MOHAMMED (Arab. the Praised*),the name taken, at a later period, by the founder of Islam. He was originally called Ifalabi. He was born about the year 570 A.n., at Mecca, and was the son of Abdallfth, of the family of the HCishim; and of Amino. of the family of Zuhra. both of the powerful tribe of the Koreish, but of a side-branch only and therefore of little or no influence. His father, a poor merchant, died either before or shortly after Mohammed's birth, whom his mother then (according to a doubtful tra dition) is supposed to have handed over, after the fashim of her tribe, to a Bedouin woman, that site might nurse him in the salubrious air of the desert. In consequence of the repeated fits of the child, however, which were ascribed to demons, the nurse sent him back in his third year. When six years old he also lost his mother. Ills grand father, Abi-Al-Mutallib, adopted the boy; and when, two years later, he too, died. Mohammed's uncle, Abu Tatib, though poor himself, took him into his house, and remained his best friend and protectorthroughout his whole life. The accounts which have survived of the time of youth are of too legendary a nature to deserve credit ; certain, however, it seems to be that he at first gained a scanty livelihood by lending the flocks of time Meccans, and that lie once or twice accompanied his uncle on his jour neys to southern Arabia and Syria. In his 25th year he entered the service of as rich widow 'mined Chtulldja, likewise descended from the Koreish, and accompanied her car s Or, according to Deutsch. whose view is fully corroborated and adopted by Sprenger In his Leben and Lehre Mohamm ads, in allusion to Hag. ii. 7, the predicted Messiah, vans—in an inferior capacity, perhaps as a camel-driver—to the fairs. Up to that time his circumstances were very poor. Suddenly his fortune changed. The wealthy, but much older, and twice widowed Chadidja offered hint her hand, which he accepted. She bore him a son, Al-Kasim—whence Mohammed adopted the name Abu Al-Ka.sim and four daughters: Zainab, Rukaija, Umm Kulthflm. and Fatima; and afterwards a second son, whom he called Abd Manaf, after an idol worshipped among his tribe. Both his sons, however, died early. Mohammed continued his merchant's trade at Mecca. but without much energy, spending most of his time in solitary contemplations. In his 35th year he is said to have, by chance only, been chosen arbiter in a quarrel about the replacing of the sacred black stone in the Kaaba (q.v.); but not before his 40th year is there anything really important to be told of his life.
Before, however, entering on the weighty e vents of the subsequent period, it is by no means unimportant to advert to such traits of Mohammed's outward appearance as are yet recoverable. He was of middle height, rather lean, but broad shouldered, and alto gether of strong build; slightly-curled black hair flowed round his strongly developed head; his eyes, overhung with thick eyelashes, were large and coal-black; his nose, large and slightly bent, was well formed. A long beard added to the dignity of his appear ance A black mole between his shoulders became afterwards among the faithful " the seal of prophecy." In his walk he moved his whole body violently, "as if descending a mountain." His gait and presence were altogether of an extremely imposing nature. In his 40th year Mohammed received his first "revelation," or, in other words, became first aware that he had a " mission." About the year 600 A.D., Christianity had pene trated into the heart of Arabia, through Syria on the one, and Abyssinia on the other hand. Judaism no less played a prominent part in the peninsula, chiefly in its northern parts, which were dotted over with Jewish colonies, founded by emigrants after the destruction of Jerusalem; and round about Yathrib (Medina). Besides these two all important religious elements, several sects, remnants of the numerous ancient sects which had sprung up everywhere the first Christian centuries: Sabians, Man deans, etc., on the of Syria and Babylonia, heightened the religious ferment which, shortly before the time of Mohammed, had begun to move the minds of the thoughtful. At that time there arose, according to undoubted historical accounts, several men in the Hedjaz (Waraka, Obeid Allah, Othman, Zayd, etc.), who preached the futility of the ancient pagan creed, with its star-worship, its pilgrimages and festive cere monies, its temples and fetiches. It had in reality long ceased to be a living faith, and only the great mass of the people clung to it as to a sacred inheritance from times-inune modal. The unity of God, the "ancient religion of Abraham," was the doctrine pro mulgated by these forerunners of Mohammed, and many of those who, roused by their words, began to search for a form of religion which should embody both the traditions of their forefathers and a purer doctrine of the divinity, turned either to Judaism or to Christianity. The principal scene of these missionary labors was Mecca, then the center of the pilgrimages of most of the Arabian tribes, and where, from times immemorial, long anterior to the city itself, the Kaaba (q.v.). Mount Arafat, the valley of Mina, etc., were held sacred—the Noreish, Mohammed's tribe, having the suprtme care over these sanctu aries ever since the 5th century. It was under these circumstances that Mohammed felt "moved" to teach a new faith, which should dispense with idolatry on the one, as with Judaism and Christianity on the other hand. He was 40 years of age, as we said, when he received the first "divine" communication in the solitude of the mountain 'lira, near Mecca. Gabriel appeared to him, and in the name of God commanded him to "read" —that is, to preach the true religion, and to spread it abroad by committing it to writing (Sur. xevi.). How far Mohammed was a "prophet," in the common sense of the word, has been the subject of endless and utterly futile discussions in the Christian world. That he was no vulgar impostor is now as generally recognized as that other once popu lar doctrine, that he was in league with the devil, is rejected by thinking men. What part his epilepsy had in his "visions," we are not able to determine. Certain it is that, after long and painful solitary broodings; a something—not clearly known to himself— at times moved him with such fearfully rapturous vehemence that, during his revela tions, he is said to have roared like a camel, and to have streamed with perspiration; his eyes turned red, and the foam stood before his mouth. The voices he heard were some times those of a bell, sometimes of a man, sometimes they came in his dreams, or they were laid in his heart. Waraka, one of his wife's relatives, who had embraced Judaism, spoke to him of the Jewish doctrine, and told him the story of the patriarchs and Israel; not so much as it is told in the Bible, but in the Midrash ; and the gorgeous hues of the legendary poetry of the latter seem to have made as deep an impression on Mohammed's poetical mind as the doctrine of the unity of God and the its broad outlines —of the Old Testament, together with those civil and religious laws, scriptural and oral, which are either contained as germs or fully developed in this record. Christianity exercised a minor influence upon him and his spiritual offspring. All his knowledge of the New Testament was confined to a few apocryphal books, and with all the deep erence before Jesus, whom, together with Moses, he calls the greatest prophet, next to himself, his notions of the Christian religion and its founder were excessively vague. For some details on these points, however, we must refer to KORAN and MOHAMMEDAN His first revelation he communicated to no one, it would appear, except to Chadidja, to his daughters, his step-son Ali, his favorite slave Zaid—whoin lie had probably freed and adopted by this time—and to his friend, the prudent and honest Abu Bekr. llis other relatives rejected his teachings with scorn. Abu Lahab, his uncle, called him a fool; and Abu Talih, his adoptive father, although he never ceased, for the honor of his family, to protect him, yet never professed any belief in Mohammed's words. In the fourth year of his mission, however, he had made 40 proselytes, chiefly slaves and peo• plc from the lower ranks; and now first some verses were revealed to him, commanding him to come forward publicly as a preacher, and to defy the scorn of the unbelievers. With all his power he now inveighed against the primeval superstition of the N MIMS, and exhorted them to a pious and moral life, and to the belief in an all-mighty, all-wise, everlasting, indivisible, all-just, but merciful God, who had chosen him as he had chosen the prophets of the Bible before him, so to teach mankind that they should escape the punishments of hell, and inherit everlasting life. God's mercy—this was a primitive doctrine, common to the whole east—was principally to be obtained by prayer, fasting. and almsgiving. The belief in the sacredness of the Kaaba and the ceremonies of the pilgrimage was too firmly rooted in his and the people's minds not to be received into the new creed; hut certain barbarous habits of the Bedouins, such as the killing of their new-born daughters, were ruthlessly condemned by Mohammed. The prohibition of certain kinds of food also belongs to this first period, when be as yet entirely stood under the influence of Judaism; the prohibition of gambling, usury, etc., probably being of a somewhat later date. Whether lie did or did not understand the art of writing and reading at the commencement of his career, is not quite clear; certain it is that lie pre tended not to know it, and employed the services of amanuenses for his Koranic dicta, which at first consisted merely of brief, rhymed sentences, in the manner of the ancient Arabic soothsayers. [KoRAN.] The Meccans did not object to his doings; they con
sidered him a common "poet" or "soothsayer," who, moreover, was not in his right senses, or simply a liar. Gradually, however, as the number of his converts increased, they began to pay more and more attention to his proceedings; and finally, fearing mostly for the sacredness of Mecca, which the new doctrine might abolish, thus depriving them of their chief glory and the ample revenues of the pilgrimages, they rose in fierce oppo sition against the new prophet and his adherents, who dared "to call their ancient gods idols, and their ancestors fools." Many of the converted slaves and freedmen had to undergo terrible punishments; and others suffered so much at the bands of their own relatives that they were fain to revoke their creed; so that the prophet himself advised his followers to emigrate to Abyssinia. Mohammed himself, although protected by the strong arm of Abu Talib. was yet at that time so low-spirited and fearful, that he even raised the idols, which hitherto he had represented as nought, to intermediate beings between God and man—a dictum, however, which he soon revoked as an inspiration of Satan. thereby increasing the hatred of his adversaries, at whose head stood two ITIQM hers of the family of Maolizfun, Al-Walid and Abulhakain Amr (called by Mohammed "Father of Foolishness"), and who in every way tried to throw ridicule on him. At last it became necessary that he should be put beyond the reach of his persecutors, and Abu Talib hid him in a fortified castle of his own in the country. Ilainza, his uncle. and Omar. formerly a bitter enemy of Mohammed, and who afterwards, with Mohammed and Alm Bekr, became the third head of Islam, continued in the meantime to spread the new doctrine. The Koreish now demanded that Mohammed should be delivered into their hands; but Abu Talib steadfastly refused to comply with their wishes; a feud thereupon broke out between their family and that of the Hashcmites, and Mohammed and all the members of his family, except, perhaps, Abu Lahab, were excommunicated. After the space of three years. however, the "peace party" in Mecca brought about a reconcilia tion, and Mohammed was allowed to return. A great grief befell him at this time—his faithful wife Chadidja died, and, shortly afterwards, his uncle Abu Tahiti, and, to add to his misery, the vicissitudes of his career had reduced him by this time to poverty. An emigration to Tatf, where he sought to improve his position, proved a failure; it was with great difficulty that he escaped with his bare life. During this epoch lie had the well-known dream of his journey to Jerusalem and in the heavens on the back of the Barak (Miraj), the relation of which caused even his stanchest adherents to smile at his hallucination. Shortly after his return from TaIf he married Sands, and afterwards so increased the number of his wives that at his death he still left nine., of whom Ayishah, the daughter of Abu Bekr, and Balsa. the daughter of Omar, are best known. In the midst of his vain endeavors to find a hearing in his own city, and those near it, be suc ceeded, during a pilgrimage, in converting several men from Medina, whose inhabitants had long been accustomed to hear from the mouths of the numerous Jews living in the city and its neighborhood the words Revelation, Prophecy, God's Word, Messiah: to the Meccans mere sounds without any meaning. The seed sown into the minds of these men bore a fruitful harvest. The next pilgrimage brought 12. and the third more than 70 adherents to the new faith from Medina, and with these he entered into a close alliance. Mohammed now conceived the plan to seek refuge in the friendly city of Medina, and about 622 (10, 13. or 15 years—according to the different traditions—after his first assuming the sacred office) he fied thither, about 100 families of his faithful flock having preceded him some time before, accompanied by Abu Bekr, and reached, not without danger, the town, called thence Medinat Annabi (city of the prophet), or Medina "City," by way of eminence; and from this flight, or rather from the first month of the next Arabic year, dates the Mohammedan era [Hedjral]. Now everything \vats changed to the advantage of the prophet and his religion; and if formerly the incidents of his life are shrouded in comparative obscurity, they are, from this date, known often to their most insignificant details. Formerly a despised "madman or imposto•," he now assumed at once the position of highest judge, lawgiver, and ruler of the city and two most pow erful Arabic tribes. His first care was directed towards the consolidation of the new worship, and the inner arrangements in the congregation of his flock; his next chief endeavor was to proselytize the numerous Jews who inhabited the city, to whom, besides having received their principal dogmas into his religion, he made many important concessions also in the outer observances of Islam, and concluded alliances with many of their tribes; but he was sorely disappointed in his hopes to convert them. They ridi culed his pretension to be the Messiah, and so enraged him by their constant taunts that lie soon abrogated his concessions, and became their bitterest adversaryirp to the hour of his death. The most important act in the first year of the Hegira was his permission to go to war with the enemies of Islam in the name of God—a kind of manifesto chiefly directed against the Meccans. Not being able at first to fight his enemies in open field, he endeavored to weaken their power by attacking the caravans of the Koreish on their way to Syria. Being successful enough to disturb their trade, and, at the same time, to conclude alliances with the adjoining Bedouin tribes, he at last dared to break even the peace of the sacred month of Radjab, and with this the signal to open warfare was given. A battle, the first, between 314 Moslems and about 600 Meccans was fought at Badr, in the second year of the Hegira; the former gained the victory, and made many pris oners. A great number of adventurers now flocked to Mohammed's colois, and he suc cessfully continued his expeditions against the Koreish and the Jewish tribes, chiefly the Beni Keinuka, whose fortified castles lie took after a long siege. Notwithstanding a severe loss which he suffered in the battle near Ohod, iu which he himself was danger ously wounded, his power increased so rapidly that in the sixth year of the Hegira already he was able to proclaim a public pilgrimage to Mecca. Although the Meccans did not allow this to be carried out, lie gained the still greater advantage that they con cluded a formal peace with him, and thus recognized him as an equal power cud bellig erent. He was now allowed to send his missionaries all over Arabia, and even beyond the frontiers, without any hindrance; and in the following year he had the satisfaction of celebrating the pilgrimage for three days undisturbed at Mecca. Shortly afterwards, during his expeditions against the Jews of Chaibar and Fadak, Mohammed very nearly lost his life: a Jewess, Zainab by name, a relative of whom had fallen in the fight against him, placed a poisoned piece of roast meat before him, and although he merely tasted it, he yet, up to his death, suffered from the effects of the poison. His missionaries at this time began to carry his doctrines abroad, to Chosroes IL, to Heraclius, to the king of Abyssinia, the viceroy of Egypt, and the chiefs of several Arabic provinces. Some received the new gospel; but Chosret Parvis, the king of Persia, and Amru the Ghaa sanide, rejected his proposals with scorn, Rod the latter had the messenger executed. This was the cause of the first war between the Christians and the Moslems, in which the latter were beaten with great loss by Amru. The Meccans now thought the long desired moment of revenge at hand, and broke the peace by committing several acts of violence against the Chuzaites, the allies of Mohammed. The latter, however, marched at the head of 10,000 men against Mecca, before its inhabitants had had time to prepare for the siege, took it, and was publicly recognized by them as chief and prophet. With this the victory of the new religion was secured in Arabia. While, however, employed in destroying all traces of idoltary in the besieged city, and fixing the minor laws and ceremonies of the true faith, Mohammed heard of new armies which several warlike Arabic tribes marched against him, and which were concentrated near Tail (63O). Again he was victorious, and his dominion and creed extended further and further every day. From all parts flocked the deputations to do homage to him in the name of the various tribes, either as the messenger of God, or at least as the prince of Arabia, and the year 8 of the Hegira was therefore called the year of the deputations. Once more he made most extensive preparations for a war against the Byzantines; but not being able to bring together a sufficient army, he had to be satisfied with the homage of a few minor princes on his the frontiers, and to return without having carried ont his intention. Towards the end of the 10th year of the Hegira lie undertook, at the head of at least (10,000 Moslems, his last solemn pilgrimage to 3lecca, and there (on the mount Arafat) instructed them in all the important laws and ordinances, chiefly of the pilgrimage; and the ceremonies observed by him on that occasion were fixed for all times. He again solemnly exhorted his believers to righteousness and piety, and chiefly recom mended them to protect the weak, the poor, and the women, and to abstain from usury.