Page:Mahometanism in its relation to prophecy - or, an inquiry into the prophecies concerning antichrist, with some reference to their bearing on the events of the present day (IA mahometanisminit00philrich).pdf/163

 founder pretended to be God's greatest prophet, or the utterer of God's revealed will, the term mouth is aptly used by the Prophet to designate this most striking characteristic of the Saracenic empire. And the Assyrian or Babylonian qualification here given to the mouth of the beast aptly describes the geographical position not only of its seat of government, but also of the birthplace of Mahomet, its founder, which was in the province of Hejaz, of which the capital was Mecca, one of the most notable provinces of the old Babylonian empire.

But the Prophet continues. He describes the body of the beast as being that of a leopard. What can this mean, but that the main body of the Saracenic empire consisted of the provinces that had formerly composed the empire of the Macedonian leopard? Now history tells us what countries were subdued by Alexander the Great, and history informs us that it was precisely this very territory that formed the main body of the Saracenic empire. Alexander devoured the territory of Asia Minor, Syria, Arabia, Babylonia, Persia, Egypt, even to the Indus; and it was precisely in the same territory that the Saracenic empire extended its dominion; in other words, to use the symbolical language of St. John and of Daniel, this beast had the body of a leopard.