that they opened the direct road to wealth, luxury, and priestly power. Ancient historians represent the bishops of that day, as enriched by the presents of the opulent, as riding abroad in pompous state in chariots and sedans, and surpassing, in the extravagance of their feasts, the sumptuousness of princes; while, at the same time, the most barbarous ignorance was fast overspreading the nations of Christendom, the ecclesiastical orders themselves not excepted. Among the bishops, the legitimate instructers and defenders of the church, numbers were to be found incapable of composing the poor discourses which their office required them to deliver to the people, or of subscribing the decrees which they passed in their councils. The little learning in vogue was chiefly confined to the monks. But they, instead of cultivating science, or diffusing any kind of useful knowledge, squandered their time in the study of the fabulous legends of pretended saints and martyrs, or in composing histories equally fabulous. This woful corruption of doctrine and morals in the clergy was followed, as might be expected, by a very general depravity of the common people; and though we cannot suppose that God left himself altogether without witnesses in this dark period, yet the number of the truly faithful had dwindled down to a mere remnant, and the wide-spreading defection seemed to call aloud for the judg ments of heaven. In view of this deplorable state of Christianity, anterior to the appearance of Mohammed, we are prepared to admit at once the justness of the following remarks upon the moral ends designed to be accomplished by Providence in permitting this desolating scourge to arise at this particular crisis of the world. "At length," says Prideaux, "having wearied the patience and long-suffering of God, he raised up the Saracens to be the instruments of his wrath to punish them for it; who, taking advantage of the weakness of their power, and the distraction of counsels which their divisions had caused among them, overran, with a terrible devastation, all the eastern provinces of the Roman empire. And having fixed that tyranny over them which hath ever since afflicted those parts of the world, turned every where their churches into mosques, and their worship into a horrid superstition; and instead of that holy religion which they had abused, forced on them the abominable imposture of Mahomet.Thus those once glorious and most flourishing churches, for a punishment of their wickedness, being given up to the insult, ravage, and scorn of the worst of enemies, were on a sudden overwhelmed with so terrible a destruction as hath reduced them to that low and miserable condition under which they have ever since groaned; the all-wise providence of God seeming to continue them thus unto this day under the pride and persecution of Mahometan tyranny, for no other end but to be an example and warning unto others against the wickedness of separation and division." LIFE OF MOHAMMED. CHAPTER I. National Descent of the Arabs-Proved to be from Ishmael, son of Abraham In tracing the genealogy of nations to their pri mitive founders, the book of Genesis is a document of inestimable value. With those who do not hesitate to receive this and the other inspired books of the Scriptures as authentic vouchers for historical facts, the national descent of the Arabs from Ishmael, the son of Abraham, is a point which will not admit of dispute. The fact of this derivation, however, has been seriously brought into question by several skeptical writers, particularly by the celebrated historian of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. With his usual dexterity of insinuation, he assails the united authority of Scripture history and Arabian tradition, respecting the pedigree of this remarkable people. Yet in no case does he undertake, in a formal manner, to disprove the fact to which he still labours to give the air of a fiction.* A succinct view, therefore, of the testimonies which go to establish the Ishmaelitish origin of the Arabs, *Decline and Fall, ch. 1. may form no unsuitable introduction to the present work, detailing the life and character of the individual who has done so much towards rendering the race illustrious. From the narrative of Moses we learn not only the parentage, birth, and settlement of Ishmael in Arabia, but the fact also of a covenant made with Abraham in his behalf, accompanied with a prophecy respecting his descendants, singularly analogous to the prophetic promise concerning the more favoured seed of Isaac. "And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee! And God said, Sarah, thy wife, shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve, princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation."* In like manner, it will be recollected, the nation of Israel sprung from the twelve sons of Jacob, and was divided into twelve tribes. In a subsequent part of the Mosaic records we find the notice of the incipient fulfilment of this prediction concerning the posterity of Ishmael "And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, according to their generations: The first-born of Ishmael, Nebajoth, and Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam, and Mishma, and Dumah, and Massah, Hadar, and Tema, Jetur, * Genesis, xvii. 18-20. Naphish, and Kedemah. These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their towns, and by their castles: twelve princes according to their nations."* Their geographical residence is clearly ascertained in a subsequent verse. "And they dwelt from Havilah unto Shur, that is before Egypt as thou goest towards Assyria." Havilah and Shur, by the consent of the best sacred geographers, are allowed to have.composed part of the region between the Euphrates and the Red Sea, denominated Arabia. From causes now unknown, the tribes of Nebajoth and Kedar appear to have acquired an ascendency over the rest, so that the whole country is sometimes designated from one, sometimes from the other of them, just as the entire nation of Israel is sometimes called Judah from the superior numbers, power, or influence of that tribe. Among the ancient profane historians also we find the names of Nabitheans and Kedarenes frequently employed as an appellation of the roving inhabitants of the Arabian deserts. This testimony is directly confirmed by that of Josephus. After reciting the names of the twelve sons of Ishmael, he adds:"These inhabit all the country extending from the Euphrates to the Red Sea, giving it the name of the Nabatenean region. These are they who have given names to the whole race of the Arabs with their tribes." In the fourth century, Jerome, in his commentary on Jeremiah, de *Genesis, xxv. 13-16. † Ver. 18. Ant. Jud. b. i. ch. 12, §4. |