Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 5 (1897).djvu/420

 398 THE DECLINE AND FALL reduced to the cities of Mecca, Medina, and Tayef ; and perhaps the Koreish would have restored the idols of the Caaba, if their levity had not been checked by a seasonable reproof. " Ye men of Mecca, will ye be the last to embrace and the first to aban- don the religion of Islam ? " After exhorting the Moslems to confide in the aid of God and his apostle, Abubeker resolved, by a vigorous attack, to prevent the junction of the rebels. The women and children were safely lodged in the cavities of the mountains : the warriors, marching under eleven banners, dif- fused the terror of their arms ; and the appearance of a military force revived and confirmed the loyalty of the faithful. The inconstant tribes accepted, with humble repentance, the duties of prayer and fasting and alms ; and, after some examples of success and severity, the most daring apostates fell prostrate before the sword of the Lord and of Caled. In the fertile pro- [Temama] vince of Yemannah,! between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Persia, in a city not inferior to Medina itself, a powerful chief, [MucaiUma] his name was Moseilama, had assumed the character of a prophet, and the ti*ibe of Hanifa listened to his voice. A female pro- [sejah] phetess was attracted by his reputation : the decencies of words and actions were spurned by these favourites of heaven,'^ and they employed several days in mystic and amorous converse. An obscure sentence of his Koran, or book, is yet extant ; •* and, in the pride of his mission, Moseilama condescended to offer a ^ See the description of the city and country of AlYainanah, in Abulfeda, Descript. Arabia;, p. 60, 61. In the .xiiith century, there were some ruins, and a few palms, but in the present century, the same ground is occupied by the visions and arms of a modern prophet, whose tenets are imperfectly known (Niebuhr, Description de I'Arabie, p. 296-302). 2 Their first salutation may be transcribed, but cannot be translated. It was thus that Moseilama [Musailima is a mocking diminutive of Maslama] said or sung : Surge tandem itaque strenue permolenda ; nam stratus tibi thorus est. Aut in propatulo tentorio si velis, aut in abditiore cubiculo si malis ; Aut supinam te humi exporrectam fustigabo, si velis, aut si malis manibus pedi- busque nixam. Aut si velis ejus (Priapi) gemino triente, aut si malis lotus veniam. Imo, totus venito, O Apostole Dei, clamabat fcemina. Id ipsum dicebat Moseilama mihi quoque suggessit Deus. The prophetess Segjah, after the fall of her lover, returned to idolatry ; but, under the reign of Moawiyah, she became a Musulman, and died at Bassora (Abulfeda, Annal. vers. Reiske, p. 63). [The tradition that Musailima and Sejah spent three days " in amorous converse" is found in Tabari (i. p. 135-7, ed. Kosegarten), but seems to be refuted by the circumstance that Musailima was then more than a hundred years old ; Weil, i. p. 22.] 3 See this text, which demonstrates a God from the works of generation, in Abulpharagius (Specimen Hist. ,ralnmi, p. 13, and Dynast, p. 103) and Abulfeda (.^nnal. p. 63).