The Koran (Al-Qur'an)
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Title: The Koran (Al-Qur'an)
Translator: George Sale
Release date: February 1, 2005 [eBook #7440]
Most recently updated: December 30, 2020
Language: English
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THE KORAN:
COMMONLY CALLED THE
ALKORAN OF MOHAMMED.
Translated into English from the Original Arabic,
WITH EXPLANATORY NOTES TAKEN FROM THE MOST
APPROVED COMMENTATORS.
TO WHICH IS PREFIXED
A PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE,
BY GEORGE SALE.
TO THE
RIGHT HON. JOHN LORD CARTERET.
ONE OF THE LORDS OF HIS MAJESTY'S MOST HONOURABLE PRIVY COUNCIL.
____________
MY LORD,
NOTWITHSTANDING the great honour and respect generally and deservedly paid to
the memories of those who have founded states, or obliged a people by the
institution of laws which have made them prosperous and considerable in the
world, yet the legislator of the Arabs has been treated in so very different a
manner by all who acknowledge not his claim to a divine mission, and by
Christians especially, that were not your lordship's just discernment
sufficiently known, I should think myself under a necessity of making an
apology for presenting the following translation.
The remembrance of the calamities brought on so many nations by the
conquests of the Arabians may possibly raise some indignation against him who
formed them to empire; but this being equally applicable to all conquerors,
could not, of itself, occasion all the detestation with which the name of
Mohammed is loaded. He has given a new system of religion, which has had
still greater success than the arms of his followers, and to establish this
religion made use of an imposture; and on this account it is supposed that he
must of necessity have been a most abandoned villain, and his memory is become
infamous. But as Mohammed gave his Arabs the best religion he could, as well
as the best laws, preferable. at least, to those of the ancient pagan
lawgivers, I confess I cannot see why he deserves not equal respect-though not
with Moses or Jesus Christ, whose laws came really from Heaven, yet, with
Minos or Numa, notwithstanding the distinction of a learned writer, who seems
to think it a greater crime to make use of an imposture to set up a new
religion, founded on the acknowledgment of one true God, and to destroy
idolatry, than to use the same means to gain reception to rules and
regulations for the more orderly practice of heathenism already established.
To be acquainted with the various laws and constitutions of civilized
nations, especially of those who flourish in our own time, is, perhaps, the
most useful part of knowledge: wherein though your lordship, who shines with
so much distinction in the noblest assembly in the world, peculiarly excels;
yet as the law of Mohammed, by reason of the odium it lies under, and the
strangeness of the language in which it is written, has been so much
neglected. I flatter myself some things in the following sheets may be new
even to a person of your lordship's extensive learning; and if what I have
written may be any way entertaining or acceptable to your lordship, I shall
not regret the pains it has cost me.
I join with the general voice in wishing your lordship all the honour and
happiness your known virtues and merit deserve, and am with perfect respect,
MY LORD,
Your lordship's most humble
And most obedient servant,
GEORGE SALE.
A SKETCH
OF THE
LIFE OF GEORGE SALE.
_________
OF the life of GEORGE SALE, a man of extensive learning, and considerable
literary talent, very few particulars have been transmitted to us by his
contemporaries. He is said to have been born in the county of Kent, and the
time of his birth must have been not long previous to the close of the
seventeenth century. His education he received at the King's School,
Canterbury. Voltaire, who bestows high praise on the version of the Korân,
asserts him to have spent five-and-twenty years in Arabia, and to have
acquired in that country his profound knowledge of the Arabic language and
customs. On what authority this is asserted it would now be fruitless to
endeavour to ascertain. But that the assertion is an erroneous one, there can
be no reason to doubt; it being opposed by the stubborn evidence of dates and
facts. It is almost certain that Sale was brought up to the law, and that he
practised it for many years, if not till the end of his career. He is said,
by a co-existing writer, to have quitted his legal pursuits, for the purpose
of applying himself to the study of the eastern and other languages, both
ancient and modern. His guide through the labyrinth of the oriental dialects
was Mr. Dadichi, the king's interpreter. If it be true that he ever
relinquished the practice of the law, it would appear that he must have
resumed it before his decease; for, in his address to the reader, prefixed to
the Korân, he pleads, as an apology for the delay which had occurred in
publishing the volume, that the work "was carried on at leisure times only,
and amidst the necessary avocations of a troublesome profession." This alone
would suffice to show that Voltaire was in error. But to this must be added,
that the existence of Sale was terminated at an early period, and that, in at
least his latter years, he was engaged in literary labours of no trifling
magnitude. The story of his having, during a quarter of a century, resided in
Arabia, becomes, therefore, an obvious impossibility, and must be dismissed to
take its place among those fictions by which biography has often been
encumbered and disgraced.
Among the few productions of which Sale is known to be the author is a part
of "The General Dictionary," in ten volumes, folio. To the translation of
Bayle, which is incorporated with this voluminous work, he is stated to have
been a large contributor.
When the plan of the Universal History was arranged, Sale was one of those
who were selected to carry it into execution. His coadjutors were Swinton,
eminent as an antiquary, and remarkable for absence of mind; Shelvocke,
originally a naval officer; the well informed, intelligent, and laborious
Campbell; that singular character, George Psalmanazar; and Archibald Bower,
who afterwards became an object of unenviable notoriety. The portion of the
history which was supplied by Sale comprises "The Introduction, containing the
Cosmogony, or Creation of the World;" and the whole, or nearly the whole, of
the succeeding chapter, which traces the narrative of events from the creation
to the flood. In the performance of his task, he displays a thorough
acquaintance with his subject; and his style, though not polished into
elegance, is neat and perspicuous. In a French biographical dictionary, of
anti-liberal principles, a writer accuses him of having adopted a system
hostile to tradition and the Scriptures, and composed his account of the
Cosmogony with the view of giving currency to his heretical opinions. Either
the accuser never read the article which he censures, or he has wilfully
misrepresented it; for it affords the fullest contradiction to the charge, as
does also the sequent chapter; and he must, therefore, be contented to choose
between the demerit of being a slanderer through blundering and reckless
ignorance, or through sheer malignity of heart.
Though his share in these publications affords proof of the erudition and
ability of Sale, it probably would not alone have been sufficient to preserve
his name from oblivion. His claim to be remembered rests principally on his
version of the Korân, which appeared in November, 1734, in a quarto volume,
and was inscribed to Lord Carteret. The dedicator does not disgrace himself
by descending to that fulsome adulatory style which was then too frequently
employed in addressing the great. As a translator, he had the field almost
entirely to himself; there being at that time no English translation of the
Mohammedan civil and spiritual code, except a bad copy of the despicable one
by Du Ryer. His performance was universally and justly approved of, still
still remains in repute, and is not likely to be superseded by any other of
the kind. It may, perhaps, be regretted, that he did not preserve the
division into verses, as Savary has since done, instead of connecting them
into a continuous narrative. Some of the poetical spirit is unavoidably lost
by the change. But this is all that can be objected to him. It is, I
believe, admitted, that he is in no common degree faithful to his original;
and his numerous notes, and Preliminary Discourse, manifest such a perfect
knowledge of Eastern habits, manners, traditions, and laws, as could have been
acquired only by an acute mind, capable of submitting to years of patient
toil.
But, though his work passed safely through the ordeal of criticism, it has
been made the pretext for a calumny against him. It has been declared, that
he puts the Christian religion on the same footing with the Muhammedan; and
some charitable persons have even supposed him to have been a disguised
professor of the latter. The origin of this slander we may trace back to the
strange obliquity of principles, and the blind merciless rage which are
characteristic of bigotry. Sale was not one of those who imagine that the end
sanctifies the means, and that the best interests of mankind can be advanced
by violence, by railing, or by deviating form the laws of truth, in order to
blacken an adversary. He enters into the consideration of the character of
Mohammed with a calm philosophic spirit; repeatedly censuring his imposture,
touching upon his subterfuges and inventions, but doing justice to him on
those points on which the pretended prophet is really worthy of praise. The
rules which, in his address to the reader, he lays down for the conversion of
Mohammedans, are dictated by sound sense and amiable feelings. They are,
however, not calculated to satisfy those who think the sword and the fagot to
be the only proper instruments for the extirpation of heresy. That he places
Islamism on an equality with Christianity is a gross falsehood. "As
Mohammed," says he, "gave his Arabs the best religion he could, preferable, at
least, to those of the ancient pagan lawgivers, I confess I cannot see why he
deserves not equal respect, though not with Moses or Jesus Christ, whose laws
came really from heaven, yet with Minos or Numa, notwithstanding the
distinction of a learned writer, who seems to think it a greater crime to make
use of an imposture to set up a new religion, founded on the acknowledgment of
one true God, and to destroy idolatry, than to use the same means to gain
reception to rules and regulations for the more orderly practice of heathenism
already established." This, and no more, is "the very head and front of his
offending;" and from this it would, I think, be difficult to extract any proof
of his belief in the divine mission of Mohammed. If the charge brought
against him be not groundless, he must have added to his other sins that of
being a consummate hypocrite, and that, too, without any obvious necessity; he
having been, till the period of his decease, a member of the Society for the
Promoting of Christian Knowledge.
In 1736 a society was established for the encouragement of learning. It
comprehended many noblemen, and some of the most eminent literary men of that
day. Sale was one of the founders of it, and was appointed on the first
committee. The meetings were held weekly, and the committee decided upon what
works should be printed at the expense of the society, or with its assistance,
and what should be the price of them. When the cost of printing was repaid,
the property of the work reverted to the author. This establishment did not,
I Imagine, exist for any length of time. The attention of the public has been
recently called to a plan of a similar kind.
Sale did not long survive the carrying of this scheme into effect. He died
of a fever, on the 13th of November, 1736, at his house in Surrey-street,
Strand, after an illness of only eight days, and was buried at St. Clement
Danes. He was under the age of forty when he was thus suddenly snatched from
his family, which consisted of a wife and five children. Of his sons, one was
educated at New College, Oxford, of which he became Fellow, and he was
subsequently elected to a Fellow-ship in Winchester College. Sale is
described as having had "a healthy constitution, and a communicative mind in a
comely person." His library was valuable, and contained many rare and
beautiful manuscripts in the Persian, Turkish, Arabic, and other languages; a
circumstance which seems to show that poverty, so often the lot of men whose
lives are devoted to literary pursuits, was not one of the evils with which he
was compelled to encounter.
R. A. DAVENPORT.
[from 1891 version]
INTRODUCTION
THERE is surely no need to-day to insist on the importance of a close study of
the Korân for all who would comprehend the many vital problems connected with
the Islamic World; and yet few of us, I imagine, among the many who possess
translations of this book have been at pains to read it through. It must,
however, be borne in mind that the Korân plays a far greater rôle among the
Muhammadans than does the Bible in Christianity in that it provides not only
the canon of their faith, but also the text-book of their ritual and the
principles of their Civil Law.
It was the Great Crusades that first brought the West into close touch
with Islam, but between the years 1096 and 1270 we only hear of one attempt to
make known to Europe the Sacred Book of the Moslems, namely, the Latin version
made in 1143, by Robert of Retina (who, Sale tells us, was an Englishman), and
Hermann of Dalmatia, on the initiative of Petrus Venerabilis, the Abbot of
Clugny, which version was ultimately printed by T. Bibliander in Basel in
1543, nearly a hundred years after the fall of Constantinople.
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, several translations
appeared both in Latin and in French, and one of the latter, by André du Ryer,
was translated into English by Alexander Ross in 1649. But by far the most
important work on the Korân was that of Luigi Marracci which was published in
Padua in 1698.
George Sale's translation first appeared in November, 1734, in a quarto
volume; in 1764 it was first printed in medium octavo, and the reprint of 1825
contained the sketch of Sale's life by Richard Alfred Davenant which has been
utilized in the article on Sale in the Dictionary of National Bibliography.
The Chandos Classics edition in crown octavo was first issued in 1877.
Soon after the death of the Prophet, early Muhammadan theologians began
to discuss, not only the correct reading of the text itself, but also to work
out on the basis of first-hand reports the story connected with the revelation
of each chapter. As the book at present stands in its original form the
chapters are arranged more or less according to their respective length,
beginning with the longest; except in the case of the opening chapter, which
holds a place by itself, not only in the sacred book of Islam, corresponding
as it does in a manner to our Pater Noster, but also in its important
ceremonial usages. The presumed order in which the various chapters were
revealed is given in the tabular list of Contents, but it may be mentioned
that neither Muhammadan theologians, nor, in more recent times, European
scholars, are in entire agreement upon the exact chronological position of all
the chapters.
It is well for all who study the Korân to realize that the actual text
is never the composition of the Prophet, but is the word of God addressed to
the Prophet; and that in quoting the Korân the formula is "He (may he be
exalted) said" or some such phrase. The Prophet himself is of course quoted
by Muhammadan theologians, but such quotations refer to his traditional
sayings known as "Hadîs," which have been handed down from mouth to mouth with
the strictest regard to genealogical continuity.
It would probably be impossible for any Arabic scholar to produce a
translation of the Korân which would defy criticism, but this much may be said
of Sale's version: just as, when it first appeared, it had no rival in the
field, it may be fairly claimed to-day that it has been superseded by no
subsequent translations. Equally remarkable with his translation is the
famous Preliminary Discourse which constitutes a tour de force when we
consider how little critical work had been done in his day in the field of
Islamic research. Practically the only works of first-class importance were
Dr. Pocock's Specimen Historio Arabum, to which, in his original Address to
the Reader, Sale acknowledges his great indebtedness, and Maracci's Korân.
In spite of the vast number of eminent scholars who have worked in the
same field since the days of George Sale, his Preliminary Discourse still
remains the best Introduction in any European language to the study of the
religion promulgated by the Prophet of Arabia; but as Wherry says: "Whilst
reading the Preliminary Discourse as a most masterly, and on the whole
reliable, presentation of the peculiar doctrines, rites, ceremonies, customs,
and institutions of Islam, we recognize the fact that modern research has
brought to light many things concerning the history of the ancient Arabs which
greatly modify the statements made in the early paragraphs."
For many centuries the acquaintance which the majority of Europeans
possessed of Muhammadanism was based almost entirely on distorted reports of
fanatical Christians which led to the dissemination of a multitude of gross
calumnies. What was good in Muhammadanism was entirely ignored, and what was
not good, in the eyes of Europe, was exaggerated or misinterpreted.
It must not, however, be forgotten that the central doctrine preached by
Muhammad to his contemporaries in Arabia, who worshipped the Stars; to the
Persians, who acknowledged Ormuz and Ahriman; the Indians, who worshipped
idols; and the Turks, who had no particular worship, was the unity of God, and
that the simplicity of his creed was probably a more potent factor in the
spread of Islam than the sword of the Ghazis.
Islam, although seriously affecting the Christian world, brought a
spiritual religion to one half of Asia, and it is an amazing circumstance that
the Turks, who on several occasions let loose their Central Asian hordes over
India, and the Middle East, though irresistible in the onslaught of their
arms, were all conquered in their turn by the Faith of Islam, and founded
Muhammadan dynasties.
The Mongols of the thirteenth century did their best to wipe out all
traces of Islam when they sacked Baghdad, but though the Caliphate was
relegated to obscurity in Egypt the newly founded Empires quickly became
Muhammadan states, until finally it was a Turk who took the title of Caliph
which has been held by the house of Othman ever since.
Thus through all the vicissitudes of thirteen hundred years the Korân
has remained the sacred book of all the Turks and Persians and of nearly a
quarter of the population of India. Surely such a book as this deserves to be
widely read in the West, more especially in these days when space and time
have been almost annihilated by modern invention, and when public interest
embraces the whole world.
It is difficult to decide to what extent Sale's citations in the notes
represent first-hand use of the Arabic commentators, but I fear that the
result of a close inquiry only points to very little original research on his
part. He says himself in his Address to the Reader: "As I have no opportunity
of consulting public libraries, the manuscripts of which I have made use
throughout the whole work have been such as I had in my own study, except only
the Commentary of Al Baidhâwi" . . . which "belongs to the library of the
Dutch Church in Austin Friars."
Now with regard to these manuscripts which Sale had in his "own study"
we happen to possess first-hand information, for a list of them was printed by
the executor of his will under the following title: "A choice collection of
most curious and inestimable manuscripts in the Turkish, Arabic and Persian
languages from the library of the late learned and ingenious Mr. George Sale.
Which books are now in the possession of Mr. William Hammerton Merchant in
Lothbury where they may be seen on Wednesdays and Fridays till either they are
sold or sent abroad. N.B. These MSS. are to be sold together and not
separately." They were purchased in the first instance by the Rev. Thomas
Hunt of Oxford for the Radcliffe Library, and they are now permanently housed
in the Bodleian Library.
The British Museum possesses a copy of this list which is drawn up in
English and French on opposite pages and comprises eighty-six works in all.
The list contains very few Arabic works of first-rate importance, but is rich
in Turkish and Persian Histories. What is most significant, however, is the
fact that it contains hardly any of the Arabic works and none of the
Commentaries which are referred to on every page of Sale's translation of the
Korân.
I have therefore been forced to the conclusion that with the exception
of Al-Baidhâwi, Sale's sources were all consulted at second hand; and an
examination of Marracci's great work makes the whole matter perfectly clear.
Sale says of Marracci's translation that it is "generally speaking very exact;
but adheres to the Arabic idiom too literally to be easily understood . . . by
those who are not versed in the Muhammadan learning. The notes he has added
are indeed of great use; but his refutations, which swell the work to a large
volume, are of little or none at all, being often unsatisfactory, and
sometimes impertinent. The work, however, with all its faults is very
valuable, and I should be guilty of ingratitude, did I not acknowledge myself
much obliged thereto; but still being in Latin it can be of no use to those
who understand not that tongue."
Such is Sale's own confession of his obligation to Marracci-but it does
not go nearly far enough. A comparison of the two versions shows that so much
had been achieved by Marracci that Sale's work might almost have been
performed with a knowledge of Latin alone, as far as regards the quotations
from Arabic authors. I do not wish to imply that Sale did not know Arabic,
but I do maintain that his work as it stands gives a misleading estimate of
his original researches, and that his tribute to Marracci falls far short of
his actual indebtedness.
It must be mentioned that Marracci not only reproduced the whole of the
Arabic text of the Korân but furthermore gives the original text and the
translation of all his quotations from Arabic writers. It is indeed a
profoundly learned work and has never received the recognition it deserves.
Marracci had at his disposal rich collections of MSS. belonging to the
Libraries of Italy. How he learnt his Arabic we do not know. Voltaire says
he was never in the East. He was confessor to Pope Innocent XI, and his work
which appeared in Padua in 1698 is dedicated to the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold
I. By way of Introduction to his Korân Marracci published a companion folio
volume called Prodromus which contains practically all that was known in his
day regarding Muhammad and the Religion of Islam.
It may in any case be claimed that the present work presents to the
Western student all the essentials of a preliminary study of Islam: for Sale's
translation and footnotes will give him as clear an idea as can be obtained,
without laborious years of study in Arabic, of what is regarded by so many
millions of men from Fez to the Far East as the revealed word of God and the
unshakable basis of their faith.
George Sale was born about 1697 and died in 1736. Every biography calls
attention to the statement made by Voltaire in his Dictionnaire Philosophique
to the effect that Sale spent over twenty years among the Arabs. I think this
must have been a lapsus calami on Voltaire's part, because it is unlikely that
he would have invented such a story. Sale must also have been well versed in
Hebrew, both biblical and post-biblical, as his numerous allusions to
Rabbinical writings testify.
Two years after the publication of his great work Sale died in Surrey
Street, Strand, his age being then under forty. In 1720 he had been admitted
a student of the Inner Temple-son of Samuel Sale, citizen and merchant of
London-and the same year the Patriarch of Antioch had sent Solomon Negri
(Suleiman Alsadi) to London from Damascus to urge the Society for Promoting
Christian Knowledge, then established in the Middle Temple, to issue an Arabic
New Testament for the Syrian Christians. It is surmised that Negri was Sale's
first instructor in Arabic, though Dadichi, the King's Interpreter, a learned
Greek of Aleppo, guided him, we are told, "through the labyrinth of oriental
dialects."
Whatever Sale may have known before-and he certainly had the gift of
languages-it is on the Society's records that on August 30, 1726, he offered
his services as one of the correctors of the Arabic New Testament and soon
became the chief worker on it, besides being the Society's solicitor and
holding other honorary offices. That translation of the New Testament into
Arabic was followed by the translation of the Korân into English.
In this edition the proper names have been left for the most part as in
the original, but the reader must understand that in Sale's day there was a
freedom in regard to oriental orthography that allowed of many variations. In
spite, however, of the want of a scientific system, Sale's transcription is on
the whole clear, and far less confusing than those adopted by contemporary
Anglo-Indian scholars, who utterly distorted Muhammadan names-including place
names in India-by rendering the short a by u and so forth. As a few examples
of names spelled in more than one way, the correct modern way being given
first, we have Al-Qor'án, Coran, Korân, etc.; Muhammad, Mohammed, Mahomet,
etc.; Al-Baidhâwi, Al-Beidâwi; Muttalib, Motalleb, Motaleb, etc.; Jalâl ud-
Dîn, Jallâlo'ddîn; Anas, Ans; Khalîfa, Caliph, Khalif, etc.
It is only within quite recent times that scholars have troubled to
render each letter of the Arabic alphabet by an equivalent and distinct letter
of the Roman alphabet-and although no particular system has been universally
adopted by European orientalists, every writer has some system by which any
reader with a knowledge of Arabic is able to turn back every name into the
original script. The chief advantage of any such system is that a distinction
is made between the two varieties of s, k, and t, and the presence of the
illusive Arabic letter 'ayn is always indicated.
E. DENISON ROSS.
Sir Edward Denison Ross
C.I.E., Ph.D., ETC.
[Written apparently sometime after 1877]
TO THE READER.
_______
I IMAGINE it almost needless either to make an apology for publishing the
following translation, or to go about to prove it a work of use as well as
curiosity. They must have a mean opinion of the Christian religion, or be but
ill grounded therein, who can apprehend any danger from so manifest a forgery:
and if the religious and civil institutions of foreign nations are worth our
knowledge, those of Mohammed, the lawgiver of the Arabians, and founder of an
empire which in less than a century spread itself over a greater part of the
world than the Romans were ever masters of, must needs be so; whether we
consider their extensive obtaining, or our frequent intercourse with those who
are governed thereby. I shall not here inquire into the reasons why the law
of Mohammed has met with so unexampled a reception in the world (for they are
greatly deceived who imagine it to have been propagated by the sword alone),
or by what means it came to be embraced by nations which never felt the force
of the Mohammedan arms, and even by those which stripped the Arabians of their
conquests, and put an end to the sovereignty and very being of their Khalîfs:
yet it seems as if there was something more than what is vulgarly imagined in
a religion which has made so surprising a progress. But whatever use an
impartial version of the Korân may be of in other respects, it is absolutely
necessary to undeceive those who, from the ignorant or unfair translations
which have appeared, have entertained too favourable an opinion of the
original, and also to enable us effectually to expose the imposture; none of
those who have hitherto undertaken that province, not excepting Dr. Prideaux
himself, having succeeded to the satisfaction of the judicious, for want of
being complete masters of the controversy. The writers of the Romish
communion, in particular, are so far from having done any service in their
refutations of Mohammedism, that by endeavouring to defend their idolatry and
other superstitions, they have rather contributed to the increase of that
aversion which the Mohammedans in general have to the Christian religion, and
given them great advantages in the dispute. The Protestants alone are able to
attack the Korân with success; and for them, I trust, Providence has reserved
the glory of its overthrow. In the meantime, if I might presume to lay down
rules to be observed by those who attempt the conversion of the Mohammedans,
they should be the
same which the learned and worthy Bishop Kidder* has prescribed for the
conversion of the Jews, and which may, mutatis mutandis, be equally applied to
the former, notwithstanding the despicable opinion that writer, for want of
being better acquainted with them, entertained of those people, judging them
scarce fit to be argued with. The first of these rules is, To avoid
compulsion; which, though it be not in our power to employ at present, I hope
will not be made use of when it is. The second is, To avoid teaching
doctrines against common sense; the Mohammedans not being such fools (whatever
we may think of them) as to be gained over in this case. The worshipping of
images and the doctrine of transubstantiation are great stumbling-blocks to
the Mohammedans, and the Church which teacheth them is very unfit to bring
those people over. The third is, To avoid weak arguments: for the Mohammedans
are not to be converted with these, or hard words. We must use them with
humanity, and dispute against them with arguments that are proper and cogent.
It is certain that many Christians, who have written against them, have been
very defective this way: many have used arguments that have no force, and
advanced propositions that are void of truth. This method is so far from
convincing, that it rather serves to harden them. The Mohammedans will be apt
to conclude we have little to say, when we urge them with arguments that are
trifling or untrue. We do but lose ground when we do this; and instead of
gaining them, we expose ourselves and our cause also. We must not give them
ill words neither; but must avoid all reproachful language, all that is
sarcastical and biting: this never did good from pulpit or press. The softest
words will make the deepest impression; and if we think it a fault in them to
give ill language, we cannot be excused when we imitate them. The fourth rule
is, Not to quit any article of the Christian faith to gain the Mohammedans.
It is a fond conceit of the Socinians, that we shall upon their principles be
most like to prevail upon the Mohammedans: it is not true in matter of fact.
We must not give up any article to gain them: but then the Church of Rome
ought to part with many practices and some doctrines. We are not to design to
gain the Mohammedans over to a system of dogma, but to the ancient and
primitive faith. I believe nobody will deny but that the rules here laid down
are just: the latter part of the third, which alone my design has given me
occasion to practise, I think so reasonable, that I have not, in speaking of
Mohammed or his Korân, allowed myself to use those opprobrious appellations,
and unmannerly expressions, which seem to be the strongest arguments of
several who have written against them. On the contrary, I have thought myself
to treat both with common decency, and even to approve such
* In his Demonstr. of the Messias, Part III. chap. 2.
particulars as seemed to me to deserve approbation: for how criminal soever
Mohammed may have been in imposing a false religion on mankind, the praises
due to his real virtues ought not to be denied him; nor can I do otherwise
than applaud the candour of the pious and learned Spanhemius, who, though he
owned him to have been a wicked impostor, yet acknowledged him to have been
richly furnished with natural endowments, beautiful in his person, of a subtle
wit, agreeable behaviour, showing liberality to the poor, courtesy to every
one, fortitude against his enemies, and above all a high reverence for the
name of GOD; severe against the perjured, adulterers, murderers, slanderers,
prodigals, covetous, false witnesses, &c., a great preacher of patience,
charity, mercy, beneficence, gratitude, honouring of parents and superiors,
and a frequent celebrator of the divine praises.*
Of the several translations of the Korân now extant, there is but one
which tolerably represents the sense of the original; and that being in Latin,
a new version became necessary, at least to an English reader. What
Bibliander published for a Latin translation of that book deserves not the
name of a translation; the unaccountable liberties therein taken and the
numberless faults, both of omission and commission, leaving scarce any
resemblance of the original. It was made near six hundred years ago, being
finished in 1143, by Robertus Retenensis, an English-man, with the assistance
of Hermannus Dalmata, at the request of Peter, Abbot of Clugny, who paid them
well for their pains.
From this Latin version was taken the Italian of Andrea Arrivabene,
notwithstanding the pretences in his dedication of its being done immediately
from the Arabic;? wherefore it is no wonder if the transcript be yet more
faulty and absurd than the copy.?
About the end of the fifteenth century, Johannes Andreas, a native of
Xativa in the kingdom of Valencia, who from a Mohammedan doctor became a
Christian priest, translated not only the Korân, but also its glosses, and the
seven books of the Sonna, out of Arabic into the Arragonian tongue, at the
command of Martin Garcia,§ Bishop of Barcelona and Inquisitor of Arragon.
Whether this translation were ever published or not I am wholly ignorant: but
it may be presumed to have been the better done for being the work of one bred
up in the
* Id certum, naturalibus egregiè dotibus instructum Muhammedera, forma
præstanti, ingenio calido, moribus facetis, ac præ se ferentem liberalitatem
in egenos. comitatem in singulos, fortitudinem in hostes, ac præ cæteris
reverentiam divini nominis.-Severus fuit in perjuros, adulteros, homicidas,
obtrectatores, prodigos, avaros, falsos testes, &c. Magnus idem patientiæ,
charitatis, misericordiæ, beneficentiæ, gratitudinis, honoris in parentes ac
superiores præco, ut et divinarum laudum. Hist. Eccles. Sec. VII. c. 7, lem.
5 and 7.
? His words are: Questo libro, che già havevo à commune utilità di
molti fatto dal proprio testo Arabo tradurre nella nostra volgar lingua
Italiana, &c. And afterwards; Questo è l'Alcorano di Macometto, il quale,
come ho gia detto, ho fatto dal suo idioma tradurre, &c.
? Vide Jos. Scalig. Epist. 361 et 362; et Selden. de Success. ad Leges
Ebræor. p. 9.
§ J. Andreas, in Præf. ad Tractat. suum de Confusione Sectæ Mahometanæ.
Mohammedan religion and learning; though his refutation of that religion,
which has had several editions, gives no great idea of his abilities.
Some years within the last century, Andrew du Ryer, who had been consul
of the French nation in Egypt, and was tolerably skilled in the Turkish and
Arabic languages, took the pains to translate the Korân into his own tongue:
but his performance, though it be beyond comparison preferable to that of
Retenensis, is far from being a just translation; there being mistakes in
every page, besides frequent transpositions, omissions, and additions,* faults
unpardonable in a work of this nature. And what renders it still more
incomplete is, the want of Notes to explain a vast number of passages, some of
which are difficult, and others impossible to be understood, without proper
explications, were they translated ever so exactly; which the author is so
sensible of that he often refers his reader to the Arabic commentators.
The English version is no other than a translation of Du Ryer's, and
that a very bad one; for Alexander Ross, who did it, being utterly
unacquainted with the Arabic, and no great master of the French, has added a
number of fresh mistakes of his own to those of Du Ryer; not to mention the
meanness of his language, which would make a better book ridiculous.
In 1698, a Latin translation of the Korân, made by Father Lewis
Marracci, who had been confessor to Pope Innocent XI., was published at Padua,
together with the original text, accompanied by explanatory notes and a
refutation. This translation of Marracci's, generally speaking, is very
exact; but adheres to the Arabic idiom too literally to be easily understood,
unless I am much deceived, by those who are not versed in the Mohammedan
learning. The notes he has added are indeed of great use; but his
refutations, which swell the work to a large volume, are of little or none at
all, being often unsatisfactory, and sometimes impertinent. The work,
however, with all its faults, is very valuable, and I should be guilty of
ingratitude, did I not acknowledge myself much obliged thereto; but still,
being in Latin, it can be of no use to those who understand not that tongue.
Having therefore undertaken a new translation, I have endeavoured to do
the original impartial justice; not having, to the best of my knowledge,
represented it, in any one instance, either better or worse than it really is.
I have thought myself obliged, indeed, in a piece which pretends to be the
Word of GOD, to keep somewhat scrupulously close to the text; by which means
the language may, in some places, seem to express the Arabic a little too
literally to be elegant English: but this, I hope, has not happened often; and
I flatter myself that the
* Vide Windet. de Vitâ Functorum statu, Sect. IX.
style I have made use of will not only give a more genuine idea of the
original than if I had taken more liberty (which would have been much more for
my ease), but will soon become familiar: for we must not expect to read a
version of so extraordinary a book with the same ease and pleasure as a modern
composition.
In the Notes my view has been briefly to explain the text, and
especially the difficult and obscure passages, from the most approved
commentators, and that generally in their own words, for whose opinions or
expressions, where liable to censure, I am not answerable; my province being
only fairly to represent their expositions, and the little I have added of my
own, or from European writers, being easily discernible. Where I met with any
circumstance which I imagined might be curious or entertaining, I have not
failed to produce it.
The Preliminary Discourse will acquaint the reader with the most
material particulars proper to be known previously to the entering on the
Korân itself, and which could not so conveniently have been thrown into the
Notes. And I have taken care, both in the Preliminary Discourse and the
Notes, constantly to quote my authorities and the writers to whom I have been
beholden; but to none have I been more so than to the learned Dr. Pocock,
whose Specimen Historiæ Arabum is the most useful and accurate work that has
been hitherto published concerning the antiquities of that nation, and ought
to be read by every curious inquirer into them.
As I have had no opportunity of consulting public libraries, the
manuscripts of which I have made use throughout the whole work have been such
as I had in my own study, except only the Commentary of al Beidâwi and the
Gospel of St. Barnabas. The first belongs to the library of the Dutch church
in Austin Friars, and for the use of it I have been chiefly indebted to the
Reverend Dr. Bolten, one of the ministers of that church: the other was very
obligingly lent me by the Reverend Dr. Holme, Rector of Hedley in Hampshire;
and I take this opportunity of returning both those gentlemen my thanks for
their favours. The merit of al Beidâwi's commentary will appear from the
frequent quotations I have made thence; but of the Gospel of St. Barnabas
(which I had not seen when the little I have said of it in the Preliminary
Discourse,* and the extract I had borrowed from M. de la Monnoye and M.
Toland,? were printed off), I must beg leave to give some further account.
The book is a moderate quarto, in Spanish, written in a very legible
hand, but a little damaged towards the latter end. It contains two hundred
and twenty-two chapters of unequal length, and four hundred
* Sect. IV. p. 58. ? In not. ad cap. 3, p. 38
and twenty pages; and is said, in the front, to be translated from the
Italian, by an Arragonian Moslem, named Mostafa de Aranda. There is a preface
prefixed to it, wherein the discoverer of the original MS., who was a
Christian monk, called Fra Marino, tells us that having accidentally met with
a writing of Irenæus (among others), wherein he speaks against St. Paul,
alleging, for his authority, the Gospel of St. Barnabas, he became exceeding
desirous to find this gospel; and that GOD, of His mercy, having made him very
intimate with Pope Sixtus V., one day, as they were together in that Pope's
library, his Holiness fell asleep, and he, to employ himself, reaching down a
book to read, the first he laid his hand on proved to be the very gospel he
wanted: overjoyed at the discovery, he scrupled not to hide his prize in his
sleeve, and on the Pope's awaking, took leave of him, carrying with him that
celestial treasure, by reading of which he became a convert to Mohammedism.
This Gospel of Barnabas contains a complete history of Jesus Christ from
His birth to His ascension; and most of the circumstances in the four real
Gospels are to be found therein, but many of them turned, and some artfully
enough, to favour the Mohammedan system. From the design of the whole, and
the frequent interpolations of stories and passages wherein Mohammed is spoken
of and foretold by name, as the messenger of God, and the great prophet who
was to perfect the dispensation of Jesus, it appears to be a most barefaced
forgery. One particular I observe therein induces me to believe it to have
been dressed up by a renegade Christian, slightly instructed in his new
religion, and not educated a Mohammedan (unless the fault be imputed to the
Spanish, or perhaps the Italian translator, and not to the original compiler);
I mean the giving to Mohammed the title of Messiah, and that not once or twice
only, but in several places; whereas the title of the Messiah, or, as the
Arabs write it, al Masîh, i.e., Christ, is appropriated to Jesus in the Korân,
and is constantly applied by the Mohammedans to Him, and never to their own
prophet. The passages produced from the Italian MS. by M. de la Monnoye are
to be seen in this Spanish version almost word for word.
But to return to the following work. Though I have freely censured the
former translations of the Korân, I would not therefore be suspected of a
design to make my own pass as free from faults: I am very sensible it is not;
and I make no doubt that the few who are able to discern them, and know the
difficulty of the undertaking, will give me fair quarter. I likewise flatter
myself that they, and all considerate persons, will excuse the delay which has
happened in the publication of this work, when they are informed that it was
carried on at leisure times only, and amidst the necessary avocations of a
troublesome profession.
CONTENTS.
_________
A TABLE
OF THE
SECTIONS OF THE PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE
_________
SECTION Page
I.-Of the Arabs before Mohammed; or, as they express it, in the Time of
Ignorance; their History, Religion, Learning, and Customs 1
II.-Of the State of Christianity, particularly of the Eastern Churches, and of
Judaism, at time of Mohammed's appearance; and of the methods taken
by him for the establishing his Religion, and the circumstances which
concurred thereto 25
III.-Of the Korân itself, the Peculiarities of that Book; the manner of its
being
written and published, and the General Design of it 44
IV.-Of the Doctrines and positive Precepts of the Korân which relate to Faith
and
Religious Duties 54
V.-Of certain Negative Precepts in the Korân 95
VI.-Of the Institutions of the Korân in Civil Affairs 103
VII.-Of the Months commanded by the Korân to be kept Sacred; and of the
setting
apart of Friday for the especial service of God 114
VIII.-Of the principal Sects among the Mohammedans; and of those who have pre-
tended to Prophecy among the Arabs, in or since the time of Mohammed
117
A TABLE OF THE CHAPTERS
OF
THE KORAN.
______________
CHAPTER Page
1. Entitled, The Preface, or Introduction; containing 7 verses 1
2. Entitled, The Cow; containing 286 verses 2
3. Entitled, The Family of Imrân; containing 200 verses 32
4. Entitled, Women; containing 175 verses 53
5. Entitled, The Table; containing 120 verses 73
6. Entitled, Cattle; containing 165 verses 89
7. Entitled, Al Araf; containing 206 verses 105
8. Entitled, The Spoils; containing 76 verses 125
9. Entitled, The Declaration of Immunity; containing 139 verses 134
10. Entitled, Jonas; containing 109 verses 150
11. Entitled, Hud; containing 123 verses 158
12. Entitled, Joseph; containing 111 verses 169
13. Entitled, Thunder; containing 43 verses 181
14. Entitled, Abraham; containing 52 verses 186
15. Entitled, Al Hejr; containing 99 verses 191
16. Entitled, The Bee; containing 128 verses 195
17. Entitled, The Night Journey; contianing 110 verses 206
18. Entitled, The Cave; containing 111 verses 216
19. Entitled, Mary; containing 80 verses 227
20. Entitled, T. H.; containing 134 verses 233
21. Entitled, The Prophets; containing 112 verses 242
22. Entitled, The Pilgrimage; containing 78 verses 250
23. Entitled, The True Believers; containing 118 verses 257
24. Entitled, Light; containing 74 verses 262
25. Entitled, Al Forkan; containing 77 verses 271
26. Entitled, The Poets; containing 227 verses 276
27. Entitled, The Ant; containing 93 verses 283
28. Entitled, The Story; containing 87 verses 289
29. Entitled, The Spider; containing 69 verses 297
30. Entitled, The Greeks; containing 60 verses 302
31. Entitled, Lokmân; containing 34 verses 306
32. Entitled, Adoration; containing 29 verses 309
33. Entitled, The Confederates; containing 73 verses 312
34. Entitled, Saba; containing 54 verses 321
35. Entitled, The Creator; containing 45 verses 326
36. Entitled, Y. S; containing 83 verses 330
CHAPTER Page
37. Entitled, Those who rank themselves in Order; containing 182 verses 334
38. Entitled, S.; containing 86 verses 339
39. Entitled, The Troops; containing 75 verses 344
40. Entitled, The True Believer; containing 85 verses 350
41. Entitled, Are distinctly explained; containing 54 verses 355
42. Entitled, Consultation; containing 53 verses 359
43. Entitled, The Ornaments of Gold; containing 89 verses 362
44. Entitled, Smoke; containing 57 verses 367
45. Entitled, The Kneeling; containing 36 verses 369
46. Entitled, Al Ahkaf; containing 35 verses 371
47. Entitled, Mohammed; containing 38 verses 374
48. Entitled, The Victory; containing 29 verses 377
49. Entitled, The Inner Apartments; containing 18 verse 381
50. Entitled, K.; containing 45 verses 383
51. Entitled, The Dispersing; containing 60 verses 385
52. Entitled, The Mountain; containing 48 verses 387
53. Entitled, The Star; containing 61 verses 389
54. Entitled, The Moon; containing 55 verses 391
55. Entitled, The Merciful; containing 78 verses 394
56. Entitled, The Inevitable; containing 99 verses 396
57. Entitled, Iron; containing 29 verses 399
58. Entitled, She who disputed; containing 22 verses 402
59. Entitled, The Emigration; containing 24 verses 404
60. Entitled, She who is tried; containing 13 verses 407
61. Entitled, Battle Array; containing 14 verses 409
62. Entitled, The Assembly; containing 11 verses 410
63. Entitled, The Hypocrites; containing 11 verses 412
64. Entitled, Mutual Deceit; contianing 18 verses 413
65. Entitled, Divorce; containing 12 verses 414
66. Entitled, Prohibition; containing 12 verses 415
67. Entitled, The Kingdom; containing 30 verses 418
68. Entitled, The Pen; containing 52 verses 419
69. Entitled, The Infallible; containing 52 verses 421
70. Entitled, The Steps; containing 44 verses 423
71. Entitled, Noah; containing 28 verses 424
72. Entitled, The Genii; containing 28 verses 426
73. Entitled, The Wrapped up; containing 19 verses 427
74. Entitled, The Covered; containing 55 verses 429
75. Entitled, The Resurrection; containing 40 verses 431
76. Entitled, Man; containing 31 verses 432
77. Entitled, Those which are sent; containing 50 verses 434
78. Entitled, The News; containing 40 verses 435
79. Entitled, Those who tear forth; containing 46 verses 436
80. Entitled, He Frowned; containing 42 verses 437
81. Entitled, The Folding up; containing 29 verses 438
82. Entitled, The Cleaving in Sunder; containing 19 verses 439
83. Entitled, Those who give Short Measure or Weight; containing 36 verses
440
84. Entitled, The Rending in Sunder; containing 23 verses 441
85. Entitled, The Celestial Signs; containing 22 verses 442
86. Entitled, The Star which appeareth by Night; containing 17 verses 443
87. Entitled, The Most High; containing 19 verses 443
88. Entitled, The Overwhelming; containing 26 verses 444
CHAPTER Page
89. Entitled, The Daybreak; containing 30 verses 445
90. Entitled, The Territory; containing 20 verses 447
91. Entitled, The Sun; containing 15 verses 447
92. Entitled, The Night; containing 21 verses 448
93. Entitled, The Brightness; containing 11 verses 448
94. Entitled, Have we not Opened; containing 8 verses 449
95. Entitled, The Fig; containing 8 verses 449
96. Entitled, Congealed Blood; containing 19 verses 450
97. Entitled, Al Kadr; containing 5 verses 451
98. Entitled, The Evidence; containing 8 verses 451
99. Entitled, The Earthquake, containing 8 verses 452
100. Entitled, The War Horses which run swiftly; containing 11 verses 453
101. Entitled, The Striking; containing 10 verses 453
102. Entitled, The Emulous Desire of Multiplying; containing 8 verses 454
103. Entitled, The Afternoon; containing 3 verses 454
104. Entitled, The Slanderer; containing 9 verses 454
105. Entitled, The Elephant; containing 5 verses 455
106. Entitled, Koreish; containing 4 verses 456
107. Entitled, Necessaries; containing 7 verses 457
108. Entitled, Al Cawthar; containing 3 verses 457
109. Entitled, The Unbelievers; containing 6 verses 458
110. Entitled, Assistance; containing 3 verses 458
111. Entitled, Abu Laheb; containing 5 verses 459
112. Entitled, The Declaration of God's Unity; containing 4 verses 459
113. Entitled, The Daybreak; containing 5 verses 460
114. Entitled, Men; containing 6 verses 460
THE
PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE
SECTION I.
OF THE ARABS BEFORE MOHAMMED; OR, AS THEY EXPRESS IT, IN THE TIME
OF IGNORANCE; THEIR HISTORY, RELIGION, LEARNING, AND CUSTOMS
THE Arabs, and the country they inhabit, which themselves call Jezîrat al
Arab, or the Peninsula of the Arabians, but we Arabia, were so named from
Araba, a small territory in the province of Tehâma;1 to which Yarab the son of
Kahtân, the father of the ancient Arabs, gave his name, and where, some ages
after, dwelt Ismael the son of Abraham by Hagar. The Christian writers for
several centuries speak of them under the appellation of Saracens; the most
certain derivation of which word is from shark, the east, where the
descendants of Joctan, the Kahtân of the Arabs, are placed by Moses,2 and in
which quarter they dwelt in respect to the Jews.3
The name of Arabia (used in a more extensive sense) sometimes comprehends
all that large tract of land bounded by the river Euphrates, the Persian Gulf,
the Sindian, Indian, and Red Seas, and part of the Mediterranean: above two-
thirds of which country, that is, Arabia properly so called, the Arabs have
possessed almost from the Flood; and have made themselves masters of the rest,
either by settlements or continual incursions; for which reason the Turks and
Persians at this day call the whole Arabistân, or the country of the Arabs.
But the limits of Arabia, in its more usual and proper sense, are much
narrower, as reaching no farther northward than the Isthmus, which runs from
Aila to the head of the Persian Gulf, and the borders of the territory of
Cûfa; which tract of land the Greeks nearly comprehended under the name of
Arabia the Happy. The eastern geographers make Arabia Petræa to belong partly
to Egypt, and partly to Shâm or Syria, and the desert Arabia they call the
deserts of Syria.4
Proper Arabia is by the oriental writers generally divided into five
provinces,5 viz., Yaman, Hejâz, Tehâma, Najd, and Yamâma; to which
1 Pocock, Specim. Hist. Arab. 33. 2 Gen. x. 30. 3 See Pocock,
Specim. 33, 34. 4 Golius ad Alfragan. 78, 79.
5 Strabo says Arabia Felix was in his time divided into five kingdoms, l. 16,
p. 1129.
some add Bahrein, as a sixth, but this province the more exact make part of
Irák;6 others reduce them all to two, Yaman and Hejâz, the last including the
three other provinces of Tehâma, Najd, and Yamâma.
The province of Yaman, so called either from its situation to the right
hand, or south of the temple of Mecca, or else from the happiness and verdure
of its soil, extends itself along the Indian Ocean from Aden to Cape Rasalgat;
part of the Red Sea bounds it on the west and south sides, and the province of
Hejâz on the north.1 It is subdivided into several lesser provinces, as
Hadramaut, Shihr, Omân, Najrân, &c., of which Shihr alone produces the
frankincense.2 The metropolis of Yaman is Sanaa, a very ancient city, in
former times called Ozal, and much celebrated for its delightful situation;
but the prince at present resides about five leagues northward from thence, at
a place no less pleasant, called Hisn almawâheb, or the Castle of delights.3
This country has been famous from all antiquity for the happiness of its
climate, its fertility and riches,4 which induced Alexander the Great, after
his return from his Indian expedition, to form a design of conquering it, and
fixing there his royal seat; but his death, which happened soon after,
prevented the execution of this project.5 Yet, in reality, great part of the
riches which the ancients imagined were the produce of Arabia, came really
from the Indies and the coasts of Africa; for the Egyptians, who had engrossed
that trade, which was then carried on by way of the Red Sea, to themselves,
industriously concealed the truth of the matter, and kept their ports shut to
prevent foreigners penetrating into those countries, or receiving any
information thence; and this precaution of theirs on the one side, and the
deserts, unpassable to strangers, on the other, were the reason why Arabia was
so little known to the Greeks and Romans. The delightfulness and plenty of
Yaman are owing to its mountains; for all that part which lies along the Red
Sea is a dry, barren desert, in some places ten or twelve leagues over, but in
return bounded by those mountains, which being well watered, enjoy an almost
continual spring, and, besides coffee, the peculiar produce of this country,
yield great plenty and variety of fruits, and in particular excellent corn,
grapes, and spices. There are no rivers of note in this country, for the
streams which at certain times of the year descend from the mountains, seldom
reach the sea, being for the most part drunk up and lost in the burning sands
of that coast.1
The soil of the other provinces is much more barren than that of Yaman; the
greater part of their territories being covered with dry sands, or rising into
rocks, interspersed here and there with some fruitful spots, which receive
their greatest advantages from their water and palm trees.
The province of Hejâz, so named because it divides Najd from Tehâma, is
bounded on the south by Yaman and Tehâma, on the west by the Red Sea, on the
north by the deserts of Syria, and on the east by the province of Najd.2 This
province is famous for its two chief cities, Mecca and Medina, one of which is
celebrated for its temple, and having given birth to Mohammed; and the other
for being the
6 Gol. ad Alfragan. 79. 1 La Roque, Voyage de l'Arab, heur. 121. 2
Gol. ad Alfragan. 79, 87. 3 Voyage de l'Arab, heur. 232. 4
Vide Dionys. Perieges. v. 927, &c. 5 Strabo, l. 16, p. 1132. Arrian, 161.
1 Voy. de l'Arab. heur. 121, 123, 153. 2 Vide Gol. ad Alfrag. 98.
Abulfeda Descr. Arab. p. 5.
place of his residence for the last ten years of his life, and of his
interment.
Mecca, sometimes also called Becca, which words are synonymous, and signify
a place of great concourse, is certainly one of the most ancient cities of the
world: it is by some3 thought to be the Mesa of the scripture,4 a name not
unknown to the Arabians, and supposed to be taken form one of Ismael's sons.5
It is seated in a stony and barren valley, surrounded on all sides with
mountains.6 The length of Mecca from south to north is about two miles, and
its breadth from the foot of the mountain Ajyad, to the top of another called
Koaikaân, about a mile.7 In the midst of this space stands the city, built of
stone cut from the neighbouring mountains.8 There being no springs at Mecca,9
at least none but what are bitter and unfit to drink,10 except only the well
Zemzem, the water of which, though far the best, yet cannot be drank of any
continuance, being brackish, and causing eruptions in those who drink
plentifully of it,11 the inhabitants are obliged to use rain-water which they
catch in cisterns.1 But this not being sufficient, several attempts were made
to bring water thither from other places by aqueducts; and particularly about
Mohammed's time, Zobair, one of the principal men of the tribe of Koreish,
endeavoured at a great expense to supply the city with water from Mount
Arafat, but without success; yet this was effected not many years ago, being
begun at the charge of a wife of Solimân the Turkish emperor.2 But long
before this, another aqueduct had been made from a spring at a considerable
distance, which was, after several years' labour, finished by the Khalîf al
Moktader.3
The soil about Mecca is so very barren as to produce no fruits but what are
common in the deserts, though the prince or Sharîf has a garden well planted
at his castle of Marbaa, about three miles westward from the city, where he
usually resides. Having therefore no corn or grain of their own growth, they
are obliged to fetch it from other places;4 and Hashem, Mohammed's great-
grandfather, then prince of his tribe, the more effectually to supply them
with provisions, appointed two caravans to set out yearly for that purpose,
the one in summer, and the other in winter: 5 these caravans of purveyors are
mentioned in the Korân. The provisions brought by them were distributed also
twice a year, viz., in the month of Rajeb, and at the arrival of the pilgrims.
They are supplied with dates in great plenty from the adjacent country, and
with grapes from Tayef, about sixty miles distant, very few growing at Mecca.
The inhabitants of this city are generally very rich, being considerable
gainers by the prodigious concourse of people of almost all nations at the
yearly pilgrimage, at which time there is a great fair or mart for all kinds
of merchandise. They have also great numbers of cattle, and particularly of
camels: however, the poorer sort cannot but live very indifferently in a place
where almost every necessary of life must be purchased with money.
Notwithstanding this great sterility
3 R. Saadias in version. Arab. Pentat. Sefer Juchasin. 135. b. 4
Gen. x. 30. 5 Gol. ad Alfrag. 82 See Gen. xxv. 15.
6 Gol. ib. 98. See Pitts' Account of the religion and manners of the
Mohammedans, p. 96. 7 Sharif al Edrisi apud Poc. Specim. 122.
8 Ibid. 9 Gol. ad Alfragan. 99. 10 Sharif al Edrisi ubi
supra, 124. 11 Ibid. and Pitts ubi supra, p. 107. 1 Gol. ad Alfrag.
99. 2 Ibid. 3 Sharif al Edrisi ubi supra. 4 Idem ib.
5 Poc. Spec. 51
near Mecca, yet you are no sooner out of its territory than you meet on all
sides with plenty of good springs and streams of running water, with a great
many gardens and cultivated lands.6
The temple of Mecca, and the reputed holiness of this territory, will be
treated of in a more proper place.
Medina, which till Mohammed's retreat thither was called Yathreb, is a
walled city about half as big as Mecca,7 built in a plain, salt in many
places, yet tolerably fruitful, particularly in dates, but more especially
near the mountains, two of which, Ohod on the north, and Air on the south, are
about two leagues distant. Here lies Mohammed interred1 in a magnificent
building, covered with a cupola, and adjoining to the east side of the great
temple, which is built in the midst of the city.2
The province of Tehâma was so named from the vehement heat of its sandy
soil, and is also called Gaur from its low situation; it is bounded on the
west by the Red Sea, and on the other sides by Hejâz and Yaman, extending
almost from Mecca to Aden.3
The province of Najd, which word signifies a rising country, lies between
those of Yamâma, Yaman, and Hejâz, and is bounded on the east by Irak.4
The province of Yamâma, also called Arûd from its oblique situation, in
respect of Yaman, is surrounded by the provinces of Najd, Tehâma, Bahrein,
Omân, Shihr, Hadramaut, and Saba. The chief city is Yamâma, which gives name
to the province: it was anciently called Jaw, and is particularly famous for
being the residence of Mohammed's competitor, the false prophet Moseilama.5
The Arabians, the inhabitants of this spacious country, which they have
possessed from the most remote antiquity, are distinguished by their own
writers into two classes, viz., the old lost Arabians, and the present.
The former were very numerous, and divided into several tribes, which are
now all destroyed, or else lost and swallowed up among the other tribes, nor
are any certain memoirs or records extant concerning them;6 though the memory
of some very remarkable events and the catastrophe of some tribes have been
preserved by tradition, and since confirmed by the authority of the Korân.
The most famous tribes amongst these ancient Arabians were Ad, Thamûd,
Tasm, Jadîs, the former Jorham, and Amalek.
6 Sharif al Edrisi ubi supra, 125. 7 Id. Vulgò Geogr. Nubiensis, 5.
1 Though the notion of Mohammed's being buried at Mecca has been so long
exploded, yet several modern writers, whether through ignorance or negligence
I will not determine, have fallen into it. It shall here take notice only of
two; one is Dr. Smith, who having lived some time in Turkey, seems to be
inexcusable: that gentleman in his Epistles de Moribus ac Institutis Turcarum,
no less than thrice mentions the Mohammedans visiting the tomb of their
prophet at Mecca, and once his being born at Medina-the reverse of which is
true (see Ep. I, p. 22, Ep. 2, p. 63 and 64). The other is the publisher of
the last edition of Sir J. Mandevile's Travels, who on his author's saying
very truly (p. 50) that the said tomb was at Methone, i.e., Medina, undertakes
to correct the name of the town, which is something corrupted, by putting at
the bottom of the page, Mecca. The Abbot de Vertot, in his History of the
Order of Malta (vol. i. p. 410, ed. 8vo.), seems also to have confounded these
two cities together, though he had before mentioned Mohammed's sepulchre at
Medina. However, he is certainly mistaken, when he says that one point of the
religion, both of the Christians and Mohammedans, was to visit, at least once
in their lives, the tomb of the author of their respective faith. Whatever
may be the opinion of some Christians, I am well assured the Mohammedans think
themselves under no manner of obligation in that respect.
2 Gol. ad Alfragan. 97, Abulfeda Descr. Arab. p. 40. 3 Gol. ubi sup. 95.
4 Ibid. 94. 5 Ibid. 95.
6 Abulfarag, p. 159.
The tribe of Ad were descended from Ad, the son of Aws,1 the son of Aram,2
the son of Sem, the son of Noah, who, after the confusion of tongues, settled
in al Ahkâf, or the winding sands in the province of Hadramaut, where his
posterity greatly multiplied. Their first king was Shedâd the son of Ad, of
whom the eastern writers deliver many fabulous things, particularly that he
finished the magnificent city his father had begun, wherein he built a fine
palace, adorned with delicious gardens, to embellish which he spared neither
cost nor labour, proposing thereby to create in his subjects a superstitious
veneration of himself as a god.3 This garden or paradise was called the
garden of Irem, and is mentioned in the Korân,4 and often alluded to by the
oriental writers. The city, they tell us, is still standing in the deserts of
Aden, being preserved by providence as a monument of divine justice, though it
be invisible, unless very rarely, when GOD permits it to be seen, a favour one
Colabah pretended to have received in the reign of the Khalîf Moâwiyah, who
sending for him to know the truth of the matter, Colabah related his whole
adventure; that as he was seeking a camel he had lost, he found himself on a
sudden at the gates of this city, and entering it saw not one inhabitant, at
which, being terrified, he stayed no longer than to take with him some fine
stones which he showed the Khalîf.5
The descendants of Ad in process of time falling from the worship of the
true God into idolatry, GOD sent the prophet Hûd (who is generally agreed to
be Heber6) to preach to and reclaim them. But they refusing to acknowledge
his mission, or to obey him, GOD sent a hot and suffocating wind, which blew
seven nights and eight days together, and entering at their nostrils passed
through their bodies.7 and destroyed them all, a very few only excepted, who
had believed in Hûd and retired with him to another place.8 That prophet
afterwards returned into Hadramaut, and was buried near Hasec, where there is
a small town now standing called Kabr Hûd, or the sepulchre of Hûd. Before
the Adites were thus severely punished, GOD, to humble them, and incline them
to hearken to the preaching of his prophet, afflicted them with a drought for
four years, so that all their cattle perished, and themselves were very near
it; upon which they sent Lokmân (different from one of the same name who lived
in David's time) with sixty others to Mecca to beg rain, which they not
obtaining, Lokmân with some of his company stayed at Mecca, and thereby
escaped destruction, giving rise to a tribe called the latter Ad, who were
afterward changed into monkeys.1
Some commentators on the Korân2 tell us these old Adites were of prodigious
stature, the largest being 100 cubits high, and the least 60; which
extraordinary size they pretend to prove by the testimony of the Korân.3
The tribe of Thamûd were the posterity of Thamûd the son of Gather4 the son
of Aram, who falling into idolatry, the prophet Sâleh was sent to bring them
back to the worship of the true GOD. This prophet lived between the time of
Hûd and of Abraham, and therefore cannot be the
1 Or Uz. Gen. x. 22, 23. 2 Vide Kor. c. 89. Some make Ad the son
of Amalek, the son of Ham; but the other is the received opinion. See
D'Herbel. 51. 3 Vide Eund. 498. 4 Cap. 89. 5 D'Herbel. 51.
6 The Jews acknowledge Heber to have been a great prophet. Seder Olam.
p. 2. 7 Al Beidâwi. 8 Poc. Spec. 35, &c. 1 Ibid, 36.
2 Jallâlo'ddin et Zamakhshari. 3 Kor. c. 7. 4 Or Gether, vide
Gen. x. 23.
same with the patriarch Sâleh, as Mr. d'Herbelot imagines.5 The learned
Bochart with more probability takes him to be Phaleg.6 A small number of the
people of Thamûd hearkened to the remonstrances of Sâleh, but the rest
requiring, as a proof of his mission, that he should cause a she-camel big
with young to come out of a rock in their presence, he accordingly obtained it
of GOD, and the camel was immediately delivered of a young one ready weaned;
but they, instead of believing, cut the hamstrings of the camel and killed
her; at which act of impiety GOD, being highly displeased, three days after
struck them dead in their houses by an earthquake and a terrible noise from
heaven, which, some7 say, was the voice of Gabriel the archangel crying aloud,
"Die, all of you." Sâleh, with those who were reformed by him, were saved
from this destruction; the prophet going into Palestine, and from thence to
Mecca,8 where he ended his days.
This tribe first dwelt in Yaman, but being expelled thence by Hamyar the
son of Sâba,9 they settled in the territory of Hejr in the province of Hejâz,
where their habitations cut out of the rocks, mentioned in the Korân,10 are
still to be seen, and also the crack of the rock whence the camel issued,
which, as an eye-witness11 hath declared, is 60 cubits wide. These houses of
the Thamûdites being of the ordinary proportion, are used as an argument to
convince those of a mistake who who this people to have been of a gigantic
stature.12
The tragical destructions of these two potent tribes are often insisted on
in the Korân, as instances of GOD'S judgment on obstinate unbelievers.
The tribe of Tasm were the posterity of Lûd the son of Sem, and Jadîs of
the descendants of Jether.1 These two tribes dwelt promiscuously together
under the government of Tasm, till a certain tyrant made a law that no maid of
the tribe of Jadîs should marry unless first defloured by him;2 which the
Jadisians not enduring, formed a conspiracy, and inviting the king and chiefs
of Tasm to an entertainment, privately hid their swords in the sand, and in
the midst of their mirth fell on them and slew them all, and extirpated the
greatest part of that tribe; however, the few who escaped obtaining aid of the
king of Yaman, then (as is said) Dhu Habshân Ebn Akrân,3 assaulted the Jadîs
and utterly destroyed them, there being scarce any mention made from that time
of either of these tribes.4
The former tribe of Jorham (whose ancestor some pretend was one of the
eighty persons saved in the ark of Noah, according to a Mohammedan tradition5)
was contemporary with Ad, and utterly perished.6 The tribe of Amalek were
descended from Amalek the son of Eliphaz the son of Esau 7, though some of the
oriental authors say Amalek was the son of Ham the son of Noah,8 and others
the son of Azd the son of Sem.9 The posterity of this person rendered
themselves very powerful,10 and before the time of Joseph conquered the lower
Egypt under
5 D'Herbel. Bibl. Orient. 740. 6 Bochart Geogr. Sac. 7 See D'Herbel.
366. 8 Ebn Shohnah
9 Poc. Spec. 57. 10 Kor. c. 15. 11 Abu Musa al Ashari. 12. Vide
Poc. Spec. 37. 1 Abulfeda.
2 A like custom is said to have been i n some manors in England, and also in
Scotland, where it was called "culliage," having been established by K. Ewen,
and abolished by Malcolm III. See Bayle's Dict. Art. Sixte IV., Rem. H.
3 Poc. Spec. 60. 4 Ibid. 37, &c. 5 Ibid. p. 38. 6 Ebn Shohnah.
7 Gen. xxxvi. 12. 8 Vide D'Herbelot, p. 110.
9 Ebn Shohnah 10 Vide Numb. xxiv. 20.
their king Walîd, the first who took the name of Pharaoh, as the eastern
writers tell us;11 seeming by these Amalekites to mean the same people which
the Egyptian histories call Phoenician shepherds.12 But after they had
possessed the throne of Egypt for some descents, they were expelled by the
natives, and at length totally destroyed by the Israelites.13
The present Arabians, according to their own historians, are sprung from
two stocks, Kahtân, the same with Joctan the son of Eber,14 and Adnân
descended in a direct line from Ismael the son of Abraham and Hagar; the
posterity of the former they call al Arab al Ariba,15 i.e., the genuine or
pure Arabs, and those of the latter al Arab al mostáreba, i.e., naturalized or
institious Arabs, though some reckon the ancient lost tribes to have been the
only pure Arabians, and therefore call the posterity of Kahtân also Mótareba,
which word likewise signifies insititious Arabs, though in a nearer degree
than Mostáreba; the descendants of Ismael being the more distant graff.
The posterity of Ismael have no claim to be admitted as pure Arabs, their
ancestor being by origin and language an Hebrew; but having made an alliance
with the Jorhamites, by marrying a daughter of Modad, and accustomed himself
to their manner of living and language, his descendants became blended with
them into one nation. The uncertainty of the descents between Ismael and
Adnân is the reason why they seldom trace their genealogies higher than the
latter, whom they acknowledge as father of their tribes, the descents from him
downwards being pretty certain and uncontroverted.1
The genealogy of these tribes being of great use to illustrate the Arabian
history, I have taken the pains to form a genealogical table from their most
approved authors, to which I refer the curious.
Besides these tribes of Arabs mentioned by their own authors, who were all
descended from the race of Sem, others of them were the posterity of Ham by
his son Cush, which name is in scripture constantly given to the Arabs and
their country, though our version renders it Ethiopia; but strictly speaking,
the Cushites did not inhabit Arabia properly so called, but the banks of the
Euphrates and the Persian Gulf, whither they came form Chuzestân or Susiana,
the original settlement of their father.2 They might probably mix themselves
in process of time with the Arabs of the other race, but the eastern writers
take little or no notice of them.
The Arabians were for some centuries under the government of the
descendants of Kâhtan; Yárab, one of his sons, founding the kingdom of Yaman,
and Jorham, another of them, that of Hejâz.
The province of Yaman, or the better part of it, particularly the provinces
of Saba and Hadramaut, was governed by princes of the tribe of Hamyar, though
at length the kingdom was translated to the descendants of Cahlân, his
brother, who yet retained the title of king of Hamyar, and had all of them the
general title of Tobba, which signifies successor, and was affected to this
race of princes, as that of
11 Mirât Caïnât. 12 Vide Joseph. cont. Apion. l. i. 13 Vide
Exod. xvii. 18, &c.; I Sam. xv. 2, &c.; ibid. xxvii. 8, 9; I Chron. iv. 43.
14 R. Saad. in vers. Arab. Pentat. Gen. x. 25. Some writers make
Kahtân a descendant of Ismael, but against the current of oriental historians.
See Poc. Spec. 39. 15 An expression something like that of St.
Paul, who calls himself "an Hebrew of the Hebrews," Philip. iii. 5.
1 Poc. Spec. p. 40. 2 Vide Hyde Hist. Rel. veter. Persar. p. 37,
&c.
Cæsar was to the Roman emperors, and Khalîf to the successors of Mohammed.
There were several lesser princes who reigned in other parts of Yaman, and
were mostly, if not altogether, subject to the king of Hamyar, whom they
called the great king, but of these history has recorded nothing remarkable or
that may be depended upon.1
The first great calamity that befell the tribes settled in Yaman was the
inundation of Aram, which happened soon after the time of Alexander the Great,
and is famous in the Arabian history. No less than eight tribes were forced
to abandon their dwellings upon this occasion, some of which gave rise to the
two kingdoms of Ghassân and Hira. And this was probably the time of the
migration of those tribes or colonies which were led into Mesopotamia by three
chiefs,Becr, Modar, and Rabîa, from whom the three provinces of that country
are still named Diyar Becr, Diyar Modar, and Diyar Rabîa.2 Abdshems, surnamed
Saba, having built the city from him called Saba, and afterwards Mareb, made a
vast mound, or dam,3 to serve as a basin or reservoir to receive the water
which came down from the mountains, not only for the use of the inhabitants,
and watering their lands, but also to keep the country they had subjected in
greater awe by being masters of the water. This building stood like a
mountain above their city, and was by them esteemed so strong that they were
in no apprehension of its ever failing. The water rose to the height of
almost twenty fathoms, and was kept in on every side by a work so solid, that
many of the inhabitants had their houses built upon it. Every family had a
certain portion of this water, distributed by aqueducts. But at length, GOD,
being highly displeased at their great pride and insolence, and resolving to
humble and disperse them, sent a mighty flood, which broke down the mound by
night while the inhabitants were asleep, and carried away the whole city, with
the neighbouring towns and people.4
The tribes which remained in Yaman after this terrible devastation still
continued under the obedience of the former princes, till about seventy years
before Mohammed, when the king of Ethiopia sent over forces to assist the
Christians of Yaman against the cruel persecution of their king, Dhu Nowâs, a
bigoted Jew, whom they drove to that extremity that he forced his horse into
the sea, and so lost his life and crown,5 after which the country was governed
by four Ethiopian princes successively, till Selif, the son of Dhu Yazan, of
the tribe of Hamyar, obtaining succours from Khosrû Anushirwân, king of
Persia, which had been denied him by the emperor Heraclius, recovered the
throne and drove out the Ethiopians, but was himself slain by some of them who
were left behind. The Persians appointed the succeeding princes till Yaman
fell into the hands of Mohammed, to whom Bazan, or rather Badhân, the last of
them, submitted, and embraced this new religion.1
This kingdom of the Hammyarites is said to have lasted 2,020 years,2 or as
others say above 3,000;3 the length of the reign of each prince being very
uncertain.
It has been already observed that two kingdoms were founded by those who
left their country on occasion of the inundation of Aram:
1 Poc. Spec. p. 65, 66. 2 Vide Gol. ad Alfrag. p. 232. 3
Poc. Spec. p. 57. 4 Geogr. Nubiens. p. 52.
5 See Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, p. 61. 1 Poc. Spec. p. 63, 64. 2
Abulfeda. 3 Al Jannâbi and Ahmed Ebn Yusef.
they were both out of the proper limits of Arabia. One of them was the
kingdom of Ghassân. The founders of this kingdom were of the tribe of Azd,
who, settling in Syria Damascena near a water called Ghassân, thence took
their name, and drove out (the Dajaamian Arabs of the tribe of Salîh, who
before possessed the country;4 where they maintained their kingdom 400 years,
as others say 600, or as Abulfeda more exactly computes, 616. Five of these
princes were named Hâreth, which the Greeks write Aretas: and one of them it
was whose governor ordered the gates of Damascus to be watched to take St.
Paul.5 This tribe were Christians, their last king being Jabalah the son of
al Ayham, who on the Arabs' successes in Syria professed Mohammedism under the
Khalîf Omar; but receiving a disgust from him, returned to his former faith,
and retired to Constantinople.6
The other kingdom was that of Hira, which was founded by Malec, of the
descendants of Cahlân7 in Chaldea or Irâk; but after three descents the throne
came by marriage to the Lakhmians, called also the Mondars (the general name
of those princes), who preserved their dominion, notwithstanding some small
interruption by the Persians, till the Khalîfat of Abubecr, when al Mondar al
Maghrûr, the last of them, lost his life and crown by the arms of Khaled Ebn
al Walîd. This kingdom lasted 622 years eight months.8 Its princes were
under the protection of the kings of Persia, whose lieutenants they were over
the Arabs of Irâk, as the kings of Ghassân were for the Roman emperors over
those of Syria.9
Jorham the son of Kahtân reigned in Hejâz, where his posterity kept the
throne till the time of Ismael; but on his marrying the daughter of Modad, by
whom he had twelve sons, Kidar, one of them, had the crown resigned to him by
his uncles the Jorhamites,1 though others say the descendants of Ismael
expelled that tribe, who retiring to Johainah, were, after various fortune, at
last all destroyed by an inundation.2
Of the kings of Hamyar, Hira, Ghassân, and Jorham, Dr. Pocock has given us
catalogues tolerably exact, to which I refer the curious.3
After the expulsion of the Jorhamites, the government of Hejâz seems not to
have continued for many centuries in the hands of one prince, but to have been
divided among the heads of tribes, almost in the same manner as the Arabs of
the desert are governed at this day. At Mecca an aristocracy prevailed, where
the chief management of affairs till the time of Mohammed was in the tribe of
Koreish, especially after they had gotten the custody of the Caaba from the
tribe of Khozâah.4
Besides the kingdoms which have been taken notice of, there were some other
tribes which in latter times had princes of their own, and formed states of
lesser note, particularly the tribe of Kenda:5 but as I am not writing a just
history of the Arabs, and an account of them would be of no great use ot my
present purpose, I shall waive any further mention of them.
After the time of Mohammed, Arabia was for about three centuries under the
Khalîfs his successors. But in the year 325 of the Hejra,
4 Poc. Spec. p. 76. 5 2 Cor. xi. 32; Acts ix. 24. 6 Vide Ockley's
History of the Saracens, vol. i. p. 174. 7 Poc. Spec. p. 66.
8 Ibid. p. 74. 9 Ibid. and Procop. in Pers. apud Photium. p. 71, &c.
1 Poc. Spec. p. 45. 2 Ibid. p. 79.
3 Ibid. p. 55, seq. 4 Vide ibid. p. 41, and Prideaux's Life of Mahomet,
p. 2. 5 Vide Poc. Spec. p. 79, &c.
great part of that country was in the hands of the Karmatians,6 a new sect who
had committed great outrages and disorders even in Mecca, and to whom the
Khalîfs were obliged to pay tribute, that the pilgrimage thither might be
performed: of this sect I may have occasion to speak in another place.
Afterwards Yaman was governed by the house of Thabateba, descended from Ali
the son-in-law of Mohammed, whose sovereignty in Arabia some place so high as
the time of Charlemagne. However, it was the posterity of Ali, or pretenders
to be such, who reigned in Yaman and Egypt so early as the tenth century. The
present reigning family in Yaman is probably that of Ayub, a branch of which
reigned there in the thirteenth century, and took the title of Khalîf and
Imâm, which they still retain.7 They are not possessed of the whole province
of Yaman,8 there being several other independent kingdoms there, particularly
that of Fartach. The crown of Yaman descends not regularly from father to
son, but the prince of the blood royal who is most in favour with the great
ones, or has the strongest interest, generally succeeds.9
The governors of Mecca and Medina, who have always been of the race of
Mohammed, also threw off their subjection to the Khalîfs, since which time
four principal families, all descended from Hassan the son of Ali, have
reigned there under the title of Sharîf, which signifies noble, as they reckon
themselves to be on account of their descent. These are Banu Kâder, Banu Mûsa
Thani, Banu Hashem, and Banu Kitâda;1 which last family now is, or lately was,
in the throne of Mecca, where they have reigned above 500 years. The reigning
family at Medina are the Banu Hashem, who also reigned at Mecca before those
of Kitâda.2
The kings of Yaman, as well as the princes of Mecca and Medina, are
alsolutely independent3 and not at all subject to the Turk, as some late
authors have imagined.4 These princes often making cruel wars among
themselves, gave an opportunity to Selim I. and his son Solimân, to make
themselves masters of the coasts of Arabia on the Red Sea, and of part of
Yaman, by means of a fleet built at Sues: but their successors have not been
able to maintain their conquests; for, except the port of Jodda, where they
have a Basha whose authority is very small, they possess nothing considerable
in Arabia.5
Thus have the Arabs preserved their liberty, of which few nations can
produce so ancient monuments, with very little interruption, from the very
Deluge; for though very great armies have been sent against them, all attempts
to subdue them were unsuccessful. The Assyrian or Median empires never got
footing among them.6 The Persian monarchs, though they were their friends,
and so far respected by them as to have an annual present of frankincense,7
yet could never make them tributary;8 and were so far from being their
masters, that Cambyses, on his expedition against Egypt, was obliged to ask
their leave to pass through their territories;9 and when Alexander had subdued
that mighty empire, yet the Arabians had so little apprehension of him, that
they alone, of
6 Vide Elmacin. in vita al Râdi. 7 Voyage de l-Arab. heur. p. 255.
8 Ibid. 153, 273. 9 Ibid. 254. 1 Ibid. 143. 2
Ibid. 145. 3 Ibid. 143, 148. 4 Vide D'Herbel. Bibl. Orient. p.
477. 5 Voy. de l'Arab. heur. p. 148. 6 Diodor. Sic. 1. 2, p. 131.
7 Herodot. 1 3, c. 97. 8 Idem ib. c. 91. Diodor. ubi sup.
9 Herodot. 1. 3, c. 8 and 98.
all the neighbouring nations, sent no ambassadors to him, either first or
last; which, with a desire of possessing so rich a country, made him form a
design against it, and had he not died before he could put it in execution,10
this people might possibly have convinced him that he was not invincible: and
I do not find that any of his successors, either in Asia or Egypt, ever made
any attempt against them.1 The Romans never conquered any part of Arabia
properly so called; the most they did was to make some tribes in Syria
tributary to them, as Pompey did one commanded by Sampsiceramus or
Shams'alkerâm, who reigned at Hems or Emesa;2 but none of the Romans, or any
other nations that we know of, ever penetrated so far into Arabia as Ælius
Gallus under Augustus Cæsar;3 yet he was so far from subduing it, as some
authors pretend,4 that he was soon obliged to return without effecting
anything considerable, having lost the best part of his army by sickness and
other accidents.5 This ill success probably discouraged the Romans from
attacking them any more; for Trajan, notwithstanding the flatteries of the
historians and orators of his time, and the medals struck by him, did not
subdue the Arabs; the province of Arabia, which it is said he added to the
Roman empire, scarce reaching farther than Arabia Petræa, or the very skirts
of the country. And we are told by one author,6 that this prince, marching
against the Agarens who had revolted, met with such a reception that he was
obliged to return without doing anything.
The religion of the Arabs before Mohammed, which they call the state of
ignorance, in opposition to the knowledge of GOD'S true worship revealed to
them by their prophet, was chiefly gross idolatry; the Sabian religion having
almost overrun the whole nation, though there were also great numbers of
Christians, Jews, and Magians among them.
I shall not here transcribe what Dr. Prideaux7 has written of the original
of the Sabian religion; but instead thereof insert a brief account of the
tenets and worship of that sect. They do not only believe one GOD, but
produce many strong arguments for His unity, though they also pay an adoration
to the stars, or the angels and intelligences which they suppose reside in
them, and govern the world under the Supreme Deity. They endeavour to perfect
themselves in the four intellectual virtues, and believe the souls of the
wicked men will be punished for nine thousand ages, but will afterwards be
received to mercy. They are obliged to pray three times8 a day; the first,
half an hour or less before sunrise, ordering it so that they may, just as the
sun rises, finish eight adorations, each containing three prostrations;9 the
second prayer they end at noon, when the sun begins to decline, in saying
which they perform five such adorations as the former: and in the same they do
the third time, ending just as the sun sets. They fast three times a year,
the first time thirty days, the next nine days, and the last seven. They
offer many sacrifices, but eat no part of them, burning them all. They
abstain from beans, garlic, and some other pulse and vegetables.1 As
10 Strabo, l. 16, p. 1076, 1132. 1 Vide Diodor. Sic. ubi
supra. 2 Strabo, l. 16, p. 1092. 3 Dion Cassius, l. 53, p. m.
516 4 Huet, Hist. du Commerce et de la Navigation des Anciens, c. 50.
5 See the whole expedition described at large by Strabo, l. 16,
p. 1126, &c. 6 Xiphilin. epit. 7 Connect. of the Hist.
of the Old and New Test. p. 1, bk. 3. 8 Some say seven. See
D'Herbelot, p. 726, and Hyde de Rel. Vet. Pers. p. 128
9 Others say they use no incurvations or prostrations at all; vide Hyde ibid.
1 Abulfarag, Hist. Dynast. p. 281, &c.
to the Sabian Kebla, or part to which they turn their faces in praying,
authors greatly differ; one will have it to be the north,2 another the south,
a third Mecca, and a fourth the star to which they pay their devotions:3 and
perhaps there may be some variety in their practice in this respect. They go
on pilgrimage to a place near the city of Harran in Mesopotamia, where great
numbers of them dwell, and they have also a great respect for the temple of
Mecca, and the pyramids of Egypt;4 fancying these last to be the sepulchres of
Seth, and of Enoch and Sabi his two sons, whom they look on as the first
propagators of their religion; at these structures they sacrifice a cock and a
black calf, and offer up incense.5 Besides the book of Psalms, the only true
scripture they read, they have other books which they esteem equally sacred,
particularly one in the Chaldee tongue which they call the book of Seth, and
is full of moral discourses. This sect say they took the name of Sabians from
the above-mentioned Sabi, though it seems rather to be derived from Saba,6 or
the host of heaven, which they worship.7 Travellers commonly call them
Christians of St. John the Baptist, whose disciples also they pretend to be,
using a kind of baptism, which is the greatest mark they bear of Christianity.
This is one of the religions, the practice of which Mohammed tolerated (on
paying tribute), and the professors of it are often included in that
expression of the Korân, "those to whom the scriptures have been given," or
literally, the people of the book.
The idolatry of the Arabs then, as Sabians, chiefly consisted in
worshipping the fixed stars and planets, and the angels and their images,
which they honoured as inferior deities, and whose intercession they begged,
as their mediators with GOD. For the Arabs acknowledged one supreme GOD, the
Creator and LORD of the universe, whom they called Allah Taâla, the most high
GOD; and their other deities, who were subordinate to him, they called simply
al Ilahât, i.e., the goddesses; which words the Grecians not understanding,
and it being their constant custom to resolve the religion of every other
nation into their own, and find out gods of their to match the others', they
pretend that the Arabs worshipped only two deities, Orotalt and Alilat, as
those names are corruptly written, whom they will have to be the same with
Bacchus and Urania; pitching on the former as one of the greatest of their own
gods, and educated in Arabia, and on the other, because of the veneration
shown by the Arabs to the stars.1
That they acknowledged one supreme GOD, appears, to omit other proof, from
their usual form of addressing themselves to him, which was this, "I dedicate
myself to thy service, O GOD! Thou hast no companion, except thy companion of
whom thou art absolute master, and of whatever is his."2 So that they
supposed the idols not to be sui juris, though they offered sacrifices and
other offerings to them, as well as to GOD, who was also often put off with
the least portion, as Mohammed upbraids them. Thus when they planted fruit
trees, or sowed a field, they divided it by a line into two parts, setting one
apart
2 Idem ibid. 3 Hyde ubi supr. p. 124, &c. 4 D'Herbel. ubi
supr. 5 See Greaves' Pyramidogr. p. 6, 7. 6 Vide Poc. Spec. p.
138. 7 Thabet Ebn Korrah, a famous astronomer, and himself a Sabian,
wrote a treatise in Syriac concerning the doctrines, rites, and ceremonies of
this sect; from which, if it could be recovered, we might expect much better
information than any taken from the Arabian writers; vide Abulfarag, ubi sup.
1 Vide Herodot. 1. 3, c. 8; Arrian, p. 161, 162, and Strab. l. 16.
2 Al Shahrestani.
for their idols, and the other for GOD; if any of the fruits happened to fall
from the idol's part into GOD'S, they made restitution; but if from GOD'S part
into the idol's, they made no restitution. So when they watered the idol's
grounds, if the water broke over the channels made for that purpose, and ran
on GOD'S part, they damned it up again; but if the contrary, they let it run
on, saying, they wanted what was GOD'S, but he wanted nothing.3 In the same
manner, if the offering designed for GOD happened to be better than that
designed for the idol, they made an exchange, but not otherwise.4
It was from this gross idolatry, or the worship of inferior deities, or
companions of GOD, as the Arabs continue to call them, that Mohammed reclaimed
his countrymen, establishing the sole worship of the true GOD among them; so
that how much soever the Mohammedans are to blame in other points, they are
far from being idolaters, as some ignorant writers have pretended.
The worship of the stars the Arabs might easily be led into, from their
observing the changes of weather to happen at the rising and setting of
certain of them,5 which after a long course of experience induced them to
ascribe a divine power to those stars, and to think themselves indebted to
them for their rains, a very great benefit and refreshment to their parched
country: this superstition the Korân particularly takes notice of.1
The ancient Arabians and Indians, between which two nations was a great
conformity of religions, had seven celebrated temples, dedicated to the seven
planets; one of which in particular, called Beit Ghomdân, was built in Sanaa,
the metropolis of Yaman, by Dahac, to the honour of al Zoharah or the planet
Venus, and was demolished by the Khalîf Othman;2 by whose murder was fulfilled
the prophetical inscription set, as is reported, over this temple, viz.,
"Ghomdân, he who destroyeth thee shall be slain.3 The temple of Mecca is also
said to have been consecrated to Zohal, or Saturn.4
Though these deities were generally reverenced by the whole nation, yet
each tribe chose some one as the more peculiar object of their worship.
Thus as to the stars and planets, the tribe of Hamyar chiefly worshipped
the sun; Misam,5 al Debarân, or the Bull's-eye; Lakhm and Jodâm, al Moshtari,
or Jupiter; Tay, Sohail, or Canopus; Kais, Sirius, or the Dog-star; and Asad,
Otâred, or Mercury.6 Among the worshippers of Sirius, one Abu Cabsha was very
famous; some will have him to be the same with Waheb, Mohammed's grandfather
by the mother, but others say he was of the tribe of Khozâah. This man used
his utmost endeavours to persuade the Koreish to leave their images and
worship this star; for which reason Mohammed, who endeavoured also to make
them leave their images, was by them nicknamed the son of Abu Cabsha.7 The
worship of this star is particularly hinted at in the Korân.8
Of the angels or intelligences which they worshipped, the Korân,9 makes
mention only of three, which were worshipped under female names;10 Allat, al
Uzza, and Manah. These were by them called
3 Nodhm al dorr. 4 Al Beidâwi. 5 Vide Post. 1
Vide Poc. Spec. p. 163. 2 Shahrestani. 3 Al Jannâbi.
4 Shahrestani. 5 This name seems to be corrupted, there being no
such among the Arab tribes. Poc. Spec. p. 130. 6 Abulfarag, p. 160.
7 Poc. Spec. p. 132. 8 Cap. 53.
9 Ibid. 10 Ibid.
goddesses, and the daughters of GOD; an appellation they gave not only to the
angels, but also to their images, which they either believed to be inspired
with life by GOD, or else to become the tabernacles of the angels, and to be
animated by them; and they gave them divine worship, because they imagined
they interceded for them with GOD.
Allât was the idol of the tribe of Thakîf who dwelt at Tayef, and had a
temple consecrated to her in a place called Nakhlah. This idol al Mogheirah
destroyed by Mohammed's order, who sent him and Abu Sofiân on that commission
in the ninth year of the Hejra.1 The inhabitants of Tayef, especially the
women, bitterly lamented the loss of this their deity, which they were so fond
of, that they begged of Mohammed as a condition of peace, that it might not be
destroyed for three years, and not obtaining that, asked only a month's
respite; but he absolutely denied it.2 There are several derivations of this
word which the curious may learn from Dr. Pocock:3 it seems most probably to
be derived from the same root with Allah, to which it may be a feminine, and
will then signify the goddess.
Al Uzza, as some affirm, was the idol of the tribes of Koreish and
Kenânah,4 and part of the tribe of Salim:5 others6 tell us it was a tree called
the Egyptian thorn, or acacia, worshipped by the tribe of Ghatfân, first
consecrated by one Dhâlem, who built a chapel over it, called Boss, so
contrived as to give a sound when any person entered. Khâled Ebn Walîd being
sent by Mohammed in the eighth year of the Hejra to destroy this idol,
demolished the chapel, and cutting down this tree or image, burnt it: he also
slew the priestess, who ran out with her hair dishevelled, and her hands on
her head as a suppliant. Yet the author who relates this, in another place
says, the chapel was pulled down, and Dhâlem himself killed by one Zohair,
because he consecrated this chapel with design to draw the pilgrims thither
from Mecca, and lessen the reputation of the Caaba. The name of this deity is
derived from the root azza, and signifies the most mighty.
Manah was the object of worship of the tribes of Hodhail and Khazâah,7 who
dwelt between Mecca and Medina, and, as some say,8 of the tribes of Aws,
Khazraj, and Thakîf also. This idol was a large stone,9 demolished by one
Saad, in the eighth year of the Hejra, a year so fatal to the idols of Arabia.
The name seems derived from mana, to flow, from the flowing of the blood of
the victims sacrificed to the deity; whence the valley of Mina,10 near Mecca,
had also its name, where the pilgrims at this day slay their sacrifices.1
Before we proceed to the other idols, let us take notice of five more,
which with the former three are all the Korân mentions by name, and they are
Wadd, Sawâ, Yaghûth, Yäûk, and Nasr. These are said to have been antediluvian
idols, which Noah preached against, and were afterwards taken by the Arabs for
gods, having been men of great merit and piety in their time, whose statues
they reverenced at first with a
1 Dr. Prideaux mentions this expedition, but names only Abu Sofiân, and
mistaking the name of the idol for an appellative, supposes he went only to
disarm the Tayefians of their weapons and instruments of war. See his Life of
Mahomet, p. 98.
2 Abulfeda, Vit Moham. p. 127 3 Spec. p. 90 4 Al
Jauhari, apud eund. p. 91. 5 Al Shahrestani, ibid. 6 Al
Firauzabâdi, ibid. 7 Al Jauhari. 8 Al Shahrestani, Abulfeda,
&c. 9 Al Beidâwi, al Zamakhshari. 10 Poc. Spec. 91, &c. 1 Ibid.
civil honour only, which in process of time became heightened to a divine
worship.2
Wadd was supposed to be the heaven, and was worshipped under the form of a
man by the tribe of Calb in Daumat al Jandal.3
Sawâ was adored under the shape of a woman by the tribe of Hamadan, or, as
others4 write, of Hodhail in Rohat. This idol lying under water for some time
after the Deluge, was at length, it is said, discovered by the devil, and was
worshipped by those of Hodhail, who instituted pilgrimages to it.5
Yaghûth was an idol in the shape of a lion, and was the deity of the tribe
of Madhaj and others who dwelt in Yaman.6 Its name seems to be derived from
ghatha, which signifies to help.
Yäûk was worshipped by the tribe of Morâd, or, according to others, by that
of Hamadan,7 under the figure of a horse. It is said he was a man of great
piety, and his death much regretted; whereupon the devil appeared to his
friends in a human form, and undertaking to represent him to the life,
persuaded them, by way of comfort, to place his effigies in their temples,
that they might have it in view when at their devotions. This was done, and
seven others of extraordinary merit had the same honours shown them, till at
length their posterity made idols of them in earnest.8 The name Yäûk probably
comes from the verb âka, to prevent or avert.9
Nasr was a deity adored by the tribe of Hamyar, or at Dhû'l Khalaah in
their territories, under the image of an eagle, which the name signifies.
There are, or were, two statues at Bamiyân, a city of Cabul in the Indies,
50 cubits high, which some writers suppose to be the same with Yaghûth and
Yäûk, or else with Manah and Allât; and they also speak of a third standing
near the others, but something less, in the shape of an old woman, called
Nesrem or Nesr. These statues were hollow within, for the secret giving of
oracles;10 but they seem to have been different from the Arabian idols. There
was also an idol at Sûmenat in the Indies, called Lât or al Lât, whose statue
was 50 fathoms high, of a single stone, and placed in the midst of a temple
supported by 56 pillars of massy gold: this idol Mahmûd Ebn Sebecteghin, who
conquered that part of India, broke to pieces with his own hands.1
Besides the idols we have mentioned, the Arabs also worshipped great
numbers of others, which would take up too much time to have distinct accounts
given of them; and not being named in the Korân, are not so much to our
present purpose: for besides that every housekeeper had his household god or
gods, which he last took leave of and first saluted at his going abroad and
returning home,2 there were no less than 360 idols,3 equalling in number the
days of their year, in and about the Caaba of Mecca; the chief of whom was
Hobal,4 brought from Belka in Syria into Arabia by Amru Ebn Lohai, pretending
it would procure them rain when they wanted it.5 It was the statue of a man,
made of agate, which having by some accident lost a hand, the
2 Kor. c. 71. Comment. Persic. Vide Hyde de Rel. Vet. Pers. p. 133.
3 Al Jauhari, al Sharestani. 4 Idem, al Firauzabâdi, and
Safio'ddin. 5 Al Firauzab. 6 Shahrestani. 7 Al
Jauhari.
8 Al Firauzab. 9 Poc. Spec. 94. 10 See Hyde de Rel. Vet.
Pers. p. 132. 1 D'Herbelot, Bibl. Orient. p. 512. 2 Al
Mostatraf. 3 Al Jannâb. 4 Abulfed, Shahrest. &c.
5 Poc. Spec. 95.
Koreish repaired it with one of gold: he held in his hand seven arrows without
heads or feathers, such as the Arabs used in divination.6 This idol is
supposed to have been the same with the image of Abraham,7 found and destroyed
by Mohammed in the Caaba, on his entering it, in the eighth year of the Hejra,
when he took Mecca,8 and surrounded with a great number of angels and
prophets, as inferior deities; among whom, as some say, was Ismael, with
divining arrows in his hand also.9
Asâf and Nayelah, the former the image of a man, the latter of a woman,
were also two idols brought with Hobal from Syria, and placed the one on Mount
Safâ, and the other on Mount Merwa. They tell us Asâf was the son of Amru,
and Nayelah the daughter of Sahâl, both of the tribe of Jorham, who committing
whoredom together in the Caaba, were by GOD converted into stone,10 and
afterwards worshipped by the Koreish, and so much reverenced by them, that
though this superstition was condemned by Mohammed, yet he was forced to allow
them to visit those mountains as monuments of divine justice.11
I shall mention but one idol more of this nation, and that was a lump of
dough worshipped by the tribe of Hanîfa, who used it with more respect than
the Papists do theirs, presuming not to eat it till they were compelled to it
by famine.12
Several of their idols, as Manah in particular, were no more than large
rude stones, the worship of which the posterity of Ismael first introduced;
for as they multiplied, and the territory of Mecca grew too strait for them,
great numbers were obliged to seek new abodes; and on such migrations it was
usual for them to take with them some of the stones of that reputed holy land,
and set them up in the places where they fixed; and these stones they at first
only compassed out of devotion, as they had accustomed to do the Caaba. But
this at last ended in rank idolatry, the Ismaelites forgetting the religion
left them by their father so far as to pay divine worship to any fine stone
they met with.1
Some of the pagan Arabs believed neither a creation past, nor a
resurrection to come, attributing the origin of things to nature, and their
dissolution to age. Others believed both, among whom were those who, when
they died, had their camel tied by their sepulchre, and so left, without meat
or drink, to perish, and accompany them to the other world, lest they should
be obliged, at the resurrection, to go on foot, which was reckoned very
scandalous.2 Some believed a metem-psychosis, and that of the blood near the
dead person's brain was formed a bird named Hâmah, which once in a hundred
years visited the sepulchre; though others say this bird is animated by the
soul of him that is unjustly slain, and continually cries, Oscûni, Oscûni,
i.e., "give me to drink"-meaning of the murderer's blood-till his death be
revenged, and then it flies away. This was forbidden by the Korân to be
believed.3
I might here mention several superstitious rites and customs of the ancient
Arabs, some of which were abolished and others retained by Mohammed; but I
apprehend it will be more convenient to take notice
6 Safio'ddin. 7 Poc. Spec. 97. 8 Abulfeda. 9 Ebn
al Athir. al Jannab. &c.
10 Poc. Spec. 98. 11 Kor. c. 2. 12 Al Mostatraf, al
Jauhari. 1 Al Mostatraf, al Jannâbi.
2 Abulfarag, p. 160. 3 Vide Poc. Spec. p. 135.
of them, hereafter occasionally, as the negative or positive precepts of the
Korân, forbidding or allowing such practices, shall be considered.
Let us now turn our view from the idolatrous Arabs, to those among them who
had embraced more rational religions.
The Persians had, by their vicinity and frequent intercourse with the
Arabians, introduced the Magian religion among some of their tribes,
particularly that of Tamim,4 a long time before Mohammed, who was so far from
being unacquainted with that religion, that he borrowed many of his own
institutions from it, as will be observed in the progress of this work. I
refer those who are desirous to have some notion of Magism, to Dr. Hyde's
curious account of it,5 a succinct abridgment of which may be read with much
pleasure in another learned performance.6
The Jews, who fled in great numbers into Arabia from the fearful
destruction of their country by the Romans, made proselytes of several tribes,
those of Kenânah, al Hareth Ebn Caaba, and Kendah1 in particular, and in time
became very powerful, and possessed of several towns and fortresses there.
But the Jewish religion was not unknown to the Arabs, at least above a century
before; Abu Carb Asad, taken notice of in the Korân,2 who was king of Yaman,
about 700 years before Mohammed, is said to have introduced Judaism among the
idolatrous Hamyarites. Some of his successors also embraced the same
religion, one of whom, Yusef, surnamed Dhu Nowâs,3 was remarkable for his zeal
and terrible persecution of all who would not turn Jews, putting them to death
by various tortures, the most common of which was throwing them into a glowing
pit of fire, whence he had the opprobrious appellation of the Lord of the Pit.
This persecution is also mentioned in the Korân.4
Christianity had likewise made a very great progress among this nation
before Mohammed. Whether St. Paul preached in any part of Arabia, properly so
called,5 is uncertain; but the persecutions and disorders which happened in
the eastern church soon after the beginning of the third century, obliged
great numbers of Christians to seek for shelter in that country of liberty,
who, being for the most part of the Jacobite communion, that sect generally
prevailed among the Arabs.6 The principal tribes that embraced Christianity
were Hamyar, Ghassân, Rabiâ, Taghlab, Bahrâ, Tonûch,7 part of the tribes of
Tay and Kodâa, the inhabitants of Najrân, and the Arabs of Hira.8 As to the
two last, it may be observed that those of Najrân became Christians in the
time of Dhu Nowâs,9 and very probably, if the story be true, were some of
those who were converted on the following occasion, which happened about that
time, or not long before. The Jews of Hamyar challenged some neighbouring
Christians to a public disputation, which was held sub dio for three days
before the king and his nobility and all the people, the disputants being
Gregentius, bishop of Tephra (which I take to be Dhafâr) for the Christians,
and Herbanus for the Jews. On the third day, Herbanus, to end the dispute,
de-
4 Al Mostatraf. 5 In his Hist. Relig. Vet. Persar. 6 Dr.
Prideaux's Connect. of the Hist. of the Old and New Test. part i. book 4.
1 Al Mostatraf. 2 Chap. 50. 3 See before, p. 8, and
Baronii annal. ad sec. vi. 4 Chap. 85. 5 See Galat. i.
17. 6 Abulfarag, p. 149. 7 Al Mostatraf. 8 Vide Poc. Spec.
p. 137. 9 Al Jannab, apud Poc. Spec. p. 63.
manded that Jesus of Nazareth, if he were really living and in heaven, and
could hear the prayers of his worshippers, should appear from heaven in their
sight, and they would then believe in him; the Jews crying out with one voice,
"Show us your Christ, alas! and we will become Christians." Whereupon, after
a terrible storm of thunder and lightning, Jesus Christ appeared in the air,
surrounded with rays of glory, walking on a purple cloud, having a sword in
his hand, and an inestimable diadem on his head, and spake these words over
the heads of the assembly: "Behold I appear to you in your sight, I, who was
crucified by your fathers." After which the cloud received him from their
sight. The Christians cried out, "Kyrie eleeson," i.e., "Lord, have mercy
upon us;" but the Jews were stricken blind, and recovered not till they were
all baptized.1
The Christians at Hira received a great accession by several tribes, who
fled thither for refuge from the persecution of Dhu Nowâs. Al Nooman,
surnamed Abu Kabûs, king of Hira, who was slain a few months before Mohammed's
birth, professed himself a Christian on the following occasion. This prince,
in a drunken fit, ordered two of his intimate companions, who overcame with
liquor had fallen asleep, to be buried alive. When he came to himself, he was
extremely concerned at what he had done, and to expiate his crime, not only
raised a monument to the memory of his friends, but set apart two days, one of
which he called the unfortunate, and the other the fortunate day; making it a
perpetual rule to himself, that whoever met him on the former day should be
slain, and his blood sprinkled on the monument, but he that met him on the
other day should be dismissed in safety, with magnificent gifts. On one of
those unfortunate days there came before him accidentally an Arab, of the
tribe of Tay, who had once entertained this king, when fatigued with hunting,
and separated from his attendants. The king, who could neither discharge him,
contrary to the order of the day, nor put him to death, against the laws of
hospitality, which the Arabians religiously observe, proposed, as an
expedient, to give the unhappy man a year's respite, and to send him home with
rich gifts for the support of his family, on condition that he found a surety
for his returning at the year's end to suffer death. One of the prince's
court, out of compassion, offered himself as his surety, and the Arab was
discharged. When the last day of the term came, and no news of the Arab, the
king, not at all displeased to save his host's life, ordered the surety to
prepare himself to die. Those who were by represented to the king that the
day was not yet expired, and therefore he ought to have patience till the
evening: but in the middle of their discourse the Arab appeared. The king,
admiring the man's generosity, in offering himself to certain death, which he
might have avoided by letting his surety suffer, asked him what was his motive
for his so doing? to which he answered, that he had been taught to act in that
manner by the religion he professed; and al Nooman demanding what religion
that was, he replied, the Christian. Whereupon the king desiring to have the
doctrines of Christianity explained to him, was baptized, he and his subjects;
and not only pardoned the man and his surety, but
1 Vide Gregentii disput. cum Herbano Judæo.
abolished his barbarous custom.1 This prince, however, was not the first
king of Hira who embraced Christianity; al Mondar, his grandfather, having
also professed the same faith, and built large churches in his capital.2
Since Christianity had made so great a progress in Arabia, we may
consequently suppose they had bishops in several parts, for the more orderly
governing of the churches. A bishop of Dhafâr has been already named, and we
are told that Najrân was also a bishop's see.3 The Jacobites (of which sect
we have observed the Arabs generally were) had two bishops of the Arabs
subject to their Mafriân, or metropolitan of the east; one was called the
bishop of the Arabs absolutely, whose seat was for the most part at Akula,
which some others make the same with Cûfa,4 others a different town near
Baghdâd.5 The other had the title of bishop of the Scenite Arabs, of the
tribe of Thaalab in Hira, or Hirta, as the Syrians call it, whose seat was in
that city. The Nestorians ahd but one bishop, who presided over both these
dioceses of Hira and Akula, and was immediately subject to their patriarch.6
These were the principal religions which obtained among the ancient Arabs;
but as freedom of thought was the natural consequence of their political
liberty and independence, some of them fell into other different opinions.
The Koreish, in particular, were infected with Zendicism,7 an error supposed
to have very near affinity with that of the Sadducees among the Jews, and,
perhaps, not greatly different from Deism; for there were several of that
tribe, even before the time of Mohammed, who worshipped one GOD, and were free
from idolatry,8 and yet embraced none of the other religions of the country.
The Arabians before Mohammed were, as they yet are, divided into two sorts,
those who dwell in cities and towns, and those who dwell in tents. The former
lived by tillage, the cultivation of palm trees, breeding and feeding of
cattle, and the exercise of all sorts of trades,1 particularly merchandising,2
wherein they were very eminent, even in the time of Jacob. The tribe of
Koreish were much addicted to commerce, and Mohammed, in his younger years,
was brought up to the same business; it being customary for the Arabians to
exercise the same trade that their parents did.3 The Arabs who dwelt in
tents, employed themselves in pasturage, and sometimes in pillaging of
passengers; they lived chiefly on the milk and flesh of camels; they often
changed their habitations, as the convenience of water and of pasture for
their cattle invited them, staying in a place no longer than that lasted, and
then removing in search of other.4 They generally wintered in Irâk and the
confines of Syria. This way of life is what the greater part of Ismael's
posterity have used, as more agreeable to the temper and way of life of their
father; and is so well described by a late author,5 that I cannot do better
than refer the reader to his account of them.
1 Al Meidani and Ahmed Ebn Yusef, apud Poc. Spec. p. 72. 2
Abulfeda ap. eund. p. 74. 3 Safio'ddin apud Poc. Spec. p. 137.
4 Abulfarag in Chron. Syriac, MS. 5 Abulfeda in descr. Iracæ.
6 Vide Assemani Bibl. Orient. T. 2. in Dissert. de Monophysitis, and p.
459. 7 Al Mostatraf, apud Poc. Spec. p. 136.
8 Vide Reland. de Relig. Moham. p. 270, and Millium de Mohammedismo ante
Moham. p. 311. 1 These seem to be the same whom M. La Roque calls
Moors. Voy. dans la Palestine, p 110. 2 See Prideaux's Life of
Mahomet, p. 6. 3 Strabo, l. 16, p. 1129. 4 Idem ibid. p.
1084. 5 La Roque, Voy. dans la Palestine, p. 109, &c.
The Arabic language is undoubtedly one of the most ancient in the world,
and arose soon after, if not at, the confusion of Babel. There were several
dialects of it, very different from each other: the most remarkable were that
spoken by the tribes of Hammyar and the other genuine Arabs, and that of the
Koreish. The Hamyaritic seems to have approached nearer ot the purity of the
Syriac, than the dialect of any other tribe; for the Arabs acknowledge their
father Yarab to have been the first whose tongue deviated from the Syriac
(which was his mother tongue, and is almost generally acknowledged by the
Asiatics to be the most ancient) to the Arabic. The dialect of the Koreish is
usually termed the pure Arabic, or, as the Korân, which is written in this
dialect, calls it, the perspicuous and clear Arabic; perhaps, says Dr. Pocock,
because Ismael, their father, brought the Arabic he had learned of the
Jorhamites nearer to the original Hebrew. But the politeness and elegance of
the dialect of the Koreish, is rather to be attributed to their having the
custody of the Caaba, and dwelling in Mecca, the centre of Arabia, as well
more remote from intercourse with foreigners, who might corrupt their
language, as frequented by the Arabs from the country all around, not only on
a religious account, but also for the composing of their differences, from
whose discourse and verses they took whatever words or phrases they judged
more pure and elegant; by which means the beauties of the whole tongue became
transfused into this dialect. The Arabians are full of the commendations of
their language, and not altogether without reason; for it claims the
preference of most others in many respects, as being very harmonious and
expressive, and withal so copious, that they say no man without inspiration
can be a perfect master of it in its utmost extent; and yet they tell us, at
the same time, that the greatest part of it has been lost; which will not be
thought strange, if we consider how late the art of writing was practised
among them. For though it was known to Job,1 their countryman, and also the
Hamyarites (who used a perplexed character called al Mosnad, wherein the
letters were not distinctly separate, and which was neither publicly taught,
nor suffered to be used without permission first obtained) many centuries
before Mohammed, as appears from some ancient monuments, said to be remaining
in their character; yet the other Arabs, and those of Mecca in particular,
were, for many ages, perfectly ignorant of it, unless such of them as were
Jews or Christians:2 Morâmer Ebn Morra of Anbar, a city of Irâk, who lived not
many years before Mohammed, was the inventor of the Arabic character, which
Bashar the Kendian is said to have learned from those of Anbar, and to have
introduced at Mecca but a little while before the institution of Mohammedism.
These letters of Marâmer were different from the Hamyaritic; and though they
were very rude, being either the same with, or very much like the Cufic,3
which character is still found in inscriptions and some ancient books, yet
they were those which the Arabs used for many years, the Korân itself being at
first written therein; for the beautiful character they now use was first
formed from the Cufic by Ebn Moklah, Wazir (or Visir) to the Khalîfs al
Moktader, al Kâher, and al Râdi, who lived
1 Job xix. 23, 24. 2 See Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, p. 29, 30.
3 A specimen of the Cufic character may be seen in Sir J. Chardin's
Travels, vol. iii, p. 119.
about three hundred years after Mohammed, and was brought to great perfection
by Ali Ebn Bowâb,4 who flourished in the following century, and whose name is
yet famous among them on that account; yet, it is said, the person who
completed it, and reduced it to its present form, was Yakût al Mostásemi,
secretary to al Mostásem, the last of the Khalîfs of the family of Abbâs, for
which reason he was surnamed al Khattât, or the Scribe.
The accomplishments the Arabs valued themselves chiefly on, were, 1.
Eloquence, and a perfect skill in their own tongue; 2. Expertness in the use
of arms, and horsemanship; and 3. Hospitality.1 The first they exercised
themselves in, by composing of orations and poems. Their orations were of two
sorts, metrical, or prosaic, the one being compared to pearls strung, and the
other to loose ones. They endeavoured to excel in both, and whoever was able,
in an assembly, to persuade the people to a great enterprise, or dissuade them
from a dangerous one, or gave them other wholesome advice, was honoured with
the title of Khâteb, or orator, which is now given to the Mohammedan
preachers. They pursued a method very different from that of the Greek and
Roman orators; their sentences being like loose gems, without connection, so
that this sort of composition struck the audience chiefly by the fulness of
the periods, the elegance of the expression, and the acuteness of the
proverbial sayings; and so persuaded were they of their excelling in this way,
that they would not allow any nation to understand the art of speaking in
public, except themselves and the Persians; which last were reckoned much
inferior in that respect to the Arabians.2 Poetry was in so great esteem
among them, that it was a great accomplishment, and a proof of ingenuous
extraction, to be able to express one's self in verse with ease and elegance,
on any extraordinary occurrence; and even in their common discourse they made
frequent applications to celebrated passages of their famous poets. In their
poems were preserved the distinction of descents, the rights of tribes, the
memory of great actions, and the propriety of their language; for which
reasons an excellent poet reflected an honour on his tribe, so that as soon as
any one began to be admired for his performances of this kind in a tribe, the
other tribes sent publicly to congratulate them on the occasion, and
themselves made entertainments, at which the women assisted, dressed in their
nuptial ornaments, singing to the sound of timbrels the happiness of their
tribe, who had now one to protect their honour, to preserve their genealogies
and the purity of their language, and to transmit their actions to posterity;3
for this was all performed by their poems, to which they were solely obliged
for their knowledge and instructions, moral and economical, and to which they
had recourse, as to an oracle, in all doubts and differences.1 No wonder,
then, that a public congratulation was made on this account, which honour they
yet were so far from making cheap, that they never did it but on one of these
three occasions, which were reckoned great points of felicity, viz., on the
birth of a boy, the rise of a poet, and the
4 Ebn Khalicân. Yet others attribute the honour of the invention of this
character to Ebn Moklah's brother, Abdallah al Hasan; and the perfecting of it
to Ebn Amîd al Kâteb, after it had been reduced to near the present form by
Abd'alhamîd. Vide D'Herbel. Bibl. Orient. p. 590, 108, and 194. 1
Poc. Orat. ante Carmen Tograi, p. 10. 2 Poc. Spec. 161.
3 Ebn Rashik, apud Poc. Spec. 160. 1 Poc. Orat. præfix. Carm. Tograi,
ubi supra.
fall of a foal of generous breed. To keep up an emulation among their poets,
the tribes had, once a year, a general assembly at Ocadh,2 a place famous on
this account, and where they kept a weekly mart or fair, which was held on our
Sunday.3 This annual meeting lasted a whole month, during which time they
employed themselves, not only in trading, but in repeating their poetical
compositions, contending an vieing with each other for the prize; whence the
place, it is said, took its name.4 The poems that were judged to excel, were
laid up in their kings' treasuries, as were the seven celebrated poems, thence
called al Moallakât, rather than from their being hung upon the Caaba, which
honour they also had by public order, being written on Egyptian silk, and inn
letters of gold; for which reason they had also the name of al Modhahabât, or
the golden verses.5
The fair and assembly at Ocadh were suppressed by Mohammed, in whose time,
and for some years after, poetry seems to have been in some degree neglected
by the Arabs, who were then employed in their conquests; which being
completed, and themselves at peace, not only this study was revived,6 but
almost all sorts of learning were encouraged and greatly improved by them.
This interruption, however, occasioned the loss of most of their ancient
pieces of poetry, which were then chiefly preserved in memory; the use of
writing being rare among them, in their time of ignorance.7 Though the Arabs
were so early acquainted with poetry, they did not at first use to write poems
of a just length, but only expressed themselves in verse occasionally; nor was
their prosody digested into rules, till some time after Mohammed;8 for this
was done, as it is said, by al Khalîl Ahmed al Farâhîdi, who lived in the
reign of the Khalîf Harûn al Rashîd.9
The exercise of arms and horsemanship they were in a manner obliged to
practise and encourage, by reason of the independence of their tribes, whose
frequent jarrings made wars almost continual; and they chiefly ended their
disputes in field battles, it being a usual saying among them that GOD had
bestowed four peculiar things on the Arabs-that their turbans should be to
them instead of diadems, their tents instead of walls and houses, their swords
instead of entrenchments, and their poems instead of written laws.1
Hospitality was so habitual to them, and so much esteemed, that the
examples of this kind among them exceed whatever can be produced from other
nations. Hatem, of the tribe of Tay,2 and Hasn, of that of Fezârah,3 were
particularly famous on this account; and the contrary vice was so much in
contempt, that a certain poet upbraids the inhabitants of Waset, as with the
greatest reproach, that none of their men ad the heart to give, nor their
women to deny.4
2 Idem, Spec. p. 159. 3 Geogr. Nub. p. 51. 4 Poc.
Spec. 159. 5 Ibid, and p. 381. Et in calce Notar. in Carmen Tograi,
p. 233. 6 Jallalo'ddin al Soyûti, apud Poc. Spec. p. 159, &c.
7 Ibid. 160.
8 Ibid. 161. Al Safadi confirms this by a story of a grammarian named Abu
Jaafar, who sitting by the Mikyas or Nilometer in Egypt, in a year when the
Nile did not rise to its usual height, so that a famine was apprehended, and
dividing a piece of poetry into its parts or feet, to examine them by the
rules of art, some who passed by not understanding him, imagined he was
uttering a charm to hinder the rise of the river, and pushed him into the
water, where he lost his life. 9 Vide Clericum de Prosod. Arab. p.
2.
1 Pocock, in calce Notar. ad Carmen Tograi. 2 Vide. Gentii Notas in
Gulistan Sheikh Sadi, p. 486, &c. 3 Poc. Spec. p. 48. 4 Ebn al
Hobeirah, apud Poc. in not. ad Carmen Tograi, p. 107.
Nor were the Arabs less propense to liberality after the coming of Mohammed
than their ancestors had been. I could produce many remarkable instances of
this commendable quality among them,5 but shall content myself with the
following. Three men were disputing in the court of the Caaba, which was the
most liberal person among the Arabs. One gave the preference to Abdallah, the
son of Jaafar, the uncle of Mohammed; another to Kais Ebn Saad Ebn Obâdah; and
the third gave it to Arâbah, of the tribe of Aws. After much debate, one that
was present, to end the dispute, proposed that each of them should go to his
friend and ask his assistance, that they might see what every one gave, and
form a judgment accordingly. This was agreed to; and Abdallah's friend, going
to him, found him with his foot in the stirrup, just mounting his camel for a
journey, and thus accosted him: "Son of the uncle of the apostle of GOD, I am
travelling and in necessity." Upon which Abdallah alighted, and bid him take
the camel with all that was upon her, but desired him not to part with a sword
which happened to be fixed to the saddle, because it had belonged to Ali, the
son of Abutâleb. So he took the camel, and found on her some vests of silk
and 4,000 pieces of gold; but the thing of greatest value was the sword. The
second went to Kais Ebn Saad, whose servant told him that his master was
asleep, and desired to know his business. The friend answered that he came to
ask Kais's assistance, being in want on the road. Whereupon the servant said
that he had rather supply his necessity than wake his master, and gave him a
purse of 7,000 pieces of gold, assuring him that it was all the money then in
the house. He also directed him to go to those who had the charge of the
camels, with a certain token, and take a camel and a slave, and return home
with them. When Kais awoke, and his servant informed him of what he had done,
he gave him his freedom, and asked him why he did not call him, "For," says
he, "I would have given him more." The third man went to Arâbah, and met him
coming out of his house in order to go to prayers, and leaning on two slaves,
because his eyesight failed him. The friend no sooner made known his case,
but Arâbah let go the slaves, and clapping his hands together, loudly lamented
his misfortune in having no money, but desired him to take the two slaves,
which the man refused to do, till Arâbah protested that if he would not accept
of them he gave them their liberty, and leaving the slaves, groped his way
along by the wall. On the return of the adventurers, judgment was
unanimously, and with great justice, given by all who were present, that
Arâbah was the most generous of the three.
Nor were these the only good qualities of the Arabs; they are commended by
the ancients for being most exact to their words,1 and respectful to their
kindred.2 And they have always been celebrated for their quickness of
apprehension and penetration, and the vivacity of their wit, especially those
of the desert.3
As the Arabs have their excellencies, so have they, like other nations,
their defects and vices. Their own writers acknowledge that they have
5 Several may be found in D'Herbelot's Bibl. Orient., particularly in the
articles of Hasan the son of Ali, Maan, Fadhel, and Ebn Yahya. 1
Herodot. l.3, c. 8. 2 Strabo, l. 16, p. 1129. 3 Vide
D'Herbel. Bibl. Orient. p. 121.
a natural disposition to war, bloodshed, cruelty, and rapine, being so much
addicted to bear malice that they scarce ever forget an old grudge; which
vindictive temper some physicians say is occasioned by their frequent feeding
on camel's flesh (the ordinary diet of the Arabs of the desert, who are
therefore observed to be most inclined to these vices), that creature being
most malicious and tenacious of anger,4 which account suggests a good reason
for a distinction of meats.
The frequent robberies committed by these people on merchants and
travellers have rendered the name of an Arab almost infamous in Europe; this
they are sensible of, and endeavour to excuse themselves by alleging the hard
usage of their father Ismael, who, being turned out of doors by Abraham, had
the open plains and deserts given him by GOD for his patrimony, with
permission to take whatever he could find there; and on this account they
think they may, with a safe conscience, indemnify themselves as well as they
can, not only on the posterity of Isaac, but also on everybody else, always
supposing a sort of kindred between themselves and those they plunder. And in
relating their adventures of this kind, they think it sufficient to change the
expression, and instead of "I robbed a man of such or such a thing," to say,
"I gained it."1 We must not, however, imagine that they are the less honest
for this among themselves, or towards those whom they receive as friends; on
the contrary, the strictest probity is observed in their camp, where
everything is open and nothing ever known to be stolen.2
The sciences the Arabians chiefly cultivated before Mohammedism, were
three; that of their genealogies and history, such a knowledge of the stars as
to foretell the changes of weather, and the interpretation of dreams.3 They
used to value themselves excessively on account of the nobility of their
families, and so many disputes happened on that occasion, that it is no wonder
if they took great pains in settling their descents. What knowledge they had
of the stars was gathered from long experience, and not from any regular
study, or astronomical rules.4 The Arabians, as the Indians also did, chiefly
applied themselves to observe the fixed stars, contrary to other nations,
whose observations were almost confined to the planets, and they foretold
their effects from their influences, not their nature; and hence, as has been
said, arose the difference of the idolatry of the Greeks and Chaldeans, who
chiefly worshipped the planets, and that of the Indians, who worshipped the
fixed star. The stars or asterisms they most usually foretold the weather by,
were those they called Anwâ, or the houses of the moon. These are 28 in
number, and divide the zodiac into as many parts, through one of which the
moon passes every night;5 as some of them set in the morning, others rise
opposite to them, which happens every thirteenth night; and from their rising
and setting, the Arabs, by long experience, observed what changes happened in
the air, and at length, as has been said, came to ascribe divine power to
them; saying, that their rain was from such or such a star: which expression
Mohammed condemned, and absolutely forbade them to use it in the old sense;
4 Vide Poc. Spec. p. 87, Bochart, Hierozoic. l. 2, c. I. 1
Voyage dans la Palest. p. 220, &c. 2 Ibid. p. 213, &c. 3 Al
Shahrestani, apud Pocock Orat. ubi sup. p. 9, and Spec. 164. 4
Abulfarag, p. 161.
5 Vide Hyde, in not. ad Tabulas stellar. fixar. Ulugh Beigh, p. 5.
unless they meant no more by it, than that GOD had so ordered the seasons,
that when the moon was in such or such a mansion or house, or at the rising or
setting of such and such a star, it should rain or be windy, hot or cold.1
The old Arabians therefore seem to have made no further progress in
astronomy, which science they afterwards cultivated with so much success and
applause, than to observe the influence of the stars on the weather, and to
give them names; and this it was obvious for them to do, by reason of their
pastoral way of life, lying night and day in the open plains. The names they
imposed on the stars generally alluded to cattle and flocks, and they were so
nice in distinguishing them, that no language has so many names of stars and
asterisms as the Arabic; for though they have since borrowed the names of
several constellations from the Greeks, yet the far greater part are of their
own growth, and much more ancient, particularly those of the more conspicuous
stars, dispersed in several constellations, and those of the lesser
constellations which are contained within the greater, and were not observed
or named by the Greeks.2
Thus have I given the most succinct account I have been able, of the state
of the ancient Arabians before Mohammed, or, to use their expression, in the
time of ignorance. I shall now proceed briefly to consider the state of
religion in the east, and of the two great empires which divided that part of
the world between them, at the time of Mohammed's setting up for a prophet,
and what were the conducive circumstances and accidents that favoured his
success.
_______
SECTION II.
OF THE STATE OF CHRISTIANITY, PARTICULARLY OF THE EASTERN
CHURCHES, AND OF JUDAISM, AT THE TIME OF MOHAMMED'S
APPEARANCE; AND OF THE METHODS TAKEN BY HIM FOR THE
ESTABLISHING OF HIS RELIGION, AND THE CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH
CONCURRED THERETO.
IF WE look into the ecclesiastical historians even from the third century, we
shall find the Christian world to have then had a very different aspect from
what some authors have represented; and so far from being endued with active
graces, zeal, and devotion, and established within itself with purity of
doctrine, union, and firm profession of the faith,1 that on the contrary, what
by the ambition of the clergy, and what by drawing the abstrusest niceties
into controversy, and dividing and subdividing about them into endless schisms
and contentions, they had so destroyed that peace, love, and charity from
among
1 Vide Poc. Spec. p. 163, &c. 2 Vide Hyde ubi sup. p. 4.
1 Ricaut's State of the Ottoman Empire, p. 187.
them, which the Gospel was given to promote; and instead thereof continually
provoked each other to that malice, rancour, and every evil work; that they
had lost the whole substance of their religion, while they thus eagerly
contended for their own imaginations concerning it; and in a manner quite
drove Christianity out of the world by those very controversies in which they
disputed with each other about it.2 In these dark ages it was that most of
those superstitions and corruptions we now justly abhor in the church of Rome
were not only broached, but established; which gave great advantages to the
propagation of Mohammedism. The worship of saints and images, in particular,
was then arrived at such a scandalous pitch that it even surpassed whatever is
now practised among the Romanists.3
After the Nicene council, the eastern church was engaged in perpetual
controversies, and torn to pieces by the disputes of the Arians, Sabellians,
Nestorians, and Eutychians: the heresies of the two last of which have been
shown to have consisted more in the words and form of expression than in the
doctrines themselves;4 and were rather the pretences than real motives of
those frequent councils to and from which the contentious prelates were
continually riding post, that they might bring everything to their own will
and pleasure.1 And to support themselves by dependants and bribery, the
clergy in any credit at court undertook the protection of some officer in the
army, under the colour of which justice was publicly sold, and all corruption
encouraged.
In the western church Damasus and Ursicinus carried their contests at Rome
for the episcopal seat so high, that they came to open violence and murder,
which Viventius the governor not being able to suppress, he retired into the
country, and left them to themselves, till Damasus prevailed. It is said that
on this occasion, in the church of Sicininus, there were no less than 137
found killed in one day. And no wonder they were so fond of these seats, when
they became by that means enriched by the presents of matrons, and went abroad
in their chariots and sedans in great state, feasting sumptuously even beyond
the luxury of princes, quite contrary to the way of living of the country
prelates, who alone seemed to have some temperance and modesty left.2
These dissensions were greatly owing to the emperors, and particularly to
Constantius, who, confounding the pure and simple Christian religion with
anile superstitions, and perplexing it with intricate questions, instead of
reconciling different opinions, excited many disputes, which he fomented as
they proceeded with infinite altercations.3 This grew worse in the time of
Justinian, who, not to be behind the bishops to the fifth and sixth centuries
in zeal, thought it no crime to condemn to death a man of a different
persuasion from his own.4
This corruption of doctrine and morals in the princes and clergy, was
necessarily followed by a general depravity of the people;5 those of all
conditions making it their sole business to get money by any means,
2 Prideaux's preface to his Life of Mahomet. 3 Vide La Vie de
Mahommed, par Boulainvilliers, p. 219, &c.
4 Vide Simon, Hist. Crit. de la Créance, &c. des Nations du Levant.
1 Ammian. Marcellin. l. 2I. Vide etiam Euseb. Hist. Eccles. l. 8, c.
I. Sozom. l. I, c. 114, &c. Hilar. and Sulpic. Sever. in Hist. Sacr. p. 112,
&c. 2 Ammian. Marcellin. lib. 27.
3 Idem, l. 2I. 4 Procop. in Anecd. p. 60. 5 See an instance
of the wickedness of the Christian army, even when they were under the terror
of the Saracens, in Ockley's Hist. of the Sarac., vol. i. p. 239.
and then to squander it away when they had got it in luxury and debauchery.6
But, to be more particular as to the nation we are now writing of, Arabia
was of old famous for heresies;7 which might be in some measure attributed to
the liberty and independency of the tribes. Some of the Christians of that
nation believed the soul died with the body, and was to be raised again with
it at the last day:1 these Origen is said to have convinced.2 Among the Arabs
it was that the heresies of Ebion, Beryllus, and the Nazaræns,3 and also that
of the Collyridians, were broached, or at least propagated; the latter
introduced the Virgin Mary for GOD, or worshipped her as such, offering her a
sort of twisted cake called collyris, whence the sect had its name.4
This notion of the divinity of the Virgin Mary was also believed by some at
the council of Nice, who said there were two gods besides the Father, viz.,
Christ and the Virgin Mary, and were thence named Mariamites.5 Others
imagined her to be exempt from humanity, and deified; which goes but little
beyond the Popish superstition in calling her the complement of the Trinity,
as if it were imperfect without her. This foolish imagination is justly
condemned in the Korân6 as idolatrous, and gave a handle to Mohammed to attack
the Trinity itself.
Other sects there were of many denominations within the borders of Arabia,
which took refuge there from the proscriptions of the imperial edicts; several
of whose notions Mohammed incorporated with his religion, as may be observed
hereafter.
Though the Jews were an inconsiderable and despised people in other parts
of the world, yet in Arabia, whither many of them fled from the destruction of
Jerusalem, they grew very powerful, several tribes and princes embracing their
religion; which made Mohammed at first show great regard to them, adopting
many of their opinions, doctrines, and customs; thereby to draw them, if
possible, into his interest. But that people, agreeably to their wonted
obstinacy, were so far from being his proselytes, that they were some of the
bitterest enemies he had, waging continual war with him, so that their
reduction cost him infinite trouble and danger, and at last his life. This
aversion of theirs created at length as great a one in him to them, so that he
used them, for the latter part of his life, much worse than he did the
Christians, and frequently exclaims against them in his Korân; his followers
to this day observe the same difference between them and the Christians,
treating the former as the most abject and contemptible people on earth.
It has been observed by a great politician,7 that it is impossible a person
should make himself a prince and found a state without opportunities. If the
distracted state of religion favoured the designs of Mohammed on that side,
the weakness of the Roman and Persian monarchies might flatter him with no
less hopes in any attempt on those once formidable empires, either of which,
had they been in their full vigour, must have crushed Mohammedism in its
birth; whereas nothing nourished it more than the success the Arabians met
with in
6 Vide Boulainvill. Vie de Mahom. ubi sup. 7 Vide Sozomen. Hist.
Eccles. l. r, c. 16, 17. Sulpic. Sever. ubi supra.
1 Euseb. Hist. Eccles. l. 6, c. 33. 2 Idem ibid. c. 37.
3 Epiphan. de Hæresi. l, I; Hær. 40.
4 Idem ibid. l. 3; Hæres. 75, 79. 5 Elmacin. Eutych.
6 Cap. 5.
7 Machiavelli, Princ. c. 6, p. 19.
their enterprises against those powers, which success they failed not to
attribute to their new religion and the divine assistance thereof.
The Roman empire declined apace after Constantine, whose successors were
for the generality remarkable for their ill qualities, especially cowardice
and cruelty. By Mohammed's time, the western half of the empire was overrun
by the Goths; and the eastern so reduced by the Huns on the one side, and the
Persians on the other, that it was not in a capacity of stemming the violence
of a powerful invasion. The emperor Maurice paid tribute to the Khagân or
king of the Huns; and after Phocas had murdered his master, such lamentable
havoc there was among the soldiers, that when Heraclius came, not above seven
years after, to muster the army, there were only two soldiers left alive, of
all those who had borne arms when Phocas first usurped the empire. And though
Heraclius was a prince of admirable courage and conduct, and had done what
possibly could be done to restore the discipline of the army, and had had
great success against the Persians, so as to drive them not only out of his
own dominions, but even out of part of their own; yet still the very vitals of
the empire seemed to be mortally wounded; that there could no time have
happened more fatal to the empire or more favourable to the enterprises of the
Arabs, who seem to have been raised up on purpose by GOD, to be a scourge to
the Christian church, for not living answerably to that most holy religion
which they had received.1
The general luxury and degeneracy of manners into which the Grecians were
sunk, also contributed not a little to the enervating their forces, which were
still further drained by those two great destroyers, monachism and
persecution.
The Persians had also been in a declining condition for some time before
Mohammed, occasioned chiefly by their intestine broils and dissensions; great
part of which arose from the devilish doctrines of Manes and Mazdak. The
opinions of the former are tolerably well known: the latter lived in the reign
of Khosru Kobâd, and pretended himself a prophet sent from GOD to preach a
community of women and possessions, since all men were brothers and descended
from the same common parents. This he imagined would put an end to all feuds
and quarrels among men, which generally arose on account of one of the two.
Kobâd himself embraced the opinions of this impostor, to whom he gave leave,
according to his new doctrine, to lie with the queen his wife; which
permission Anushirwân, his son, with much difficulty prevailed on Mazdak not
to make use of. These sects had certainly been the immediate ruin of the
Persian empire, had not Anushirwân, as soon as he succeeded his father, put
Mazdek to death with all his followers, and the Manicheans also, restoring the
ancient Magian religion.2
In the reign of this prince, deservedly surnamed the Just, Mohammed was
born. He was the last king of Persia who deserved the throne, which after him
was almost perpetually contended for, till subverted by the Arabs. His son
Hormûz lost the love of his subjects by his excessive cruelty; having had his
eyes put out by his wife's brothers, he was
1 Ockley's Hist. of the Saracens, vol. i. p. 19, &c. 2 Vide Poc. Spec.
p. 70.
obliged to resign the crown to his son Khosrû Parvîz, who at the instigation
of Bahrâm Chubîn had rebelled against him, and was afterwards strangled.
Parvîz was soon obliged to quit the throne to Bahrâm; but obtaining succours
of the Greek emperor Maurice, he recovered the crown: yet towards the latter
end of a long reign he grew so tyrannical and hateful to his subjects, that
they held private correspondence with the Arabs; and he was at length deposed,
imprisoned, and slain by his son Shirûyeh.1 After Parvîz no less than six
princes possessed the throne in less than six years. These domestic broils
effectually brought ruin upon the Persians; for though they did rather by the
weakness of the Greeks, than their own force, ravage Syria, and sack Jerusalem
and Damascus under Khosrû Parvîz; and, while the Arabs were divided and
independent, had some power in the province of Yaman, where they set up the
four last kings before Mohammed; yet when attacked by the Greeks under
Heraclius, they not only lost their new conquests, but part of their own
dominions; and no sooner were the Arabs united by Mohammedism, than they beat
them in every battle, and in a few years totally subdued them.
As these empires were weak and declining, so Arabia, at Mohammed's setting
up, was strong and flourishing; having been peopled at the expense of the
Grecian empire, whence the violent proceedings of the domineering sects forced
many to seek refuge in a free country, as Arabia then was, where they who
could not enjoy tranquility and their conscience at home, found a secure
retreat. The Arabians were not only a populous nation, but unacquainted with
the luxury and delicacies of the Greeks and Persians, and inured to hardships
of all sorts; living in a most parsimonious manner, seldom eating any flesh,
drinking no wine, and sitting on the ground. Their political government was
also such as favoured the designs of Mohammed; for the division and
independency of their tribes were so necessary to the first propagation of his
religion, and the foundation of his power, that it would have been scarce
possible for him to have effected either, had the Arabs been united in one
society. But when they had embraced his religion, the consequent union of
their tribes was no less necessary and conducive to their future conquests and
grandeur.
This posture of public affairs in the eastern world, both as to its
religious and political state, it is more than probably Mohammed was well
acquainted with; he having had sufficient opportunities of informing himself
in those particulars, in his travels as a merchant in his younger years: and
though it is not to be supposed his views at first were so extensive as
afterwards, when they were enlarged by his good fortune, yet he might
reasonably promise himself success in his first attempts from thence. As he
was a man of extraordinary parts and address, he knew how to make the best of
every incident, and turn what might seem dangerous to another, to his own
advantage.
Mohammed came into the world under some disadvantages, which he soon
surmounted. His father Abd'allah was a younger son2 of Abd'almotalleb, and
dying very young and in his father's lifetime, left
1 Vide Teixeira, Relaciones de los Reyes de Persia, p. 195, &c.
2 He was not his eldest son, as Dr. Prideaux tells us, whose
reflections built on that foundation must necessarily fail (see his Life of
Mahomet, p. 9); nor yet his youngest son, as M. De Boulainvilliers (Vie de
Mahommed, p. 182, &c) supposes; for Hamza and al Abbâs were both younger than
Abd'allah.
his widow and infant son in very mean circumstances, his whole substance
consisting but of five camels and one Ethiopian she-slave.1 Abd'almotalleb
was therefore obliged to take care of his grandchild Mohammed, which he not
only did during his life, but at his death enjoined his eldest son Abu Tâleb,
who was brother to Abd'allah by the same mother, to provide for him for the
future; which he very affectionately did, and instructed him in the business
of a merchant, which he followed; and to that end he took him with him into
Syria when he was but thirteen, and afterward recommended him to Khadîjah, a
noble and rich widow, for her factor, in whose service he behaved himself so
well, that by making him her husband she soon raised him to an equality with
the richest in Mecca.
After he began by this advantageous match to live at his ease, it was that
he formed the scheme of establishing a new religion, or, as he expressed it,
of replanting the only true and ancient one, professed by Adam, Noah, Abraham,
Moses, Jesus, and all the prophets,2 by destroying the gross idolatry into
which the generality of his countrymen had fallen, and weeding out the
corruptions and superstitions which the latter Jews and Christians had, as he
thought, introduced into their religion, and reducing it to its original
purity, which consisted chiefly in the worship of the one only GOD.
Whether this was the effect of enthusiasm, or only a design to raise
himself to the supreme government of his country, I will not pretend to
determine. The latter is the general opinion of the Christian writers, who
agree that ambition, and the desire of satisfying his sensuality, were the
motives of his undertaking. It may be so; yet his first views, perhaps, were
not so interested. His original design of bringing the pagan Arabs to the
knowledge of the true GOD, was certainly noble, and highly to be commended;
for I cannot possibly subscribe to the assertion of a late learned writer,3
that he made the nation exchange their idolatry for another religion
altogether as bad. Mohammed was no doubt fully satisfied in his conscience of
the truth of his grand point, the unity of GOD, which was what he chiefly
attended to; all his other doctrines and institutions being rather accidental
and unavoidable, than premeditated and designed.
Since then Mohammed was certainly himself persuaded of his grand article of
faith, which, in his opinion, was violated by all the rest of the world; not
only by the idolaters, but by the Christians, as well those who rightly
worshipped Jesus as GOD, as those who superstitiously adored the Virgin Mary,
saints, and images; and also by the Jews, who are accused in the Korân of
taking Ezra for the son of GOD;4 it is easy to conceive that he might think it
a meritorious work to rescue the world from such ignorance and superstition;
and by degrees, with the help of a warm imagination, which an Arab seldom
wants,5 to suppose himself destined by providence for the effecting that great
reformation. And this fancy of his might take still deeper root in his mind,
during the solitude he thereupon affected, usually retiring for a month in the
year to a cave in Mount Hara, near Mecca. One thing which may be probably
urged against the enthusiasm of this prophet of
1 Abulfeda, Vit. Moham. p. 2. 2 See Kor. c. 2. 3
Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, p. 76. 4 Kor. c. 9. 5 See
Casaub. of Enthusiasm, p. 148.
the Arabs, is the wise conduct and great prudence he all along showed in
pursuing his design, which seem inconsistent with the wild notions of a hot-
brained religionist. But though all enthusiasts or madmen do not behave with
the same gravity and circumspection that he did, yet he will not be the first
instance, by several, of a person who has been out of the way only quoad hoc,
and in all other respects acted with the greatest decency and precaution.
The terrible destruction of the eastern churches, once so glorious and
flourishing, by the sudden spreading of Mohammedism, and the great successes
of its professors against the Christians, necessarily inspire a horror of that
religion in those to whom it has been so fatal; and no wonder if they
endeavour to set the character of its founder, and its doctrines, in the most
infamous light. But the damage done by Mohammed to Christianity seems to have
been rather owing to his ignorance than malice; for his great misfortune was,
his not having a competent knowledge of the real and pure doctrines of the
Christian religion, which was in his time so abominably corrupted, that it is
not surprising if he went too far, and resolved to abolish what he might think
incapable of reformation.
It is scarce to be doubted but that Mohammed had a violent desire of being
reckoned an extraordinary person, which he could attain to by no means more
effectually, than by pretending to be a messenger sent from GOD, to inform
mankind of his will. This might be at first his utmost ambition; and had his
fellow-citizens treated him less injuriously, and not obliged him by their
persecutions to seek refuge elsewhere, and to take up arms against them in his
own defence, he had perhaps continued a private person, and contented himself
with the veneration and respect due to his prophetical office; but being once
got at the head of a little army, and encouraged by success, it is no wonder
if he raised his thoughts to attempt what had never before entered his
imagination.
That Mohammed was, as the Arabs are by complexion,1 a great lover of women,
we are assured by his own confession; and he is constantly upbraided with it
by the controversial writers, who fail not to urge the number of women with
whom he had to do, as a demonstrative argument of his sensuality, which they
think sufficiently proves him to have been a wicked man, and consequently an
impostor. But it must be considered that polygamy, though it be forbidden by
the Christian religion, was in Mohammed's time frequently practised in Arabia
and other parts of the east, and was not counted an immorality, nor was a man
worse esteemed on that account; for which reason Mohammed permitted the
plurality of wives, with certain limitations, among his own followers, who
argue for the lawfulness of it from several reasons, and particularly from the
examples of persons allowed on all hands to have been good men; some of whom
have been honoured with the divine correspondence. The several laws relating
to marriages and divorces, and the peculiar privileges granted to Mohammed in
his Korân, were almost all taken by him from the Jewish decisions, as will
appear hereafter; and therefore he might think those
1 Ammian. Marcell. l. 14, c. 4.
institutions the more just and reasonable, as he found them practised or
approved by the professors of a religion which was confessedly of divine
original.
But whatever were his motives, Mohammed had certainly the personal
qualifications which were necessary to accomplish his undertaking. The
Mohammedan authors are excessive in their commendations of him, and speak much
of his religious and moral virtues; as his piety, veracity, justice,
liberality, clemency, humility, and abstinence. His charity, in particular,
they say, was so conspicuous, that he had seldom any money in his house,
keeping no more for his own use than was just sufficient to maintain his
family; and he frequently spared even some part of his own provisions to
supply the necessities of the poor; so that before the year's end he had
generally little or nothing left:1 "GOD," says al Bokhâri, "offered him the
keys of the treasures of the earth, but he would not accept them." Though the
eulogies of these writers are justly to be suspected of partiality, yet thus
much, I think, may be inferred from thence, that for an Arab who had been
educated in Paganism, and had but a very imperfect knowledge of his duty, he
was a man of at least tolerable morals, and not such a monster of wickedness
as he is usually represented. And indeed it is scarce possible to conceive,
that a wretch of so profligate a character should ever have succeeded in an
enterprise of this nature; a little hypocrisy and saving of appearances, at
least, must have been absolutely necessary; and the sincerity of his
intentions is what I pretend not to inquire into.
He had indisputably a very piercing and sagacious wit, and was thoroughly
versed in all the arts of insinuation.2 The eastern historians describe him
to have been a man of an excellent judgment, and a happy memory; and these
natural parts were improved by a great experience and knowledge of men, and
the observations he had made in his travels. They say he was a person of few
words, of an equal cheerful temper, pleasant and familiar in conversation, of
inoffensive behaviour towards his friends, and of great condescension towards
his inferiors.3 To all which were joined a comely agreeable person, and a
polite address; accomplishments of no small service in preventing those in his
favour whom he attempted to persuade.
As to acquired learning, it is confessed he had none at all; having had no
other education than what was customary in his tribe, who neglected, and
perhaps despised, what we call literature; esteeming no language in comparison
with their own, their skill in which they gained by use and not by books, and
contenting themselves with improving their private experience by committing to
memory such passages of their poets as they judged might be of use to them in
life. This defect was so far from being prejudicial or putting a stop to his
design, that he made the greatest use of it; insisting that the writings which
he produced as revelations from GOD, could not possibly be a forgery of his
own; because it was not conceivable that a person who could neither write nor
read should be able to compose a book of such excellent doctrine, and in so
elegant a style; and thereby obviating
1 Vide Abulfeda Vit. Moham. p. 144, &c. 2 Vide Prid. Life of
Mahomet, p. 105. 3 Vide Abulfed. ubi sup.
an objection that might have carried a great deal of weight.1 And for this
reason his followers, instead of being ashamed of their master's ignorance,
glory in it, as an evident proof of his divine mission, and scruple not to
call him (as he is indeed called in the Korân itself2) the "illiterate
prophet."
The scheme of religion which Mohammed framed, and the design and artful
contrivance of those written revelations (as he pretended them to be) which
compose his Korân, shall be the subject of the following sections: I shall
therefore in the remainder of this relate, as briefly as possible, the steps
he took towards the effecting of his enterprise, and the accidents which
concurred to his success therein.
Before he made any attempt abroad, he rightly judged that it was necessary
for him to begin by the conversion of his own household. Having therefore
retired with his family, as he had done several times before, to the above-
mentioned cave in Mount Hara, he there opened the secret of his mission to his
wife Khadîjah; and acquainted her that the angel Gabriel had just before
appeared to him, and told him that he was appointed the apostle of GOD: he
also repeated to her a passage3 which he pretended had been revealed to him by
the ministry of the angel, with those other circumstances of his first
appearance, which are related by the Mohammedan writers. Khadîjah received
the news with great joy,1 swearing by him in whose hands her soul was, that
she trusted he would be the prophet of his nation, and immediately
communicated what she had heard to her cousin, Warakah Ebn Nawfal, who, being
a Christian, could write in the Hebrew character, and was tolerably well
versed in the scriptures;2 and he as readily came into her opinion, assuring
her that the same angel who had formerly appeared unto Moses was now sent to
Mohammed.3 This first overture the prophet made in the month of Ramadân, in
the fortieth year of his age, which is therefore usually called the year of
his mission.
Encouraged by so good a beginning, he resolved to proceed, and try for some
time what he could do by private persuasion, not daring to hazard the whole
affair by exposing it too suddenly to the public. He soon made proselytes of
those under his own roof, viz., his wife Khadîjah, his servant Zeid Ebn
Hâretha (to whom he gave his freedom4 on that occasion, which afterwards
became a rule to his followers), and his cousin and pupil Ali, the son of Abu
Tâleb, though then very young: but this last, making no account of the other
two, used to style himself the "first of believers." The next person Mohammed
applied to was Abdallah Ebn Abi Kohâfa, surnamed Abu Becr, a man of great
authority among the Koreish, and one whose interest he well knew would be of
great service to him, as it soon appeared, for Abu Becr being gained over,
prevailed also on Othmân Ebn Affân, Abd'alrahmân Ebn Awf, Saad Ebn Abi Wakkâs,
al Zobeir Ebn al Awâm, and Telha Ebn Obeid'allah, all principal men in Mecca,
to follow his example.
1 See Kor. c. 29. Prid. Life of Mahomet, p. 28, &c. 2 Chap. 7.
3 This passage is generally agreed to be the first five verses of the
96th chapter. 1 I do not remember to have read in any eastern
author, that Khadîjah ever rejected her husband's pretences as delusions, or
suspected him of any imposture. Yet see Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, p. 11,
&c. 2 Vide Poc. Spec. p. 157. 3 Vide Abulfed. Vit.
Moham. p. 16, where the learned translator has mistaken the meaning of this
passage. 4 For he was his purchased slave, as Abulfeda expressly
tells us, and not his cousin-german, as M. de Boulainvill. asserts (Vie de
Mah. p. 273).
These men were the six chief companions, who, with a few more, were converted
in the space of three years, at the end of which, Mohammed having, as he
hoped, a sufficient interest to support him, made his mission no longer a
secret, but gave out that GOD had commanded him to admonish his near
relations;5 and in order to do it with more convenience and prospect of
success, he directed Ali to prepare an entertainment, and invite the sons and
descendants of Abd'almotalleb, intending then to open his mind to them; this
was done, and about forty of them came; but Abu Laheb, one of his uncles,
making the company break up before Mohammed had an opportunity of speaking,
obliged him to give them a second invitation the next day; and when they were
come, he made them the following speech: "I know no man in all Arabia who can
offer his kindred a more excellent thing than I now do you. I offer you
happiness, both in this life and in that which is to come. GOD Almighty hath
commanded me to call you unto him; who therefore among you will be assisting
to me herein, and become my brother and my vicegerent?" All of them
hesitating, and declining the matter, Ali at length rose up and declared that
he would be his assistant, and vehemently threatened those who should oppose
him. Mohammed upon this embraced Ali with great demonstrations of affection,
and desired all who were present to hearken to and obey him as his deputy, at
which the company broke out into great laughter, telling Abu Tâleb that he
must now pay obedience to his son.
This repulse however was so far from discouraging Mohammed, that he began
to preach in public to the people, who heard him with some patience, till he
came to upbraid them with the idolatry, obstinacy, and perverseness of
themselves and their fathers, which so highly provoked them that they declared
themselves his enemies, and would soon have procured his ruin had he not been
protected by Abu Tâleb. The chief of the Koreish warmly solicited this person
to desert his nephew, making frequent remonstrances against the innovations he
was attempting, which proving ineffectual, they at length threatened him with
an open rupture if he did not prevail on Mohammed to desist. At this, Abu
Tâleb was so far moved that he earnestly dissuaded his nephew from pursuing
the affair any farther, representing the great danger he and his friends must
otherwise run. But Mohammed was not to be intimidated, telling his uncle
plainly "that if they set the sun against him on his right hand, and the moon
on his left, he would not leave his enterprise;" and Abu Tâleb, seeing him so
firmly resolved to proceed, used no further arguments, but promised to stand
by him against all his enemies.6
The Koreish, finding they could prevail neither by fair words nor menaces,
tried what they could do by force and ill-treatment, using Mohammed's
followers so very injuriously that it was not safe for them to continue at
Mecca any longer: whereupon Mohammed gave leave to such of them as had not
friends to protect them, to seek for refuge elsewhere. And accordingly, in
the fifth year of the prophet's mission, sixteen of them, four of whom were
women, fled into Ethiopia; and among them Othmân Ebn Affân and his wife
Rakîah, Mohammed's
5 Kor. c. 74. See the notes thereon. 6 Abulfeda ubi
supra.
daughter. This was the first flight; but afterwards several others followed
them, retiring one after another, to the number of eighty-three men and
eighteen women, besides children.1 These refugees were kindly received by the
Najâshi,2 or king of Ethiopia, who refused to deliver them up to those whom
the Koreish sent to demand them, and, as the Arab writers unanimously attest,
even professed the Mohammedan religion.
In the sixth year of his mission3 Mohammed had the pleasure of seeing his
party strengthened by the conversion of his uncle Hamza, a man of great valour
and merit, and of Omar Ebn al Khattâb, a person highly esteemed, and once a
violent opposer of the prophet. As persecution generally advances rather than
obstructs the spreading of a religion, Islamism made so great a progress among
the Arab tribes, that the Koreish, to suppress it effectually, if possible, in
the seventh year of Mohammed's mission,4 made a solemn league or covenant
against the Hashemites and the family of al Motalleb, engaging themselves to
contract no marriages with any of them, and to have no communication with
them; and to give it the greater sanction, reduced it into writing, and laid
it up in the Caaba. Upon this the tribe became divided into two factions; and
the family of Hashem all repaired to Abu Tâleb, as their head; except only
Abd'al Uzza, surnamed Abu Laheb, who, out of his inveterate hatred to his
nephew and his doctrine, went over to the opposite party, whose chief was Abu
Sofiân Ebn Harb, of the family of Ommeya.
The families continued thus at variance for three years; but in the tenth
year of his mission, Mohammed told his uncle Abu Tâleb that GOD had manifestly
showed his disapprobation of the league which the Koreish had made against
them, by sending a worm to eat out every word of the instrument except the
name of GOD. Of this accident Mohammed had probably some private notice; for
Abu Tâleb went immediately to the Koreish and acquainted them with it;
offering, if it proved false, to deliver his nephew up to them; but in case it
were true, he insisted that they ought to lay aside their animosity, and annul
the league they had made against the Hashemites. To this they acquiesced, and
going to inspect the writing, to their great astonishment found it to be as
Abu Tâleb had said; and the league was thereupon declared void.
In the same year Abu Tâleb died, at the age of above fourscore; and it is
the general opinion that he died an infidel, though others say that when he
was at the point of death he embraced Mohammedism, and produce some passages
out of his poetical compositions to confirm their assertion. About a month,
or as some write, three days after the death of this great benefactor and
patron, Mohammed had the additional mortification to lose his wife Khadîjah,
who had so generously made his fortune. For which reason this year is called
the year of mourning.5
On the death of these two persons the Koreish began to be more troublesome
than ever to their prophet, and especially some who had formerly been his
intimate friends; insomuch that he found himself
1 Idem, Ebn Shohnah. 2 Dr. Prideaux seems to take this word
for a proper name, but it is only the title the Arabs give to every king of
this country. See his Life of Mahomet, p. 55 3 Ebn Shohnah
4 Al Jannâbi.
1 Abulfed. p. 28. Ebn Shohnah.
obliged to seek for shelter elsewhere, and first pitched upon Tâyet, about
sixty miles east from Mecca, for the place of his retreat. Thither therefore
he went, accompanied by his servant Zeid, and applied himself to two of the
chief of the tribe of Thakîf, who were the inhabitants of that place; but they
received him very coldly. However, he stayed there a month; and some of the
more considerate and better sort of men treated him with a little respect: but
the slaves and inferior people at length rose against him, and bringing him to
the wall of the city, obliged him to depart and return to Mecca, where he put
himself under the protection of al Motáam Ebn Adi.2
This repulse greatly discouraged his followers: however, Mohammed was not
wanting to himself, but boldly continued to preach to the public assemblies at
the pilgrimage, and gained several proselytes, and among them six of the
inhabitants of Yathreb of the Jewish tribe of Khazraj, who on their return
home failed not to speak much in commendation of their new religion, and
exhorted their fellow-citizens to embrace the same.
In the twelfth year of his mission it was that Mohammed gave out that he he
had made his night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem and thence to heaven,3 so
much spoken of by all that write of him. Dr. Prideaux4 thinks he invented it
either to answer the expectations of those who demanded some miracle as a
proof of his mission, or else, by pretending to have conversed with GOD, to
establish the authority of whatever he should think fit to leave behind by way
of oral tradition, and make his sayings to serve the same purpose as the oral
law of the Jews. But I do not find that Mohammed himself ever expected so
great a regard should be paid to his sayings, as his followers have since
done; and seeing he all along disclaimed any power of performing miracles, it
seems rather to have been a fetch of policy to raise his reputation, by
pretending to have actually conversing with GOD in heaven, as Moses had
heretofore done in the mount, and to have received several institutions
immediately from him, whereas before he contented himself with persuading them
that he had all by the ministry of Gabriel.
However, this story seemed so absurd and incredible, that several of his
followers left him upon it, and it had probably ruined the whole design, had
not Abu Becr vouched for his veracity, and declared that if Mohammed affirmed
it to be true, he verily believed the whole. Which happy incident not only
retrieved the prophet's credit, but increased it to such a degree, that he was
secure of being able to make his disciples swallow whatever he pleased to
impose on them for the future. And I am apt to think this fiction,
notwithstanding its extravagance, was one of the most artful contrivances
Mohammed ever put in practice, and what chiefly contributed to the raising of
his reputation to that great height to which it afterwards arrived.
In this year, called by the Mohammedans the accepted year, twelve men of
Yathreb or Medina, of whom ten were of the tribe of Khazraj, and the other two
of that of Aws, came to Mecca, and took an oath of fidelity to Mohammed at al
Akaba, a hill on the north of that city. This oath was called the women's
oath, not that any women were pre-
2 Ebn Shohnah. 3 See the notes on the 17th chapter of the
Korân. 4 Life o Mahomet, p. 41, 51, &c.
sent at this time, but because a man was not thereby obliged to take up arms
in defence of Mohammed or his religion; it being the same oath that was
afterwards exacted of the women, the form of which we have in the Korân,1 and
is to this effect, viz.: "That they should renounce all idolatry; that they
should not steal, nor commit fornication, nor kill their children (as the
pagan Arabs used to do when they apprehended they should not be able to
maintain them2), nor forge calumnies; and that they should obey the prophet in
all things that were reasonable." When they had solemnly engaged to do all
this, Mohammed sent one of his disciples, named Masáb Ebn Omair, home with
them, to instruct them more fully in the grounds and ceremonies of his new
religion.
Masáb, being arrived at Medina, by the assistance of those who had been
formerly converted, gained several proselytes, particularly Osaid Ebn Hodeira,
a chief man of the city, and Saad Ebn Moâdh, prince of the tribe of Aws;
Mohammedism spreading so fast, that there was scarce a house wherein there
were not some who had embraced it.
The next year, being the thirteenth of Mohammed's mission, Masáh returned
to Mecca, accompanied by seventy-three men and two women of Medina, who had
professed Islamism, besides some others who were as yet unbelievers. On their
arrival, they immediately sent to Mohammed, and offered him their assistance,
of which he was now in great need, for his adversaries were by this time grown
so powerful in Mecca, that he could not stay there much longer without
imminent danger. Wherefore he accepted their proposal, and met them one
night, by appointment, at al Akaba above mentioned, attended by his uncle al
Abbas, who, though he was not then a believer, wished his nephew well, and
made a speech to those of Medina, wherein he told them, that as Mohammed was
obliged to quit his native city, and seek an asylum elsewhere, and they had
offered him their protection, they would do well not to deceive him; and that
if they were not firmly resolved to defend and not betray him, they had better
declare their minds, and let him provide for his safety in some other manner.
Upon their protesting their sincerity, Mohammed swore to be faithful to them,
on condition that they should protect him against all insults, as heartily as
they would their own wives and families. They then asked him what recompense
they were to expect if they should happen to be killed in his quarrel; he
answered, Paradise. Whereupon they pledged their faith to him, and so
returned home;3 after Mohammed had chosen twelve out of their number, who were
to have the same authority among them as the twelve apostles of Christ had
among his disciples.4
Hitherto Mohammed had propagated his religion by fair means, so that the
whole success of his enterprise, before his flight to Medina, must be
attributed to persuasion only, and not to compulsion. For before this second
oath of fealty or inauguration at al Akaba, he had no permission to use any
force at all; and in several places of the Korân, which he pretended were
revealed during his stay at Mecca,
1 Cap. 60. 2 Vide Kor. c. 6. 3 Abulfeda. Vit.
Moham. p. 40, &c. 4 Ebn Ishâk.
he declares his business was only to preach and admonish; that he had no
authority to compel any person to embrace his religion; and that whether
people believed, or not, was none of his concern, but belonged solely unto
GOD. And he was so far from allowing his followers to use force, that he
exhorted them to bear patiently those injuries which were offered them on
account of their faith; and when persecuted himself, chose rather to quit the
place of his birth and retire to Medina, than to make any resistance. But
this great passiveness and moderation seems entirely owing to his want of
power, and the great superiority of his opposers for the first twelve years of
his mission; for no sooner was he enabled, by the assistance of those of
Medina, to make head against his enemies, than he gave out, that GOD had
allowed him and his followers to defend themselves against the infidels; and
at length as his forces increased, he pretended to have the divine leave even
to attack them, and to destroy idolatry, and set up the true faith by the
sword; finding by experience that his designs would otherwise proceed very
slowly, if they were not utterly overthrown, and knowing on the other hand
that innovators, when they depend solely on their own strength, and can
compel, seldom run any risk; from whence, the politician observes, it follows,
that all the armed prophets have succeeded, and the unarmed ones have failed.
Moses, Cyrus, Theseus, and Romulus would not have been able to establish the
observance of their institutions for any length of time had they not been
armed.1 The first passage of the Korân which gave Mohammed the permission of
defending himself by arms, is said to have been that in the twenty-second
chapter; after which a great number to the same purpose were revealed.
That Mohammed had a right to take up arms for his own defence against his
unjust persecutors, may perhaps be allowed; but whether he ought afterwards to
have made use of that means for the establishing of his religion is a question
I will not here determine. How far the secular power may or ought to
interpose in affairs of this nature, mankind are not agreed. The method of
converting by the sword, gives no very favourable idea of the faith which is
so propagated, and is disallowed by everybody in those of another religion,
though the same persons are willing to admit of it for the advancement of
their own; supposing that though a false religion ought not to be established
by authority, yet a true one may; and accordingly force is almost as
constantly employed in these cases by those who have the power in their hands,
as it is constantly complained of by those who suffer the violence. It is
certainly one of the most convincing proofs that Mohammedism was no other than
human invention, that it owed its progress and establishment almost entirely
to the sword; and it is one of the strongest demonstrations of the divine
original of Christianity, that it prevailed against all the forces and powers
of the world by the mere dint of its own truth, after having stood the
assaults of all manner of persecutions, as well as other oppositions, for 300
years together and at length made the Roman emperors themselves submit
thereto;2 after which time, indeed, this proof seems to fail, Christianity
being
1 Machiavelli, Princ. c. 6. 2 See Prideaux's Letter
to the Deists, p. 220, &c.
then established and Paganism abolished by public authority, which has had
great influence in the propagation of the one and destruction of the other
ever since.1 But to return.
Mohammed having provided for the security of his companions as well as his
own, by the league offensive and defensive which he had now concluded with
those of Medina, directed them to repair thither, which they accordingly did;
but himself with Abu Becr and Ali stayed behind, having not yet received the
divine permission, as he pretended, to leave Mecca. The Koreish, fearing the
consequence of this new alliance, began to think it absolutely necessary to
prevent Mohammed's escape to Medina, and having held a council thereon, after
several milder expedients had been rejected, they came to a resolution that he
should be killed; and agreed that a man should be chosen out of every tribe
for the execution of this design, and that each man should have a blow at him
with his sword, that the guilt of his blood might fall equally on all the
tribes, to whose united power the Hashemites were much inferior, and therefore
durst not attempt to revenge their kinsman's death.
This conspiracy was scarce formed when by some means or other it came to
Mohammed knowledge, and he gave out that it was revealed to him the angel
Gabriel, who had now ordered him to retire to Medina. Whereupon, to amuse his
enemies, he directed Ali to lie down in his place and wrap himself up in his
green cloak, which he did, and Mohammed escape miraculously, as they pretend,2
to Abu Becr's house, unperceived by the conspirators, who had already
assembled at the prophet's door. They in the meantime, looking through the
crevice and seeing Ali, whom they took to be Mohammed himself, asleep,
continued watching there till morning, when Ali arose, and they found
themselves deceived.
From Abu Becr's house Mohammed and he went to a cave in Mount Thur, to the
south-east of Mecca, accompanied only by Amer Ebn Foheirah, Abu Becr's
servant, and Abd'allah Ebn Oreikat, an idolater, whom they had hired for a
guide. In this cave they lay hid three days to avoid the search of their
enemies, which they very narrowly escaped, and not without the assistance of
more miracles than one; for some say that the Koreish were struck with
blindness, so that they could not find the cave; others, that after Mohammed
and his companions were got in, two pigeons laid their eggs at the entrance,
and a spider covered the mouth of the cave with her web,3 which made them look
no farther.4 Abu Becr, seeing the prophet in such imminent danger, became
very sorrowful, whereupon Mohammed comforted him with these words, recorded in
the Korân:5 "Be not grieved, for GOD is with us." Their enemies being
retired, they left the cave and set out for Medina, by a by-road, and having
fortunately, or as the Mohammedans tell us, miraculously, escaped some who
were sent to pursue them,
1 See Bayle's Dict. Hist. Art. Mahomet, Rem. O. 2 See the notes
to chap. 8 and 36. 3 It is observable that the Jews have a
like tradition concerning David, when he fled from Saul into the cave; and the
Targum paraphrases these words of the second verse of Psalm lvii., which was
composed on occasion of that deliverance: "I will pray before the most high
GOD that performeth all things for me, in this manner; I will pray before the
most high GOD, who called a spider to weave a web for my sake in the mouth of
the cave." 4 Al Beidâwi in Kor. c. 9. Vide D'Herbel. Bibl.
Orient p. 445. 5 Cap. 9.
arrived safely at that city; whither Ali followed them in three days, after he
had settled some affairs at Mecca.4
The first thing Mohammed did after his arrival at Medina, was to build a
temple for his religious worship, and a house for himself, which he did on a
parcel of ground which had before served to put camels in, or as others tell
us, for a burying-ground, and belonged to Sahal and Soheil the sons of Amru,
who were orphans.5 This action Dr. Prideaux exclaims against, representing it
as a flagrant instance of injustice, for that, says he, he violently
dispossessed these poor orphans, the sons of an inferior artificer (whom the
author he quotes6 calls a carpenter) of this ground, and so founded the first
fabric of his worship with the like wickedness as he did his religion.7 But
to say nothing of the improbability that Mohammed should act in so impolitic a
manner at his first coming, the mohammedan writers set this affair ina quite
different light; one tells us that he treated with the lads about the price of
the ground, but they desired he would accept it asa present;8 however, as
historians of good credit assure us, he actually bought it,9 and the money was
paid by Abu Becr.1 Besides, had Mohammed accepted it as a present, the
orphans were in circumstances sufficient to have afforded it; for they were of
a very good family, of the tribe of Najjâr, one of the most illustrious among
the Arabs, and not the sons of a carpenter, as Dr. Prideaux's author writes,
who took the word Najjâr, which signifies a carpenter, for an appellative,
whereas it is a proper name.2
Mohammed being securely settled at Medina, and able not only to defend
himself against the insults of his enemies, but to attack them, began to send
out small parties to make reprisals on the Koreish; the first party consisting
of no more than nine men, who intercepted and plundered a caravan belonging to
that tribe, and in the action took two prisoners. But what established his
affairs very much, and was the foundation on which he built all his succeeding
greatness, was the gaining of the battle of Bedr, which was fought in the
second year of the Hejra, and is so famous in the Mohammedan history.3 As my
design is not to write the life of Mohammed, but only to describe the manner
in which he carried on his enterprise, I shall not enter into any detail of
his subsequent battles and expeditions, which amounted to a considerable
number. Some reckon no less than twenty-seven expeditions wherein Mohammed
was personally present, in nine of which he gave battle, besides several other
expeditions in which he was not present:4 some of them, however, will be
necessarily taken notice of in explaining several passages of the Korân. His
forces he maintained partly by the contributions of his followers for this
purpose, which he called by the name of Zacât or alms, and the paying of which
he very artfully made one main article of his religion; and partly by ordering
a fifth part of the plunder to be brought into the public treasury for that
purpose, in which manner he likewise pretended to act by the divine direction.
4 Abulfeda. Vit. Moh. p. 50, &c. Ebn Shohnah. 5 Abulfeda, ib.
p. 52, 53. 6 Disputatio Christiani contra Saracen. c. 4.
7 Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, p. 58. 8 Al Bokhâri in
Sonna.
9 Al Jannâbi 1 Ahmed Ebn Yusef. 2 Vide Gagnier, not. in
Abulfed. de Vit. Moh. p. 52, 53.
3 See the notes on the Korân, chap. 3. 4 Vide Abulfed. Vit.
Moh. p. 158.
In a few years by the success of his arms (notwithstanding he sometimes
came off by the worst) he considerably raised his credit and power. In the
sixth year of the Hejra he set out with 1,400 men to visit the temple of
Mecca, not with any intent of committing hostilities, but in a peaceable
manner. However, when he came to al Hodeibiya, which is situate partly within
and partly without the sacred territory, the Koreish sent to let him know that
they would not permit him to enter Mecca, unless he forced his way; whereupon
he called his troops about him, and they all took a solemn oath of fealty or
homage to him, and he resolved to attack the city; but those of Mecca sending
Araw Ebn Masúd, prince of the tribe of Thakîf, as their ambassador to desire
peace, a truce was concluded between them for ten years, by which any person
was allowed to enter into league either with Mohammed or with the Koreish as
he thought fit.
It may not be improper, to show the inconceivable veneration and respect
the Mohammedans by this time had for their prophet, to mention the account
which the above-mentioned ambassador gave the Koreish, at his return, of their
behaviour. He said he had been at the courts both of the Roman emperor and of
the king of Persia, and never saw any prince so highly respected by his
subjects as Mohammed was by his companions; for whenever he made the ablution,
in order to say his prayers, they ran and catched the water that he had used;
and whenever he spit, they immediately licked it up, and gathered up every
hair that fell from him with great superstition.1
In the seventh year of the Hejra, Mohammed began to think of propagating
his religion beyond the bounds of Arabia, and sent messengers to the
neighbouring princes with letters to invite them to Mohammedism. Nor was this
project without some success. Khosrû Parvîz, then king of Persia, received
his letter with great disdain, and tore it in a passion, sending away the
messenger very abruptly; which when Mohammed heard, he said, "GOD shall tear
his kingdom." And soon after a messenger came to Mohammed from Badhân, king
of Yaman, who was a dependant on the Persians,2 to acquaint him that he had
received orders to send him to Khosrû. Mohammed put off his answer till the
next morning, and then told the messenger it had been revealed to him that
night that Khosrû was slain by his son Shirûyeh; adding that he was well
assured his new religion and empire should rise to as great a height as that
of Khosrû; and therefore bid him advise his master to embrace Mohammedism.
The messenger being returned, Badhân in a few days received a letter from
Shirûyeh informing him of his father's death, and ordering him to give the
prophet no further disturbance. Whereupon Badhân and the Persians with him
turned Mohammedans.3
The emperor Heraclius, as the Arabian historians assure us, received
Mohammed's letter with great respect, laying it on his pillow, and dismissed
the bearer honourably. And some pretend that he would have professed this new
faith, had he not been afraid of losing his crown.4
Mohammed wrote to the same effect to the king of Ethiopia, though he had
been converted before, according to the Arab writers; and to
1 Abulfeda Vit. Moh. p. 85. 2 See before, p. 8. 3
Abulfeda, Vit. Moh. p. 92, &c. 4 Al Jannâbi.
Mokawkas, governor of Egypt, who gave the messenger a very favourable
reception, and sent several valuable presents to Mohammed, and among the rest
two girls, one of which, named Mary,1 became a great favourite with him. He
also sent letters of the like purport to several Arab princes, particularly
one to al Hareth Ebn Abi Shamer,2 king of Ghassân, who, returning for answer
that he would go to Mohammed himself, the prophet said, "May his kingdom
perish;" another to Hawdha Ebn Ali, king of Yamâma, who was a Christian, and
having some time before professed Islamism, had lately returned to his former
faith; this prince sent back a very rough answer, upon which Mohammed cursing
him, he died soon after; and a third to al Mondar Ebn Sâwa, king of Bahrein,
who embraced Mohammedism, and all the Arabs of that country followed his
example.3
The eighth year of the Hejra was a very fortunate year to Mohammed. In the
beginning of it Khâled Ebn al Walîd and Amru Ebn al As, both excellent
soldiers, the first of whom afterwards conquered Syria and other countries,
and the latter Egypt, became proselytes of Mohammedism. And soon after the
prophet sent 3,000 men against the Grecian forces, to revenge the death of one
of his ambassadors, who being sent to the governor of Bosra on the same errand
as those who went to the above-mentioned princes, was slain by an Arab of the
tribe of Ghassân at Mûta, a town in the territory of Balkâ in Syria, about
three days' journey eastward from Jerusalem, near which town they encountered.
The Grecians being vastly superior in number (for, including the auxiliary
Arabs, they had an army of 100,000 men), the Mohammedans were repulsed in the
first attack, and lost successively three of their general, viz., Zeid Ebn
Hâretha, Mohammed's freedman, Jaafar, the son of Abu Tâleb, and Abdâllah Ebn
Rawâha; but Khâled Ebn al Walîd, succeeding to the command, overthrew the
Greeks with a great slaughter, and brought away abundance of rich spoil;4 on
occasion of which action Mohammed gave him the honourable title of Seif min
soyûf Allah, One of the Swords of GOD.5
In this year also Mohammed took the city of Mecca, the inhabitants whereof
had broken the truce concluded on two years before. For the tribe of Becr,
who were confederates of the Koreish, attacking those of Khozâah, who were
allies of Mohammed, killed several of them, being supported in the action by a
party of the Koreish themselves. The consequence of this violation was soon
apprehended, and Abu Sofiân himself made a journey to Medina on purpose to
heal the breach and renew the truce,6 but in vain, for Mohammed, glad of this
opportunity, refused to see him; whereupon he applied to Abu Becr and Ali, but
they giving him no answer, he was obliged to return to Mecca as he came.
Mohammed immediately gave orders for preparations to be made, that he might
surprise the Meccans while they were unprovided to receive him; in a little
time he began his march thither, and by the
1 It is, however, a different name from that of the Virgin Mary, which the
Orientals always write Maryam, or Miriam-whereas this is written Mâriya.
2 This prince is omitted in Dr. Pocock's list of the kings of Ghassân,
Spec. p. 77.
3 Abulfeda, bui sup. p. 94, &c. 4 Idem ib. p. 99, 100, &c.
5 Al Bokhâri in Sonna.
6 This circumstance is a plain proof that the Koreish had actually broken the
truce, and that it was not a mere pretence of Mohammed's as Dr. Prideaux
insinuates. Life of Mahomet, p. 94.
time he came near the city his forces were increased to 10,000 men. Those of
Mecca being not in a condition to defend themselves against so formidable an
army, surrendered at discretion, and Abu Sofiân saved his life by turning
Mohammedan. About twenty-eight of the idolaters were killed by a party under
the command of Khâled; but this happened contrary to Mohammed's orders, who,
when he entered the town, pardoned all the Koreish on their submission, except
only six men and four women, who were more obnoxious than ordinary (some of
them having apostatized), and were solemnly proscribed by the prophet himself;
but of these no more than three men and one woman were put to death, the rest
obtaining pardon on their embracing Mohammedism, and one of the women making
her escape.1
The remainder of this year Mohammed employed in destroying the idols in and
round about Mecca, sending several of his generals on expeditions for that
purpose, and to invite the Arabs to Islamism: wherein it is no wonder if they
now met with success.
The next year, being the ninth of the Hejra, the Mohammedans call "the year
of embassies," for the Arabs had been hitherto expecting the issue of the war
between Mohammed and the Koreish; but so soon as that tribe-the principal of
the whole nation, and the genuine descendants of Ismael, whose prerogatives
none offered to dispute-had submitted, they were satisfied that it was not in
their power to oppose Mohammed, and therefore began to come in to him in great
numbers, and to send embassies to make their submissions to him, both to
Mecca, while he stayed there, and also to Medina, whither he returned this
year.2 Among the rest, five kings of the tribe of Hamyar professed
Mohammedism, and sent ambassadors to notify the same.3
In the tenth year Ali was sent into Yaman to propagate the Mohammedan faith
there, and as it is said, converted the whole tribe of Hamdân in one day.
Their example was quickly followed by all the inhabitants of that province,
except only those of Najrân, who, being Christians, chose rather to pay
tribute.4
Thus was Mohammedism established and idolatry rooted out, even in
Mohammed's lifetime (for he died the next year), throughout all Arabia, except
only Yamâma, where Moseilama, who set up also for a prophet as Mohammed's
co
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