of whose lives have been so carefully preserved as those of Mohammed,
although no native contemporaneous writer has recorded his history. And
yet there is no man whose talents raised him to extraordinary eminence
whose deeds and whose character are so unfamiliar to Christian readers
as his. Few know him but as a successful impostor. Many believe him
to have been an idolater. Almost all attribute to him indulgence in
the most degrading of vices,--cruelty, avarice, licentiousness. Even
Christian viceroys who have lived long in Mohammedan countries know
nothing of the doctrines and the career of one of the most renowned of
reformers and legislators. His personal appearance, his occupations,
his tastes, his weaknesses even--a strong proof of the honesty and
credibility of the Mussulman narrators--have been related by the latter
with scrupulous minuteness. His sayings and the opinions attributed to
him, embodied in the Sunnah, are considered by devout Moslems as second
only in sanctity to the verses of the Koran, and have given rise to
the amazing number of six hundred thousand traditions, which laborious
commentators have seen proper, upon doubtful evidence, to reduce to
four thousand that may be relied upon as genuine. The study of the
Koran, however, affords a better insight into the character of the
Prophet than the uncertain and suspicious testimony of the Sunnah. It
is the mirror in which are reflected the sincere convictions, the lofty
aims, the political experiments, the domestic troubles, the hopes and
apprehensions which, through many trials and perplexities, influenced
the mind and directed the movements of the author in his career, from
the position of a simple citizen of Mecca to the exalted dignity of
sole ruler of Arabia. The estimate of Mohammed in the Sunnah, which has
been transmitted by his early associates, who knew him well and daily
observed his conduct in the time of his obscurity, is nevertheless
entitled to far more credit than any opinion that may have been formed
without the assistance of tradition by the most capable scholar
after the lapse of even a single century. But unfortunately, in many
instances, their accounts have been so corrupted by the fabulous
embellishments of subsequent commentators as to detract much from their
undoubted historical value.
The most conspicuous trait of Mohammed was his absolute inflexibility
of purpose. From the hour when he first communicated to Khadijah his
belief in his mission, through the long and weary years of mockery,
persecution, conspiracy, and exile, during the even more trying period
of prosperity and empire, up to the sad final scene in the house of
Ayesha, he persevered unflinchingly in the plan which he had proposed
for his guidance, and which had for its end the abolition of idolatry,
the improvement of his countrymen, and the establishment of the
sublime and philosophical dogma of the unity of God. The only rational
explanation that can be given of this remarkable conduct in the midst
of difficulties and perils which would have shaken the constancy of
a mortal of ordinary mould lies in his evident sincerity. The most
convincing evidence of his honesty of purpose, his self-confidence,
and his earnest devotion, is furnished by the rank and character
of his first disciples, and the reverence with which his teachings
were received. The early proselytes of all other religions of which
history makes mention were ignorant and uneducated, destitute of
worldly possessions, without pride of ancestry or title to public
consideration. Their ungrammatical harangues were often heard with
derision; their credulity excited the contempt of the philosopher and
of the hostile priesthood alike. It was even made a subject of reproach
to the first Christians--an accusation, however, never conclusively
proved--that their numbers were largely recruited from the criminals,
the idlers, and the beggars of the Empire. The origin of modern sects
has invariably been obscure, and their proselytes of humble rank and
servile occupation. Not so, however, with the early followers of
Mohammed. They were members of the proud and exclusive aristocracy of
Arabia. Their lineage could be traced, in an unbroken line, for more
than six hundred years. Their hereditary office of custodians of the
shrine venerated by every tribe of the Peninsula gave them immense
prestige among their countrymen. Their interest in the preservation
of the national worship would naturally prejudice them against
innovations which must inevitably diminish their power and curtail
their emoluments. Their wealth was not inferior to their illustrious
descent and their political and religious influence. Some of them were
included among the most opulent citizens of Mecca. The Jewish apostates
of Medina possessed the proverbial thrift and intelligence of their
race. In that Hebrew colony none stood higher in public estimation than
they. The success of Islam demonstrated beyond dispute the superiority
of its original proselytes in the arts of statesmanship no less than
in the science of war. Great talents were required to encounter
successfully the exigencies which attended its institution, and which
afterwards repeatedly menaced its permanence. The high character of
such disciples is a positive indication of the purity of their motives
and the sincerity of their belief. Men are not liable to be readily
imposed upon by claims to divine inspiration asserted by their intimate
associates. Distance and mystery are far more propitious to the success
of a religious teacher than the familiarity which results from close
acquaintance and diurnal scrutiny. It is a common error to attribute
the spread of Mohammedanism entirely to the agency of force. Military
success was undoubtedly a powerful factor in the accomplishment of its
destiny. The sword was peculiarly esteemed in Arabia. The steel of
which it was composed was, in a country where no iron was produced,
the most valuable of metals. The prodigious nomenclature by which that
weapon was distinguished was an indication of its national importance,
and of the potency of its effects entertained by those by whom it was
wielded. It represented the martial spirit of the Arab,--the ruling
incentive of his life, the inspiration of his predatory exploits,
the glory of a long succession of cherished traditions. A mystic
significance attached to it, which, in time, assumed a religious
character, and rendered its employment, according to popular belief,
acceptable to the omnipotent and invisible Deity of Arabia. These ideas
descended to the Moslems, and promoted, in no small degree, their
energy and their enthusiasm. But force alone could never have enabled
a tumultuous horde of barbarians, unaccustomed to concerted action
and impatient of the restraints of military discipline, to overwhelm
three great empires in less than a century. The policy of Islam was at
first more conciliatory than menacing. It preferred to inculcate its
principles by argument rather than to provoke opposition by invective.
It disclaimed the invention of new dogmas, but labored to reconcile
its tenets with those of its venerated predecessors. It discouraged
proselytism by violence. Whatever it could not abolish or modify, it
adopted; whatever it could not appropriate, it ruthlessly destroyed.
National decrepitude; the universal decay of religious belief; the
dexterous adaptation of alleged prophecy; the hopeless condition of
the devout, terrified by the fierce animosity of contending sects; the
impossibility of ascertaining the correctness of the Gospel amidst the
confusion of doctrines and the multiplicity of versions; the political
disorders resulting from barbarian ascendency; the abrogation of the
offensive distinctions of caste; the mysterious fascination which
attends the unknown; the prospect of wealth, renown, and empire held
out to aspiring genius; the guaranty of independence of thought and
immunity from persecution--grouped under the banner of Mohammed the
disorganized and exhausted nations of the mediæval world. The tenor of
his life until the first revelation was that of a man of unimpeachable
morality. Already in his youth he had been distinguished by the
significant appellation of The Faithful. His marital relations until
after the death of Khadijah were without reproach; a fact conceded by
his most implacable enemies. A profound knowledge of human nature, an
appreciation of the spiritual requirements of his countrymen--upon
whose minds the doctrines of Zoroaster and of Christ had made no
permanent impression--enabled him to fabricate a system demonstrated
by experience to be admirably fitted to the taste, the genius, and
the superstition of the Oriental. Without a supreme conviction of the
genuineness of his mission he could never have impressed his teachings
upon the minds of the satirical and incredulous Arabs, or have secured
proselytes among his kindred, to whom his daily intercourse would
have soon revealed sentiments and conduct wholly inconsistent with
his pretensions as a medium of divine authority. And yet, with all
the sincerity of his convictions, he thoroughly distrusted himself.
He repeatedly affirmed that he was but a man, a preacher, a reformer,
whose mission was the regeneration and the happiness of mankind. In
spite of his realistic descriptions of heaven and hell, he declared
that he was ignorant of what was in store for the soul after death. The
spirit which consolidated a hundred vagrant tribes distracted by the
feuds of centuries, deaf to offers of compromise and peace, so jealous
of every infringement of their personal liberty that they resented
even the benignant and patriarchal rule of their chieftains, into a
powerful empire; which noted the glaring absurdities of contemporaneous
creeds, and offered in their stead an idea of the Deity so simple,
and yet so comprehensive, that no mind, however bigoted, could
conscientiously reject it; which moulded into an harmonious system
the jarring interests of antagonistic races, and, by its maxims of
toleration, conciliated those sectaries who denied the authenticity of
its principles, and refused compliance with its ceremonial; which,
in consonance with ideas of policy far in advance of the time, united
the functions of ruler and priest without apparently giving undue
prominence to either; which founded a religion that has endured for
nearly thirteen centuries, and has claimed the devoted allegiance of
a thousand million men, can hardly with propriety be said to have
been created by the irrational and selfish impulses of insanity or
imposture. Rather may these results be designated the operations of a
master-mind actuated by a lofty ambition; a mind capable of solving the
most perplexing questions of statecraft, and endowed with a degree of
political wisdom not often exhibited by even those few whom the voice
of history has invested with the proud title of artificers of nations.
Much has been written and spoken by persons having important
material interests to subserve, possessing limited knowledge of the
subject, and with little inclination to use even that knowledge with
impartiality, concerning the physical weakness which, at irregular
intervals, affected the Prophet. It has already been alluded to as a
form of muscular hysteria, an affection peculiar to delicate, nervous
organizations, whose attacks are generally evoked by sudden and
intense cerebral excitement, and a physiological phenomenon belonging
to the same class as somnambulism and catalepsy. It is but temporary
in its effects; and while its symptoms are not dissimilar to those
of the “falling sickness” of the Romans, the patient does not lose
consciousness, and neither the origin nor the continuance of the
disease implies even a temporary impairment of the mental faculties. In
view of the thorough investigations of medical scholars, the generally
received opinion, fostered by ignorance and religious prejudice, may be
pronounced erroneous; even if the efforts of enlightened historical
criticism had not already established beyond contradiction that to
the Byzantines, who enjoyed a world-wide reputation for accomplished
mendacity, is to be attributed the popular fable of the epilepsy of
Mohammed.
In personal appearance, Mohammed did not differ from his countrymen of
gentle blood. His head was large, his chest well developed, his limbs
slender but sinewy, and his whole frame capable of the exertion of
enormous strength. A heavy beard reached half-way to his girdle, and
his coal-black locks, slightly curling, fell down upon his shoulders.
He had the purely Semitic cast of features; the dark eyes gleaming
with half-hidden fire, the thin aquiline nose, the brown complexion,
and teeth of dazzling whiteness. While his expressive physiognomy
indicated the possession of a high order of mental power, the sensual,
as is often the case with men of extraordinary genius, was visible to
an abnormal degree side by side with the intellectual. His gait was
rapid and his movements energetic; his manners quiet, but pleasing: his
address affable; while his commanding presence, and his proficiency in
all the winning but superficial arts of the courtier, heightened by his
calm and impressive demeanor, displayed to advantage the graces and
charms of his eloquence. Though habitually grave and taciturn, he was
easy of access to the vilest outcast; and it was said of him that he
always left his hand in that of an acquaintance until the latter had
withdrawn his own. His liberality was boundless, and often subjected
his household to serious inconvenience; his gentle disposition is
shown by his fondness for children, and his humanity by the repeated
injunctions of the Koran relating to the treatment of animals. The
degrading passion of avarice had no part in his nature; with immense
treasures at his command, his establishment was inferior to those of
his followers, and the greater part of his income he bestowed upon
the poor. His tastes were always simple and unpretending; and even
after he had been raised to sovereign power he retained the frugal
habits of patriarchal life; his house was but a hut of sun-dried bricks
and palm branches, to which a leathern curtain served as a door. So
humble was he in everything that did not concern the dignity of his
prophetic office, that he even mended his own sandals, cared for his
goats and camels, and at times aided his wives in the performance of
their domestic duties. Ever constant in friendship, he early secured,
and preserved until. death, the attachment of those who were associated
with him, whether equals or inferiors, both of whom he treated with the
utmost consideration. Such was his self-command and perfect control
of his passions that he never struck an enemy save in the heat of
battle, scolded a servant, or punished a slave. So far from assuming
supernatural powers, he absolutely disclaimed their possession, and no
public teacher has ever displayed less self-assurance and dogmatism.
As a ruler and a politician, his measures were taken with tact and
prudence; as a commander, he displayed in the field considerable
military capacity; and it is undisputed that flagrant disobedience of
his orders was the cause of his early reverses. He had the strictest
ideas of the responsibilities that pertain to the administration of
justice; the poorest suitor, however trifling his cause, never failed
of a hearing; and he threatened with the severest penalties those
who refused the settlement of their pecuniary obligations. While
inculcating the crowning merit of good works, he recommended their
concealment, and resolutely discountenanced all pharisaical display of
pious affectation or pretended virtue. He was slow to resent an injury
and quick to pardon an offender,--a signal mark of cowardice in the
opinion of the Arab; timely submission and an appeal to his generosity
rarely failed to disarm his short-lived hostility; and those who began
by being his most implacable enemies ended by becoming his loyal and
devoted champions. His magnanimity and the profound knowledge of the
human heart which stamped him as a leader of men were evidenced by his
noble conduct and princely liberality to the Koreish after the conquest
of Mecca. In a word, the brighter side of the character of Mohammed
needs no higher eulogy than is revealed by the definition which he has
left us of charity, a virtue which he never ceased to practise: “Every
good act is charity; your smiling in your brother’s face, your putting
a wanderer in the right way, your giving water to the thirsty, your
exhortation to another to do right, is charity. A man’s true wealth
hereafter is the good he hath done in this world to his fellow-men.
When he dies, people will inquire, ‘What property hath he left behind
him?’ But the angels will ask, ‘What good deeds hath he sent before
him?’”
With all the greatness of Mohammed there was mingled not a little
of the frailty incident to human nature,--a considerable portion of
which, however, is to be credited to his want of education and to the
superstitious prejudices of the age in which he lived. He abhorred
darkness, and feared to be left alone without a light; he cried like
a child under the slightest physical suffering; he was an implicit
believer in the virtues of even numbers, and lived in constant
apprehension of sorcery; while the evil-eye was to him, as to the
most ignorant of his countrymen, a calamitous and dreaded reality.
His conduct was frequently regulated by dreams and omens; some of
the latter being not less puerile than those evoked by the arts of
divination which he so resolutely condemned. He was guilty of petty
affectations and exhibitions of weakness scarcely to be expected in
one of his genius and position; he dyed his hair and stained his hands
with henna, and displayed an amusing self-consciousness and vanity
when in the presence of any of the female sex. He was inordinately
jealous, and to this failing, for which history has admitted that at
times he had sufficient cause, is to be attributed the seraglio, the
veil, the escort of eunuchs, and the seclusion of women. His polygamous
connections, which have elicited the censure of European casuists
and theologians, were, in the main, measures adopted for political
effect; for by these matrimonial alliances he cemented his influence
and extended his power. While it would be vain to deny his amorous
susceptibilities,--for we have his own testimony that of all things he
loved women and perfumes,--it must be remembered that he controlled
his passions until after middle life; and it is certainly less worthy
of remark that he should have permitted himself the indulgence of a
harem, than that, with his opportunities, he did not abandon himself
to unbridled and vicious indulgence. The moral aspect of polygamy,
moreover, seems to vary with the locality, and to be after all only a
question of latitude. In the scorching heat of the torrid zone, which
causes no appreciable deterioration in man’s virility and endurance,
woman matures when but a child in years, and is old and wrinkled
long before her partner has reached the prime of life. Again, as is
well known, the passions of Orientals are far stronger than those
of Western nations, bearing to each other a ratio approximating to
that of the warm-blooded mammalia to the sluggish reptilia, the
voluptuous temperament of the Arabs is repeatedly mentioned by classic
writers, and under the tropics the imperious demands of nature may
not be disdained or neglected save in the cavern of the starving
and emaciated anchorite. The civil institutions of the East have
from time immemorial legalized the custom of polygamous marriage,
and the words monogamist and Oriental are antithetical, and imply a
contradiction in terms. Though distinguished ethnologists maintain with
considerable acumen that polyandry is one of the first phases of social
existence, their inferences are for the most part merely speculative;
for history seldom, if ever, has recorded such alliances, and this
apparently anomalous condition of family life is now found only in
Thibet and Hindustan. The sacred books of the dominant religions of
the world, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, and Mohammedan, all of which
are of Asiatic origin, either openly sanction polygamy or sedulously
refrain from denouncing it. Every one knows that it is universal in
China and India; the Zendavesta recognizes it; the student of history
and legend need not be reminded of its prevalence among the Children
of Israel; and the law of Islam permits its practice under certain
wise and equitable restrictions. The Bible, from beginning to end,
has not a single word to offer in condemnation of it; indeed, in the
days of the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, its utility in the
lands where it prevailed appears to have been unquestioned. Although
our ideas of social and domestic happiness do not tolerate this
custom, which the rigor of our climate renders unnecessary and, in a
measure, revolting; still, we should not attempt to measure by our
arbitrary standard of propriety the habits of nations formed under far
different circumstances, and satisfied with institutions consecrated
by the experience of a hundred and fifty generations; nor can we, with
justice, subject to our rigid canons of theological and political
ethics the sentiments and actions of an illiterate man, bred among
semi-barbarians, and who died nearly thirteen hundred years ago. While
Mohammed shared with his countrymen all their cynical distrust of the
feminine character, he is the only lawgiver claiming divine inspiration
who has ever made any effort to improve the condition of women by
restricting polygamy, and by the imposition of regulations which admit
of no evasion without a forfeiture of legal rights. The beneficial
effects of these ordinances in placing restraints upon divorce, in
securing to widows immunity from destitution, and in preventing female
infanticide, contribute of themselves no inconsiderable addition to the
prestige of his name. Far more serious than superstitious weakness, the
foibles of vanity, or predilection for women, are other accusations
which have been brought against the Prophet. The employment of bravos
and the assassination of prisoners, which, if not ordered, are said to
have been at least connived at and rewarded by him, are ineffaceable
stains upon his character; and it must be confessed that the evidence
tending to establish the commission of these sanguinary deeds is but
too well founded. They only indicate, however, that, while Mohammed
was far in advance of his age, the passion for blood, esteemed the
cardinal virtue of an Arab, had not been eradicated from his breast
after a life devoted to prayer, alms-giving, and benevolence. The
invocation of divine authority in the Koran to justify deeds of which
even the lax morality of the age disapproved, while the exigencies
of the occasion might have to some extent excused them, is also,
under any circumstances, extremely discreditable. The glory of
Mohammed consists in the fact that he fully realized the moral and
political necessities of his people, and opened for them a career
of unprecedented brilliancy; that his efforts for their substantial
improvement, reacting, in turn, upon other nations utterly foreign to
the Arab blood and language, will be felt to the end of time; that
he abolished many cruel and degrading customs; that he elevated and
dignified the character of all who received his teachings, and left
devout worshippers of a single God those whom he had found polytheists
and idolaters.
The Koran is believed by Mussulmans to have been delivered by the
Almighty, through the angel Gabriel, to Mohammed, who communicated it
orally to his companions as it was revealed, whence is derived its
name, “Recitation.” Having thus a divine origin, it is considered
sacrilegious by the Moslem Pharisees to question the authenticity
or propriety of any of its statements, or to criticise its manifold
contradictions, repetitions, and absurdities. As knowledge of writing
was at that time a rare accomplishment in Arabia,--it being asserted by
many scholars that Mohammed himself never acquired it,--only scattered
portions of the revelation were inscribed upon such materials as
fragments of leather, stones, palm-leaves, and the shoulder-blades
of sheep, and the remaining verses and Suras, as they fell from the
lips of the Prophet, were impressed upon the marvellously retentive
memories of his auditors. In the course of events many of the latter
were killed in battle, and the Khalif Abu-Bekr, fearing the loss of
the sacred texts, took measures to collect and preserve them in a
permanent form. When Othman was raised to the Khalifate, many different
readings had already arisen from this manuscript; and innumerable
editions, each claiming superiority and producing endless controversy
and scandal, were distributed throughout his dominions. To secure
uniformity, he caused copies of the first edition to be made, and all
others not agreeing with the latter were destroyed; so that the work
as published under the auspices of Othman is the Koran as we possess
it, the spiritual guide of all true Moslems. It is not voluminous,
containing only a little more than half as much matter as the New
Testament, and is composed of one hundred and fourteen Suras, or
chapters, grouped together apparently without any attention to rational
connection or chronological order, and wherein the same sentiments
are expressed and the same legends are repeated time and again. An
attentive perusal of a translation of this book is an arduous task, and
even in the original it is an undertaking well calculated to exhaust
the patience and application of any one but a Mussulman theologian or
saint. The compiler began with the longest chapters and ended with the
shortest ones, the reverse order in which they were revealed, which
suggests the hypothesis that the Koran may have been at first written
in some language other than Arabic, and in which the characters were
read from left to right. It is also suspected, upon plausible grounds,
that the sacred book has suffered interpolations and omissions made
in the interest of the successful faction to which Othman belonged;
a theory which has gained credence from the well-known corruption of
the Scriptures by the Jews. Be this as it may, no means of comparison
existing, as in the case of the different versions of the Bible, the
conclusions of the critic must necessarily be drawn from the internal
evidence afforded by the text itself; a mode of examination at best
but unreliable and unsatisfactory. Moslems love to cite the Koran as
the one miracle of Mohammed, on account of its purity of language
and perfection of style; leaving out of consideration its chaotic
condition, its anachronisms, and the desultory, monotonous, and
disconnected rhapsodies with which it abounds. Having no diacritical
points to indicate the vowels, its meaning is often ambiguous,
and seven different readings exist, all of which are admitted by
theologians to be correct. Though written in the dialect of Mecca, the
most polished of the Arabic tongue, it contains, nevertheless, many
grammatical errors; probably traceable to the illiterate persons from
whose recollection was obtained much of the first compilation, and
whose words, taken down verbatim, would obviously require correction,
which the scribe naturally hesitated to make through fear of sacrilege.
In view of the suspicion not unjustly attaching to the motives of
those who revised it, and which, to a certain extent, affects its
authenticity as a whole, it is scarcely proper to subject the volume to
searching and invidious criticism. Nor is it creditable to attribute
to the teachings of Mohammed doctrines adopted by subsequent Moslem
theologians which he would probably have been the first to condemn. The
bulk of the Koran is composed of Jewish and Christian legends; rules
for the ceremonial of Islam; excuses for the conduct of the Prophet
when the indignation and suspicious temper of his followers threatened
his ascendency; the foundation of a code of law, and a large number
of moral precepts breathing a spirit of enlightened piety, impartial
justice, and self-abnegation, unsurpassed by any collection of maxims
ever offered for the guidance of mankind. The popular anthropomorphic
idea of the Deity is rejected, all His physical attributes being now
regarded as figurative; triads are classed with idols as manifestations
of polytheism; and the exalted conception of God without equal or rival
is perpetually impressed upon the mind of the reader in phrases glowing
with the fire of religious zeal and impassioned eloquence. The poetic
talent of the untutored Arab appears in all its wonderful perfection
in the Koran, and yet Mohammed did not acknowledge his possession
of this faculty, and persistently discouraged its exercise as a
reminiscence of Paganism. Throughout the entire volume no assumption is
made of divine powers by the Prophet; the ability to work miracles is
especially repudiated by him as unnecessary for religious conviction,
and is mentioned as an unavailing and unprofitable accomplishment of
his inspired predecessors. The prevalent idea that a blind fatalism is
inculcated in the pages of the Koran is a fallacy. The entire substance
of its teachings is contrary to this doctrine, and would be worthless
if belief in it were enjoined; passages constantly occur admitting the
exercise of the utmost freedom of will, and thoroughly inconsistent
with any theory depending upon the foreordained destiny of man. The
fact is that the misapprehension of the meaning of Islam--absolute
resignation to the will of God--is responsible for this perverted
principle, which, like the crescent now universally adopted as a Moslem
religious symbol, is an invention of the Turks, and was absolutely
unknown as such to the early followers of Mohammed.
To the Kaaba, whose deities had received the pious homage of so many
centuries, an additional importance was communicated by its adoption
as the central point of Mussulman worship. In time it became invested
with a mystical character resembling the personification of a female
principle of faith, which, while anomalous in the practice of Islam,
is so familiar to the constitution of almost all religions. A black
covering representing a veil, and renewed each year with impressive
ceremonies, screened the sacred building from the public gaze. A guard
of eunuchs, fifty in number, the dignity and importance of whose
office, as custodians of the shrine, entitled them to the superstitious
reverence of the devout, were in constant attendance. In these singular
regulations, which suggest both the adoration of the Virgin and the
restraints of the harem, can be detected an expression of the innate
and irrepressible desire of mankind for a material representation of
feminine divinity.
The licentious character alleged to belong to the Mohammedan paradise
has provoked much unreasonable vituperation from those who are
unfamiliar with the literary peculiarities and highly imaginative
temperament of the people of the East. The mind of the Oriental has
ever delighted to wander in the mystic realm of parable and allegory.
His sacred books, from the Zendavesta to the Koran, abound with
examples of this method of impressing important truths, and even the
lighter productions destined to beguile his leisure are not free
from it. No educated Mussulman believes, no candid and well-informed
Orientalist thinks, that the famous houris, with their unfading
charms, their graceful presence, their intoxicating embraces, and
their peculiar physical endowments, are anything more than the shadowy
personages of allegorical imagery. Allusion is made to them in terms of
vague and mysterious import susceptible of various construction; and,
even if we should admit the belief in their actual existence, and adopt
a literal interpretation of the verses relative to this recompense of
the blest, the descriptions of their attractions are not comparable
in minuteness of detail and carnal suggestiveness to the voluptuous
inspirations of the Song of Solomon, which no reader, however
credulous, will venture to construe otherwise than as an allegory. In
the romantic and highly embellished visions of the Koran, uncultivated
Moslems, imbued with the imaginative credulity of the East, have been
only too ready to accept metaphor and parable for absolute fact.
The other pleasures to be found in heaven are connected with what would
be most precious and refreshing to the poor and thirsty dwellers in the
Desert,--the domes of pearl; the dust of musk; the pebbles of hyacinth
and emerald; the sumptuous banquets; the robes of satin and gold;
the exhilarating but harmless draughts of generous wine; the forests
of stately palms; the everlasting verdure; the luscious fruits; the
sparkling fountains; the shady gardens watered by cool and limpid
streams. It was not without reason that green became the distinctive
color of the returned pilgrim, a color selected by the Prophet as
emblematic of the fields and groves of Paradise.
Mohammed, having derived his idea of heaven indirectly from the
Chaldean accounts of the Garden of Eden, and that of the devil from
the dualism of Persian mythology, borrowed the name and description of
the place of torment from the Jews, who denominated hell Ge-Hinnom,
literally, the “Vale of Hinnom,” from a fertile and pleasant valley
near Jerusalem, which, however, was rendered execrable in spite of its
attractions, on account of its being the home of the relentless Moloch,
upon whose altar was periodically immolated the flower of the Hebrew
youth. The rabbinical division into seven stages, entered by as many
gates, and each set apart for a different degree of punishment, is
adopted without sensible alteration. If reference to Paradise is seldom
made in the Koran, the details of the tortures of the damned are, on
the other hand, remarkable for their vividness and frequency, and,
conceived by the flights of an unbridled imagination, are delineated
with all the earnestness of a mind convinced of their fearful reality.
The Koran, like the Zendavesta, which enjoins the tilling of the
soil as an indispensable religious duty, recommends the practice of
agricultural pursuits, the extension of commerce, and the foundation
and development of every species of manufacturing industry. The
encouragement of these occupations, by representing them as
praiseworthy and agreeable to God, with a view to their general
adoption by a people who had hitherto considered trade and manual labor
as contemptible, was naturally a task of considerable difficulty.
But expectations of pecuniary advantage, joined to the prospect of
individual distinction and national glory, speedily removed this
prejudice; especially in a society which contained no privileged
classes, and recognized none of the artificial and depressing
obligations of feudalism. In consequence of this wise recommendation,
the restrictions of caste--which had never prevailed in Arabia to the
extent common to the kingdoms of Asia, probably because it possessed
no hierarchy and no organized system of government--were eradicated;
all employments of an honorable character were placed upon an equal
footing; and the merchant and the artisan each enjoyed a degree of
dignity, popular esteem, and social importance proportionate to his
talents and success.
Although the Koran has been made the subject of interminable
commentaries, numbering forty thousand as near as can be estimated,
and isolated precepts have been expanded and distorted for the purpose
of forming an elaborate system of jurisprudence, it was never intended
as a general text-book of law. The few maxims upon this subject which
it contains were borrowed partly from the Hebrews, but chiefly from
the sanguinary code of the early Arabians. Some, in addition to those
above mentioned, grew out of the requirements of particular cases;
the majority of them, however, relate to the domestic difficulties of
the Prophet and to the regulation of the harem. Notwithstanding the
latter preferably adopted the Koran as the basis of his legal decisions
whenever it was practicable, it is a well-known fact that after his
death the collections of the Sunnah furnished a standard of broader
application, and of scarcely less authoritative character, in the
settlement of the principles of Mohammedan law.
The Koran commands relief of the oppressed, protection of the
defenceless, mercy to the orphan, and kindness to animals. It enjoins
the strict performance of engagements, even though entered into with
members of a hostile creed; in humiliating contrast with the policy
of Catholic Rome, whose children were perpetually absolved from the
observance of contracts concluded with infidels. It denounces awful
penalties against the murderer and the suicide. In its pages the
profound deference that usually attaches to aristocratic birth and
distinguished station is ignored; titled insolence is not permitted to
assert superiority over the unpretending worshipper, and the monarch
and the beggar meet as brethren before the throne of Almighty God. The
right of private judgment is repeatedly and authoritatively declared
to be the privilege of every believer; the humblest Moslem may place
his own interpretation on the texts of the alleged revelation; and his
conception of their meaning and application is entirely independent
of the edicts of priests or the suspicious decisions of synods and
councils.
Abstinence from swine’s flesh and from the blood of all animals is
enforced through hygienic considerations arising from experience of
the injurious effects of such food in tropical climates; and the
requirement of personal cleanliness by frequent and regular lustration
has its origin in the same vigilant solicitude for the public welfare.
A marked difference of ideas and phraseology is to be discerned in the
Suras delivered at Mecca and Medina respectively; the former being
more poetic, inspiring, and defiant than the latter. As Mohammed
consolidated his power, the text of the Koran evinced more of the
calmness and dignity of the ruler than of the fire of the enthusiast.
The earnest desire to make converts of the Jews is disclosed by the
appeal to a common ancestry, and by the politic incorporation of
Talmudic legends into the holy book which was to replace the Bible;
while the signal failure to secure this result is foreshadowed by
threats of divine wrath soon to be realized by slavery, exile, and
death. Though Arabia was full of infidels, and even a large proportion
of the idolaters observed the rites of their religion merely as a
matter of form and fashion, and were deeply infected with skepticism,
it is singular that Mohammed, in his denunciations of hypocrisy and
idolatry, did not utter a word in condemnation of atheistical ideas.
The book, moreover, which was to be the guide of a sect whose adherents
improved algebra, discovered chemical analysis, and brought agriculture
to an unprecedented degree of perfection, contains no science, and
only the most rudimentary notions of civil government. According to
the Koran, the sun sets in a morass of black mud; water is the element
whence all life is derived; and the conceptions of natural phenomena
which are gravely set forth in its pages are only worthy of the vagrant
fancies of children and barbarians.
Among Orientals the Koran is invariably published in Arabic, the sacred
language of the Mussulmans, who are instructed in it during childhood,
just as orthodox Jews are early familiarized with the Hebrew tongue. It
is not known through the medium of translation in Mohammedan countries
unless when the latter is interlined with the original; so that the
reader, by comparing the different texts, may have an opportunity to
judge of the qualifications and accuracy of the translator. Great
luxury is usually exhibited in the embellishment of the sacred volume.
Its leaves are blue or purple, odorous with costly perfumes, its
letters of gold. Its covers are often studded with jewels. Amidst its
interwoven arabesques the name of God appears, repeated thousands
of times. No Mussulman handles it without every demonstration of
reverence. It almost always bears upon the side an admonition not to
touch it with unclean hands; an unnecessary precaution for the devout,
whose respect for its contents is indeed not unreasonable, as we may
perceive from a single invocation taken at random, and not conspicuous
among the expressions of sublime piety to be found upon almost every
page: “Architect of the heaven and the earth, thou art my support in
this world and the next. Cause me to die faithful to the law. Introduce
me into the assembly of the just.”
Islam means substantially the Religion of Peace. From this verbal
form are derived the terms Mussulman and Moslem, indicating all who
are submissive to the will of God. The commonly adopted appellation
Mohammedan is not countenanced by followers of the Prophet, and
is of European origin. The Islamitic confession of faith is the
simplest known to any creed; it merely involves the repetition of
the formula, “There is no God but God, and Mohammed is his Apostle.”
By the acceptance and utterance of this phrase, any one may become a
Mussulman; although the observance of the practical duties of prayer,
fasting, alms-giving, and pilgrimage, urged with such eloquence in the
Koran, are regarded as obligatory upon all professing that religion.
Moslems pray five times daily, and before each prayer an ablution must
be performed, as a token that the suppliant has cleansed his heart of
every vestige of insincerity and impure desire. The Pagan Arabs, as
often as they addressed their supplications to their ruling divinity,
turned their faces to the rising sun, and when Mohammed instituted
his form of prayer, he selected as the objective point, or Kiblah,
the temple of Jerusalem, with the design of attracting the Jews; but
after the conversion of the latter was seen to be impracticable, and
no further reason for conciliation existed, the Kaaba was substituted;
and thenceforth the holy shrine of Mecca became the Kiblah of the
Moslem faith. During the month of Ramadhan--set apart because in it was
communicated the first revelation--a fast is enjoined throughout the
domain of Islam, and abstinence from food and drink is required from
sunrise to sunset; an intolerable hardship in torrid lands, where the
month often falls in summer on account of the constantly retrograding
divisions of the lunar year.
The unostentatious bestowal of alms was a duty whose importance
Mohammed constantly impressed upon his followers as a cardinal virtue;
the Moslem is taxed to the tenth of his income for the benefit of
the poor; and if his wealth has been increased through injustice
or dishonesty, the penalty of a double contribution is exacted.
Pilgrimage, the last of the religious obligations of Islamism, whenever
possible, should be performed in person; its observance confers a
life-long distinction, and its neglect implies a deplorable want of
energy in the believer that may compromise his happiness hereafter.
When the pilgrim enters the sacred territory, which extends for several
miles in every direction from Mecca, he lays aside his clothes,
performs complete ablution, and dons the Ihram, or Garment of Holiness,
which is composed of two long, seamless pieces of cotton cloth, one to
be wrapped about the waist, and the other to be adjusted upon the upper
part of the body so as to leave the right shoulder bare. All covering
for the head is prohibited; a severe restriction under the blazing sun
of the Hedjaz. He now approaches the Kaaba, kisses the Black Stone,
and makes the circuit of the edifice seven times, repeating certain
prayers prescribed for the occasion. Next he drinks of the waters of
the holy well Zemzem, which tradition asserts burst forth spontaneously
at the feet of Hagar when she and Ishmael were about to perish of
thirst in the wilderness. Near at hand is the Station of Abraham, a
large stone upon which the Patriarch is supposed to have stood when
he built the Kaaba, whither the pilgrim must now resort and perform
his devotions. Finally, he leaves the precincts of the shrine and runs
seven times between Safa and Merwa, two elevations beyond the walls of
the mosque; a ceremony commemorative of the despair of Hagar in her
search for water to sustain the life of her suffering child before the
fountains of Zemzem were miraculously opened. Upon the eighth day of
the Pilgrimage, a mighty host, amounting not infrequently to the number
of seventy-five thousand souls, with twenty-five thousand camels and
countless other animals for sacrifice, sets out for Mount Arafat, ten
miles distant, from whose summit a sermon is preached by the chief imam
of the Mosque of Mecca. The sermon concluded, all hurry amidst great
confusion to the Valley of Mina, where each pilgrim should cast seven
pebbles at three pillars representing the devil, in commemoration of
an incident in the life of Abraham. The animals, sheep and camels,
are next slaughtered,--a ceremony symbolical of the sacrifice by the
patriarch, whose victim, however, is stated by Arabian tradition to
have been Ishmael instead of Isaac,--and the pilgrims are then at
liberty to resume their ordinary garments, shave their heads, trim
their beards, and pare their nails; acts considered illegal before the
various rites of the Pilgrimage have been performed according to the
prescribed routine.
The visit to the Prophet’s tomb at Medina is not compulsory, but is
indispensable to secure the honorable title of Hadj, which confers the
privilege of wearing a green turban, and excites the perpetual envy
of those unfortunates whose physical incapacity or limited financial
circumstances will not permit a journey to the Holy Cities of Arabia.
“Show me a people’s God,” said Euripides, “and I will tell you that
people’s history.” To the history of Islam is this significant remark
especially appropriate. The Moslem conception of the Deity is one of
unapproachable grandeur and sublimity. While placed immeasurably above
His creatures, their praise and their petitions are always tendered
Him without the officious intervention of a privileged caste, and
wherever the hour of prayer may find the worshipper, whether in the
retirement of his home, in the noisy bazaar, upon the deck of a vessel
in mid-ocean, or amidst the awful stillness and solitude of the Desert.
The practical value and consequent importance of a religion consist not
so much by whom or under what circumstances it is alleged to have been
founded, but in what it has effected for the happiness and permanent
improvement of humanity.
Through the enthusiasm inspired by its exalted ideas of Almighty power,
Islam extirpated idolatry so thoroughly, that in the second generation
after it was promulgated men feared even to mention the names of the
false gods of their fathers. It made cannibalism detestable, and swept
away human sacrifices, with which the Arabs had been familiar for a
period whose commencement was long anterior to the days of Abraham.
It softened the asperities of warfare; extended to the vanquished the
advantages of instant liberty and prospective distinction, upon the
sole condition of conversion; it protected the unfortunate captive from
violence, and abolished the shocking practice of mutilation of the
dead. Its hostility to the spirit of feudalism insured the protection
and freedom of every degree and profession of mankind. It elevated the
position of woman; repressed the unblushing licentiousness prevalent
in the Age of Ignorance; formulated an equitable law of divorce, where
separation had been previously a matter of caprice; and shielded
the wife from the cruelty, avarice, and injustice of the husband. It
stamped out, at once and forever, the horrible crime of infanticide.
It prohibited not merely the abuse of wine and other intoxicants,
but even the slightest indulgence in them. It declared divination
and all games of chance to be devices of Satan, whose practice would
inevitably cause a forfeiture of Paradise. While countenancing slavery,
it ameliorated the condition of the slave, who, under the patriarchal
customs of the Orient, enjoyed the familiar intercourse and shared
the paternal care of the master; declared his manumission to be the
most commendable of acts and the most effective of penances; defined
his rights, regulated the measure of his punishment and the amount of
his ransom, and established the humane provision that, when sold, the
slave-mother should never be separated from her child. It recommended
as indispensable duties of the true believer the practice of humility,
of resignation, of benevolence. By proclaiming the equality of all
men and by the persistent inculcation of the virtues of charity and
forgiveness, it gradually weakened, and ultimately abrogated, the law
of blood-revenge, which the Bedouin had been accustomed to consider
his most cherished privilege; a right whose violation, according to
popular opinion, involved the honor of his tribe and the assertion
of his manhood. It liberated property from the arbitrary impositions
of a horde of petty chieftains, who levied excessive tribute to the
infinite detriment of commerce, and imposed a single tax--the tenth
of the increase--understood and acquiesced in by all. It punished
mercilessly the abuses which arose from the unprincipled exactions of
usury, and, by the enforcement of laws of unexampled rigor, guaranteed
the safety of travellers in regions where successful robbery had been a
mark of personal distinction, and where the outrage of private rights
was still the unquestioned prerogative of every inhabitant whose arm
was more powerful than that of his neighbor. Attaching the highest
importance to habitual cleanliness, it commended its daily observance,
and, to avoid a plausible excuse for neglect, it suggested the use of
sand, as symbolical of water, in localities where the latter could not
be obtained. It admitted into its ceremonial the wise and time-honored
custom of circumcision; a purely sanitary regulation, whose important
physiological significance every surgeon will readily comprehend.
Islam is emphatically a religion of good works, and the believer is
constantly reminded that upon the Day of Judgment his meritorious
acts and deeds of benevolence will speak eloquently in his favor,
although his lips have long been closed in the silence of the grave.
No organized body of ecclesiastics, greedy of gain and notoriety and
utterly unscrupulous as to the means of obtaining them, thronged its
temples; for, in its original purity, it dispensed with a salaried
priesthood, and all who read or expounded the Koran in public were
expressly forbidden to receive for their services any remuneration
whatever. The unseemly contests of sacerdotal ambition, the senseless
privations of asceticism, the bloody and turbulent spirit of monastic
bigotry, were, by the prudence and foresight of its founder, excluded
from its system. Imposing a moderate contribution upon all those in
its dominions who declined to abjure the faith of their ancestors, it,
upon the other hand, refused to the ministers of other religions, its
vassals, the privilege of taxing the members of their congregations
without their consent. It impressed upon youth, of whatever rank or
station, the obligations of polite and courteous behavior and the
unremitting exercise of filial piety. It accorded to every seeker
after truth the inestimable privilege of private interpretation and
individual opinion,--an inherent right of man refused by Christianity
until the time of Luther, who, on account of his advocacy of this
innovation, was himself denounced as a Mohammedan; and in certain
countries of Europe, not asserted until the seventeenth century, except
in secret, and under the threatening shadows of the stake and the
scaffold. Unlike other religions, it did not refuse salvation to those
who rejected its dogmas. In the presence of the allurements of the
seraglio, it still represented continence as the most precious jewel
of a believer; but, perceiving the vices provoked by the unnatural
restraints of monastic life, it prohibited celibacy, and, for two
centuries after the death of the Prophet, the faquir, the santon, and
the dervish were unknown. By adopting to a certain extent the primitive
code of antiquity, eliminating the evil and retaining the good it
contained, it appealed strongly to religious sentiment and national
pride, rendered still more binding the virtues of public faith and
private hospitality, and, by its repudiation of idolatry in all its
forms, concentrated the mind of the devotee upon the compassion, the
justice, the infinite grandeur and majesty of God.
A marked peculiarity of Islam is the absence of the female element
from its ritual. Even now, in the days of its degeneracy, women have
no place in the calendar of its saints; and yet we are aware that
among all former, and many contemporaneous, religions the employment
of priestesses was common, and female deities were favorite objects of
adoration. The Virgin of the Koran--though her immaculate conception
was conceded seven hundred and sixty-one years in advance of the
decision of the Council of Basel--is, in all other respects, an
ordinary mortal, and is far from possessing the dignity and importance
of the famous Isis, that fascinating goddess who, banished from the
banks of the Nile, was exalted, crowned with her starry emblems, in
equal majesty and superior beauty, upon a more gorgeous throne in the
imperial city of Catholic Rome.
Mohammed was not exempt from the prejudices entertained by his
countrymen towards the sex. The sentimental gallantry and respectful
homage tendered its members by Western nations is unknown to the
suspicious and sarcastic Oriental. The Prophet declared that the
majority of persons he saw in hell during his nocturnal journey were
women. But if the power of woman to act directly upon the fortunes
of Islam was disdained, her indirect influence in that direction was
enormous and undeniable. The harems of the polygamous conquerors at
once absorbed the noblest and fairest maidens of the households of the
vanquished. The children of these mothers became, without exception,
Moslems; and, after the lapse of a generation, the lingering traces of
other beliefs disappeared, and nothing but a reconquest and a fresh
immigration, or a miraculous interposition of Providence, could have
restored the land, so recently subjugated, to its pristine faith.
In religion, as in politics, success is the generally recognized
criterion of truth; of the multitude, few have time or inclination for
the solution of abstruse theological questions; but substantial results
are unmistakable, and even the most credulous are subject to the
contagion of example. The successive and dazzling victories of Islam
were, in the eyes of its superstitious adversaries, the most convincing
argument of the divinity of its origin.
The doctrine of compulsion subsequently associated with Islam was,
as already stated, not an original or essential part of its dogma.
Mohammed did not advise recourse to the sword until all means of
peaceable persuasion had been exhausted, and then only during the
continuance of active hostilities. The moral impulse which Islam
received as soon as its first victories were won was remarkable and
suggestive. It was but the manifestation of the reverence for Force, a
feeling which is never eradicated from human nature even in the mostly
highly civilized communities. The Roman empire was founded upon this
principle, of which it subsequently became the practical embodiment and
representative. The successors of the Cæsars, the Khalifs, well aware
of its power over the masses, retained and perpetuated its influence,
and the scimetar and the Koran usurped the place and dignity of the
deposed deities Mars and Hercules. And even in our day we see the
evidence of the survival of this sentiment--as old as man himself--in
the ceremonies relating to marriage by force among barbarous nations;
in the proverbial, yet unconscious, admiration of both sexes--and
especially of women--for the soldier; in the applause that greets the
espada in the bull-ring; and in the homage and hero-worship accorded to
the successful athlete and pugilist.
The mountain region of the Hedjaz, the rocky and barren valleys of
Palestine, are insignificant in extent, destitute of natural resources,
and without political importance in the eyes of the conquerors and
rulers of nations. Yet within their contracted limits were promulgated
the three religions which have exercised a predominant influence over
the destinies of the most diverse and widely separated races of the
globe. The unsocial and repellent character of the institutions of
Moses which discouraged proselytism did not prevent the power of Hebrew
genius from being felt in every country in which the detested sectaries
of Israel established themselves. Christianity and Mohammedanism have
by turns disputed the empire of the civilized world. The Khalifs, the
spiritual heads of Islam, were long the exponents of intellectual
culture, the masters of the fairest regions of Europe and Asia, the
discerning patrons of art and letters. The most renowned of the Cæsars,
the greatest of modern potentates, were alike inferior in rank and
public consideration to the Supreme Pontiffs, who inherited the throne
ennobled by the traditions of Roman glory, and whose dignity was
confirmed by the omnipotent authority of God. No secular government,
worthy of mention in history, has ever been instituted in a region
so dreary and inhospitable as that from whence the most powerful and
practical forms of faith that have ever enthralled humanity deduce
their origin. The changes which all of the latter, in turn, have
undergone, present a suggestive commentary on the perishable character
of religious systems. The influence of the Babylonian captivity upon
Judaism is apparent in every book of the Old Testament and in many
of those of the New. We may safely conjecture that Christianity was
something very different in the time of Tiberius from what it was
in the time of Constantine, and we know what radical changes were
made in its canons and ritual by Gregory the Great and Luther. The
ancient manuscripts of the Gospels--perhaps destroyed for sinister
reasons--have left no data for speculation as to their contents; but
it is not unreasonable to at least surmise that the originals did not
offer the glaring examples of inelegant diction and barbaric idioms
that deform the modern versions. Nor has Islam escaped the fate of
its predecessors, the result of the vicissitudes of time, and of the
prejudices, weaknesses, and ambition of their votaries. Its distinctive
peculiarity was its positive disclaimer of supernatural powers; yet
the miracles attributed to Mohammed compose a considerable portion of
its sacred literature, which is also oppressed and discredited by a
vast mass of preposterous fables, treasured up for centuries in the
voluminous body of Islamitic tradition. The simplicity of its creed
would seem to effectually preclude all attempts at sectarian division;
yet seventy-three sects exist, whose members lose no opportunity to
persecute each other with acrimonious hostility. Mohammed execrated
idolatry and the arts of the diviner, and denied the merit of works
of supererogation; and now relics are suspended in the mosques; omens
are sought in the Koran; intercession of saints is daily implored; the
Persians worship the Imams; and the Omanites, instead of recognizing
the Kaaba, render their obeisance to the Kiblah of their Sabean
ancestors, the pole-star of the heavens.
In the Prophet’s attempts to secure the improvement of public morals,
his attention was particularly drawn to Mecca as the central point of
Islam, whither the believer turns in his daily devotions, and towards
which his sightless eyes are directed when his body is deposited in
the tomb. But the effects of his salutary admonitions died with him;
and the Meccans, relieved from restraint, again became notorious for
the excesses which had formerly made the Holy City a reproach even
to heathen Arabia. It is a deplorable fact, and one which unhappily
affords but too much excuse for the gibes of the profane, that those
seats of piety which public opinion has invested with the sacred
prestige of celestial influence are the very ones whose population is
the most blasphemous, vile, and degraded. The worst Mussulmans of the
world are the Arabs of the Hedjaz, as the Italian populace has ever
been the scoffer at papal infallibility and the relentless enemy of the
Vicar of God. The three cities of the world whose inhabitants early
acquired, and have since maintained, the most unenviable reputation for
depravity and licentiousness are Jerusalem, Mecca, and Rome.
Unlike most theological systems to which men, in all ages, have
rendered their obedient and pious homage, no mystery obscures the
origin and foundation of Islam. The purity and simplicity of its
principles have undergone no change. Its history has been preserved
by the diligence of innumerable writers. The life and characteristics
of its Prophet, even to the smallest detail, are accessible to the
curiosity of every enterprising scholar.
The austere character of a faith which, at its inception, exacts a
rigid compliance with the minutest formalities of its ritual, naturally
becomes relaxed and modified after that system has attained to worldly
importance and imperial authority; or, in the language of one of the
greatest of modern writers, “a dominant religion is never ascetic.” It
is strange that Islam, which, in this respect, as in many others, has
conformed to the general law of humanity, and now acknowledges tenets
and allows practices that would have struck the subjects of Abu-Bekr
and Omar with amazement, has been able to preserve in such perfection
the observance of its ceremonial; especially when it had no organized
sacerdotal power to sustain it. The absence of an ecclesiastical order
which could dictate the policy of the throne, and humble the pride of
the ermine and purple with the dust in the presence of some audacious
zealot, also left untrammelled the way for scientific investigation and
research, and, more than all else, contributed to dispel the darkness
of mediæval times. The doctrine of toleration enunciated by Mohammed
gave no encouragement to that system of repression whose activity
has exhausted every means of checking the growth of philosophical
knowledge, by imposing the most direful spiritual and temporal
penalties upon every teacher who ventures to publicly explain its
principles; and it is a matter of far deeper import to the civilization
of the twentieth century, than is implied by the mere performance
of an act of devotion, when the Temple of Mecca--the seat of a
time-honored faith, from whose shrine emanated the spirit of learning
that redeemed degraded Europe--is saluted five times every day by the
reverent homage of concentric circles of believers, one hundred and
fifty million in number, from Tangier to Pekin, from the borders of
Siberia to the Equinoctial Line.
We may well consider with admiration the rapid progress and enduring
effects of this extraordinary religion which everywhere brought order,
wealth, and happiness in its train; which, in destroying the deities
of the Kaaba, swept away the traditions of thirty centuries; which
adopted those pagan rites that it could not abolish; which seized and
retained the birthplace of Christianity; which dispersed over so wide
a territory alike the theocracy of the Jews and the ritual of Rome;
which drove the Magi from the blazing altars of Persia; which usurped
the throne and sceptre of the Byzantine Church; which supplanted the
fetichism of the African desert; which trampled upon the mysteries of
Isis, Osiris, and Horus, and revealed to the wondering Egyptians the
secret of the Most High God; which invaded the Councils of Catholicism,
and suggested a fundamental article of its belief; which fashioned
the graceful arches of our most famous cathedrals; which placed its
seal upon the earth in the measurement of a degree, and inscribed its
characters in living light amidst the glittering constellations of
the heavens; which has left its traces in the most familiar terms of
the languages of Europe; which affords daily proof of its beneficent
offices in the garments that we wear, in the books that we read, in
the grains of our harvests, in the fruits of our orchards, in the
flowers of our gardens; and which gave rise to successive dynasties
of sovereigns, whose supreme ambition seemed to be to exalt the
character of their subjects, to transmit unimpaired to posterity the
inestimable treasures of knowledge, and to extend and perpetuate the
intellectual empire of man. These signal and unparallelled results were
effected by the inflexible constancy, the lofty genius, the political
sagacity, of an Arabian shepherd, deficient in the very rudiments of
learning, reared among a barbarous people divided into tribes whose
mutual hostility had been intensified by centuries of warfare, who
had no organized system of government, who considered the mechanical
and mercantile arts degrading, who recognized no law but that of
force, and knew no gods but a herd of grotesque and monstrous idols.
Robbery was their profession, murder their pastime. Except within the
precincts of their camp, no friend, unless connected by the sacred
ties of blood, was secure. They devoured the flesh of enemies slain
in battle. Deceit always excepted, cruelty was their most prominent
national characteristic. Their offensive arrogance, relentless
enmity, and obstinate tenacity of purpose were, in a direct ratio to
their ignorance and their brutalizing superstition, confirmed by the
prodigies, the omens, and the legends of ages.
To undertake the radical amelioration of such political and social
conditions was a task of appalling, of apparently insuperable
difficulty. Its fortunate accomplishment may not indicate the active
interposition of Divine authority. The glories which invest the history
of Islam may be entirely derived from the valor, the virtue, the
intelligence, the genius, of man. If this be conceded, the largest
measure of credit is due to him who conceived its plan, promoted its
impulse, and formulated the rules which insured its success. In any
event, if the object of religion be the inculcation of morals, the
diminution of evil, the promotion of human happiness, the expansion
of the human intellect; if the performance of good works will avail in
that great day when mankind shall be summoned to its final reckoning,
it is neither irreverent nor unreasonable to admit that Mohammed was
indeed an Apostle of God.