Of the infancy, childhood, and youth of Mahomet, we know almost nothing. The blank in his history has, indeed, been supplied by fable-fable, created by the pious reverence of his followers. Wonderful stories of his wit, and of his favour with the Almighty, are lavishly recorded by the Arab historians. They are, moreover, as well attested as such stories usually are; the impartial historian, nevertheless, has but one course to pursue, viz., to reject them. It is more probable that the witnesses were false swearers, or confiding dupes, than that such tales should be true. Being destined by his uncle to the profession of a merchant, it is probable that his early life was passed in acquiring the knowledge then thought necessary to that profession. Concerning this point, however, we have not one particle of evidence. At thirteen years of age, indeed, he is said to have made a voyage to Syria, in the caravan of his uncle, and, some years after, to have performed the same journey in the capacity of factor to his mistress Cadijah. On this simple circumstance his friends and his enemies have not failed to engraft a monstrous mass of absurdity and fable. Tradition states, that at Damascus he met with a Nestorian monk, from whom he derived important information respecting his future conduct in propagating his new religion. To believe that a child of thirteen, or a youth of twenty (for he could have been little more even during his second voyage,) had conceived the idea of a new religion, and formed a plan for propagating it, argues credulity that would appear utterly impossible, did we not know that no opinion, how ever extravagant, is rejected, when a suitable motive is held out to believe it. The early Christian historians of Mahomet's actions were desirous of stripping the impostor of every particle of worth. His religion was not only imputed to him as the most heinous of sins, but whatever applause might be his due, for the composition of the Koran, was to be traffic, the merchants must have hourly felt the want of some mode of recording their transactions. We suspect that the desire of saving their prophet from the accnsation of being more ignorant than his countrymen has given rise to the above-stated tradition. Mahomet, in the Koran (c. 2. p. 52), commands all bonds to be made in writing; this could not have been done if writing had been an uncommon art. It is said, however, that a kinsman of Cadijah, Mahomet's wife, taught the prophet's scribes the Hebrew character. (Pocock's notes to Abulpharagius, p. 157.) 15 transferred to another; and a Christian improbable fiction to account for the Abulpharagius, Pocock's Trans., p. 9. + This monk had many names. Caab and Scrgius were among his other cognomens. See Bayle, Art. Mah., note V. 66 established. "Though the Jews," says Sale, were an inconsiderable and despised people in other parts of the world, yet in Arabia, whither many of them had fled from the destruction of Jerusalem, they grew very powerful, several tribes and princes embracing their religion; which made Mahomet at first show great regard for them, adopting many of their opinions, doctrines, and customs; thereby to draw them, if possible, into his interests." From the same excellent authority, we learn the Arab Christians to have been exceedingly numerous, and greatly given to heresies; some of them, indeed, going so far as to believe that the soul died with the body, and was to be raised again with it, at the last day*." They appear, moreover, to have delighted in disputations, and to have given birth to the heresies of Ebion, Beryllus, the Collyridians, and the Nazaræanst. This diversity of sects is evidence of a general knowledge of the Christian faith. The Jews and Christians were people of the book; the bible was already translated into the Arabic language, and the volume of the Old Testament was accepted by the concord of these implacable enemiest." These circumstances sufficiently account for Mahomet's knowledge of the Jewish and Christian religion. The next remarkable event in the life of Mahomet is his appearance in the character of a soldier. At the early age of fourteen§, he served under his uncle, who commanded the troops of his tribe, the Koreish, in their wars against the rival tribes of Kenan and Hawazan. The circumstance is worthy of remark, as illustrative of an observation we made in a former section, upon the perfect compatibility between the business of a merchant and that of a soldier, amongst the Arabian people, and upon the constant and rapid transition from one to the other. By the assistance of his uncle he became soon after the factor of a rich trading widow in his native city. The animosity of his enemies has degraded the confidential agent into a driver of camels. It has been confidently and constantly asserted, that he was a menial servant in the household of his mistress, Cadijah; while, in truth, he was em Sale, Prel. Disc., sec. 2, pp. 46, 45. Idem. Ibid. Gibbon, Decl. and Fall, c. 50. Prideaux says twenty, Gagnier also, Abulfeda fifteen. ployed to carry on her mercantile transactions and to superintend her affairs. Two things are deserving of observation in this falsification of history: the one, the proof it affords of the utter worthlessness of the Greek Christians as historical guides; and the second, the no less convincing evidence it furnishes of their incapacity for correctly estimating the moral worth of any human being, since the humbleness of a man's employment is by them adduced as a circumstance of moral degradation. In this situation of factor, his conduct and integrity gained him the affections of his mistress. Cadijah was not in the eyes of her people degraded by an alliance with the grandson of their prince; and in her own estimation, by bestowing her hand and fortune upon Mahomet, she gained a young, handsome, and affectionate husband. Twenty years of constancy, of kind and respectful attention, on the part of Mahomet, fully justified her choice. It may indeed be imagined, and we confess the supposition bears the appearance of some plausibility, that the affection of Cadijah was not uninfluenced by the handsome person and insinuating eloquence of her youthful suitor. And we cannot refuse our applause to the conduct of Mahomet, who, whatever might have been her motives, never afterwards forgot the benefits he had received from his benefactress, never made her repent having so bestowed her affection, or grieve at having placed her fortune and her person at his absolute disposal. Cadijah, at the time of her marriage, was forty; Mahomet, twenty-five years of age*. Till the age of sixty-four years, when she died, did Cadijah enjoy the undivided affection of her husband; “in a country where polygamy was allowed, the pride or tenderness of the venerable matron was never insulted by the society of a rival. After her death he placed her in the rank of the four perfect women; with the sister of Moses, the mother of Jesus, and Fatima, the best beloved of his daughters. Was she not old?' said Ayesha,+ with the insolence of a blooming beauty; has not God given you a better in her place?'-'No, by God!' said Mahomet, with an effusion of honest gratitude, 'there never can be a better! She believed in me, when men despised me; Prideaux says twenty-eight, Abulpharagius the age mentioned in the text. Pocock's Trans., p. 9. One of his wives, married after the death of Cadijah. she relieved my wants, when I was poor and persecuted by the world"."" Commerce now occupied his attention, and till the age of forty nothing remarkable happened in the life of the future prophet. His marriage with Cadijah raised him to an equality with the first citizens of Mecca, gave an importance to his opinions, and, combined with the power of his family, probably rendered it impossible to punish or interrupt the first steps he made towards the propagation of his new religion. When relieved from the pressures of indigence, his mind seems almost immediately to have been turned towards religious meditation. The result of this meditation was an opinion exceedingly unfavourable to the religion of his countrymen. The first statement of this conviction was met rather by ridicule than anger, being considered the phantasy of a dreaming enthusiast, who was little to be dreaded, and unworthy of oppositions. We are told that he retired to a cave in Mount Hara, near Mecca, where, as he assured his first proselyte, his wife, he regularly received the visits of the angel Gabriel. Retiring to solitude has been a common custom with religious enthusiasts. At a distance from the distractions of men, they profess to be able to contemplate more intently the works of the Divinity, and to dedicate themselves more completely to his holy service. Enthusiasts, also, have often fancied themselves favoured by visions; to have had converse with spiritual beings; and to have received comfort and instruction at their hands. The artful impostor, however, who endeavours to palm himself upon the world as one of these pious and self-immolated victims, does not fail to imitate their conduct. To distinguish the madman from the impostor, is almost beyond the power of human investigation. Whether Mahomet at this period of his life were an impostor has often been discussed, and the question usually decided according to the pre-existing leanings of the disputants-they who are inclined to look favourably upon him, deeming him a Gibbon, Decl. and Fall, c. 50, p. 151. + Mod. Univ. Hist., b. i., c. 1, p. 31. Gagnier, Vie de Mah., b. i., c. 6, 103. Gagnier, b. i., c. 6, p. 104. The story of his fainting fits at this period of his life, and of his turning them to his profit by declaring them trances, in which he enjoyed the company of the Divinity, Gagnier asserts to be a fable invented by the earlier Christian writers. Mod. Univ. Hist., b. i., c. 1, p. 42, and the original authorities there quoted. deluded enthusiast, while his enemies have denounced him as an impostor: the latter advancing in favour of their opinion, the intrinsic absurdity of the thing itself; as also his after conduct, which bore evident marks of being dictated by interest and not by enthusiasm. Had he commenced an enthusiast, say they, he would have continued one. Those, however, who have looked with more favour on the prophet, allege the many otherwise good and wise men who have fancied themselves divinely inspired. A heated imagination is by no means uncommon; and an ignorant man finds no readier dupe than himself. Moreover, to bear up against the contumely and indignation of one's fellow-citizens, to brave imprisonment, the loss of fortune and life, requires a determination that few things except an honest conviction are likely to inspire. Neither do they allow that he who was an impostor necessarily commenced one. The temptation to preserve a power unexpectedly obtained may be too strong for the honesty of a man, whom adversity, in its most appalling shapes, cannot compel to swerve from the honest path. Mahomet, in the cave of Hara, the persecuted preacher of a despised religion, might have been a deluded enthusiast, though on the throne of Arabia he was a cunning and consummate politician. Between these contending probabilities who shall determine? The pretended visits of the angel Gabriel, however, seemed to have been followed by no results worthy of so splendid a messenger. The information which Mahomet affirmed that he derived from his heavenly visitant might, as far as regarded its utility, have been obtained through the instrumentality of a much more humble personage. On the night of the 23d of Ramadan, called in the Koran the night of Al Kadr, or the divine decree, the KORAN first descended from the seventh to the lowest heaven; and at a distance from the pious Mahomet appeared the brilliant form of the messenger of God, the angel Gabriel, who came to communicate the happy tidings. The light issuing from his body was too bright for the mortal eyes of the prophet; he fainted, and not till the angelic visitant had assumed a human form could he venture to ap It must be remembered that suffering for an opinion is no proof of its truth; but is merely some evidence that he who suffers honestly believes that which he professes to believe. 46 proach or look on him. The angel then cried aloud, "O! MAHOMET, THOU ART THE APOSTLE OF GOD, AND I AM THE ANGEL GABRIEL." "Read," continued the angel; the illiterate prophet declared that he was unable to read. Read!" Gabriel again exclaimed, "read, in the name of the Lord, who hath created all things; who hath created man of congealed blood; who hath taught the use of the pen; who teacheth man that which he knoweth not." The prophet read the joyful and mysterious tidings respecting his ministry on earth, when the angel, having accomplished his mission, slowly and majestically ascending into heaven, gradually disappeared from his wondering gaze. This tale was by Mahomet related to his wife, who believed, or affected to believe, the sacred fablet. The next on the list of true believers were Zeid, the servant of the prophet, and ALI, the son of his uncle Abu Taleb. The impetuous youth, disdaining his two predecessors in the true faith, proudly styled himself the first of believers. The next and most important convert was Abubeker, a powerful citizen of Mecca, by whose influence a number of persons possessing great authority were induced to profess the religion of Islam. Three years were spent in the arduous task of converting six of these men. They were afterwards his chief companions, and with a few others were the only proselytes to the new religion before it became publicly known. The mission of Mahomet had hitherto been secret, the time was now arrived at which the Lord commanded him to make it known §. To this end he convened a large number of his kindred to a feast; forty of whom assembled round his board. The prophet rose, and thus addressed his wondering kindred :-"I know no man in the whole peninsula of the Arabs, who can propose to his relations any thing more excellent, than what I now do to you. God Almighty hath commanded me to call you unto him; who, therefore, among you will be my vizir, or assistant, and become my brother and vicegerent?" General astonishment kept the assembly silent; none offered to accept the proffered office, till the impetuous Ali burst forth, and de Mod. Univ. Hist., b. i., c. 1. p. 44. Gagnier, b. i., c. 7, p. 104-109. Koran, c. 96. Bayle, art. Mahomet. Gagnier, b. 1., c. 8. God commanded him to arise, and preach, and magnify the Lord." Koran, c. 74. Gagnier, b. i, c. 2, pp. 112, 119, clared that he would be the brother and assistant of the prophet. I," said he, "O prophet of God, will be thy vizir; I myself will beat out the teeth, pull out the eyes, rip open the bellies, and cut off the legs, of all those who shall dare to oppose thee." The prophet caught the young proselyte in his arms, exclaiming, "This is my brother, my deputy, my successor; shew yourselves obedient unto him." At which apparently extravagant command, the assembly broke up in confusion, testifying their mirth and astonishment by bursts of laughter. 66 Not discouraged by the failure of this his first public attempt, Mahomet began now to preach openly before the people. He discovered to them that he was commissioned by the Almighty to be his prophet on the earth, to assert the unity of the Divine Being, to denounce the worship of images, to recall the people to the true and only religion, to bear the tidings of paradise to the believing, and to threaten the deaf and unbelieving with the terrible vengeance of the Lord. His denunciations were efficacious; as they were well fitted for the imaginations of an ignorant people. Because he is an adversary to our signs, I will afflict him with grievous calamities; for he hath devised contumelious expressions to ridicule the Koran-may he be cursed. How maliciously hath he prepared the same!-may he be cursed. I will cast him to be burned in hell. And what shall make thee understand what hell is? It leaveth not any thing unconsumed, neither doth it suffer any thing to escape; it scorcheth men's flesh: over the same are nineteen angels appointed. We have appointed none but angels to preside over hell-fire." Verily, we have prepared for the unbelievers chains, and collars, and burning fire." "Verily, those who disbelieve our signs, we will surely cast out to be broiled in hell-fire: and when their skins shall be well burned, we will give them other skins in exchange, that they may taste the sharper torment." These terrible sufferings were to be the lot of the wicked-the wicked were those whom Mahomet disliked. "Those who dwell in gardens, i. e. paradise, shall ask one another questions concerning the wicked, and shall ask the wicked themselves, saying, what hath * Sale, Pre. Disc., s. 2, p. 57. Mod. Univ. Hist. b. 1. c. 1, p. 47. + Koran, c. 78. p. 472, Sale's trans. Koran, c. 74, p. 470, c. 76, p. 474, and c. 4, p. 10. brought you into hell? They shall answer, we were not of those who were constant in prayer; neither did we feed the poor; and we waded in vain disputes, with the fallacious reasoners; and we denied the day of judgment, till death overtook us: and the intercession of interceders shall not avail them. What aileth them, therefore, that they turn aside from the admonition of the KORAN? *" To deny the efficacy of the Koran; to dispute upon the truth and reasonableness of his mission, were naturally in Mahomet's eyes the most heinous sins. By his friendly voice the people were warned of the dangers of disbelief; and besought by his moving eloquence to avoid eternal damnation, by putting faith in the APOSTLE OF God. Among the most strange of Mahomet's stories promulgated at this period of his life, was the tale of his admission into the seven heavens, under the guidance of the angel Gabriel; through whose care and diligence he had been enabled in the course of one night to behold all the wonders of the heavenly regions, and to converse with the Almighty himself. The account which tradition has handed down of this extravagant fable is a tissue of the most dull and ridiculous absurdities; a story, in short, as destitute of fancy as of skill. We may easily suppose that a man of a poetic imagination could have composed a description of a journey through the boundless and glorious regions of heaven, captivating and misleading the minds of his hearers, by its splendid imagery, its gorgeous and startling embellishments. We may conceive him to have possessed them with vague and indefinite, but still with vast and wondering, conceptions of the magnificence of the celestial kingdom; of the power and beauty of its inhabitants; of its own dazzling and unspeakable glories. A well managed description, of such a character, might have had a powerful effect upon a rude and sensitive people. But the description which tradition has handed down, as given by Mahomet of his celestial journey, possesses no such poetical merits. He has described every thing upon a most extravagant scale; but unwisely endeavours to convey definite conceptions of the marvels he pretended to have witnessed. He relates by rule and measure, leaving nothing to the imaginations of his hearers. -This was so long-that so broad-this had so many eyes-this so many tongues; Koran, c. 74, p. 471. and while he thus strives to swell the imagination by mere arithmetic, he renders himself and his description ridicu lous. In the first heaven he saw a cock so large that his head reached to the second heaven, which was at the distance of five hundred days' journey, according to the common rate of travelling on earth; his wings were large in proportion to his height, and were decked with carbuncles and pearls; he crows so loud every morning, that all the creatures on earth, except men and fairies, hear the tremendous sound. The second heaven was all of gold; and one of the angels who inhabited it was so large, that the distance between his eyes was equal to the length of seventy thousand days' journey. In the seventh heaven was an angel having seventy thousand heads, in every head seventy thousand mouths, in every mouth seventy thousand tongues, in every tongue seventy thousand voices, with which day and night he was incessantly praising the Lord. Such were the puerile conceptions of the prophet! Of this famous journey we shall give no further account; a more stupid fable it is impossible to conceive; and which, were it not evidence, would have deserved no mention by the historian. It satisfactorily proves three things, however, the poverty of the prophet's invention; the unbounded extent of his impudence; and the extraordinary credulity of his followers. The fable at first met with no favourable reception; its extravagance and its absurdity were a little too glaring to be immediately, and without trouble, acquiesced in. Not till Abubeker had declared his complete and implicit reliance in the truth of the sacred fable, did the votaries of the prophet venture to distrust their understandings, and put faith in the astounding assertions of the holy man. Their faith was doubtless quickened by his furious denunciations of eternal torments against all who dared to disbelieve the sublime and miraculous adventure: terror was the result of these denunciations, proclaimed with vehemence and unblushing effrontery; and belief naturally followed in the train of terror. And thus the extravagant lie, which at first threatened the rising religion with early destruction, served, by a happy combination of circumstances, to contribute materially to its success *. They who desire to have a full description of this wonderful tale may consult Gagnier, who is peculiarly minute. Prideaux, moreover, does not let slip the |