\ 42. LIFE AND CHARACTER OF MOHAMMED. 161
young widow named Amina.1 His father Abdallah had died a few mouths before in his twenty-fifth year on a mercantile jour ney in Medina, and left to his orphan five camels, some sheep and a slave girl.'2 He belonged to the heathen family of the Hashim, which was not wealthy, but claimed lineal descent from Ishmael, and was connected with the Koreish or Korashites, the leading tribe of the Arabs and the hereditary guardians of the sacred Kaaba.3 Tradition surrounds his advent in the world with a halo of marvellous legends : he was born circumcised and with his navel cut, with the seal of prophecy written on his back in letters of light; he prostrated himself at once on the ground, and, raising his hands, prayed for the pardon of his people; three persons, brilliant as the sun, one holding a silver goblet, the second an emerald tray, the third a silken towel, ap peared from heaven, washed him seven times, then blessed and saluted him as the "Prince of Mankind." He was nursed by a healthy Bedouin woman of the desert. When a boy of four years he was seized with something like a fit of epilepsy, which
1 We know accurately the date of Mohammed's death (June 8, 632), hut the year of his birth only by reckoning backwards; and as his age is variously stated from sixty-one to sixty-five, there is a corresponding difference in the statements of the year of his birth. Do Sacy fixes it April 20, 571, von Ham mer 509, Muir Aug. 20, 570, Sprenger between May 13, 567, and April 13, 571, but afterwards (I. 138), April 20, 571, as most in accordance with early tra dition.
2 According to Ibn Ishak and Wackidi. Bahador adopts this tradition, in the last of his essays which treats of " the Birth and Childhood of Mohammed." But according to other accounts, Abdallah died several months (seven or eighteen) after Mohammed's birth. Mnir. I. 11; Sprenger, I. 138.
3 On the pedigree of Mohammed, see an essay in the work of Syed Ahmed Khan Bahador, and Muir I. 242-271. The Koreish were not exactly priests, but watched the temple, kept the keys, led the processions, and provided for the pilgrims. Hashim, Mohammed's great-grandfather (b. A. D. 442), thus addressed the Koreish: "Ye are the neighbors of God and the keepers of his house. The pilgrims who come honoring the sanctity of his temple, are his guests; and it is meet that ye should entertain them above all other guests. Ye are especially chosen of God and exalted unto this high dignity; wherefore honor his guests and refresh them." He himself set an example of munificent hospitality, and each of the Koreish contributed according to his ability. Muir I. CCXLVII.
162 FOURTH PEKIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
Wackidi and other historians transformed into a miraculous occurrence. He was often subject to severe headaches and fever ish convulsions, in which he fell on the ground like a drunken man, and snored like a camel.1 In his sixth year he lost his mother on the return from Medina, whither she had taken him on camel's back to visit the maternal relations of his father, and was carried back to Mecca by his nurse, a faithful slave girl. He was taken care of by his aged grandfather, Abd al Motkalib, and after his death in 578 by his uncle Abu Talib, wTho had two wives and ten children, and, though poor and no believer in his nephew's mission, generously protected him to the end.
He accompanied his uncle on a commercial journey to Syria, passing through the desert, ruined cities of old, and Jewish and Christian settlements, which must have made a deep impression on his youthful imagination.
Mohammed made a scanty living as an attendant on caravans and by watching sheep and goats. The latter is rather a disre putable occupation among the Arabs, and left to unmarried women and slaves; but he afterwards gloried in it by appealing to the example of Moses and David, and said that God never calls a prophet who has not been a shepherd before. According to tradition — for, owing to the strict prohibition of images, we have no likeness of the prophet — he was of medium size, rather slender, but broad-shouldered and of strong muscles, had black eyes and hair, an oval-shaped face, white teeth, a long nose, a patriarchal beard, and a commanding look. His step was quick and firm. He wore white cotton stuff, but on festive occa sions fine linen striped or dyed in red. He did everything for himself; to the last he mended his own clothes, and cobbled his sandals, and aided his wives in sewing and cooking. He laughed and smiled often. He had a most fertile imagination and a genius for poetry and religion, but no learning. He was an "illiterate prophet," in this respect resembling some of the
1 Sprenger has a long chapter on this disease of Mohammed, which he calls Yrith Schonlein, hysteria muscularis, I. 207-268.