Mohamvied as an Impostor. — ^^Vhile at Mecca the prophet had kept unflinchingly in his path, through mockery and persecution. No threats, no injuries, I had hindered him from preaching to his people the unity and the righteousness of God, and exhorting to a far purer and better morality than had ever been I set before them. He had claimed no temporal power, j no spiritual domination ; he had asked but for simple toleration, for free permission to win men by persuasion into the way of truth. He claimed to be sent neither to compel conviction b}'' miracles, nor to constrain out- ward profession by the sword. He was but a preacher, sent to warn men that there is one God, and that there is no other; that all that He requires is that men should do justice and love mercy, and walk humbly with their God, and as the sanction of all, that there will be a res- urrection of the dead, as well of the just as of the unjust. Such had been his teachings at Mecca, and in his own person he had fulfilled the duties urged upon others — a thoroughly good and righteous man, according to his light, with nothing to be alleged against his life, even if judged by a higher morality than that of the Koran. His virtues 7nay have been hypocrisy, his mission vwy have been imposture, but as a resident of Mecca all his actions outwardly had created a presumption in his fa- vor. With his arrival at Medina, however, tne scene shifts, and with the days of power and victory of the propagandist opens a dark and bloody page in the his- tory of the East. From the moment when the formerly despised " madman and impostor" was raised to the po- sition of highest judge, lawgiver, and ruler of Medina, and of the two most powerful Arabic tribes — thus open- ing a vast theatre to the enthusiasm and ambition of Mohammed — his revelations assumed a much higher claim. He now inculcated as a matter of religion and of faith the waging of war against the infidels ; and the sword once drawn at the command of heaven, from that time remained unsheathed until the tribes of all Arabia and the adjacent countries had joined in the profession i that there is no God but Allah, and that Mohammed is his apostle.
Acts of such character, Mohammed, even if not en- dowed with a very delicate ethic sense, must have known to be wrong, and could have approved solelj' for a selfish end. Even before his emigration to Medina he had, in several instances, deviated from the truth, where it seemed to answer his purpose best. Thus he had related the whole historv' of the Old and New Tes- tament prophets, spiced by Jewish and Christian tradi-
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MOHAMINIED
dons, and had claimed them as communicated to him by the aii^el Gabriel — an assertion which was of course discredited by the Meccans, who guessed rightly that he owed tliis knowledge to his conversations with foreign scriptural scholars. Revelations also concerning his own person, and which he can certainly not have believed iiimself, abound in the Koran. Thus he had restricted the number of legitimate wives to four, but exempted himself from that restraint, and after the death of his lirst wife married twelve others. Another time he fell ill love with a female slave, and when his consorts ex- ]iressed their displeasure he swore that he would forsake iier. A few months subsequently he bad himself re- leased from his oath by some verses of the Koran, and threatened his women with divorce if they should con- tinue to stand in the way of his voluptuousness. His rc'lation to Zeineb or Zaid, the spouse of his former slave anil later adopted son, throws a still worse light on liis revelations. Zaid, observing that Mohammed paid uiuhie attention to his wife, caused himself to be di- vorced from her. Mohammed took her in matrimony, lint when this marriage was found very reprehensible, because he had shown so little regard to Zaiil's feelings, and because an adopted son with the Arabs was deemed equal to a son german, wherefore matrimony contract- ed with his wife, even after divorce, was considered ille- gal, Mohammed, in the name of God, branded as ab- surd, first, the usage hitherto in vogue calling an adopt- ed male child a son, and in future declared such proced- ure even sinful, by actual proof drawn from the Koran, and announced that, far from having advised Zaid to separate himself from his wife, he had rather tried to dissuade Zaid from such a course ; and, in the second jilace, that he (Mohammed), even after the separation, afraid of men's judgment, had hesitated to marry her, until God commanded him, in order to demonstrate that lie who acted according to the Lord's will need not care for the talk of men, and in order that he might add, by the force of his own example, more vigor to the law re- specting adopted sons.
But to return to the extemal history of IMohammed and his votaries. First of all our attention is claimed by the first battle proper, fought near Badr, situated be- tween Mecca and Medina, which, though insigniScant as to the numbers of the combatants, was of material consequence. The original object was the pillage of a Meccan caravan. The Meccans, having been advised of this intention, despatched succor to their people, and, as was supjiosed, were thus prepared to meet the Ila- shemites and IMedinans. Yet the IVIeccans, although superior in number, were nevertheless defeated by Mo- hammed's adherents. Some Moslem writers will have it that .3000 angelic warriors, on white and black steeds. guided and assisted the faithful. The prophet himsell, during tlic fight, was engaged in jirayer. In most of the later wars, also, Mohammed generally kept at a dis- tance from the melee. He obtained many a victory, to Ije sure, by skilful disposition of his forces, but he dis- tinguislied himself by no means as a brave warrior. Tliis is es^iecially manifest in the expedition immedi- ately following, and undertaken by the Meccans to take revenge for the defeat, by which "they had suffered not only severe loss of lives and property, but had added booty, glory, and increase to tlie new religionists. Mo- hammed, namely, when the jNleccans, a few thousand strong, advanced .against Medina, wanted to retire to the city and to confine himself to its defence, and only when his diseijiles declared this plan dishonorable, he "unwill- ingly turne<l out against the enemy, and was vanquished near IMimiit Oiiod. Many of the faithful covered the battle-lield with their corpses. Mt)hammed himself was woinided slightly; he wore a double coat of mail and a closed helmet, so that the jNIeccans <lid not recognise liim, and his companions ])romptly seeureil his safety. When the ]\[eecans advanced a second time with a superior force, ^lohammed's advice to his own to fortify them- selves in the city was promptly complied witli, and the