It is the property of the Lord, that whensoever men exalt anything, or seek to exalt it, then the Lord putteth down the same.’

“Milch Camels.

“Mahomet had twenty milch camels, the same that were plundered at Al Ghâba. Their milk was for the support of his family: every evening they gave two large skinsful. Omm Salmah relates: ‘Our chief food when we lived with Mahomet was milk. The camels used to be brought from Al Ghâba every evening. I had one called Arîs, and Ayesha one called Al Samra. The herdman fed them at Al Jûania, and brought them to our homes in the evening. There was also one for Mahomet.’

“Milch Flocks.

“Mahomet had seven goats which Omm Ayman used to tend (this probably refers to an early period of his residence at Medîna). His flocks grazed at Ohod and Himna alternately, and were brought back to the house of that wife whose turn it was for Mahomet to be in her abode. A favourite goat having died, the Prophet desired its skin to be tanned.

“Mahomet attached a peculiar blessing to the possession of goats. ‘There is no house,’ he would say, ‘possessing a goat, but a blessing abideth thereon; and there is no house possessing three goats, but the angels pass the night there praying for its inmates until the morning.’

“Servants.

“Fourteen or fifteen persons are mentioned who served the Prophet at various times. His slaves he always freed.

“Houses.

“Abdallah ibn Yazîd relates that he saw the houses in which the wives of the Prophet dwelt, at the time when Omar ibn Al Azîz, Governor of Medîna (about A.H. 100) demolished them. They were built of unburnt bricks, and had separate apartments made of palm-branches, daubed (or built-up) with mud; he counted nine houses, each having separate apartments, in the space extending from the house of Ayesha and the gate of Mahomet to the house of Asma, daughter of Hosein. Observing the dwelling-place of Omm Salma, he questioned her grandson concerning it, and he told him that when the Prophet was absent on the expedition to Dûma, Omm Salma built up an addition to her house with a wall of unburnt bricks. When Mahomet returned, he went in to her, and asked what new building this was. She replied, ‘I purposed, O Prophet, to shut out the glances of men thereby!’ Mahomet answered: ‘O Omm Salma! verily, the most unprofitable thing that eateth up the wealth of the Believer is building.’ A citizen of Medîna present at the time, confirmed this account, and added that the curtains of the door were of black hair-cloth. He was present, he said, when the despatch of the Caliph Abd al Malîk (A.H. 86–88) was read aloud, commanding that these houses should be brought within the area of the mosque, and he never witnessed sorer weeping than there was amongst the people that day. One exclaimed: ‘I wish, by the Lord! that they would leave these houses alone thus as they are; then would those that spring up hereafter in Medîna, and strangers from the ends of the earth, come and see what kind of building sufficed for the Prophet’s own abode, and the sight thereof would deter men from extravagance and pride.’

“There were four houses of unburnt bricks, the apartments being of palm-branches; and five houses made of palm-branches built up with mud and without any separate apartments. Each was three Arabian yards in length. Some say they had leather curtains for the doors. One could reach the roof with the hand.

“The house of Hâritha (Ḥāris̤ah) was next to that of Mahomet. Now whenever Mahomet took to himself a new wife, he added another house to the row, and Hâritha was obliged successively to remove his house, and to build on the space beyond. At last this was repeated so often, that the Prophet said to those about him: ‘Verily, it shameth me to turn Hâritha over and over again out of his house.’

“Properties.

“There were seven gardens which Mukheirîck the Jew left to Mahomet. Omar ibn Al Azîz, the Caliph, said that, when Governor of Medîna, he ate of the fruit of these, and never tasted sweeter dates. Others say that these gardens formed a portion of the confiscated estates of the Bani Nadhîr. They were afterwards dedicated perpetually to pious purposes.

“Mahomet had three other properties:—

“I. The confiscated lands of the Bani Nadhîr. The produce of these was appropriated to his own wants. One of the plots was called Mashruba Omm Ibrahîm, the ‘summer garden of (Mary) the mother of Ibrahîm,’ where the Prophet used to visit her.

“II. Fadak; the fruits of this were reserved as a fund for indigent travellers.

“III. The fifth share, and the lands received by capitulation, in Kheibar. This was divided into three parts. Two were devoted for the benefit of the Moslems generally (i.e. for State purposes); the proceeds of the third, Mahomet assigned for the support of his own family; and what remained over he added to the fund for the use of the Moslems.” (The Life of Mahomet, by William Muir, Esq., London, 1861, vol. iv., p. 325.)

(2) Dr. A. Sprenger, Persian translator of the Government of India, and Principal of the Calcutta Madrasah, gives the following valuable review of the character of Muḥammad, as regards his assumption of the prophetic office:—

“Up to his fortieth year, Mohammad devoutly worshipped the gods of his fathers. The predominance of his imaginative powers, and his peculiar position, gave him a turn for religious meditation. He annually spent the month of Ramazan in seclusion in a cave of Mount Hirá, where the Qorayshites used to devote themselves to ascetic exercises. In this retreat he passed a certain number of nights in prayers, fasted, fed the poor, and gave himself up to meditation; and on his return to Makkah he walked seven times round the Kaʿbah before he went to his own house.

“When he was forty years of age, the first doubts concerning idolatry arose in his mind. The true believers ascribe this crisis to a divine revelation, and therefore carefully conceal the circumstances which may have given the first impulse. It is likely that the eccentric Zaid, whom he must have met in Mount Hirá, first instilled purer notions respecting God into his mind, and induced him to read the Biblical history. To abjure the gods, from whom he had hoped for salvation, caused a great struggle to Mohammad, and he became dejected and fond of solitude. He spent the greater part of his time in Hirá, and came only occasionally to Makkah for new provisions.

“Undisturbed meditation increased his excitement, and his overstrained brains were, even in sleep, occupied with doubts and speculations. In one of his visions he saw an angel, who said to him, ‘Read.’ He answered, ‘I am not reading.’ The angel laid hold of him and squeezed him, until Mohammad succeeded in making an effort. Then he released him, and said again, ‘Read.’ Mohammad answered, ‘I am not reading.’ This was repeated three times; and at length the angel said, ‘Read in the name of thy Lord, the Creator, who has created man of congealed blood;—read, for thy Lord is most beneficent. It is He who has taught by the pen (has revealed the Scriptures); it is He who has taught man what he does not know.’ These are the initial words of a Surah of the Quran, and the first revelation which Mohammad received. If this dream was as momentous as authentic traditions make it, it must have been the crisis, which caused Mohammad to seek for truth in the books of the Jews and Christians. The words of the angel admit hardly any other sense. After much hesitation he determines to study the tenets of another faith, which was hostile to that of his fathers. His resolve is sanctioned by a vision, and he thanks the Creator, whom the Qorayshites always considered the greatest among their gods, for having sent a revelation to direct man.

“It is certain, however, that no Musalman will admit the sense which I give to these verses of the Quran; and Mohammad himself, in the progress of his career, formally denied having read any part of the Scriptures before the Quran had been revealed to him. This, however, can only be true if he meant the first verses of the Quran, that is to say, those mentioned above; for in the following revelations he introduces the names of most prophets, he holds up their history as an example to the Makkians, he borrows expressions from the Bible which he admired for their sublimity, he betrays his acquaintance with the gospels by referring to an erroneously translated verse of St. John, for a proof of his mission, and he frequently alludes to the legends of the Rabbins and Christians. Whence has the Prophet of the Gentiles obtained his knowledge of the Biblical history? He answers the question himself: It is God who has revealed it to me. This assertion satisfies the believer, and is a hint to the inquirer in tracing the sources of his information. He would hardly have hazarded it had he not obtained his instruction under considerable secrecy. The spirit of persecution at Makkah, which manifested itself against Zaid, made caution necessary for Mohammad, though originally he may have had no ulterior views, in making himself acquainted with another faith. Yet with all his precautions, the Qorayshites knew enough of his history to disprove his pretensions. He himself confesses, in a Surah revealed at Makkah (Sūrah xxv. 5), that they said that the Quran was a tissue of falsehood; that several people had assisted him; and that he preached nothing more than what was contained in the “Asátyr of the Ancients,” which he used to write, from the dictation of his teachers, morning and evening. Who were the men who instructed Mohammad? It is not likely that he would have dared to declare before them, that the doctrines which he had received from them had been revealed to him; nor is it likely that, had they been alive after the new religion had become triumphant, they would have allowed him to take all the credit to himself. Those who exercised an influence upon Mohammad were his disciples; but we find no instance in which he appeared to buy secrecy by submitting to the dictation of others. I am inclined to think, therefore, that his instructors died during his early career; and this supposition enables us to ascertain the names of some of them. The few specimens of the sayings of Zaid, which have been preserved, prove that Mohammad borrowed freely from him, not only his tenets, but even his expressions; and Zaid did not long survive Mohammad’s assumption of his office. It is likely that Waraqah, the cousin of Khadyjah, who, it would appear, brought about her marriage with Mohammad, who was the first to declare that the Great Law [NAMUS] would be revealed to him, and who expressed a wish to assist him during the persecutions to which every prophet was subject, was one of his teachers. Waraqah died shortly before the time when he publicly proclaimed his mission. The defence of the Prophet, that the man, of whom his countrymen said that he assisted him in writing the Quran, was a foreigner (Sūrah xvi. 105), and unable to write so pure Arabic as the language of the Quran was, leads us to suspect that one of his chief authorities for the Biblical legends was ʾAddas, a monk of Nineveh, who was settled at Makkah. (See Tafsīru ʾl-Baiẓāwī on Sūrah xxv. 6.) And there can be no doubt that the Rabbins of the Hijaz communicated to Mohammad their legends. The commentators upon the Quran inform us further, that he used to listen to Jabr and Yasár, two sword-manufacturers at Makkah, when they read the scriptures; and Ibn Isháq says, that he had intercourse with ʾAbdal-Rahmán, a Christian of Zamámah; but we must never forget that the object of these authorities, in such matters, is not to instruct their readers, but to mislead them.

“It is certain, from the context, where the expression occurs, and from the commentators on the Quran, that ‘Asátyr of the Ancients’ is the name of a book; but we have very little information as to its origin and contents. (See the Commentaries of al-Baiẓāwī and the Jalālān on Sūrah xxv.) That dogmas were propounded in it, besides Biblical legends, appears from several passages of the Quran, where it is said that it contained the doctrine of the Resurrection. (Sūrahs xxvii. 70, xlvi. 16.) It is also clear that it was known at Makkah before Mohammad; for the Qorayshites told him that they and their fathers had been acquainted with it before he taught it, and that all that he taught was contained in it. (Sūrah lxviii. 15.) Mohammad had, in all likelihood, besides, a version of portions of the scriptures, both of the genuine and some of the apocryphal works; for he refers his audience to them without reserve. Tabary informs us that when Mohammad first entered on his office, even his wife Khadyjah had read the scriptures, and was acquainted with the history of the prophets. (See Balʾāmy’s translation of Tabary in Persian.)

“In spite of three passages of the Quran quoted above, the meaning of which they clumsily pervert, almost all modern Musalman writers, and many of the old ones, deny that Mohammad knew reading or writing. Good authors, however, particularly among the Shiahs, admit that he knew reading; but they say he was not a skilful penman. The only support of the opinion of the former is one passage of the Quran, Sūrah vii. 156, in which Mohammad says that he was the Prophet of the Ummis, and an Ummi himself. This word, they say, means illiterate; but others say it means a man who is not skilful in writing; and others suppose it to mean a Makkian or an Arab. It is clear that they merely guess, from the context, at the meaning of the word. Ummi is derived from ummah, ‘nation’ (Latin gens, Greek ethnos), and on comparing the passages of the Quran, in which it occurs, it appears that it means gentile (Greek ethnicos). It is said in the Quran, that some Jews are honest, but others think there is no harm in wronging the Ummis. Imám Sadiq observes (Ḥayātu ʾl-Qulūb, vol. ii. chapter 6, p. 2) on this passage, that the Arabs are meant under Ummis, and that they are called so, though they knew writing, because God had revealed no book to them, and had sent them no prophet. Several instances in which Mohammad did read and write are recorded by Bokhary, Nasay, and others. It is, however, certain that he wished to appear ignorant, in order to raise the elegance of the composition of the Quran into a miracle.

* * *

“According to one record, the doubts, indecision, and preparation of the Prophet for his office lasted seven years; and so sincere and intense were his meditations on matters of religion, that they brought him to the brink of madness. In the Quran we can trace three phases in the progress of the mind of Mohammad from idolatry to the formation of a new creed. First, the religion of the Kaʿbah, in which he sincerely believed, seems to have formed the principal subject of his meditations. The contemplation of nature, probably assisted by instruction, led him to the knowledge of the unity of God; and there is hardly a verse in the Quran which does not shew how forcibly he was struck with this truth. By satisfying the faith of his fathers, he tried to reconcile it with the belief in one God; and for some time he considered the idols round the Kaʾbah daughters of God, who intercede with Him for their worshippers. But he gave up this belief, chiefly because he could not reconcile himself to the idea that God should have only daughters, which was ignominious in the eyes of an Arab; and that men should have sons, who reflect honour on a family. He also connected the idolatrous worship of the black stone, and the ceremonies of the Hajj, and almost all the other pagan usages of the Haramites, with their Abraham. This idea was not his own. The sceptics who preceded him held the same opinion; yet it was neither ancient nor general among the pagan Arabs. We find no connexion between the tenets of Moses and those of the Haramites; and though Biblical names are very frequent among the Musalmans, we do not find one instance of their occurrence among the pagans of the Hijaz before Mohammad.

“It has been mentioned that the vision in which he was ordered to read, caused him finally to renounce idolatry; we are told that after this vision an intermission of revelation, called fatrah, took place, which lasted upwards of two years. The meaning of fatrah is simply that, though this vision was a revelation, he did not assume his office for two or three years. It is certain that he composed many Surahs of the Quran during this time; and it must have been during this period that the tenets of the Jews and Christians seriously occupied his mind. Before the vision he was an idolater; and after the fatrah he possessed the acquaintance with the scriptural history which we find in the Quran. Even after he had declared himself a prophet, he shewed, during the beginning of his career, a strong leaning towards, and a sincere belief in, the scriptures and Biblical legends; but in proportion to his success he separated himself from the Bible.