MAHOMED, the founder of the Muhammadan religion, was born on the 10th November 570, and died on the 8th Juno 632, in his G3d year. Arabian Prophet and Apostle are terms sometimes applied to him in European literature, but his followers in India only recognise the appellations of Hasid Allah, the messenger of God, and Paigliambar, the bearer of a message. lie was of the tribe of Koresh ; his great-grandfather's name was Hashim ; that of his grandfather was Abd-ul-Mattalib, whose son Abdullah was Ma homed's father. Mahomed is generally supposed to have been of Ishinaelitic origin, of the tribe of Kenanah. In Genesis, Ishmael is made to marry an Egyptian woman, but Arab traditions make him marry into the family of Jorliem, a descend ant of Kahtan. Probably he had two wives. The Kenanah tribe was near akin to that of Kais, and both were descended from Kezar, whose name was the war-cry of the northern Arabs, in their combats with the armies of Yemen. The descendants of Kahtan, Arab-ul-Arab, were held to be the noblest of all Arabia, and it has been surmised that this alliance was introduced to raise Mahomed into the noble families of Arabia.
The melancholy incidents associated with almost every step of Mahomed's birth and parentage, deepened the seriousness and heightened the sensibility of his character. He was a post-. burnous child, orphan of both father and mother at five years of age, among a people with whom to be an orphan was a disgrace. How deeply he felt his unprotected state, is evident from the earnestness and frequency with which in the Koran he recommends orphans to the care of the Faithful. The life and destiny of his father Abdallah was also peculiar, for he had narrowly escaped being offered in sacrifice to an idol, in consequence of a rash vow of Abd-ul-Mattalib, and was only rescued at the price of a hundred camels. Mahomed was born during the period of tears and desolation of his mother Amina, after the death of her young husband, at the age of twenty-five, on a caravan journey. When born, he was carried by his grandfather before an idol, and received his name. Unable to nurse her own infant, his mother, after Arab fashion, wished to send him to the desert to be reared ; but the Bedouin nurse who ultimately took him, at first refused to have charge of a fatherless boy. At six years of age Mahomed lost his mother also, and was taken care of by his grandfather ; and on the death of the latter, three years later, by Abu Talib, his uncle, who, as long as he lived, gave him his protection. The events known of his youth are few. He appears to have accompanied his paternal uncle to Syria, and on that journey Muhammadans place the absurd legend of Sergius, Djerzi, or Bahzra, recognising the boy as the future prophet by a mark between his shoulders. During the wars of the tribes, known as the wars of the Fidjar, he is reported to have been present at one battle when he was fourteen, and to have picked up arrows for his uncle ; at twenty he was keeping sheep for something like a farthing a day, an occupation considered disgraceful by the Arabs, and abandoned to slaves and women. But 31a homed always loved to dwell on the fact that Jacob, Moses, and David had been shepherds before him. Not long afterwards he entered the service of Khadijah, a wealthy trading widow with three children, as camel - driver of the caravans which she despatched to the different markets of Arabia and Syria, and rose by his good conduct to be master of the caravan, a position of confidence. He was found a good man of business, and to have au acute perception of the market value of the striped stuffs and incense of Yemen, and the leather of Arabia, which he exchanged in the markets of Syria for corn and oil, and the silk goods of Damascus. His good qualities gained him the title of El Amin, the honest fellow. lie was of comely appearance, and Khadijah, in spite of being fifteen years older than Mahomed,—an immense dif ference in a country like Arabia,—conceived the project of marrying him, and carried it into execution. For such a marriage, Mahomed seems to have been an exemplary husband. He married other wives, it is true, one of them in two months after Khadijah's death ; but he never ceased to speak of his deceased wife in such terms of praise, that Ayasha declared she was the only one of the prophet's wives of whom she had ever felt jealous. Seven children were the result of
this marriage ; and throughout the east many claim to be descended from some one of the three daughters who survived. There were three sons, who all died young ; one was called Abd Manaf, after the idol, which proves that Mahomed was at that time still an idolater. The last daughter, Fatima, was born eleven years after the marriage, when Khadijah was beyond fifty. Four years after the birth of Fatima, he had his first vision, and in connection with that event some consider ations are necessary respecting his mental and bodily constitution. Whatever may have been the superiority of his moral character, it is certain that he was as unlike the most esteemed type of Arab manliness as it is possible to conceive. Nowhere in the world does man reach such a degree of dauntless independence as tho Arab, educated in the freedom of the desert, and ex posed to its hourly and daily vicissitudes of destiny. The ideal of the Arab was a fiery souled, irresistible warrior, always in sight of his tribe, bold in speech, rapid with song and repartee, indulging in wine, feasting, gambling, and love of women ; holding tears to be dis graceful, with limbs as iron as his armour, supporting without suffering the heat of the desert under an Arabian sun ; delighting in the beauty and swiftness of his steed or of his camel, impassioned for the chase, a match unarmed for the lion, indefatigable in combat, and routing like Antar whole armies with his single spear and shield. Recent travellers have confirmed the experience of ages, that the Bedouin have the least religious sensibility of any known race ; at the present time they are mere Muhammad ans in name, and never utter a prayer, or, if they perform any religious rites at all, these may possibly be some lingering relic of the old Sabman adoration of the rising sun. In the days of Mahomed, the people of Mecca upheld the worship of their idols from motives of gain, but Arabs in general had little respect for them, and treated them worse than Neapolitans have ever treated a refractory saint. if the prophecies of their kalim, seers, or holy men, did not concur with their wishes, they often put them to death: When Amr-ul-Kais commenced an expedition to avenge the death of his father, he entered, ac cording to custom, the temple of the idol Dhu l-Khofosa, to obtain his approbation by means of the divining arrow. Drawing the wrong arrows three times in succession, he broke them all, and threw them at the head of the idol, saying, Wretch, if your father had been killed, you would not forbid revenge for his death!' Mahoined was directly the opposite of this Arab ideal. He had inherited from his mother a delicate, nervous, and extremely impressionable constitution. He was gifted with an exaggerated and sickly sensi bility ; he had a woman's love for fine scents and perfumes ; he was melancholy, silent, fond of desert places, solitary walks, and lonely medita tions at set of sun in the valleys ; full of vague restlessness, weeping and sobbing like a child when he was in pain ; subject to attacks of epilepsy, and without courage in the field of battle. In addition to all which, he had religious excitability of the most acute character. He was of middle height, but of a strongly-built frame ; his head was large, and across his ample forehead, and above finely-arching eyebrows, ran a strongly marked vein, which, when he was angry, would turn black and throb visibly. His eyes were coal black, and piercing in their brightness. His hair curled slightly ; his beard was long, his step quick and firm, and between his shoulders was a mark the size of a pigeon's egg, which his disciples persisted in believing to be the sign of his pro phetic office. He was naturally shy and retiring ; as bashful, said Ayasha, as a veiled virgin. He lived soberly, in humble houses, and the fare of the desert seemed most congenial to him.