Page:History of Mahomet, that grand impostor.pdf/34

 One of his wives he took from one of his slaves, to whom she had been married before, which giving great offence to his disciples, who looked upon it as a scandalous action, he upon this composed the 33d chapter of the Alcoran, where he introduces God's approving his conduct in this affair, and hence this wife took occasion to boast, that his other wives were only given him by their relations, but she was married to him by God himself, who lives above the seven heavens.

Besides his wives, Mahomet had an Egyptian concubine in his old age, of whom he was extremely fond. This girl had been sent to him out of Egypt as a present, when she was about fifteen years of age, and he was soon captivated with her beauty; but how privately soever he managed his amours for fear of his wives, they were too cunning for him, and catched him in bed with this young Egyptian. Hereupon they reproached him bitterly, that so holy a man as he was, a prophet sent from God to teach men righteousness, should prove false to their bed, and pursue his inordinate lusts in his advanced age; at which being quite confounded, he promised with an oath, that if they would conceal the matter, he would never be guilty of the like crime for the future: but the violence of his flame soon led him into the same transgression, and he was again discovered in the fact by his jealous wives, who flew into a desperate rage, and loaded him with heavier reproaches than before: whereupon he was obliged to have recourse to his usual artifice, pretending a new revelation to justify him in this particular, which may be found in the sixty-sixth chapter of his Alcoran, where he introduces God giving permission to him and his followers to lie with their female slaves