tribes; who, according to the vicissitudes of fortune, had obeyed, or
disregarded, the eloquence or the arms of the prophet. Indifference for
rites and opinions still marks the character of the Bedoweens; and they
might accept, as loosely as they hold, the doctrine of the Koran. Yet
an obstinate remnant still adhered to the religion and liberty of their
ancestors, and the war of Honain derived a proper appellation from the
_idols_, whom Mahomet had vowed to destroy, and whom the confederates
of Tayef had sworn to defend. Four thousand Pagans advanced with secrecy
and speed to surprise the conqueror: they pitied and despised the supine
negligence of the Koreish, but they depended on the wishes, and perhaps
the aid, of a people who had so lately renounced their gods, and bowed
beneath the yoke of their enemy. The banners of Medina and Mecca were
displayed by the prophet; a crowd of Bedoweens increased the strength or
numbers of the army, and twelve thousand Mussulmans entertained a rash
and sinful presumption of their invincible strength. They descended
without precaution into the valley of Honain: the heights had been
occupied by the archers and slingers of the confederates; their numbers
were oppressed, their discipline was confounded, their courage was
appalled, and the Koreish smiled at their impending destruction. The
prophet, on his white mule, was encompassed by the enemies: he attempted
to rush against their spears in search of a glorious death: ten of his
faithful companions interposed their weapons and their breasts; three of
these fell dead at his feet: "O my brethren," he repeatedly cried, with
sorrow and indignation, "I am the son of Abdallah, I am the apostle of
truth! O man, stand fast in the faith! O God, send down thy succor!" His
uncle Abbas, who, like the heroes of Homer, excelled in the loudness
of his voice, made the valley resound with the recital of the gifts and
promises of God: the flying Moslems returned from all sides to the holy
standard; and Mahomet observed with pleasure that the furnace was again
rekindled: his conduct and example restored the battle, and he animated
his victorious troops to inflict a merciless revenge on the authors of
their shame. From the field of Honain, he marched without delay to the
siege of Tayef, sixty miles to the south-east of Mecca, a fortress of
strength, whose fertile lands produce the fruits of Syria in the midst
of the Arabian desert. A friendly tribe, instructed (I know not how)
in the art of sieges, supplied him with a train of battering-rams and
military engines, with a body of five hundred artificers. But it was in
vain that he offered freedom to the slaves of Tayef; that he violated
his own laws by the extirpation of the fruit-trees; that the ground was
opened by the miners; that the breach was assaulted by the troops. After
a siege of twenty-days, the prophet sounded a retreat; but he retreated
with a song of devout triumph, and affected to pray for the repentance
and safety of the unbelieving city. The spoils of this fortunate
expedition amounted to six thousand captives, twenty-four thousand
camels, forty thousand sheep, and four thousand ounces of silver: a
tribe who had fought at Honain redeemed their prisoners by the sacrifice
of their idols; but Mahomet compensated the loss, by resigning to the
soldiers his fifth of the plunder, and wished, for their sake, that he
possessed as many head of cattle as there were trees in the province
of Tehama. Instead of chastising the disaffection of the Koreish, he
endeavored to cut out their tongues, (his own expression,) and to secure
their attachment by a superior measure of liberality: Abu Sophian alone
was presented with three hundred camels and twenty ounces of silver; and
Mecca was sincerely converted to the profitable religion of the Koran.
The _fugitives_ and _auxiliaries_ complained, that they who had borne
the burden were neglected in the season of victory "Alas!" replied their
artful leader, "suffer me to conciliate these recent enemies, these
doubtful proselytes, by the gift of some perishable goods. To your guard
I intrust my life and fortunes. You are the companions of my exile, of
my kingdom, of my paradise." He was followed by the deputies of Tayef,
who dreaded the repetition of a siege. "Grant us, O apostle of God! a
truce of three years, with the toleration of our ancient worship."
"Not a month, not an hour." "Excuse us at least from the obligation of
prayer." "Without prayer religion is of no avail." They submitted
in silence: their temples were demolished, and the same sentence of
destruction was executed on all the idols of Arabia. His lieutenants,
on the shores of the Red Sea, the Ocean, and the Gulf of Persia, were
saluted by the acclamations of a faithful people; and the ambassadors,
who knelt before the throne of Medina, were as numerous (says the
Arabian proverb) as the dates that fall from the maturity of a
palm-tree. The nation submitted to the God and the sceptre of Mahomet:
the opprobrious name of tribute was abolished: the spontaneous or
reluctant oblations of arms and tithes were applied to the service of
religion; and one hundred and fourteen thousand Moslems accompanied the
last pilgrimage of the apostle.
When Heraclius returned in triumph from the Persian war, he entertained,
at Emesa, one of the ambassadors of Mahomet, who invited the princes and
nations of the earth to the profession of Islam. On this foundation the
zeal of the Arabians has supposed the secret conversion of the Christian
emperor: the vanity of the Greeks has feigned a personal visit of the
prince of Medina, who accepted from the royal bounty a rich domain,
and a secure retreat, in the province of Syria. But the friendship of
Heraclius and Mahomet was of short continuance: the new religion had
inflamed rather than assuaged the rapacious spirit of the Saracens, and
the murder of an envoy afforded a decent pretence for invading, with
three thousand soldiers, the territory of Palestine, that extends to the
eastward of the Jordan. The holy banner was intrusted to Zeid; and such
was the discipline or enthusiasm of the rising sect, that the noblest
chiefs served without reluctance under the slave of the prophet. On the
event of his decease, Jaafar and Abdallah were successively substituted
to the command; and if the three should perish in the war, the troops
were authorized to elect their general. The three leaders were slain in
the battle of Muta, the first military action, which tried the valor of
the Moslems against a foreign enemy. Zeid fell, like a soldier, in the
foremost ranks: the death of Jaafar was heroic and memorable: he lost
his right hand: he shifted the standard to his left: the left was
severed from his body: he embraced the standard with his bleeding
stumps, till he was transfixed to the ground with fifty honorable
wounds. "Advance," cried Abdallah, who stepped into the vacant place,
"advance with confidence: either victory or paradise is our own." The
lance of a Roman decided the alternative; but the falling standard was
rescued by Caled, the proselyte of Mecca: nine swords were broken in his
hand; and his valor withstood and repulsed the superior numbers of
the Christians. In the nocturnal council of the camp he was chosen to
command: his skilful evolutions of the ensuing day secured either the
victory or the retreat of the Saracens; and Caled is renowned among his
brethren and his enemies by the glorious appellation of the _Sword of
God_. In the pulpit, Mahomet described, with prophetic rapture, the
crowns of the blessed martyrs; but in private he betrayed the feelings
of human nature: he was surprised as he wept over the daughter of Zeid:
"What do I see?" said the astonished votary. "You see," replied the
apostle, "a friend who is deploring the loss of his most faithful
friend." After the conquest of Mecca, the sovereign of Arabia affected
to prevent the hostile preparations of Heraclius; and solemnly
proclaimed war against the Romans, without attempting to disguise the
hardships and dangers of the enterprise. The Moslems were discouraged:
they alleged the want of money, or horses, or provisions; the season of
harvest, and the intolerable heat of the summer: "Hell is much hotter,"
said the indignant prophet. He disdained to compel their service: but on
his return he admonished the most guilty, by an excommunication of fifty
days. Their desertion enhanced the merit of Abubeker, Othman, and the
faithful companions who devoted their lives and fortunes; and Mahomet
displayed his banner at the head of ten thousand horse and twenty
thousand foot. Painful indeed was the distress of the march: lassitude
and thirst were aggravated by the scorching and pestilential winds of
the desert: ten men rode by turns on one camel; and they were reduced
to the shameful necessity of drinking the water from the belly of
that useful animal. In the mid-way, ten days' journey from Medina and
Damascus, they reposed near the grove and fountain of Tabuc. Beyond that
place Mahomet declined the prosecution of the war: he declared himself
satisfied with the peaceful intentions, he was more probably daunted
by the martial array, of the emperor of the East. But the active and
intrepid Caled spread around the terror of his name; and the prophet
received the submission of the tribes and cities, from the Euphrates to
Ailah, at the head of the Red Sea. To his Christian subjects, Mahomet
readily granted the security of their persons, the freedom of their
trade, the property of their goods, and the toleration of their worship.
The weakness of their Arabian brethren had restrained them from opposing
his ambition; the disciples of Jesus were endeared to the enemy of
the Jews; and it was the interest of a conqueror to propose a fair
capitulation to the most powerful religion of the earth.
Till the age of sixty-three years, the strength of Mahomet was equal to
the temporal and spiritual fatigues of his mission. His epileptic fits,
an absurd calumny of the Greeks, would be an object of pity rather than
abhorrence; but he seriously believed that he was poisoned at Chaibar
by the revenge of a Jewish female. During four years, the health of the
prophet declined; his infirmities increased; but his mortal disease was
a fever of fourteen days, which deprived him by intervals of the use
of reason. As soon as he was conscious of his danger, he edified his
brethren by the humility of his virtue or penitence. "If there be any
man," said the apostle from the pulpit, "whom I have unjustly scourged,
I submit my own back to the lash of retaliation. Have I aspersed the
reputation of a Mussulman? let him proclaim _my_ thoughts in the face
of the congregation. Has any one been despoiled of his goods? the little
that I possess shall compensate the principal and the interest of the
debt." "Yes," replied a voice from the crowd, "I am entitled to three
drams of silver." Mahomet heard the complaint, satisfied the demand, and
thanked his creditor for accusing him in this world rather than at
the day of judgment. He beheld with temperate firmness the approach of
death; enfranchised his slaves (seventeen men, as they are named, and
eleven women;) minutely directed the order of his funeral, and moderated
the lamentations of his weeping friends, on whom he bestowed the
benediction of peace. Till the third day before his death, he regularly
performed the function of public prayer: the choice of Abubeker to
supply his place, appeared to mark that ancient and faithful friend
as his successor in the sacerdotal and regal office; but he prudently
declined the risk and envy of a more explicit nomination. At a moment
when his faculties were visibly impaired, he called for pen and ink
to write, or, more properly, to dictate, a divine book, the sum and
accomplishment of all his revelations: a dispute arose in the chamber,
whether he should be allowed to supersede the authority of the Koran;
and the prophet was forced to reprove the indecent vehemence of his
disciples. If the slightest credit may be afforded to the traditions of
his wives and companions, he maintained, in the bosom of his family, and
to the last moments of his life, the dignity of an apostle, and the
faith of an enthusiast; described the visits of Gabriel, who bade an
everlasting farewell to the earth, and expressed his lively confidence,
not only of the mercy, but of the favor, of the Supreme Being. In a
familiar discourse he had mentioned his special prerogative, that the
angel of death was not allowed to take his soul till he had respectfully
asked the permission of the prophet. The request was granted; and
Mahomet immediately fell into the agony of his dissolution: his head
was reclined on the lap of Ayesha, the best beloved of all his wives; he
fainted with the violence of pain; recovering his spirits, he raised his
eyes towards the roof of the house, and, with a steady look, though a
faltering voice, uttered the last broken, though articulate, words:
"O God!..... pardon my sins....... Yes,...... I come,...... among my
fellow-citizens on high;" and thus peaceably expired on a carpet spread
upon the floor. An expedition for the conquest of Syria was stopped by
this mournful event; the army halted at the gates of Medina; the chiefs
were assembled round their dying master. The city, more especially
the house, of the prophet, was a scene of clamorous sorrow of silent
despair: fanaticism alone could suggest a ray of hope and consolation.
"How can he be dead, our witness, our intercessor, our mediator, with
God? By God he is not dead: like Moses and Jesus, he is wrapped in a
holy trance, and speedily will he return to his faithful people." The
evidence of sense was disregarded; and Omar, unsheathing his cimeter,
threatened to strike off the heads of the infidels, who should dare
to affirm that the prophet was no more. The tumult was appeased by the
weight and moderation of Abubeker. "Is it Mahomet," said he to Omar
and the multitude, "or the God of Mahomet, whom you worship? The God of
Mahomet liveth forever; but the apostle was a mortal like ourselves, and
according to his own prediction, he has experienced the common fate of
mortality." He was piously interred by the hands of his nearest kinsman,
on the same spot on which he expired: Medina has been sanctified by the
death and burial of Mahomet; and the innumerable pilgrims of Mecca
often turn aside from the way, to bow, in voluntary devotion, before the
simple tomb of the prophet.
At the conclusion of the life of Mahomet, it may perhaps be expected,
that I should balance his faults and virtues, that I should decide
whether the title of enthusiast or impostor more properly belongs to
that extraordinary man. Had I been intimately conversant with the son of
Abdallah, the task would still be difficult, and the success uncertain:
at the distance of twelve centuries, I darkly contemplate his shade
through a cloud of religious incense; and could I truly delineate the
portrait of an hour, the fleeting resemblance would not equally apply
to the solitary of Mount Hera, to the preacher of Mecca, and to the
conqueror of Arabia. The author of a mighty revolution appears to have
been endowed with a pious and contemplative disposition: so soon as
marriage had raised him above the pressure of want, he avoided the
paths of ambition and avarice; and till the age of forty he lived with
innocence, and would have died without a name. The unity of God is an
idea most congenial to nature and reason; and a slight conversation
with the Jews and Christians would teach him to despise and detest the
idolatry of Mecca. It was the duty of a man and a citizen to impart the
doctrine of salvation, to rescue his country from the dominion of sin
and error. The energy of a mind incessantly bent on the same object,
would convert a general obligation into a particular call; the warm
suggestions of the understanding or the fancy would be felt as the
inspirations of Heaven; the labor of thought would expire in rapture
and vision; and the inward sensation, the invisible monitor, would
be described with the form and attributes of an angel of God. From
enthusiasm to imposture, the step is perilous and slippery: the dÊmon
of Socrates affords a memorable instance, how a wise man may deceive
himself, how a good man may deceive others, how the conscience may
slumber in a mixed and middle state between self-illusion and voluntary
fraud. Charity may believe that the original motives of Mahomet were
those of pure and genuine benevolence; but a human missionary is
incapable of cherishing the obstinate unbelievers who reject his claims
despise his arguments, and persecute his life; he might forgive his
personal adversaries, he may lawfully hate the enemies of God; the stern
passions of pride and revenge were kindled in the bosom of Mahomet,
and he sighed, like the prophet of Nineveh, for the destruction of the
rebels whom he had condemned. The injustice of Mecca and the choice of
Medina, transformed the citizen into a prince, the humble preacher into
the leader of armies; but his sword was consecrated by the example of
the saints; and the same God who afflicts a sinful world with pestilence
and earthquakes, might inspire for their conversion or chastisement the
valor of his servants. In the exercise of political government, he was
compelled to abate of the stern rigor of fanaticism, to comply in some
measure with the prejudices and passions of his followers, and to employ
even the vices of mankind as the instruments of their salvation. The use
of fraud and perfidy, of cruelty and injustice, were often subservient
to the propagation of the faith; and Mahomet commanded or approved the
assassination of the Jews and idolaters who had escaped from the field
of battle. By the repetition of such acts, the character of Mahomet must
have been gradually stained; and the influence of such pernicious habits
would be poorly compensated by the practice of the personal and social
virtues which are necessary to maintain the reputation of a prophet
among his sectaries and friends. Of his last years, ambition was the
ruling passion; and a politician will suspect, that he secretly smiled
(the victorious impostor!) at the enthusiasm of his youth, and the
credulity of his proselytes. A philosopher will observe, that _their_
credulity and _his_ success would tend more strongly to fortify the
assurance of his divine mission, that his interest and religion were
inseparably connected, and that his conscience would be soothed by the
persuasion, that he alone was absolved by the Deity from the obligation
of positive and moral laws. If he retained any vestige of his native
innocence, the sins of Mahomet may be allowed as an evidence of his
sincerity. In the support of truth, the arts of fraud and fiction may be
deemed less criminal; and he would have started at the foulness of the
means, had he not been satisfied of the importance and justice of the
end. Even in a conqueror or a priest, I can surprise a word or action
of unaffected humanity; and the decree of Mahomet, that, in the sale of
captives, the mothers should never be separated from their children, may
suspend, or moderate, the censure of the historian.
Chapter L: Description Of Arabia And Its Inhabitants.--Part VII.
The good sense of Mahomet despised the pomp of royalty: the apostle of
God submitted to the menial offices of the family: he kindled the fire,
swept the floor, milked the ewes, and mended with his own hands his
shoes and his woollen garment. Disdaining the penance and merit of a
hermit, he observed, without effort or vanity, the abstemious diet of an
Arab and a soldier. On solemn occasions he feasted his companions with
rustic and hospitable plenty; but in his domestic life, many weeks would
elapse without a tire being kindled on the hearth of the prophet.
The interdiction of wine was confirmed by his example; his hunger was
appeased with a sparing allowance of barley-bread: he delighted in the
taste of milk and honey; but his ordinary food consisted of dates and
water. Perfumes and women were the two sensual enjoyments which his
nature required, and his religion did not forbid; and Mahomet affirmed,
that the fervor of his devotion was increased by these innocent
pleasures. The heat of the climate inflames the blood of the Arabs;
and their libidinous complexion has been noticed by the writers of
antiquity. Their incontinence was regulated by the civil and religious
laws of the Koran: their incestuous alliances were blamed; the boundless
license of polygamy was reduced to four legitimate wives or concubines;
their rights both of bed and of dowry were equitably determined; the
freedom of divorce was discouraged, adultery was condemned as a capital
offence; and fornication, in either sex, was punished with a hundred
stripes. Such were the calm and rational precepts of the legislator:
but in his private conduct, Mahomet indulged the appetites of a man, and
abused the claims of a prophet. A special revelation dispensed him from
the laws which he had imposed on his nation: the female sex, without
reserve, was abandoned to his desires; and this singular prerogative
excited the envy, rather than the scandal, the veneration, rather than
the envy, of the devout Mussulmans. If we remember the seven hundred
wives and three hundred concubines of the wise Solomon, we shall applaud
the modesty of the Arabian, who espoused no more than seventeen or
fifteen wives; eleven are enumerated who occupied at Medina their
separate apartments round the house of the apostle, and enjoyed in their
turns the favor of his conjugal society. What is singular enough, they
were all widows, excepting only Ayesha, the daughter of Abubeker. She
was doubtless a virgin, since Mahomet consummated his nuptials (such is
the premature ripeness of the climate) when she was only nine years of
age. The youth, the beauty, the spirit of Ayesha, gave her a superior
ascendant: she was beloved and trusted by the prophet; and, after his
death, the daughter of Abubeker was long revered as the mother of the
faithful. Her behavior had been ambiguous and indiscreet: in a nocturnal
march she was accidentally left behind; and in the morning Ayesha
returned to the camp with a man. The temper of Mahomet was inclined
to jealousy; but a divine revelation assured him of her innocence: he
chastised her accusers, and published a law of domestic peace, that no
woman should be condemned unless four male witnesses had seen her in the
act of adultery. In his adventures with Zeineb, the wife of Zeid, and
with Mary, an Egyptian captive, the amorous prophet forgot the interest
of his reputation. At the house of Zeid, his freedman and adopted son,
he beheld, in a loose undress, the beauty of Zeineb, and burst forth
into an ejaculation of devotion and desire. The servile, or grateful,
freedman understood the hint, and yielded without hesitation to the love
of his benefactor. But as the filial relation had excited some doubt and
scandal, the angel Gabriel descended from heaven to ratify the deed, to
annul the adoption, and gently to reprove the apostle for distrusting
the indulgence of his God. One of his wives, Hafna, the daughter of
Omar, surprised him on her own bed, in the embraces of his Egyptian
captive: she promised secrecy and forgiveness, he swore that he would
renounce the possession of Mary. Both parties forgot their engagements;
and Gabriel again descended with a chapter of the Koran, to absolve
him from his oath, and to exhort him freely to enjoy his captives and
concubines, without listening to the clamors of his wives. In a solitary
retreat of thirty days, he labored, alone with Mary, to fulfil the
commands of the angel. When his love and revenge were satiated, he
summoned to his presence his eleven wives, reproached their disobedience
and indiscretion, and threatened them with a sentence of divorce, both
in this world and in the next; a dreadful sentence, since those who had
ascended the bed of the prophet were forever excluded from the hope of a
second marriage. Perhaps the incontinence of Mahomet may be palliated by
the tradition of his natural or preternatural gifts; he united the manly
virtue of thirty of the children of Adam: and the apostle might rival
the thirteenth labor of the Grecian Hercules. A more serious and decent
excuse may be drawn from his fidelity to Cadijah. During the twenty-four
years of their marriage, her youthful husband abstained from the right
of polygamy, and the pride or tenderness of the venerable matron was
never insulted by the society of a rival. After her death, he placed
her in the rank of the four perfect women, with the sister of Moses, the
mother of Jesus, and Fatima, the best beloved of his daughters. "Was she
not old?" said Ayesha, with the insolence of a blooming beauty; "has not
God given you a better in her place?" "No, by God," said Mahomet, with
an effusion of honest gratitude, "there never can be a better! She
believed in me when men despised me; she relieved my wants, when I was
poor and persecuted by the world."