Page:Thomas Patrick Hughes - Notes on Muhammadanism - 2ed. (1877).djvu/23

2 mad in English, and printed the first part of it at Allahabad ( 1851); but it was never completed. The learned author afterwards published his work in German in 1869. The only Life of Muhammad in English, which has any pretension to original research, is that by Sir William Muir of the Bengal Civil Service.

Muhammad (lit. the praised one), son of Abdul Muttalib, by his wife Amina, was born at Mecca, August 29th, 570. He assumed the prophetic office at the age of forty, fled from Mecca at the age of fifty-four, and died at Medinah, June 9th, 632, aged sixty-two.

The Hijrat, or Hegira (the flight from Mecca), which is the Muhammadan era, dates from July 16th, 622.

The character of Muhammad is an historic problem, and many have been the conjectures as to his motives and designs. Was he an impostor, a fanatic, or an honest man—"a very prophet of God?" And the problem might