say he was a person of few words, of an equal cheerful temper, pleasant and familiar in conversation, of inoffensive behaviour towards his friends, and of great condescension towards his inferiors.3 To all which were joined a comely agreeable person, and a polite address; accomplishments of no small service in preventing those in his favour whom he attempted to persuade. As to acquired learning, it is confessed he had none at all; having had no other education than what was customary in his tribe, who neglected, and perhaps despised, what we call literature; esteeming no language in comparison with their own, their skill in which they gained by use and not by books, and contenting themselves with improving their private experience by committing to memory such passages of their poets as they judged might be of use to them in life. This defect was so far from being prejudicial or putting a stop to his design, that he made the greatest use of it; insisting that the writings which he produced as revelations from GOD, could not possibly be a forgery of his own; because it was not conceivable that a person who could neither write nor read should be able to compose a book of such excellent doctrine, and in so elegant a style; and thereby obviating
1 Vide Abulfeda Vit. Moham. p. 144, &c. 2 Vide Prid. Life of Mahomet, p. 105. 3 Vide Abulfed. ubi sup.
an objection that might have carried a great deal of weight.1 And for this reason his followers, instead of being ashamed of their master's ignorance, glory in it, as an evident proof of his divine mission, and scruple not to call him (as he is indeed called in the Korân itself2) the "illiterate prophet." The scheme of religion which Mohammed framed, and the design and artful contrivance of those written revelations (as he pretended them to be) which compose his Korân, shall be the subject of the following sections: I shall therefore in the remainder of this relate, as briefly as possible, the steps he took towards the effecting of his enterprise, and the accidents which concurred to his success therein. Before he made any attempt abroad, he rightly judged that it was necessary for him to begin by the conversion of his own household. Having therefore retired with his family, as he had done several times before, to the above- mentioned cave in Mount Hara, he there opened the secret of his mission to his wife Khadîjah; and acquainted her that the angel Gabriel had just before appeared to him, and told him that he was appointed the apostle of GOD: he also repeated to her a passage3 which he pretended had been revealed to him by the ministry of the angel, with those other circumstances of his first appearance, which are related by the Mohammedan writers. Khadîjah received the news with great joy,1 swearing by him in whose hands her soul was, that she trusted he would be the prophet of his nation, and immediately communicated what she had heard to her cousin, Warakah Ebn Nawfal, who, being a Christian, could write in the Hebrew character, and was tolerably well versed in the scriptures;2 and he as readily came into her opinion, assuring her that the same angel who had formerly appeared unto Moses was now sent to Mohammed.3 This first overture the prophet made in the month of Ramadân, in the fortieth year of his age, which is therefore usually called the year of his mission. Encouraged by so good a beginning, he resolved to proceed, and try for some time what he could do by private persuasion, not daring to hazard the whole affair by exposing it too suddenly to the public. He soon made proselytes of those under his own roof, viz., his wife Khadîjah, his servant Zeid Ebn Hâretha (to whom he gave his freedom4 on that occasion, which afterwards became a rule to his followers), and his cousin and pupil Ali, the son of Abu Tâleb, though then very young: but this last, making no account of the other two, used to style himself the "first of believers." The next person Mohammed applied to was Abdallah Ebn Abi Kohâfa, surnamed Abu Becr, a man of great authority among the Koreish, and one whose interest he well knew would be of great service to him, as it soon appeared, for Abu Becr being gained over, prevailed also on Othmân Ebn Affân, Abd'alrahmân Ebn Awf, Saad Ebn Abi Wakkâs, al Zobeir Ebn al Awâm, and Telha Ebn Obeid'allah, all principal men in Mecca, to follow his example.
1 See Kor. c. 29. Prid. Life of Mahomet, p. 28, &c. 2 Chap. 7. 3 This passage is generally agreed to be the first five verses of the 96th chapter. 1 I do not remember to have read in any eastern author, that Khadîjah ever rejected her husband's pretences as delusions, or suspected him of any imposture. Yet see Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, p. 11, &c. 2 Vide Poc. Spec. p. 157. 3 Vide Abulfed. Vit. Moham. p. 16, where the learned translator has mistaken the meaning of this passage. 4 For he was his purchased slave, as Abulfeda expressly tells us, and not his cousin-german, as M. de Boulainvill. asserts (Vie de Mah. p. 273).
These men were the six chief companions, who, with a few more, were converted in the space of three years, at the end of which, Mohammed having, as he hoped, a sufficient interest to support him, made his mission no longer a secret, but gave out that GOD had commanded him to admonish his near relations;5 and in order to do it with more convenience and prospect of success, he directed Ali to prepare an entertainment, and invite the sons and descendants of Abd'almotalleb, intending then to open his mind to them; this was done, and about forty of them came; but Abu Laheb, one of his uncles, making the company break up before Mohammed had an opportunity of speaking, obliged him to give them a second invitation the next day; and when they were come, he made them the following speech: "I know no man in all Arabia who can offer his kindred a more excellent thing than I now do you. I offer you happiness, both in this life and in that which is to come. GOD Almighty hath commanded me to call you unto him; who therefore among you will be assisting to me herein, and become my brother and my vicegerent?" All of them hesitating, and declining the matter, Ali at length rose up and declared that he would be his assistant, and vehemently threatened those who should oppose him. Mohammed upon this embraced Ali with great demonstrations of affection, and desired all who were present to hearken to and obey him as his deputy, at which the company broke out into great laughter, telling Abu Tâleb that he must now pay obedience to his son. This repulse however was so far from discouraging Mohammed, that he began to preach in public to the people, who heard him with some patience, till he came to upbraid them with the idolatry, obstinacy, and perverseness of themselves and their fathers, which so highly provoked them that they declared themselves his enemies, and would soon have procured his ruin had he not been protected by Abu Tâleb. The chief of the Koreish warmly solicited this person to desert his nephew, making frequent remonstrances against the innovations he was attempting, which proving ineffectual, they at length threatened him with an open rupture if he did not prevail on Mohammed to desist. At this, Abu Tâleb was so far moved that he earnestly dissuaded his nephew from pursuing the affair any farther, representing the great danger he and his friends must otherwise run. But Mohammed was not to be intimidated, telling his uncle plainly "that if they set the sun against him on his right hand, and the moon on his left, he would not leave his enterprise;" and Abu Tâleb, seeing him so firmly resolved to proceed, used no further arguments, but promised to stand by him against all his enemies.6 The Koreish, finding they could prevail neither by fair words nor menaces, tried what they could do by force and ill-treatment, using Mohammed's followers so very injuriously that it was not safe for them to continue at Mecca any longer: whereupon Mohammed gave leave to such of them as had not friends to protect them, to seek for refuge elsewhere. And accordingly, in the fifth year of the prophet's mission, sixteen of them, four of whom were women, fled into Ethiopia; and among them Othmân Ebn Affân and his wife Rakîah, Mohammed's
5 Kor. c. 74. See the notes thereon. 6 Abulfeda ubi supra.
daughter. This was the first flight; but afterwards several others followed them, retiring one after another, to the number of eighty-three men and eighteen women, besides children.1 These refugees were kindly received by the Najâshi,2 or king of Ethiopia, who refused to deliver them up to those whom the Koreish sent to demand them, and, as the Arab writers unanimously attest, even professed the Mohammedan religion. In the sixth year of his mission3 Mohammed had the pleasure of seeing his party strengthened by the conversion of his uncle Hamza, a man of great valour and merit, and of Omar Ebn al Khattâb, a person highly esteemed, and once a violent opposer of the prophet. As persecution generally advances rather than obstructs the spreading of a religion, Islamism made so great a progress among the Arab tribes, that the Koreish, to suppress it effectually, if possible, in the seventh year of Mohammed's mission,4 made a solemn league or covenant against the Hashemites and the family of al Motalleb, engaging themselves to contract no marriages with any of them, and to have no communication with them; and to give it the greater sanction, reduced it into writing,
