_Mahomet._
LXX. It is so currently asserted by all our writers, that the false
prophet Mahomet was of low extraction, that the truth of it has come
to be believed in all Christian countries, as an historical dogma. But
the Arabic authors unanimously agree, that he was descended from the
Corasinan family, which was one of the most noble and ancient of Mecca.
It is true, that these may be mistaken; but then they are the only people
who could know any thing of the matter.
LXXI. On the other hand, Ludovicus Maraccius, an author of eminence,
and one who was most learned in Mahometan affairs, in the Prologue to
his Prodromus, or refutation of the Alcoran, sufficiently gives us to
understand, that in our histories, there are many fables respecting that
remarkable Imposture: he says, that the Mahometans laugh at the stories
which some of our historians relate of Mahomet; and this judicious
author adds, that this serves to confirm and make them stiff in their
erroneous belief. I have no doubt but it has this effect, because
it is natural to suppose it would beget an aversion in them towards
Christians, and a distrust of all they affirm, even with regard to things
appertaining to their own dogmas. Therefore those who think they do any
service to religion, by relating all the ill things they can pick up of
the enemies to it, without a sufficient examination into the truth of
them, and especially of the chiefs or leaders of sects, are so far from
accomplishing the end they wish to obtain, that thereby they do the cause
they mean to serve a notable injury. What purpose, for example, would it
answer, to tell a Lutheran, that the leader of his sect was the son of
a devil incubate? it would answer no other, than that of irritating and
persuading him of the truth of what his doctors had told him, viz. that
we invent all kinds of fictions, which may conduce to serve the cause we
defend. The same may be said of the sin of Sodomy imputed to John Calvin,
if the accusation is not just, which is a point that I am sure I cannot
determine; and likewise of all other imputations of this sort. I am very
clear, that we should expose all the immoral practices of the founders
of false religions, that would tend to render them infamous, provided we
can maintain the truth of the allegations we bring against them; and many
charges of this sort might be brought against some of them that could be
supported, and especially against Luther. But in cases where nothing can
be clearly made out, let us not mix the certain with the uncertain; and
above all, let us avoid introducing the false.
LXXII. But to return to Mahomet, not only with regard to his birth,
but even with respect to those circumstances of his life, which have
no connection with, or tendency to clearing up the truth or falsehood
of his doctrines, the European and Arabic authors are totally opposite
in their accounts of him; and to such a degree do they differ, that
Ludovicus Maraccius says, that both one and the other of them, when
they are speaking of the same Mahomet, seem as if they were describing
two distinct men. There is nothing more firmly established and more
generally assented to among us, than that the monk Nestorianus Sergius
was his tutor and principal counsellor; but, notwithstanding this,
Maraccius thinks, that it was much more likely his master and director
was some Jew: the probability of which conjecture, he founds in the
many Talmudical and Rabbinical fables with which the Alcoran abounds.
Neither is there any certainty in what is said of the tame dove, which
was used to put its beak into his ear, and which he pretended was the
archangel Gabriel. The history of Mahomet, as given us by Maraccius, the
materials for writing which, he affirms, were extracted from the most
chosen Arabian authors, sets forth, that the apparitions of the archangel
Gabriel to Mahomet, were very frequent; but that he did not come in the
shape of a dove, nor in any other form that was perceptible to other
people; nor could the apparition be discerned by his wife Cadighe,
although she had been often present with him, at the times in which he
professed to have seen it. I also know, that Edward Pocock, a writer of
great veracity, says, that he never met with the story of the dove in any
Arabian author.
LXXIII. We have one, or rather two other fables to refute, with respect
to Mahomet, that both relate to the place of his interment. The first
says, that he was buried at Mecca; but this is an error, which is not
accepted at present by any but the lowest of the vulgar; for it is
generally known by other people, that he was interred at Medina, a city
of Arabia Felix, distant from Mecca four days journey. The perigrinations
of the Mahometans to Mecca, are made on account of their prophet having
been born there, and also out of a regard they profess to have for a
house in that city, which they say was built by Adam; and after the
deluge, was rebuilt and inhabited by Abraham. The second fable, which
may be termed a common error, is that of the body being suspended in
the air in an iron chest, which is held up, and kept in equilibrio, by
the magnetic power of some load-stones placed in the roof of the chapel
where it remains. Edward Pocock says, the Mahometans are ready to burst
their sides with laughter, when they hear any of us say these tales are
firmly credited in the Mahometan countries. The truth is, that it is
well known, from the testimony of many credible people who have been in
those countries, that there is no such suspension of the body of Mahomet
in the air; nor, according to good natural philosophy, is it possible
that there should be any such thing; for the magnetic virtue being
liable to alterations, the attractive power of the load-stones could not
always continue to act with the same force, or in the same proportion;
in consequence of which, the equilibrium could not be preserved. Father
Cabeus tells us, that with a great deal of labour and difficulty, he
accomplished the suspension of a needle between two load-stones, but that
the suspension did not continue longer than the time in which you could
repeat four hexameter verses, and that then it adhered to one of the
load-stones. For this reason, we ought to esteem as fabulous, what some
authors relate of an Image of the Sun, which was made of iron, and which
remained suspended by load-stones in the Temple of Serapis at Alexandria.