OF MOHAMMEDISM*. GENERAL VIEW. MOHAMMEDISM takes its name from Mahomet, or Mohammed, its author and founder, who was born at Mecca, a city in Arabia Felix, A.D. 571. The circumstances which attended his earlier years were such as presented no flattering prospects of grandeur, and no probable view of ambition to his future life. Though descended from the tribe of Koreish, the most honourable of Arabia, and from the family of Hashem, the noblest of that tribe, yet distress and poverty were the only portion which he inherited. Soon after he was born, his father, Abdollah, died, when five camels and an Ethiopian female slave comprised the whole of his property which remained for the support of his widow Amena and her infant son. Death also deprived him, not only of her protection, but likewise of that of his grandfather, Abdol-Motalleb, while he was yet at an early age. When we consider then the point from which he set out, and the height to which he rose ; when we contemplate the greatness of that empire, and the extent of that religion, which he founded; our astonishment is excited as well by the splendid talents and the profound artifice of the impostor, as by the blind compliance and abject credulity of the multitudes whom he deceived. The education which he received, like that of the rest of his countrymen, was rough and hardy; neither tempered by the elegancies of literature, nor even enlightened by the first and most obvious rudiments of knowledge; but calculated rather to invigorate The Mohammedan world is also frequently expressed by the term Eslam, or Islamism, which means the total resignation of body and soul to God. Moslem, or Muselman (in the plural Moslems and Muselmans), is a derivation from Eslam, and is the common name of Mohammedaus, withont distinction of sect or opinion. the powers of the body, than to polish and enlarge the mind. But, graceful in his person, easy and insinuating in his manners, and endowed with a greatness of mind which could brave the storms of adversity and rise superior to the disadvantages of an illiterate education, he was in possession of accomplishments more valuable in themselves, and capable of producing more illustrious effects, than all that the influence of wealth, or the authority of hereditary power, could have bestowed. But if Mohammed, deprived of the usual means of cultivation and improvement, was, during the earlier years of his life, left solely to the guidance of untutored nature; he, at a more advanced age, enjoyed the most favourable opportunities of acquiring a species of information far more conducive to the success of his subsequent designs than the maxims of science or the refinements of philosophy; the knowledge, I mean, of men and manners. Urged by the call of unavoidable necessity, and favoured by a situation peculiarly advantageous to commercial pursuits, the people of Mecca carried on a constant and extensive intercourse with Persia, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. In these employments the impostor was early initiated by his uncle, AbuTaleb, to whose care he had been left by his father, and whose caravan he twice accompanied into Syria, to attend the fairs of Bostra and Damascus, when only thirteen years of age. And during his travels into the neighbouring nations, besides the general improvement and cultivation of his mind, he collected those particular observations which afterwards induced him to form, and acquired that knowledge which enabled him to execute, his daring and ambitious designs. Whilst engaged in the occupations of commerce, and discharging the humble duties of a servant, his strong and active genius already rose above the meanness and obscurity of his station; and, from a well-grounded confidence in its own powers, inspired him with an opinion that he was born to move in a higher and more illustrious sphere. But when a sudden and unexpected change of fortune had raised him from poverty and dependence to opulence and ease, this opinion returned with augmented force; and he now began to meditate seriously on the means of realizing those ideas, which had hitherto proceeded rather from the warmth of imagination, than from the deliberate dictates of reason, or even the impulses of serious and habitual hope. In the twenty-fifth year of his age he was raised to an equality with the richest citizens of Mecca, by his alliance with Khadijah, a noble and opulent widow of that city, whose mercantile affairs he had conducted in Syria for some years so much to her satisfaction that she advanced him, though twelve years younger than herself, from the rank of a servant, to be the partner of her bed. This event may justly be considered as the foundation of all the future fortune of Mohammed, who, sensible of the advantages he had derived from Khadijah, is said to have remained strictly faithful to her during the whole of her life; and, after her death, to have ever spoken of her in terms of the warmest and most grateful respect. From this period to his fortieth year, the time when he announced his mission as the prophet of the Most High, history has recorded nothing of consequence concerning his actions and pursuits. Fifteen years of his life are involved in the deepest and most impenetrable obscurity. One historian only informs us, that God had inspired his prophet with a love of solitude and retirement. But, in this single information, we see a ray of light sufficient to clear up the darkness of this mysterious interval. In a lonely cave, in the recess of Mount Hara, near Mecca, he shunned the society of men. Doubtless, it was in this silence of retirement that the artful impostor laid the foundation of his future greatness. Here he drew the general outlines, and here he adjusted the several particulars of that great and hazardous project which was hereafter to raise him to glory and dominion. At the time when Mohammed travelled into the neighbouring nations, there were some peculiar circumstances in their government and manners, which were calculated to strike the deepest impression on a vigorous and reflecting mind. The internal distractions of Persia on the one side, and the notorious weakness of the Roman provinces on the other, together with the universal corruption of manners that prevailed amongst the inbabitants of both, were indications, too strong to be overlooked, of the approaching ruin of these mighty and unwieldy empires. But the state of religion was probably the grand and principal object that attracted his attention and employed his reflections. A little consideration, and especially an acquaintance with the Jewish and Christian doctrines, must have convinced him of the absurdity of that impious idolatry in which he had been educated, and in all the madness of which his countrymen were still plunged almost universally. In the mean time, he beheld the Jews, despised and detested by all men, adhering with unshaken attachment to the Law of Moses: whilst the Christians, divided in their faith, |