MOHAMMEDANISM

One of the most celebrated systems of religion in the world; so called from Mohammed, its author and founder, who was born at Mecca, in Arabia, in May, 571. This founder of a new religion and of a political power, which even in his lifetime extended over his native country, and which under his succe ors threatened to embrace the empire of the world, traced his genealogy in a direct line through eleven descents from Koreish, the founder of the powerful tribe that bore his name, and who again was affirmed to be in direct descent from Ishmael, the son of Abraham. The future prophet sprung, therefore, from the noblest tribe of the Ishmaelitish Arabs; and his grandfather was at the time of his birth sovereign of Mecca, and guardian oHheCaaba (which from time immemorial had been identified in the minds of the Arabs with every sacred feeling): consequently, from the sanctity of his terrftory and his 757 MOHAMMEDANISM. office, a prince of great power and influence. But though descended from so powerful a family, Mohammed's early life was spent in comparative dependence. His father was a younger son of Abdol Motalleb; and having in his early infancy lost both his parents, his only inheritance was five camels and a female slave. On his paternal grandfather was devolved the guardianship of the future prophet; but of this protector he was deprived by death when only eight years of age. In a dying charge Motalleb confided this tender plant of the ancient stock of the Koreish to the hands of Abu Taleb, his eldest son, and the succe or of his authority, who amply redeemed the trust reposed in him by continuing throughout life the steadfast friend of his ward amid all the difficulties and dangers to which the latter was exposed in the promulgation of his doctrines. His education, however, is said to have been extremely scanty; and at the early age of thirteen, being intended for a commercial life, he accompanied his uncle's trading caravan into Syria. He afterwards entered into the service of Khadijah, a rich widow of Mecca, to whom his skill in commerce or his other accomplishments so far endeared him that at the end of three years she bestowed upon him her hand and fortune, — an alliance which restored him to the station of his family. At thi§^ period he was twenty-five, and his wife forty years of age. During the first thirteen years of his marriage little or nothing is known of his history; but at the termination of that period he withdrew from society, — resorted to a cave in the neighbourhood of Mecca, where he gave himself up to contemplation, and laid the foundation of that bold and hazardous project which afterwards raised him to glory and dominion. It was in this retirement he gave out that for two years he was in daily communication with the Deity. In his 40th year he a umed the prophetic office, and displayed his views and principles to his domestic circle. His first convert was Khadijah, whom he always regarded with affection, and even reverence, and whom he placed, after her death, among the only four perfect women the world 'ever saw; the other three being Miriam, the sister of Moses; the Virgin Mary; and Fatima, the youngest of his own daughters. The progre of the new sect was at first very slow. Three years were silently employed in the conversion of fourteen (some say nine) proselytes; but in the fourth year he extended the theatre of his preaching, and proclaimed his doctrines publicly to his fellow-citieens. The faith which, under the name of Islam ( I. e. salvation), he preached, was compounded substantially of two great principles, which, as Gibbon says, involves an eternal truth and a nece ary fiction; namely, that " there is only one God, and that Mohammed is his prophet— the last and greatest of the prophets." He did not, however, aim so much at founding a new religion as reforming the old, as declared by the former prophets, Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Christ, by putting an end to those superstitions and idolatries by which the true faith had been corrupted. Being urged to confirm the reality of his divine mi ion by miracles, he wisely declined the attempt, appealing to the internal evidence of his doctrines, and declaring that miracles would depreciate the merit of faith. The only miracle which he profe ed to have accomplished is a nocturnal journey from Mecca to Jerusalem, and thence through the heavens, on an imaginary animal called Borack, /. e. lightning; but the words of the Koran are often regarded as figurative and allegorical. He persevered with a iduity in the public exercise of his mi ion. The citizens of Mecca listened to the exposition of his principles with patience till he attacked the idols of the Caaba. This, however, raised such a storm against him, particularly on the part of the Kore i shites, that notwithstanding the protection of Abu Taleb, who, though not converted to Islamism, continued the warm and steadfast protector of his nephew, many of his followers fled to other countries, chiefly to Ethiopia. This happened in the sixth year of his mi ion, and is called the first Hegira, or flight. In the tenth year of his mi ion he lost both his wife Khadijah and his uncle Abu Taleb. The death of the latter being the severest blow that the new faith had yet sustained, this year is known in the Mohammedan annals as " the year of mourning." The death of AbuTaleb removed the only check to the virulent enmity of the Kore i shites; and a stranger having succeeded to the sovereignty of Mecca, after a troubled residence of three years, marked, however, by the acce ion of many proselytes, Mohammed, on the invitation of a deputation from Medina, fled to that city; and instantly, as if by magic, the proscribed and condemned exile became a powerful, and, as it soon appeared, an all but invincible monarch. The flight from Mecca to Medina, which is called the second hegira, or par excellence The Hegira, is the epoch from which the Mohammedans date their aera. It occurred in the 53d year of Mohammed's -age, and I3th of his mi ion, and coincides with the IGth July, A.D.G22. 3C 3 [s. 770]