His principal biographers have been Ibn Ishaq, A.D. 768, A.H. 151.
Ibn Hisham, A.D. 833, A.H. 218.
Waqidi, A.H. 130-207, A.D. 747-822.
Ibn Saad, A.H. 230, A.D. 844.
Tabari, A.D. 922 A.11. 310.
Mir Khond, 15th century.
All Jannabi, 16th century.
Ismail Abul Fazl, prince of Hamah in Syria, A.D. 1332, A.H. 733. His book was translated by John Gagnier, professor of Arabic at Oxford, A.D. 1723, and into English by the Rev. W. Murray, Episcopal clergyman at Duffus in Scotland.
Dr. A. Sprenger, in 1851, published part of Mahomed's life at Allahabad in English, and in 1869 a com pleted life in German was published at Berlin.
Sir William Muir, of the Bengal Civil Service, in 1858 1861 published a life in London.
He is lauded by Muslim authors for his religious and moral virtues, his piety, veracity, justice, liberality, clemency, humility, and abstinence. He expended his all in charity. His judgment was excellent, and he had a happy memory. He was of few words, of an equal and cheerful temper, pleasant and familiar in conversation, courteous to his friends, and condescending towards inferiors. His person was comely and agreeable, and his address polite.
Ile began to teach at the age of 40. He had only nine followers in his first military expedition, after his flight from Mecca to Medina ; but before his death, which happened in the 23d year of his mission and the 10th after his flight, he had brought all Arabia under his obedience, and had commenced an attack on the dominions of the Roman emperor in the direction of Syria. Abul FazI mentions (pp. 195-267) 27 military expedi tions undertaken by Mahomed ; and of smaller actions and skirmishes some enumerate as many as 48.
The reformation commenced by Mahomed was continued by his successors. Within six years after his death, Syria and Egypt had been sub dued by his successors. Persia was invaded in A.D. 632, her force broken A.D. 636, in the great battle of Kadesia, and after the battle of Jallalia (A.D. 637) and Nehawand (A.D. 642), her govern ment was entirely destroyed, and her king driven into exile beyond the Oxus. At the death of the second khalif Omar (A.D. 644, A.H. 23), the whole of Persia as far east as Herat, nearly co extensive with the present kingdom, was annexed to the Arab empire. In A.D. 650, an insurrection in Persia induced the exiled monarch to try his fortune once more, but he was cut off near the Oxus, and the northern frontier of the Arabs was advanced to that river, including Balkh and all the country north of the range of Hindu Kush. The boundary on the east was formed by the rugged tract which extends (north and south) from those mountains to the sea, and (east and west) from the Persian desert to the Indus. The
northern portion of the tract was then known by the name of the mountains of Ghor, whose in habitants may have been Afghans, and is now inhabited by the Aimak and Hazara. On the west, after Syria, Roman Africa (from A.D. 647 to 749), and Spain (A.D. 713), followed in succes sion ; and within 100 years from the death of Mahomed, his followers had pushed their con quests into the heart of France, but were defeated by Charles Martel, A.D. 732, between Poictiers and Tours.
In A.D. 644, A.D. 44, an Arab force from Mery penetrated to Kabul, and made converts of 12,000 persons.
Abdur Rahman, governor of Khorasan, A.H. 80, led a large army in person against Kabul, and subdued the greater part of the country. His proceedings displeased Hujaj, governor of Basrah, and Abdur Rahmam rebelled, took Basrah, occupied Kufa, and threatened Damascus, but, after a struggle of six years, he was defeated, and chose a voluntary death.
While they conquered they proselytized, and at the present day their creed is professed by nearly all the people of Arabia, N. Africa, Asiatic Turkey, Persia, Central Asia, Baluchistan, Sind, and Afghanistan, and by about a third part of those of European Turkey and of British India, with many in China and the Archipelago. Their religion is called by them Islam, but it had no sooner bebome a power, than divisions, feuds, wars, and schisms broke out among its professors. In their lust for personal distinction and temporal power, immediately on Mahomed's death, disputes arose as to the rightful succession to the office of leader of the Faithful. The first to succeed was Abubakr, the father of Ayasha ; following him came Omar, and then Osman, who died A.D. 655, and Ali then succeeded. In A.D. 660, Ali was assassinated by a Muhammadan in a mosque at Kufa, on which Hasan, his eldest son by Fatima, sold his birthright of empire for an annual stipend, to Moawiyah, of the family of the Ommeiades. He took up his residence at Medina, 'occupying himself in acts of charity and benevol ence, but in A.D. 669 he was poisoned by his wife at the instigation of Yezid, the second Ummiah khalif, and son of Moawiyah. Eleven years there after, viz, in A.D. 680, Husain, the younger son of Ali and Fatima, left Medina for hufa, to con tend for the khalifat against the Ommeindes; but on reaching Karbila, a day's journey from the west bank of the Euphrates, he was attacked, and slain with thirty - three strokes of lances and swords. The story of Husain is one of the most touching pages of Muhammadan history. His head, by order of Yezid, was carried about on the point of a javelin.