MOHAMMED, the great prophet and legislator of the Mussulmans, and the founder of the religion which bears his name, was born in the city of Mecca, about 569 or 570 A. D. He was of the powerful and illustrious tribe of Koreish, which claimed direct descent from Ishmael, the son of Abraham, and had possessed for five generations the sovereignty of Mecca, and the guardianship of the Caaba, or shrine of the sacred city. Of the Koreish tribe there were two powerful and rival branches, descended

from two brothers, Haschem and Abed Schem.

Haschem, the progenitor of Mohammed, had become the foremost citizen and greatest benefactor of the city of Mecca. About the beginning of the sixth century, he was largely engaged in commerce, and had established two annual caravans, one for the summer trade with Syria in the North, the other for the winter trade with Yemen in the South. In addition to the influence derived from his extensive commercial relations, Haschem was custodian of the Caaba, an office entrusted only to the most honorable families, and practically conferring on the person holding it the supreme control of the city. On Haschem's death, he was succeeded by his son, Abdal Motalleb, a warrior and patriot, and father of four distinguished sons; of whom Abdallah, the youngest, married Amina, a

Koreish damsel, the fairest and the purest of her tribe. Abdallah, too, was endowed with such personal attractions that, according to Moslem traditions, on the night of his marriage to Amina two hundred Arab maids died of broken hearts. Mohammed was the first and only child of this remarkable alliance. Shortly after his marriage Abdallah went on a mercantile expedition to Gaza, in the south of Syria, and had reached Medina on his return journey, when he sickened and died, in his twenty-fifth year, leaving to his lovely widow and her son, only two months old, a heritage of five camels, a flock of goats, and a female Ethiopian slave.

As the air of Mecca was unwholesome, it was customary for women of the wealthier classes to give out their children to nurse among the females of the Bedouin tribes, with whom they had the advantage of the clearer atmosphere, the purer speech, and the freer manners of the desert. The child Mohammed was committed to the care of Halema, a Saadite shepherd's wife, and by her was nurtured for two years, when he was returned to his mother. When he was about six years old his mother, Amina, wishing to visit his father's tomb, and also to show the child to her relatives, made a journey to Medina. In her return she had arrived at Abwa, a village half way between Medina and Mecca, when she suddenly fell sick and died. The faithful slave returned with the orphan boy to Mecca, and handed him over to his grandfather, Abdal Motalleb, who cared for him with all the tenderness of a parent for two years, when he too died, leaving his precious charge to the care of his eldest son, Abu Taleb, now an enterprising merchant, custodian of the Caaba, and chief of the Koreish tribe.

At twelve years of age, Mohammed, who had a leaning to the commercial pursuits of the Arabs, accompanied his uncle on one of his mercantile expeditions to Syria. As the caravan wended its way through the sites of former greatness, the local legends were duly recounted to the admiring youth, two of which he quotes in the Koran as instances of divine judgment against idolatry—that of the wild valley of Hejer, where the children of Thamud were swept from the face of the earth and their country laid under the curse of Heaven; and

that of Egla, near the Red Sea, where the young men were turned into monkeys and the old men into swine.

Arriving at Bostra (or Bozrah), beyond the Jordan, Abu Taleb and his nephew were received with great hospitality at a convent of Nestorian Christians, where one of the monks is said to have remarked Mohammed's precocity and his eager desire for information, especially on matters connected with religion. To conversations with the monks on this and other occasions, and especially to intercourse with a learned rabbi, who had become a Christian convert, may be traced Mohammed's knowledge of the principles and traditions of the Christian faith.

After this Mohammed made several mercantile expeditions both to Yemen in the South and Syria in the North, and was also engaged in a tribal war which the allied Koreishites and Kenanites waged against the Hawazans. Thus had he acquired an extensive acquaintance with commercial affairs, and also an insight into the modes of Arab warfare. His ability and integrity gained for him an introduction to Kadijah, a wealthy widow of forty, who needed a manager for the extensive business of her house. Mohammed was now twenty-five years of age, handsome in person, and pleasant in manner. Kadijah appointed him conductor of a caravan she was sending to Syria; and so well was she pleased with his business capacity and his personal attractions, that she paid him double his stipulated wages, and with remarkable promptness and sagacity contrived to secure him as her third husband. Their marriage was celebrated in true Arab style, with wine and revelry, the sound of timbrels, and the dancing of Abyssinian slaves.

After his marriage Mohammed found leisure to indulge his predilection for religious speculation. The fanatic zeal of gross idolatry was visible on every hand. The Sabean and Magian religions had lost whatever spiritual meaning they once had and lapsed into a wild and degrading superstition. Although many Jews had found their way into Arabia when Palestine was ravaged by the Romans, and had acquired possessions, built fortresses and risen to considerable power, still Judaism had made but little way among the natives.

Christianity had been introduced by St. Paul himself; and the fierce dissensions and mutual persecutions of the different sections of the Eastern church had filled the deserts of Arabia with exiles and anchorites, who had, to some extent, planted the Christian faith among the native tribes.

But the Arabs and the people as a whole were bound by no tie, religious or political. They were dispirited and isolated, and, consequently, powerless and harmless, except against each other. Mohammed was now about to take the first step towards the uniting of these disjointed limbs, breathing into them the breath of life, and leading them forth in one compact body to shake the empires of the earth.

The sacred city of Mecca had become a polluting centre of fanatical filth and superstition. Around the sacred shrine stood three hundred and sixty dumb idols, representing the days of the year and their deities. The once revered prophets, Abraham and Ishmael, had been converted into symbolical antics with divining rods in their hands. The fervor of religious reform took possession of Mohammed's soul, and led to habits of reverie and deep meditation, which he indulged in a neighboring mountain cave, remaining there for days and nights together in solitary fasting and prayer. At last the revelation came, and, in his fortieth year, Mohammed assumed the office of a prophet. His views and principles were made known and explained at first only to the members of his own domestic circle. Kadijah, his wife, Waraka, the Christian convert and quondam Jew, Abu Taleb and others readily acknowledged the divine mission, and declared Mohammed the apostle of Allah.

From many members of the house of Haschem, the new faith met with opposition, which soon grew into bitter persecution. Still slowly and secretly, in the privacy of a convert's house, or the depths of a cavern, it made its way, gaining but few adherents, and those, too, mostly young persons and slaves. The doctrines, which were but ungraciously received by many kinsfolk and friends, nevertheless found favor among the people, and especially among women, who are ever ready to befriend a persecuted cause. Many Jews had signified their assent, but when they found that the

new religion permitted the eating of camel's flesh, hastily withdrew; for, according to the Jewish law, the camel is an unclean animal. With new revelations came increasing enthusiasm, and Mohammed began to preach on Mount Hara and the hills of Safa, declaring himself the prophet of God come to break the spell of blind idolatry, and mitigate the rigor of the Jewish and the Christian laws.

When appealed to for miracles to confirm his divine behest, Mohammed discreetly explained that signs and wonders would destroy the merit of faith, and pointed to the internal evidences of his doctrines, reciting fragments of the Koran, preaching the unity of God, and exhorting his hearers to the service of a supreme and most merciful Being. By degrees some of the most powerful citizens were gained over to the prophet's side. His faithful and beloved wife, Kadijah, had died, and he had increased his personal influence by marrying Ayesha, the daughter of Abu Beker; still the new faith made but slow progress, and might never have been known beyond the walls of Mecca, had not the hatred and persecution of the rival branch of the Koreish tribe-that of Abed Schem-roused the anger of the Haschem branch, from which Mohammed was descended. At last Huzmu, the prophet's uncle, enraged by an insult and personal outrage committed on his nephew, became a convert, and publicly chastised the offender. A revolt having broken out at Mecca, in which Mohammed's life was threatened, he found himself obliged to flee for refuge to Yatreb, henceforth called Medina. This occurred on the 16th of July, 622, and is reckoned the beginning of the Mohammedan Era, called the Hegira.

The citizens of Medina accepted the reformer's doctrines, and not only protected him from his enemies, but promised to aid in the propagation of Islamism. In the meantime Mohammed unexpectedly found at his hand the means of avenging himself on his enemies. In addition to the converts being daily made in Medina, fugitives flocked to him from Mecca, and proselytes from the desert, men of resolute will, warriors from their youth, and naturally inclined to partisan warfare. Thus supported, the prophet, without delay, proclaimed a religion of the sword, promising the ever