Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/730

* MOHAMMED. 652 MOHAMMED. grimages and festive eereiuoiiies, its temples and fetishes. It had long eeased to be a living faith, ■but the mass of the people elung to it as to a saered inheritance from times immemorial. The unity of tiod, the 'ancient religion of Abraham/ was the doctrine promulgated by the religious re- formers, and many were roused by their words to search for a form of religion which should embody both the traditions of their forefathers and a purer doctrine of the divinity, and turned to Judaism or to Christianity. Jlccca, the centre of the pilgrimages of most of the Arabian tribes, where, from times anterior to the city itself, the Kaaba (q.v. ), Mount Arafat, the valley of ilina, etc., had been held sacred — the Koreish, Mo- hammed's tribe, had had supreme care over tlicse sanctuaries since the fifth century — was natu- rally the scene of much of this reform preaching. Surrounded by such conditions, Mohammed in his fortieth year entered the field as a teacher of a faith independent alike of the old idolatry and of Judaism and Christianity. Like other Ori- ental projiliets, he claimed to have received a divine call, which, he asserted, had come to him in the solitude of the mountain llira, near Mec- ca. Gabriel ajipearcd to him. and comman<lcd him to proclaim the name of Allah — that is, to preach the true religion. That Mohanniied was no common impostor is clear. The source of his visions is more diflicult to determine. By some they have been attributed to his epilepsy. Un- doubtedly they were in <'onsiderable measure due to his frequent retirement into desert solitudes, which brought on the ecstasies so familiar in Oriental religious enthusiasts. W'araka, one of his wife's relatives, who had embraced .ludaism. may have instructed him in .lewish doctrines and told him the stories of the patriarchs and Israel, not as they are related in the Bible, but as in the Jlidrash. The legendary poetry of the latter seems to have made as deep an impression on Mohammed's poetical mind as the doctrine of the unity of (Jod and the moral teachings of the Old Testament, together with those civil and re- ligious laws, .scriptural and oral, which are either contained as germs or fully developed in this record. Christianity exercised less influence ujxin him. His knowledge of the Xew Testament was confined to a few apocr^-phal books; ami while he recognized .Jesus, whom, together with Moses, he called the greatest prophet next to himself, his notions of the Christian relij;ion anil its founder were excessively vague. He tidil of his mission to Khadija, wlio stood by him faithfully from the first, to his daughter, his step-son -li. his favorite slave Zaid. whom he had freed and adopted, and to his trustworthy friend. .bu Bekr. His other relatives rejecte<I his teachings. Abu l.ahab. his uncle, called him a fool ; and .bu Talib. his uncle and adoptive father, although he protected him. never professed belief in Moham- med's works. By the fourth year of his mission he had made forty i)roselytes. chiedy slaves and people from the lower ranks; and now first he claimed to have received a command to come forward publicly as a preacher, and to defy (he unbelievers. He vigorously assailed the superstition of the Mee- enns. and exhorted tlwrn to believe in a just but merciful f!od. eternal, indivisible, nlniighty. and all-wise, and in himself as chosen, like the prophets of old. to teach mankind how to esi'ape the punishments of hell and attain eternal happi- ness. He adopted a primitive Oriental doctrine that the mercy of God is to be obtained by prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. He was too practical to challenge the strong belief in the sacredness of the Kaaba and thi' ceremonies of the pilgrimage, and he made them a part of the new religion; but he unsparingly condenmed certain barbarous habits of the Bedouins, such as the killing of their new-born daughters. The prohiliition of certain kinds of food also belongs to the first period, when he was still under the inllueuce of •ludaism; the prohibition of gambling, usury, etc., probably are of a .somewhat later date. Whether he did or did not understand the art of writing and reading is not qnite cle;ir; but be employed the services of amanuenses for his Koranic dicta, which at first consisted merely of brief rhymed sentences, in the manner of the ancient .Vrabic soothsayers. The Meccans looked upon him as a conunon "poet' or 'soothsayer.' who was not in his right .senses, or simply a liar. Xevertheless, the number of his converts in- creased until his progress comixdled attention; and, finally, fearing for the sacredness of Mecca, the rejection of which would <leprive them both of their i)rceminence and of rcv<'nue, they assailed the new prophet and his adherents, who dared "to call their ancient gods idols, and their an- cestors fools." The converted slaves and f reed- men had to undergo terrible punishment ; and others suffered so much at the hands of their own relatives that they were fain to revoke their creed: so that the Prophet himself advised lii.s followers to emigrate to .l)yssinia. Moluunmed himself yielded so much as to acknowledge the idols by had assailed as intermediate between <iod and man: but he soon revoked this as an in- spiration of Satan, thereby increasing the hatred uf his adversaries, who in every way tried to throw ridicule upon him. At last it became necessarj' that he should be luit beyond the reach of his persecutors, and .bu Talib hid him in a fortified castle of his own in the country. Ham- za. his uncle, and Omar, who was formerly an enemy of Mohammed, and who later succeeded .liu Bekr as the third head of Islam, continued in the meantime to spread the new doctrine. The Koreish now demanded that Mohammed should be delivered into their hands: but .bu Talib stead- fastly refused to comply with their wishes; a feud thereupon broke out with the family of the Ilashimites, and Mohanniied and all the mem- bers of his family, except, perhaps, .bu I.abab, were excomnninicated. .ftcr the space of Ihrce ycjirs. however, the 'peace party' in Mecca brought about a reconciliation, and Mohammed was allowed to return. . great grief befell him at tjiis time — his faithful wife Khadija died, and shortly afterwards his uncle, Abn Talib, and to aild to his misery the vicissitudes of his career had reduced him by this time to poverty. . migration to Taif. where he sought to improve his jxisition. proved a failure: it was with great dillieulty that be escaped with his life. Shortly after his return from Taif he married Sauda. and in the course of his later life so increased the mimber of his wives that at his death he left nine, of whom .yesha. the daughter of .Abu Bi-kr, and lliifsa. the ilaiiphter of Omar, are best known. In the cotirse of time Moh:immed succeeded in (•(mvcrting several men from ^'athrib, who came to Mei-ca on pilgrimage. The inhabitants of that city had long been accustomed to hear from the