Page:Walter Matthew Gallichan - Women under Polygamy (1914).djvu/45



the coming of the great Prophet of Islam polygamy in the East received a new seal. The worship of several deities was impeached by the reformer as false and injurious, and a monotheistic creed was substituted by the teaching of the Koran.

A founder of a new faith, however sincere and ardent his belief in revelation, is unable to detach from his inspiration the influence of national custom and tradition. Polygamy was a fixed and popular institution, venerated for its antiquity.

Probably no other system of sexual relationship ever presented itself to the mind of the prophet, except as an instance of the rankest heresy or sin. As an iconoclast vowed to the destruction of the old faiths, Mohammed had studied diligently the sacred writings of the Hebrews. In their Scriptures he read that the patriarchs and monarchs followed the rule of the