MOHAMMED ("The Praised Ones; also written: Mahomet; Muhammad, the Arabic form; Mahmoud; Mehemet, etc.), Prophet and founder of Islamism, general called by Chris tians Mohammedanism (but not by the follow ers of the faith of Islam) : b. Mecca, Arabia, probably in April 569 to some authorities 570 and 571 A.D.) ; d. Medina, Ara bia, 7 June 632 A.D. Mohammed was not born in a lowly state as we might be led to believe by some of the tales of his early life. On the contrary his progenitor, Hashim, of the illustri ous tribe of Koreish, was the great benefactor of Mecca and the guardian of the Caaba, an honor never conferred except upon those be longing to the most honorable tribes and fami lies. Abdul-Muttalib, his son, succeeded to these honors, and the guardianship of the Caaba was confirmed in the line of Hashim by his action in saving the sacred city from the on slaughts of the Christians of Abyssinia. Abdul-Muttalib had many children and Abdal lah was the youngest and most beloved. He was remarkable for personal beauty and pos sessed the secret of winning the hearts of women. He married Amina, of the tribe of Koreish, and on the night of the wedding, we are told, 200 maidens died of broken hearts.
Mohammed was the only fruit of this mar riage, and his father died two months after, leaving no other inheritance than five camels, a few sheep and a female slave. It is difficult to reconcile this fact with his former exalted position, but we are assured that it is true, as we are also asked to believe the statement that Amina suffered none of the pains of childbirth, and that Mohammed, obi the moment of com ing into the world, raised his eyes to heaven and exclaimed, "God is great! There is no god but God, and I am his prophet.° Legend also tells us that signs and portents took place at the moment of Mohammed's birth. Lake Sawa dried up, and the sacred fire of Zoroaster which the Magi had kept burning uninterrupt edly for over a thousand years was suddenly extinguished, and all idols fell down. The massive palace of Khosrau, king of Persia, shook to its foundations and several of its towers were thrown to earth.
When Abdallah died, Amina's grief was so great that it dried up her breasts, and she was forced to look for a nurse among the females of the Bedouin tribes. At length Halima, the wife of a Saidite shepherd, took him into the mountains and nursed him, but returned him to his mother at the end of two years because he had epileptic fits. His mother died when he was six years old, and his grandfather, Abdul-Muttalib, adopted him. On Abdul's death, an uncle, Abu Talib, took the lad and remained his closest companion and devoted protector throughout his life. He was a mer chant and brought Mohammed up in the same line. On owe of his trips to Syria he visited a Nestorian monastery and there imbibed many ideas. Even in his youth he carried religious contemplation to an extreme, and it is believed that his epilepsy had much to do with this mor bid tendency. Wonderful mental faculties are ascribed to him but he was just as illiterate as most of his countrymen. When 25 years old he was employed by a rich widow, Kadijah, also of the tribe of Koreish. He displayed
such good judgment and business qualities in caring for her caravans and other commercial interests that, in spite of the fact that she was already twice widowed, she married him. She was 15 years older than Mohammed, but bore him two sons and four daughters. Al Kasim and Abd Allah, the two sons, who were respectively the oldest and the youngest of his children, both died in early youth; the four daughters survived — Fatima, Zainab, Rukaiya and Umm Kulthum. He lived with his wife in faithful and happy wedlock till her death.
With his marriage Mohammed acquired great wealth, and this gave him leisure to in dulge the original bias of his mind; his old habits of contemplation were revived. His judgment and probity were widely respected. There was a steady growth in his zeal to abol ish idolatry and other evils, and to substitute a new and purer faith. This was fostered by his intercourse with Jews and Christians whom he was forced to meet in his journeyings. The idea of a new religion finally engrossed his whole mind and influenced his every action. He believed tie saw the necessity for it; all sorts of new dogmas were creeping into and rapidly undermining the faith of his forefa thers. During the first centuries of the Chris tian propaganda religious doctrines were more numerous than the stars in the sky; both Chris tianity and Judaism had crept into Arabia, Zoroastrianism was on the wane and people refused any longer to accept and conform to the old pagan superstitions. Othman, Zaid and even Waraka, one of his wife's relatives, who had embraced Judaism, were preaching against the futility of star-worship, and their followers were ridiculing fetishes, ceremonies and even the temples. Many were being exhorted to Judaism while others were . embracing Chris tianity, and others still were falling away alto gether. Everyone was looking for a religion which should embody the faith of their fore fathers with the simple doctrine of the unity of the Deity. Something had to be done — the time was ripe, and Mohammed launched the faith of Islam. He went back to the beginning of things, and adopted as a hypothesis that God had inculcated in Adam the one and only true religion — the worship of one indivisible and only God, the Creator. He believed that this religion of Adam had been repeatedly debased, and almost forgotten at times, hut that a suc cession of prophets was destined to come into the world to restore it from time to time and bring men's minds back to the original idea such prophets were Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus Christ. These had all fulfilled their re spective missions, but man now needed another guide. It is not to be wondered at that Mo hammed looked especially to Abraham, the father of Ishmael, the progenitor of his own race, as one of the greatest of these. With the development of this idea of the oneness of God grew Mohammed's mission as he conceived it. We can scarcely doubt that he was honest in his convictions and in his purpose when he first undertook the reformation of the world, which he really began at the age of 40 years.