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by the Magians; but the injuries of the Sabians CHAP. were revenged by the sword of Alexander; Perfia groaned above five hundred years under a foreign yoke; and the purest disciples of Zoroaster escaped from the contagion of idolatry, and breathed with their adversaries the freedom of the defert 9. Seven The Jews, hundred years before the death of Mahomet the Jews were fettled in Arabia: and a far greater multitude was expelled from the holy land in the wars of Titus and Hadrian. The induftrious exiles afpired to liberty and power: they erected fynagogues in the cities and caftles in the wilderness, and their Gentile converts were confounded with the children of Ifrael, whom they resembled in the outward mark of circumcifion.

The Chriftian The Chri

miflionaries were still more active and fuccessful: the Catholics afferted their univerfal reign; the fects whom they oppreffed fucceffively retired beyond the limits of the Roman empire; the Marcionites and the Manichæans difperfed their phantaftic opinions and apocryphal gospels; the churches of Yemen, and the princes of Hira and Gassan, were instructed in a purer creed by the Jacobite and Neftorian bishops ". The liberty of

60

p. 607-614.) may explain their tenets. But it is a flippery tafk to afcertain the creed of an ignorant people, afraid and afhamed to disclose their fecret traditions.

59 The Magi were fixed in the province of Bahrein (Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom. iii. p. 114.), and mingled with the old Arabians (Pocock, Specimen, p. 146—1 50.).

6 The state of the Jews and Christians in Arabia is described by Pocock from Shareftani, &c. (Specimen, p. 60. 134, &c.), Hottinger (Hift. Orient. p. 212—238.), d'Herbelot (Bibliot. Orient. p. 474-476.), Basnage (Hist. des Juifs, tom. vii. p. 185. tom. viii. p. 280.), and Sale (Preliminary Discourse, p. 22, &c. 33, &c.).

tians.

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CHAP. choice was prefented to the tribes: each Arab was free to elect or to compofe his private religion : and the rude fuperftition of his houfe was mingled with the fublime theology of faints and philofophers. A fundamental article of faith was inculcated by the consent of the learned strangers; the existence of one fupreme God, who is exalted above the powers of heaven and earth, but who has often revealed himself to mankind by the ministry of his angels and prophets, and whofe grace or justice has interrupted, by feasonable miracles, the order of nature. The most rational of the Arabs acknowledged his power, though they neglected his worship "; and it was habit rather than' conviction that ftill attached them to the relics of idolatry. The Jews and Chriftians were the people of the book; the bible was already translated into the Arabic language 62, and the volume of the old teftament was accepted by the concord of these implacable enemies. In the ftory of the Hebrew patriarchs, the Arabs were pleased to discover the fathers of their nation. They applauded the birth

61

61 In their offerings it was a maxim to defraud God for the profit of the idol, not a more potent, but a more irritable patron (Pocock, Specimen, p. 108, 109.).

62 Our verfions now extant, whether Jewish or Chriftian, appear more recent than the Koran; but the exiftence of a prior tranflation may be fairly inferred, 1. From the perpetual practice of the fynagogue, of expounding the Hebrew leffon by a paraphrafe in the vulgar tongue of the country. 2. From the analogy of the Armenian, Perfian, Æthiopic verfions, expressly quoted by the fathers of the fifth century, who affert that the Scriptures were tranflated into all the Barbaric languages (Walton, Prolegomena ad Biblia Polyglot. p. 34. 93-97. Simon, Hift. Critique du V. et du N. Teftament, tom. i. p. 180, 181. 282-286. 293. 305, 306. tom. iv. p. 206.).

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and promifes of Ifmael; revered the faith and CHA P. virtue of Abraham; traced his pedigree and their own to the creation of the firft man, and imbibed with equal credulity, the prodigies of the holy text, and the dreams and traditions of the Jewish rabbis.

who exalt

are

Birth and

education

of Maho

569-609.

The base and plebeian origin of Mahomet is an unfkilful calumny of the Chriftians 63, who exalt inftead of degrading the merit of their adverfary. met, A. D. His defcent from Ifmael was a national privilege or fable; but if the firft fteps of the pedigree 64 dark and doubtful, he could produce many generations of pure and genuine nobility: he sprung from the tribe of Koreifh and the family of Hafhem, the moft illuftrious of the Arabs, the princes of Mecca, and the hereditary guardians of the Caaba. The grandfather of Mahomet was Abdol Motalleb, the fon of Hafhem, a wealthy and generous citizen, who relieved the diftrefs of famine with the fupplies of commerce. Mecca, which had been fed by the liberality of the father, was faved by the courage of the fon. The kingdom of Yemen was fubject to the Christian princes

63 In eo conveniunt omnes, ut plebeio vilique genere ortum, &c. (Hot. tinger, Hift. Orient. p. 136.). Yer Theophanes, the most ancient of the 'Greeks, and the father of many a lie, confeffes that Mahomet was of the race of Ifmael, ex μias yɛVIXWTarng Quλng (Chronograph. p. 277.).

64 Abulfeda (in Vit. Mohammed. c. 1,.2.) and Gagnier (Vie de Mahomet, p. 25-97.) defcribe the popular and approved genealogy of the prophet. At Mecca, I would not difpute its authenticity: at Lausanne, I will venture to obferve, 1. That from Ifmael to Mahomet, a period of 2500 years, they reckon thirty, instead of feventy-five generations. 2. That the modern Bedoweens are ignorant of their history and careless of their pedigree (Voyage de d'Arvieux, p. 100. 103.).

of

CHA P. of Abyffinia: their vaffal Abrahah was provoked

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by an' infult to avenge the honour of the crofs; and the holy city was invested by a train of elephants and an army of Africans. A treaty was proposed; and in the firft audience, the grandfather of Mahomet demanded the restitution of his cattle." And "why," faid Abrahah," do you not rather implore Ca my clemency in favour of your temple, which I "have threatened to destroy?" destroy?" "Because," replied the intrepid chief," the cattle is my own: "the Caaba belongs to the gods, and they will de"fend their house from injury and facrilege." The want of provifions, or the valour of the Koreish, compelled the Abyffinians to a difgraceful retreat; their discomfiture has been adorned with a miraculous flight of birds, who showered down ftones on the heads of the infidels; and the deliverance was Deliverance long commemorated by the era of the elephant". The glory of Abdol Motalleb was crowned with domestic happiness, his life was prolonged to the age of one hundred and ten years, and he became the father of fix daughters and thirteen fons. His best beloved Abdallah was the most beautiful and mo

of Mecca.

65 The feed of this hiftory, or fable, is contained in the cvth chapter of the Koran; and Gagnier (in Præfat. al Vit. Moham. p. 18, &c.) has tranf Jated the hiftorical narrative of Abulfeda, which may be illustrated from d'Herbelot (Bibliot. Orientale, p. 12.), and Pocock (Specimen, p. 64.). Prideaux (Life of Mahomet, p. 48.) calls it a lie of the coinage of Mahomet ; but Sale (Koran, p. 501-503.), who is half a Mufulman, attacks the incon fiftent faith of the Doctor for believing the miracles of the Delphic Apollo. Maracci (Alcoran, tom. i. part ii. p. 14. tom. ii. p. 823.) afcribes the miracle to the devil, and extorts from the Mahometans the confeffion, that God would not have defended against the Chriftians the idols of the Çaaba.

deft

66

deft of the Arabian youth; and in the first night, CHAP.
when he confummated his marriage with Amina, of
the noble race of the Zahrites, two hundred vir-
gins are faid to have expired of jealoufy and de-
spair. Mahomet, or more properly Mohammed,
the only son of Abdallah and Amina, was born at
Mecca, four years after the death of Juftinian, and
two months after the defeat of the Abyffinians ",
whose victory would have introduced into the
Caaba the religion of the Chriftians. In his early
infancy, he was deprived of his father, his mother,
and his grandfather; his uncles were strong and
numerous; and in the division of the inheritance,
the orphan's fhare was reduced to five camels and
an Æthiopian maid-servant. At home and abroad,
in
peace
and war,
Abu Taleb, the most respectable
of his uncles, was the guide and guardian of his
youth; in his twenty-fifth year, he entered into
the fervice of Cadijah, a rich and noble widow of
Mecca, who foon rewarded his fidelity with the
gift of her hand and fortune. The marriage con-
tract, in the fimple style of antiquity, recites the
mutual love of Mahomet and Cadijah; defcribes
him as the most accomplished of the tribe of Ko-

66 The fafeft æras of Abulfeda (in Vit. c. i. p. 2.), of Alexander, or the Greeks, 882, of Bocht Nafer, or Nabonaffer, 1316, equally leads us to the year 569. The old Arabian calendar is too dark and uncertain to support the Benedictines (Art de verifier-les Dates, p. 15.), who from the day of the month and week deduce a new mode of calculation, and remove the birth of Mahomet to the year of Chrift 570, the 10th of November. Yet this date would agree with the year 882 of the Greeks, which is affigned by Eknacin (Hist. Saracen. p. 5.) and Abulpharagius (Dynast. p. 101. and Errata Pocock's verfion). While we refine our chronology, it is poffible that the illiterate prophet was ignorant of his own age.

ΙΟ

reish;