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A son of a small store-keeper at Mecca—whose father died before the boy was born, and his mother six years after; working about the store; given to solitary meditation; at forty claiming that the angel Gabriel bade him spread the true religion by writing it; and told him of the Patriarchs and Israel, not as told in the Bible, but in the Midrash. Revering Jesus and Moses, whom he called the greatest prophets, next to himself, Mohammed had but a vague idea of the Christian religion. At first making a few proselytes from, the lower classes; he came out boldly as a preacher; urged all to lead a pious and moral life; and to believe in an all-wise God, who had chosen him to teach mankind how to be sure of eternal life. Thought crazy at first; as he gained strength, he was so fiercely threatened that he had to hide in a strong castle. With a hundred families, making a pilgrimage, or Hegira, to Medina; granting permission to go to war in the name of God, with the foes of Islam; defeating the Meccans; sending missionaries all over Arabia and other lands; deputations flocked to do him homage as God's messenger; making more pilgrimages to Mecca, one at the head of forty thousand Moslems; he taught many ceremonies, laws, and ordinances aimed to protect the weak, the poor, and women; to keep from usury; and to promote righteousness; and, at the last, having much to say of angels and heaven; in which latter place he thought there were far more women than men,—and black-eyed women at that. He also said that the angel Gabriel had brought down a copy of the Koran, bound in white silk, jewels, and gold; and during twenty-three years had taught him parts of it. The language of the Koran is of such surpassing elegance and purity, that it has become the ideal of Arabic classicality; and no human being is supposed to be capable of producing anything similar; which Mohammed says proves his mission.

One admirer—Prof. Bosworth Smith, of Oxford says: "By a fortune absolutely unique in history, Mohammed is a