Mohammed

(mo-hăm'měd,) or Mahomet, (mahom'èt,) founder of the religion of Islam, and a so39 4B called prophet, was B. at Mecca abt. 570 A. D., and belonged to the Koreish tribe of Arabs. Left an orphan in early youth, M. was given by his uncle and guardian, Abu Taleb, a commercial training, and at 25 years of age he married a rich widow of Mecca, many years his senior, but with whom he lived many years in happine . Relieved by this fortunate alliance from pecuniary cares, M., when arrived at the age of 40, began to entertain roligious ideas quite subversive of the idolatrous worship he had hitherto attached himself to. Pretending to have been inspired by divine revelation, he openly renounced the faith of his fathers, and expounded the doctrines of a reformed religion in which the unity of God and the renunciation of false gods constituted the fundamental points. He styled himself the Prophet of the Almighty, and, though sustained by some few adherents, he speedily found himself the object of a fanatic persecution. He fled from Mecca to the city of Medina, July 16, 622 A. D., from which date begins the æra of the Hegira (q. v.). At Medina he became both king and priest, married his second wife, the beautiful Ayesha, and levied war against his Koreish opponents, over which he ultimately prevailed. In 630 he returned to Mecca triumphant, and was there acknowledged Sovereign and Prophet of Islam. He purified the Caaba (q. v.), destroyed its idols, and enacted that the Holy City should be closed against the Infidel. He next subjugated the rest of Arabia, opened a war with Rome, and was preparing an expedition into Syria, when he D. at Medina, June 7, 632. The life and works of this extraordinary man have formed the subject of numerous biographies, among the best of which are those by Sprenger, Washington Irving, Carlyle, Prideaux, and De Bréquigny. [s. 609]