prevailed in the east. In Syria he met Christians of various sects, Jews, Magians, and Sabæans; Arabia presented to him countless varieties of idolatry; exiles from the Persian and Byzantine empires informed him of the dangerous doctrines preached by the Mani and Mazdak. A singular dream led him to believe that he was chosen by the Deity to reconcile all these jarring creeds, and to unite mankind in the worship of the one true God. In the solitude of his cave he dreamed that the angel Gabriel appeared to him, and hailed him as a prophet. On his return he announced his mission to Kadijah, who at once recognised his claims. Her example was followed by Ali, the son of Abu-Taleb, by Abu-Beker, Othman, and a few friends accustomed to regard the recluse of Hira with reverence.

These converts were called Mussulmans, that is, persons resigned to the divine will; their faith was confirmed by revelations which Mohammed pretended to receive from Gabriel, and which, as he did not then know how to read and write, or at least but imperfectly, he communicated orally to his disciples. These revelations were preserved by them in a volume, which they called the Koran, or book that ought to be read. The progress of the new religion was slow; many of Mohammed's friends rejected his prophetic claims with something like horror, and three years elapsed before he ventured to announce his mission publicly. Having invited his friends and relatives to a splendid banquet, he declared to them that God had chosen him to preach the doctrine of the divine unity; Ali, with the generous enthusiasm of youth, warmly offered to support the prophet's claims, but many of the other guests doubted or laughed them to scorn.

Undismayed by the imperfect result of his first essay, Mohammed began to preach to the people of Mecca in the market-place. Converts were made slowly; and the guardians of the city opposed doctrines that threatened to subvert the influence they derived from the worship of the Kaaba. Several of the Mussulmans, most remarkable for their zeal, were forced by persecution to abandon their homes, and seek refuge in Abyssinia; but the spirit of Mohammed quailed not; he refused to quit Mecca, and when asked to suspend his preaching for a season, he replied, "Were my enemies to place the sun on my right hand, and the moon on my left, they would not reduce me to silence." At one of the great annual fairs held in Mecca, Mohammed preached his mission to the merchants assembled from all parts of Arabia. Among his auditors were some citizens of Yatreb, or, as it was afterward called, Medina, whom peculiar circumstances rendered attentive to his claims. The Yatrebites had just conquered a Jewish tribe; they heard their captives boast of their speedy liberation on the coming of the Messiah, and supposing that the new prophet might be the expected deliverer, they resolved to conciliate his favor. Mohammed profited by their delusion; and this appears to have been his first direct step in imposture, though in the tangled web of human motives, it is hard to say where enthusiasm ends and fraud begins.

Inspired by his success with the Yatrebites, and some other tribes in the interior of Arabia, Mohammed, who had hitherto preached patience and submission under persecution, directed his disciples to defend themselves when attacked, declaring that all who died in defence of

his person or his creed, would assuredly inherit Paradise. At the same time he averred that he had been taken up into heaven by Gabriel, and admitted to a personal interview with the Omnipotent. The Meccan chiefs, enraged at his hardihood, took measures for his destruction, and he could only save his life by a speedy retreat to Yatreb. This event, called Hejira (the flight), occurred about the fifty-third year of the prophet's age (A. D. 622), and is the era used by all Mahommedan

nations.

Mohammed was received in triumph at Yatreb; he changed its name to Medinet al nábi (the city of the prophet), or Medina (the city), which it still retains. Converts flocked to Medina, and were formed into warlike bands, which infested all the roads to Mecca, and took severe vengeance for the insult offered to their master. The plunder was shared equally among the soldiers; enthusiasm generally insured success; and warriors from all parts of the peninsula were attracted by the hopes of wealth and glory. In one of the frequent encounters between the Meccans and Mussulmans, near the well Bedr, Mohammed was on the point of being defeated, when he stooped down, took up a handful of dust and flung it toward the enemy, exclaiming: "May their faces be confounded!" this simple action revived the courage of his followers; they gained a decisive victory, which he failed not to ascribe to a miraculous interposition.

After this success Mohammed made a great change in the character of his religion; hitherto he had preached patience and toleration; het now began to inculcate the doctrine of propagating the true faith by the sword, and of executing divine vengeance on idolaters and unbelievers, "In the shade of the crossing cimeters," he declared, "Paradise is prefigured," and this sublime orientalism was long the favorite war-cry of his followers. The Jews became special objects of his hatred; he seems to have hoped that they would acknowledge him as their Messiah, but they were too well acquainted with their sacred Scriptures to believe that the liberator of Israel should be descended from the bondwoman. A severe defeat at Ohod increased rather than abated the pride and fanaticism of Mohammed; he ascribed it to the fault of his companions in having granted quarter to their enemies on a former occasion, and thenceforward the war assumed a most murderous and sanguinary character. The Meccans suffered much more severely than their adversaries; depending for their prosperity, and almost for their existence, on commerce, they saw their trade almost annihilated, their caravans plundered, and their flocks swept away. They made one great effort to remove their enemy, and besieged Mohammed in Medina, but were soon forced to retire with great loss. "Hitherto they have sought us," exclaimed the prophet, "it is now our turn to go in search of them."

After this defeat, the Meccans seem to have lost all courage; Mohammed rapidly became the most powerful prince in Arabia, his followers received his words as the inspired oracles of God, nor were they undeceived by the gross licentiousness in which the pretended prophet indulged. At length, he marched against Mecca, but found the defiles. which lead to the city too strongly garrisoned to allow of an attack with any prospect of success. Under these circumstances, he concluded a

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truce, much against the will of his followers, by which a peaceful admission into the city was secured to him in the ensuing year. Feeling that his power was now established, Mohammed sent ambassadors, inviting the most powerful kings of the earth, especially the emperors of Persia and Constantinople, to become his disciples. Khosrú Parvíz, who then ruled in Irán, was indignant at receiving a letter, in which a poor lizard-eater," as the Arab was then called by his haughty neighbors, dared to place his name before that of "the king of kings." He tore the paper to pieces, and dismissed the ambassador with insult; when this was told to Mohammed, he exclaimed, "Thus God hath torn his kingdom." The Byzantine emperor, Heraclius, treated the message with respect, though he declined acceding to the invitation. During the year that preceded the pilgrimage to Mecca, Mohammed subdued several of the surrounding tribes that had hitherto spurned his power; but the seeds of mortal disease were sown in his constitution by a dose of poison, which a Jewess administered as a test of his prophetic pre

tensions.

At length the day arrived which was to consummate the triumph of Islamism; Mohammed made his public entry into Mecca with unparalleled magnificence; he did homage to the national faith by worshipping in the Kaaba; and such was the effect produced by his presence, that many of his former enemies, and among others, the chief guardian of the idolatrous sanctuary, proclaimed themselves his disciples. Soon after this success he began his first foreign war. The ambassador he sent to the Byzantine governor of Bosrah, having been murdered at Muta, a little town south of the Dead sea, an army was sent under the command of Zeid, the freedman of the prophet, to avenge the insult. The Mussulman general, and the two officers that succeeded, were slain; but the command devolving upon Khaled, the son of Walid, he obtained a decisive victory, and returned to Medina laden with booty. This success induced Mohammed to break his truce with the Meccans; disregarding their remonstrances and offers of submission, he marched against the city; an entrance was forced by the fiery Khaled, and the prophet with difficulty prevented his followers from involving his fellowcitizens in one promiscuous massacre. The Kaaba became the property of the conqueror; all traces of idolatry were removed from this national sanctuary; the only emblem of former superstition permitted to remain, was the celebrated Black Stone, an aërolite which the Arabs had venerated from an unknown age, the reverence for which was too deeply graven in their hearts to be easily eradicated. This success led to the subjugation of most of the northern Arabian tribes; ambassadors flocked to congratulate the prophet from every side; the lieutenant Khosrú, at the western side of the Euphrates, became a Mussulman; the governor of the provinces that the Najáshí of Abyssinia held in Arabia, followed the example; and Mohammed might be regarded as the undisputed sovereign of the peninsula. His two great objects seemed thus to be effected; Arabia was liberated from the yoke of foreign powers, and the Arabs began to regard themselves as one nation. A second expedition against the southern provinces of the Byzantine, or, as it was still called, the Roman empire, was crowned with success; and so rapid had been the progress of Islamism, that when

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the prophet performed his last pilgrimage to Mecca, his followers amounted to nearly one hundred thousand warriors, independent of women, slaves, and other attendants.

On his return to Medina, the poison which Mohammed had taken from a Jewess, who is said to have taken this means of testing his claim to the title of Messiah, began to show its effects. He was seized with mortal disease; and, at his own request, was removed to the house of his favorite wife Ayesha, on whose prudence he depended for concealing any incautious avowal he might make under the pressure of sickness. On the 8th of June, 632, he died, declaring with his last breath that he was about "to take his place with his fellow-citizen on high," meaning the angel Gabriel. He made no will, he appointed no successor, owing to the contrivance of Ayesha, who feared that Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of the prophet, would be nominated the heir of his power; and that she would thus be inferior to her beautiful stepdaughter, Fatima, the wife of Ali.

successor.

SECTION IV.-Early Progress of the Saracens.

THE fabric of Islamism was shaken to its very foundation after Mohammed's death, by the disputes that arose respecting the choice of a Ali had the best hereditary claims, but his literary tastes, and ascetic manners, rendered him unpopular with the fierce soldiery; and he had a powerful enemy in Ayesha, whom he had once charged with infidelity. After three days of fierce dispute, the controversy was decided by Omar's proffering the oath of fidelity to Abú Bekr, the father of Ayesha, and one of Mohammed's most faithful followers.

Abú Bekr assumed the title of Khaliph, or vicar, which thenceforth became the designation of the Saracenic emperors. Having superintended the sepulture of his illustrious predecessor at Medina, the khaliph sent an army against Mosseilama, an impostor, who, following the example of Mohammed, attempted to found a new religion. Mosseilama and his followers were exterminated by the gallant Khaled, surnamed from his fiery valor "the sword of God," and Islamism was thenceforward established in Arabia.

Perceiving that it was necessary to find employment for the energetic spirits by which he was surrounded, Abú Bekr prepared to invade the Byzantine and Persian empires, both of which had fallen into a state of deplorable weakness. Osama, the son of Zeid, ravaged Syria, while the province of Irák, the ancient Babylonia, was subdued by Khaled. The conquest of Syria was a more important enterprise; circulars announcing the undertaking, were sent to the principal Arabian tribes; and the army which assembled on the occasion was the most numerous that had yet been raised by the Saracens. The emperor Heraclius, alarmed at the approach of such formidable forces, sent a large detachment to meet the enemy on the frontiers, which was defeated with great slaughter. But the imperialists were more successful at Gaza, where they gained a victory over a Moslem division, commanded by Abu Obeidah. The Khaliph invested Amrú with the supreme command of the expedition, but intrusted Obeidah's division to Khaled.

The latter made himself master of the city of Bosra, and after gaining several other advantages over the Romans, laid siege to Damascus.

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Jerusalem was regarded with as much veneration by the Mussulmans as by the Jews or Christians, and Abú Bekr felt that the capture of so holy a city would give immense strength to the cause of Islám. his celebrated directions to his generals he displays great knowledge of the country as well as much political wisdom. But these directions are still more remarkable for their almost verbal coincidence with a passage in the Book of Revelations (chap. ix. verse 4), which most commentators have regarded as a prophetic description of the Saracens. A reference to the passage will enable the reader to see the striking similarity between the language of the apostle and of the khaliph. When the army was assembled, Abú Bekr addressed the chief commander in the following terms: "Take care, Yezid-Abn-Abu Sofian, to treat your men with tenderness and lenity. Consult with your officers on all pressing occasions, and encourage them to face the enemy with bravery and resolution. If you conquer, spare the aged, the infirm, the women, and the children. Cut down no palm-trees, destroy not the fields of corn. Spare all fruit-trees, slay no cattle but such as are absolutely necessary for food. Always preserve your engagements inviolate; spare the religious persons who dwell in monasteries, and injure not the places in which they worship God. As for those members of the synagogue of Satan, who shave their crowns, cleave their sculls, unless they embrace Islamism, or pay tribute."

But Jerusalem was not the only city to which sanctity was ascribed in the Mussulman traditions; it was reported that Mohammed, after viewing the lovely and fertile plains in which Damascus stands, from one of the neighboring heights, proclaimed it to be the earthly paradise designed to be the inheritance of true believers. The fiery Khaled recited this tradition to his enthusiastic followers as he led them before the walls, and thus excited their ardor for the siege to a fury that bordered on insanity.

Heraclius sent an army of 100,000 men to relieve the capital of Syria, but the imperialists were thrice routed; and in the last of these battles more than half their number fell in the field. This calamity led to the fall of Damascus, one side of which was stormed by Khaled, just as the other capitulated to Abu Obeidah. A warm dispute arose between the generals as to the claims of the citizens to the benefit of the capitulation; but mercy finally prevailed, and the lives of the Damascenes were spared. Abú Bekr died on the very day that Damascus was taken (A. D. 634); his memory was justly venerated, not only because he pointed the Saracens the way to conquest beyond Arabia, but because he gave their religion its permanent form, by collecting the scattered passages of the Koran, and arranging them in the order which they hold to the present day.

His character was remarkable for generosity and moderation; he did not reserve for himself any portion of the vast wealth acquired by his victorious armies, but distributed his share to his soldiers and to the poor. He was always easy of access; no petitioner for mercy or claimant of justice went unheard from his presence; both by precept and example he labored to maintain the republican simplicity so remarkable