Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/712

 694 MOHAMMED entered the service of a rich widow named 'Khadijah. Several business journeys which he made for her through Syria and Arabia so pleased her that she determined to marry him. According to the common tradition Khadijah was then 40, and Mohammed a little over 25 years old. After his marriage Mohammed gave up business, and for ten years was chiefly occupied with his family, having by Khadijah four daughters and two sons ; both sons died young. From his 35th to his 40th year Mo- hammed frequently resorted to a solitary cave of Mt. Kara, to give himself up entirely to re- ligious contemplation. There, amid spasmodic convulsions, he had his first vision, in which the angel Gabriel appeared and commanded him to recite what he (the angel) said. Mo- hammed was troubled as to the nature of his mission, whether it came from an angel or from an evil spirit. His wife consulted her cousin Waraka, " who was old and blind " and knew the scriptures of the "Jews and Christians," and he assured her, and afterward Mohammed himself, that "God had chosen him to be the prophet of this people." The revelations con- tinued henceforth without interruption to the end of his life, and were dictated by Mohammed to several secretaries, committed by his adhe- rents to memory, and after his death collected and written down. (See KORA.N.) His wife was his first convert. During the first three years of his mission only the relatives and friends of Mohammed acknowledged him as a prophet, and the whole number of believers (Moslemin or Moslems) amounted scarcely to 40, among whom were Abubekr and AH. In the fourth or fifth year of his mission he came forward publicly in compliance with a special message, and pro- claimed himself a prophet, but met only with imprecations and ill treatment. To protect him from attempts on his life, he was removed by his uncle Abu Taleb to a fortified castle outside of Mecca, where he remained three years. The Koreishites outlawed him and his disciples. When the interdict, after the expi- ration of three years, was removed, Moham- med returned to Mecca ; and soon after, in the tenth year of his mission, he lost his uncle and protector Abu Taleb, who never acknowledged the mission of his nephew. Three days later he lost his wife Khadijah, during whose lifetime he had not taken other wives ; after her death he soon married several, nine of whom survived him. Mohammed was again expelled from Mec- ca, and also from Tayef ; but soon he reentered Mecca, greatly strengthened by his celebrated journey to heaven. His relation of the jour- ney, which he called a dream, increased the wrath of his enemies, and caused the defection of some of his adherents. Some pilgrims from Yathreb, belonging to the tribe of Khazraj, were converted in 621, and on their return propagated his doctrines at home. In 622, 73 Moslems from Yathreb appeared at Mecca, and concluded with Mohammed a treaty offensive and defensive. In September of the same year, in consequence of a new plot against his life, he fled to Yathreb, whither the Meccan believers, 45 in number, had partly preceded him, and partly soon followed him. On his way he also converted the tribe Beni Sahm. At Yathreb the new faith was established on a firm basis, and not without reason therefore the era of the Moslems begins with the flight of the prophet, the Hegira. (See HEGIRA.) Moreover, the name of Yathreb was changed into Medinet en-Nebi, " the city of the prophet " (Medina). Moham- med at first endeavored to convert the numer- ous Jews in Arabia, and made them important concessions ; but these he rescinded on their de- clining to adopt his religion, and became their irreconcilable enemy. During the first year of the Hegira he built a mosque at Medina, institu- ted religious rites, and proclaimed war against the unbelievers. He commenced this sacred war with attacks on the caravans of pilgrims, which led in 623 to an engagement at Bedr between 314 Moslems and 600 Meccans under Abu Sofian, the chief of Mecca, in which the Moslems were victors. In the following years Mohammed suffered many reverses; he was defeated by the Koreishites in the battle of Mt. Ohod (625), and besieged in Medina (627) ; and even among his followers a party was stirred up against him. To restore his reputation and influence, he determined to organize a large pilgrimage to Mecca, but was impelled by a dream to start with only 700 men. The Mec- cans prevented him from entering the city, but at last concluded a truce for ten years, with the promise that the following year he would be admitted to the city as a pilgrim. To divert the discontent of his fellow pil- grims, he led them against several Jewish tribes, and on the whole was successful ; yet a Jewess, Zainab, to avenge the death of her relatives, prepared for him a poisoned lamb, which, as he believed, destroyed his health. At this time the plans of Mohammed for the spreading of his religion assumed a wider scope. He sent written demands to the Persian king Chosroes II., the Abyssinian king, the emperor Heraclius, the governor of Egypt, and the chiefs of several Arab tribes. Some re- ceived his ambassadors courteously, but Chos- roes tore up Mohammed's letter, while the people of Muta killed his envoy. In a war undertaken to avenge this murder the troops of Mohammed fought a desperate battle at Muta, in which Khaled, a new convert, highly distinguished himself, and was consequently termed by Mohammed "the Sword of God." He punished the Meccans, who had broken faith with him, and compelled them to ac- knowledge him as a sovereign and a prophet. The possession of Mecca decided the victory of the new religion in Arabia, and notwith- standing temporary reverses, the subjection of a majority of the inhabitants of Arabia to Mohammed's rule and religion became com- plete. He returned to Medina, where in the ninth year of the Hegira he received deputa-