The same year is remarkable for the birth of Maho met, the legislator and apostle of the Arabs. He was born at Mecca, about two months after the discomfiture of the Abyssinians, in the 579th year of the Christian xra. His father, Abdallah, the favourite son of the aged Motallcb, was the handsomest and bravest of the Ara bian youths ; and his mother, the beautiful Amina, was the daughter of `/aped, of the noble race of the Zahrites. Mahomet having lost both his parents at a very early age, the charge of his education devolved upon his grandfather, who was particularly fond of the son of his beloved Abdallah. Abdel Motalleb treated his grand son with great affection, preferring him even to his own children, to whom he frequently said, " We must take particular care of this young child." He lived only two years after he had taken the young prophet under his protection, and died, covered with years and glory, in the 110th year of his age. Mahomet was thus, at the age of eight, again deprived of the guardian of his in fancy, with the inheritance of only five camels and a fe male slave. But he soon found an able and kind pro tection in his uncle, Abu Taleb, who had received strict injunctions from his dying father, to provide for his ne phew, and bring him up as his own son.
The Koreish, at this time, carried on an extensive trade with the neighbouring nations ; and the chiefs of their tribe united, with the love of arms the profession of merchandize. They transported into Persia and Egypt the commodities of India and Ethiopia. At the markets of &Ina and Oman, their camels were laden with the most precious aromatics ; and the fairs of Boria and Damascus supplied them with corn and manufactures. We may here remark, that though Rosa, when he first obtained possession of the government of Mecca, assum ed the regal dignity and authority, yet it appears that the civil government had again reverted to the heads of the different tribes ; the chief dignity, however, still re siding in the guardian of the Caaba. Abu Taleb, who had succeeded his father in this high office, was himself an opulent and enterprising merchant. Affairs of com merce led him into Syria and Egypt, whither he carried his nephew, then about 1S years of age, to instruct him more perfectly in the employment which he had chosen.
A war breaking out about this time, between the Ko reish and the tribes of Kenan and Hawazen, Mahomet followed his uncle into the field, and received from him the first rudiments of that science in which he afterwards made so distinguished a figure. In this campaign, Abu Taleb, the general of the Koreish, having completely routed the enemy in a general engagement, returned victorious to Mecca. This was denominated the impious war, from its being prosecuted during the four sacred months, during which it was unlawful for an Arab to harm even his most inveterate enemy, and it is consider ed as one of the principal xras in Arabian history. Be ing sufficiently instructed in mercantile affairs, Mahomet was recommended by his uncle to Cadiga, a rich and noble widow of Mecca, as her factor. In this capacity he continued till he was 25 years of age, when.Cadiga rewarded his integrity and services with her hand and fortune. Being thus raised from poverty to affluence, he was enabled to live as became the nephew of the guardian of the Caaba ; and to vie in splendour with the richest in Mecca. Though nothing is recorded of him till he was 40 years of age, it is probable that he still continued in the occupation of a merchant.
had as yet but little intercourse, as a nation, with the adjacent kingdoms. Her hardy sons, induced by the hope of plunder, had forsaken their deserts, and had become alternately the support and the terror of the tottering empires of Rome, and of Persia. Their friend
ship was sold to the most liberal masters ; and their bravery in the field generally ensured the victory. These roving warriors having preserved Constantinople from the ravages of the Goths, afterwards turned their arms to the side of Persia, and defeated the renowned Bclisa rius. The Saracens, however, were the only nation in Arabia that carried on this venal warfare. The rest of the tribes were too much attached to liberty, and to their deserts, to seek for glory and plunder under foreign masters, but remained secure and unawed by the storms of war which raged around them. But Arabia began now to emerge from her former obscurity. While the neighbouring nations were weak and declining, sha ken with tyranny and conquest, and torn by internal dis cord, Arabia was strong and flourishing. It had been peopled at the expellee of the eastern empire, which was now hastening into insignificance. Arabia was free ; and the persecuted sects fled from the proscriptions of the imperial edicts to this happy country, where every one was at liberty to profess his most secret opinions, and to practise what he professed. Here sectaries of every denomination sought an asylum from oppression ; and the various persecutions which had been raised on account of religion, from the destruction of Jerusalem to the condemnation of Arianism, by the council of Nice, had added to the strength and population of Arabia. Con siderable numbers of Jews, after their expulsion from Judea by the Romans, settled in this country ; possessed themselves of several towns and fortresses, and in a short time became very numerous and powerful. Their religion spread rapidly among the neighbouring tribes ; and at one time Judaism was the prevalent faith in the kingdom of Yemen. The disorders and persecutions with which the eastern church was greatly harassed at the beginning of the third century, compelled also many Christians to fly for refuge to Arabia. After the death of Dhu Nowas, and the conquest of Yemen by the Abys sinians, Christianity became the established religion in that kingdom ; and at the time of Mahomet, it could boast of several eminent bishops in Arabia. Notwith standing, however, the great prevalence of the religions of Moses and Jesus throughout this peninsula, the Ko reish still maintained and revered their idolatrous su perstition ; and their backwardness to embrace new opinions is not surprising, when we consider, on the one hand, the bigotry of the Jews, and on the other, the gross abuses and corruptions which had crept into the Chris tian church. Christianity had been converted, by end less controversies and contentions, into a heap of ab struse niceties and intricate distinctions. The worship of saints and images, with the most scandalous and su perstitious ceremonies, had led to the destruction of pub lic morals, and that purity of doctrine which the gospel inculcates. A generaLdepravity of manners prevailed, both among the priests and the people. The contests for the popedom were carried on with all the virulence and animosity which party spirit or interest could excite. They sometimes even proceeded to open violence and murder ; and the episcopal seat was often filled by the slaves of debauchery and intemperance. Harmony, love, and charity, the mild virtues of the religion of Jesus, had given place to strife, hatred, and malice ; and it was while this blackness of darkness overshadowed the Chris tian faith, that all those abominable superstitions were hatched, which have so long disgraced the annals of the Roman church.