CHAP. reifh; and ftipulates a dowry of twelve ounces of

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Qualifications of the prophet.

gold and twenty camels, which was fupplied by the liberality of his uncle "7. By this alliance, the fon of Abdallah was restored to the ftation of his anceftors; and the judicious matron was content with his domestic virtues, till, in the fortieth year of his age 6, he affumed the title of a prophet, and proclaimed the religion of the Koran.

According to the tradition of his companions, Mahomet" was diftinguished by the beauty of his perfon, an outward gift which is feldom defpifed, except by those to whom it has been refufed. Before he spoke, the orator engaged on his fide the affections of a public or private audience. They applauded his commanding prefence, his majestic afpect, his piercing eye, his gracious fmile, his

67 I copy the honourable teftimony of Abu Taleb to his family and nephew. Laus Dei, qui nos a ftirpe Abrahami et femine Ifmaelis conftituit, et nobis regionem facram dedit, et nos judices hominibus ftatuit. Porro Mohammed filius Abdollahi nepotis mei (nepos meus) quo cum ex æquo librabitur e Koraishidis quifpiam cui non præponderaturus eft, bonitate et excellentiâ, et intellectû et gloria et acumine etfi opum inops fuerit (et.certe opes umbra tranfiens funt et depofitum quod reddi debet), desiderio Chadija filiæ Chowailedi tenetur, et illa viciffim ipfius, quicquid autem dotis vice petieritis, ego in me suscipiam (Pocock, Specimen, e feptimå parte libri Ebn Hamduni).

68 The private life of Mahomet, from his birth to his miffion, is preserved by Abulfeda (in Vit. c. 37.), and the Arabian writers of genuine or apocryphal note, who are alleged by Hottinger (Hift. Orient. p. 204-211.), Maracci (tom. i. p. 10-14.), and Gagnier (Vie de Mahomet, tom. i. P. 97—134.).

69 Abulfeda, in Vit. c. Ixv, lxvi. Gagnier, Vie de Mahomet, tom. iii. p. 272-289.; the beft traditions of the perfon and converfation of the pro-phet are derived from Ayefha, Ali and Abu Horaira (Gagnier, tom. ii. .p. 267. Ockley's Hift. of the Saracens, voll. ii. p. 149.), furnamed the father of a cat, who died in the year 59 of the Hegira.

flowing

flowing beard, his countenance that painted every fenfation of the foul, and his gestures that enforced each expreffion of the tongue. In the familiar offices of life he fcrupulously adhered to the grave and ceremonious politenefs of his country: his respectful attention to the rich and powerful was dignified by his condefcenfion and affability to the poorest citizens of Mecca: the franknefs of his manner concealed the artifice of his views; and the habits of courtefy were imputed to perfonal friendship or univerfal benevolence. His memory was capacious and retentive, his wit eafy and focial, his imagination fublime, his judgment clear, rapid and decifive. He poffeffed the courage both of thought and action; and, although his defigns might gradually expand with his fuccefs, the firft idea that he entertained of his divine mission bears the stamp of an original and fuperior genius. The fon of Abdallah was educated in the bofom of the noblest race, in the ufe of the pureft dialect of Arabia; and the fluency of his fpeech was corrected and enhanced by the practice of discreet and seasonable filence. With thefe powers of eloquence, Mahomet was an illiterate Barbarian: his youth had never been inftructed in the arts of reading and writing"; the common ignorance exempted him from

70 Those who believe that Mahomet could read of write, are incapable of reading what is written, with another pen, in the Surats, or chapters cf the Koran vii. xxix. xcvi. Thefe texts, and the tradition of the Sonna, are admitted without doubt, by Abulfeda (in Vit. c. vii.), Gagnier (Not. ad Abulfed. p. 15.), Pocock (Specimen, p. 151.), Reland (de Religione Mohammedicâ, p. 236), and Sale (Preliminary Discourse, p. 42.). Mr. VOL. IX. White,

СНАР,

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4

CHAP. from fhame or reproach, but he was reduced to a narrow circle of existence, and deprived of thofe faithful mirrors, which reflect to our mind the minds of fages and heroes. Yet the book of nature and of man was open to his view; and fome fancy has been indulged in the political and philofophical obfervations which are afcribed to the Arabian traveller ". He compares the nations and the religions of the earth; discovers the weaknefs of the Perfian and Roman monarchies; beholds, with pity and indignation, the degeneracy of the times; and refolves to unite, under one God and one king, the invincible fpirit and primitive virtues of the Arabs. Our more accurate inquiry will fuggeft, that instead of vifiting the courts, the camps, the temples of the Eaft, the two journies of Mahomet into Syria were confined to the fairs of Boftra and Damafcus; that he was only thirteen years of age when he accompanied

White, almost alone, denies the ignorance, to accuse the imposture, of the prophet. His arguments are far from fatisfactory. Two fhort trading journies to the fairs of Syria, were furely not fufficient to infufe a fcience fo. rare among the citizens of Mecca: it was not in the cool deliberate act of a. treaty that Mahomet would have dropt the mafk; nor can any conclufion be drawn from the words of disease and delirium. The lettered youth, before he afpired to the prophetic character, must have often exercifed, in private life, the arts of reading and writing; and his first converts of his. own family, would have been the first to detect and upbraid his fcandalous. hypocrify (White's Sermons, p. 203, 204. Notes, p. xxxvi➡xxxviii.)..

71 The Count de Poulainvilliers (Vie de Mahomed, p. 202—228.) leads. his Arabian pupil, like the Telemachus of Fenelon, or the Cyrus of Ramsay. His journey to the court of Perfia is probably a fiction; nor can I trace the origin of his exclamation, "Les Grecs font pourtant des hommes." The two Syrian journies are expreffed by almoft all the Arabian writers, both Mahometans and Chriftians (Cagnier ad Abulfed. p. 10 ).

the

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the caravan of his uncle, and that his duty com- CHAP. pelled him to return as foon as he had difpofed of the merchandise of Cadijah. In these hafty and fuperficial excurfions, the eye of genius might difcern fome objects invifible to his groffer companions; fome feeds of knowledge might be caft upon a fruitful foil; but his ignorance of the Sy riac language must have checked his curiofity; and I cannot perceive in the life or writings of Mahomet, that his profpect was far extended beyond the limits of the Arabian world. From every region of that folitary world, the pilgrims of Meccá were annually affembled, by the calls of devotion and commerce: in the free concourfe of multitudes, a fimple citizen, in his native tongue, might study the political state and character of the tribes, the theory and practice of the Jews and Christians. Some useful strangers might be tempted, or forced, to implore the rights of hofpitality; and the enemies of Mahomet have named the Jew, the Perfian, and the Syrian monk, whom they accuse of lending their secret aid to the compofition of the Koran "2. Conversation enriches the understanding, but folitude is the school of genius; and the uniformity of a work denotes the hand of a fingle artist. From his earliest youth, Mahomet was addicted to religious contemplation: each year, during the month of Ramadan, he withdrew

72

72 I am not at leifure to purfue the fables or conjectures which name the ftrangers accufed or fufpected by the infidels of Mecca (Koran, c. 16. P. 223. c. 35. p. 297. with Sale's Remarks. Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, P. 22-27. Gagnier, Not. ad Abulfed. p. 11. 74. Maracci, tom. ii. p. 400.). Even Prideaux has obferved that the tranfaction must have been fecret, and that the fcene lay in the heart of Arabia..

One God.

CHAP. from the world and from the arms of Cadijah: L. in the cave of Hera, three miles from Mecca 73 he confulted the fpirit of fraud or enthusiasm, whofe abode is not in the heavens, but in the mind of the prophet. The faith which, under the name of Islam, he preached to his family and nation, is compounded of an eternal truth, and a necessary fiction, THAT THERE IS Only one God, AND THAT MAHOMET IS THE APOSTLE OF GOD.: It is the boaft of the Jewish apologists, that while the learned nations of antiquity were deluded by the fables of polytheism, their fimple ancestors of Palestine preserved the knowledge and worship of the true God. The moral attributes of Jehovah may not easily be reconciled with the ftandard of human virtue: his metaphyfical qualities are darkly expreffed; but each page of the Pentateuch and the Prophets is an evidence of his power: the unity of his name is infcribed on the firft table of the law; and his fanctuary was never defiled by any vifible image of the invifible effence. After the ruin of the temple, the faith of the Hebrew exiles was purified, fixed, and enlightened, by the fpiritual devotion of the fynagogue; and the authority of Mahomet will not justify his perpetual reproach, that the Jews of Mecca or Medina adored Ezra as the fon of God". But the children of Ifrael had

The

73 Abulfeda in Vit. c. 7. p. 15. Gagnier, tom. i. p. 133. 135. fituation of mount Hera is remarked by Abulfeda (Geograph. Arab. p. 4.). Yet Mahomet had never read of the cave of Egeria, ubi nocturnæ Numa conftituebat amicæ, of the Idæan mount, where Minos converfed with Jove, &c.

74 Koran, c. 9. p. 153. Al Beidawi, and the other commentators quoted by Sale, adhere to the charge; but I do not understand that it is coloured by the most cbfcure or abfurd tradition of the Talmudifts.

ceafed