"Even so," exclaimed Mohammed, when the news reached him, shall Allah rend his empire!" an issue which it required no particular gift of prophecy to foresee. Heraclius received the message sent to him with greater favour, and dismissed the envoy with presents. So did also the governor of Egypt, who, in addition to many precious gifts, sent two Coptic damsels of great beauty. One of these was remarkable for her charms, and caused the prophet not a little uneasiness. He could not marry her-for what reasons we cannot guess -and as to having her as a concubine, he had unfortunately written in the Koran* that fornication must be punished with stripes, and it would be an indignity to subject the back of a prophet to stripes, and for such a crime. His mind laboured in great affliction and doubt. But deliverance came at last-a deliverance, too, which favoured both the passion and the consistency of the prophet:-a distinct revelation was vouchsafed him, revoking the law of the Koran in his own case, but confirming it in respect to all others!

Soon after this a most fortunate accession was made to the staff of generals and this was gained by another marriage! Khaled Ibn al Waled was a man of valour and exceeding energy, and was in the service of Abu Sofian. How to gain him over became a problem with Mohammed. Khaled was a soldier, and to reason with him would be losing time; while fighting him would be dangerous. Some other means of conquest must be discovered then. Khaled had an aunt called Maimuna, 'now fifty-one years of age, and a widow, to whom the prophet, during his first pilgrimage to Mecca, procured an introduction. He saw here a means of access to Khaledproposed was accepted-and married her before he returned! Khaled's soldier-mind was now impressively affected by two considerations-first, he saw that Mohammed was already very powerful and rapidly rising; and secondly, by this new relation he might obtain in the prophet's service quick and distinguished promotion. The die was cast. Khaled was a devoted Moslem! But this was not all: Amru, the young satirical poet already mentioned, was a friend of Khaled's-he also saw convincing reasons for changing his

* Al Korân, Chap. IV. and XVII.

religion (if he had any to change!), and at the same time exchanged the pen of the poet for the sword of the warrior. Khaled was not long in signalising his bravery, obtaining the honour of being called, par excellence, "The Sword of God." These two men never faltered in their sanguinary devotion to their chief

they lived and fought while he lived to command, and after his death spread the terrors of the arms of Islam through Syria, Egypt, and Northern Africa.

Be

With Abu Beker, Omar, Ali, and Khaled, as leaders in battle, and with a numerous body of fighting men, and resources daily increasing, Mohammed now felt himself equal to higher things than he had as yet attempted. He had gained access to Mecca and "permission" to enter it, as a pilgrim, for ten years. To Allah he was thankful for this; but not to Abu Sofian nor any of the unbelievers. Indeed, was it not intolerable that the prophet of Allah should in any respect be put under restraint by these idolaters? Abu Sofian permitting Mohammed Ibn Abdallah to enter Mecca! It was true ten years had been agreed upon as a truce, and a prophet's word was sacred; but the cause of Allah and His prophet must not be enchained by any stipulations of the latter when in difficulties. sides, all things were fated to be as they would be, and would be as they were fated to be; and what help had even a prophet, if impelled forward by resistless fate to capture and subdue Mecca before the period of truce had expired? None! And more; could he, the prophet of Allah, behold the abominations done at the sacred Caaba, the shrine of Abraham and Ishmael, who were no idolaters, without indignation? The very "permission," which led him in pilgrim garb to witness such profanation was an insult. By Allah! the rites of idolatry should not long be performed at the sacred Caaba, or-he was no prophet! Let Abu Sofian see to it. Ha! certain peccadillos which some of the wretches of Mecca perpetrated, and which Abu Sofian sought to gloss over, and promised to prevent in future, could be looked upon by others, we suppose, as gross and impudent provocations!

It was observed that there was a stir

*The doctrine of predestination in its most stringent form is taught by Mohammed. Vide Al Korân, Chap. III. and XVII.

in Medina. The allies came in from all quarters. Troops were organised. One morning the gates were thrown open, and ten thousand men left the city in the direction of Mecca, not a word escaping any one as to their destination. Omar conducted the march. They reached the valley of Marr Azzahran, close by Mecca, without being discovered. Al Abbas, the prophet's uncle, who had hitherto dwelt among the idolaters, had now his eyes opened to the truth, came out to tender his submission, and put his family under the protection of the high-priest of Islam. By a singular fate Abu Sofian himself, who had ventured beyond the walls to reconnoitre, was surprised by a scouting party, and brought before Mohammed. His arch-enemy, who had been his plague before and ever since the Hegira, and had shed so much of the blood of the faithful, was now in his hands! "Well! Abu Sofian," said he, "is it not at length time to know that there is no God but Allah?" "That I already knew," answered the warrior. "Good! And is it not time for thee to acknowledge me as the apostle of God?" "Dearer art thou to me than my father or my mother; but I am not yet prepared to acknowledge thee a prophet." "Out upon thee!" exclaimed Omar. "Testify instantly to the truth, or thy head shall be severed from thy body." Abu Sofian felt the convincing force of this address, and assented. Yes, Mohammed was the prophet! Before returning to the city the whole army was passed before him, that he might give a converting report to those within the gates. "Truly," exclaimed he, "there is no withstanding this!" "Even so," said Al Abbas, who conducted him through the camp, "return then to thy people; provide for their safety; and warn them not to oppose the apostle of Allah." The gates were opened; Mohammed at sun-rising entered in pilgrim habit; strictly ordered his troops to treat the citizens with lenity (which command Khaled, however, failed in observing); repaired straightway to the Caaba; made the accustomed seven circuits round the building; with much persuasion prevailed on the porter to open the sacred doors, and at once made preparations for purging the temple of all its idolatrous abominations. Three hundred and sixty idols were demolished.* He The idols of the Caaba corresponded in number

to the days of the Arabian year.

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drank of the well Zem-Zem-the well of Hagar and Ishmael; established the Kebla; and then addressed to the gathered multitude a religious discourse. The crowd shouted Allah Achbar ! There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is His prophet!" The heart of the conqueror was satisfied. His clemency to his bitterest enemy was considered remarkable; for even Henda the fury, Abdallah Ibn Saad, the man who had interpolated the Koran when acting as his amanuensis, and profanely boasted of it; and Wacksa the Ethiopian, who had slain Hamza, and the chiefs of the Koreishites, were all pardoned.

His next step was to crush idolatry amongst the tribes inhabiting the small surrounding towns. To this service he commissioned Khaled, whose daring and too furious spirit only carried him too far in the work of destruction and plunder. Mohammed had often to reprove him for excess of cruelty; but no arm, no scimetar, could be compared to Khaled's; therefore he could not be spared. Idolatry was soon suppressed throughout the neighbouring plains. In the mountains the struggle was more severe; several of the hill tribes joining together and making a desperate stand. The Thayefites, his old foes, the Hawazins, the Joshmites, and the Saadites (among the last of whom he had been nurtured by Halema), were all joined against him, and were all routed. Hålema was still living, and was made the means of saving the surviving lives of her tribe, and recovering all their property by her intercession. The battle of Honein, fought against these mountaineers, nearly proved ruinous to the Moslems. Had not the stentorian voice of Al Abbas rallied the broken and retreating ranks; and especially had not Mohammed had recourse to the crowning act of casting a handful of dust towards the enemy, as he did with such effect at Beder, the day would certainly have been lost.

Much to the joy of the Medinese, who greatly feared that the prophet would now make Mecca his residence, he decided upon returning to Medina. Soon after this he had to lament the death of his much-loved daughter Zeinab, and then to rejoice at the birth of a first-born son from his concubine Mariyah: his joy was boundless-a joy

however of short continuance-for in a

F

few months he had to weep over Ibrahim's grave.

The next of our prophet's wars was a domestic one! Although he had in the Koran prohibited the multiplication of wives beyond the number of four, we have seen that Allah, as averred, had vouchsafed to the prophet considerable indulgence, of which he was not behind in availing himself, whenever passion, lust, or policy made demands. We are willing to believe that his power to govern met its severest test in the harem. Usually scrupulous in dividing his available time equally between his wives, he on a recent occasion was caught by Hafsa occupying a part of her time in bestowing caresses on his favourite concubine, the mother of his only son, Mariyah. Hafsa stormed and threatened so dangerously that Mohammed swore to abandon Mariyah altogether. But Ayesha, the most beloved of all his wives, heard of it, and was shocked. And of course the whole harem heard of it, and there was great chatter and indignation. Mohammed, never short of expedients, and knowing whom he had to deal with, abandoned them all for a whole month. During this month, however, he had the face to say that Allah had revealed to him two chapters of the Koran (first and sixth), absolving him from his oath concerning Mariyah! This twofold contrivance completely subdued and reconciled the wives! The next revelation might be to abandon them-all of them!

When the next festival at Mecca came round, Ali was dispatched thither to read to the assembled multitude a chapter of the Koran newly revealed-a chapter intended to lay down the doctrine of the sword in all its bare and hideous atrocity. Four months were allowed, and then all unbelievers were to be proceeded against with unsparing violence! Neither consanguinity nor friendship were to interfere. The sacred months were to be no protection. Mecca, the holy city, was to offer no asylumno unbeliever was ever to approach it on pain of death.§

The tenth year of the Hegira had now arrived, and Mohammed's name was one of reverence, or terror, throughout the whole of Arabia. The promul gation of the last-mentioned chapter of the Koran had a wonderful effect in making converts-as it has on all civilized minds in creating a loathing and a horror at the man who could pretend to have received it from the God of goodness and love. Envoys hastened in from distant princes. Yemen to the south, and Syria to the north, felt the attraction of his power.

But amid growing power and fame, accompanied unhappily by growing lust and inhumanity, he had no immunity from the common lot of mortals-he also was to die! His little son Ibrahim, fifteen months old, on whom he had doated, and in whom was his only hope of transmitting his name and dynasty down the ages, was suddenly taken away. "My heart is sad, and my eyes overflow with tears at parting with thee, oh, my son!" he exclaimed, "and yet greater would be my grief did I not know that I must soon follow thee..." The exhaustion of an exciting career, his paroxysmal complaint, and the poison of Khaibar, had brought on a premature old age, and he felt that his end was nigh at hand. He resolved, therefore, to make a last and a model pilgrimage to Mecca. Sixty-three camels, one for each year of his age, he sacrificed with his own hand. He preached much, carefully expounded his doctrines to the hosts of pilgrims who had come to meet him, and laid down many rules for civil and social life. His last words at Mecca-the conclusion of all revelation, say his followers-were these: "Evil to those this day who have denied your religion. Fear not them; fear me. This day I have perfected your religion, and accomplished in you my grace. It is my good pleasure that Islam be your faith." We are assured that when these words were concluded, the camel Al Karwa, on which the pro phet was seated, bent down on his knees in adoration!

All this time vast preparations were making for the invasion of Syria-an invasion, the results of which he was not to live to witness. In the eleventh year of the Hegira a mighty army marched forth from Medina; but the very night of its departure the prophet fell ill. After some few days he expired

with his head leaning on the lap of his favourite wife Ayesha. His last words are reported to have been, “Oh, Allah! -be it so-among the glorious associates in Paradise!" He was sixty-three years of age; 11th Hegira; A.D. 632.

We have attempted so to cast the narrative as to make a separate description of this wonderful man's character, we trust, comparatively unnecessary. Then as to the doctrines of Islam our space forbids any further attempt at analysis. It teaches the existence of our God, and that Mohammed is sole authoritative prophet-predestinationabstinence from wine-polygamy-the necessity of alms, fasting, prayer, and pilgrimage-the immortality of the soul* -an intermediate state-the resurrec

tion of the body—a paradise of physical ease, and all soft enjoyments to the good, and a hell of material fire to the evil.

The best account of Mohammed to be found in English is in Sale's “Preliminary Discourse" to his translation of the Koran—a discourse exhibiting notable acumen and candour, as well as mar.

"It is curious to observe the rise and fall and the reappearances of opinion. One branch of the followers of Mohammed held precisely the views which some modern English theologians advance as very novel things on the destruction of the wicked. They said none should suffer eternally, but for periods proportionate to their sins. Those that should never be admitted into Paradise should, after enduring the

just amount of punishment, be relieved from torment by annihilation.”—Irving's Life of Mohammed 1. 356.

vellous acquaintance with Oriental mat ters in general; and from which most subsequent writers have culled without any acknowledgment.

The election fell upon Abu Beker to succeed the prophet. He was called Caliph, or successor. The next Caliphs were Omar, Othman, Ali, &c. By these men of dauntless courage and panting ambition the arms of Islam were carried triumphantly from beyond the Indus to the Atlantic on Western Africa, and from the Straits of Bab el Mandeb to the Danube. The battles, the sieges, the single combats, the bloody cruelties, and the romantic adventures, which characterise the course of that wonderful line of conquerors from Abu Beker to Abd Almalec, are without a parallel in the history of the world. "During the reign of Omar," says Khondemir, "the Saracens conquered thirty-six thousand cities, towns, and castles; destroyed four thousand Christian, Magian, and Pagan temples; and erected fourteen hundred mosques.” If the Moslems had continued to conquer as they did during the Caliphate of Omar, they would in a few years have overrun the entire globe. But the equal of Omar never appeared again: besides, the very brilliancy of his successes let in a stream of corruption, luxury, intrigue, and division, which, happily for the interests of mankind, enervated the empire, and for ever put a check on the rapidity of its progress. T. N.

majestic development, on river, lake, and sea.

If we are to believe a statement put forward, in the year 1824, by the editor of a collection of 'original documents regarding Columbus and his discoveries, taken from among the Royal archives of Spain, navigation by steam was actually realised in that uninventive land before the middle of the sixteenth century! The story is, that one " Blasco de Garay, a sea-captain, exhibited to the Emperor Charles V., an engine, by which large ships could be moved, even in calms, without sails or oars." That " June 17,