According to this statement, Kadija was the first disciple of Mohammed. Some authors, however, assert that she did not come in so readily as is here related, but for some time rejected the stories he told her as delusions of the devil. Others again say she declared she would not believe except she also should see Gabriel; but upon her husband telling her she had not virtue enough to see an angel, she was satisfied, and became a believer. His second convert was his cousin Ali, who had lived with him some time, and was then not above ten or eleven years old. The third was his slave Zaid, to whom he gave his freedom. In imitation of this, it became a law among the Mohammedans to emancipate those of their slaves who should turn to their religion. The fourth convert was Abubeker, one of the most considerable men in Mecca, and whose example was soon followed by Othman son of Affán Abdal Rahman son of Aws, Saad son of Abu Wakas, Zobeir son of Al Awam, and Telha son of Obeidolla, and Abu Obeida. These were some of the principal men of the city, and were afterwards the generals of Mohammed's army, and assisted him in establishing his imposture and his empire. Abulfeda says, "Mohammed made his converts in secret for three years; but after this period he was commanded to preach to those of his tribe. Upon this he ordered Ali to invite his kinsmen, about forty in number, to an entertainment, and to set before with by them. When woman was created, the devil, we are told, was delighted, and said, 'Thou art half of my host, and thou art the depository of my secret, and thou art my arrow, with which I shoot, and miss not.' What are termed by us affairs of gallantry were very common among the Pagan Arabs, and are scarcely less so among their Moslem posterity. They are, however, unfrequent among most tribes of Bedawees, and among the descendants of those tribes not long settled as cultivators. I remember being roused from the quiet that I generally enjoyed in an ancient tomb in which I resided at Thebes, by the cries of a young woman in the neighbourhood, whom an Arab was severely beating for an impudent proposal that she had made to him."-Lane's Arab. Nights, vol. i. pp. 38, 39. Thomas Moore has thus wittily versified the above sentiment of Omar : "Whene'er you're in doubt, said a sage I once knew, them a lamb and a large vessel of milk. When they had done eating and drinking, he began to preach; but being interrupted by Abu Laheb, he invited them to a like feast the next day, and when it was over, he harangued them in the following words: 'I do not know any man in Arabia can make you a better present than I now bring you; I offer you the good both of this world, and of the other life the great God has commanded me to call you to him. Who then will will be my vizier (i. e. take part of the burden with me), my brother, my deputy?' When all were silent, Ali said, ‘I will; and I will beat out the teeth, pull out the eyes, rip up the bellies, and break the legs of all that oppose you, I will be your vizier over them.' Then the apostle of God embracing Ali about the neck, said, 'This is my brother, my ambassador, my deputy, pay him obedience.' At this they all fell a laughing, and said to Abu Taleb, 'You are now to be obedient to your son.' 66 6 Mohammed, not at all discouraged by the opposition of his tribe, continued to upbraid them with their idolatry, and the perverseness and infidelity of their ancestors and of their nation. This provoked them to that degree, that they went to Abu Taleb to complain of his nephew, and desired him to interpose, who, however, dismissed them with a civil answer. However, as Mohammed persisted in his purpose, they went to him a second time, and threatened to use force. Upon this, Abu Taleb sent for his nephew and said to him, 'Thus and thus have your countrymen spoken to me;' but Mohammed imagining his uncle to be against him, replied, Uncle, if they could set the sun against me on my right hand, and the moon on my left, I would never drop the affair.' 'Well,' says Abu Taleb, tell me what answer I shall give them: as for me,' confirming his words with an oath, 'I will never give you up.' The whole tribe now consulted about banishing all who embraced Islamism; but Abu Taleb protected his nephew, though he did not come into his new religion." After this, Hamza, another of his uncles, resenting an affront that Abu Jehel, whom he bitterly hated, had offered to Mohammed, became one of his proselytes, as did also Omar, the son of Al Ketabi, another of the principal men of Mecca, and Abubeker's successor in the Caliphate. Previously to his conversion, Omar was violently set against the prophet. At last his anger rose to such a height, that having girded on a sword, he went in search of him with an intent to kill him. By the way, he called in at his own sister's, where the twentieth chapter of the Koran was reading. Omar demanded to see the book, and upon his sister's refusal, gave her a violent slap on the face, who then gave it to him, upon his promising to restore it her again. No sooner had he read a little of it, when he cried out, "O how fine is this! how I reverence it! I have a great desire to be a believer." He immediately inquired where Mohammed was to be found, and, being told, went to the apostle, who, taking hold of his clothes and pulling him forcibly to him, said, "O son of Al Ketabi, what do you stop at? Why would you stay till the roof of the house falls upon your head?" Upon Omar's replying, "I come hither that I may believe in God and his apostle," the apostle gave praise to God, and thus was completed the conversion of Omar. And now, finding he made such progress, the Koreishites cruelly persecuted the followers of Mohammed. On this account he gave leave to as many of them as had no family to hinder it, to leave Mecca, which they did, to the number of eighty-three men and eighteen women, with their little ones. They fled to the king of Ethiopia, to whom the Koreishites sent two persons with a present of skins, desiring him to send back the fugitives. This the king not only refused to do, but, as the Mohammedan writers assert, embraced Islamism himself. In the eighth year of Mohammed's mission, the Koreishites pledged themselves by a written compact not to intermarry with the Hashemites, or to have any dealings with them. This deed was placed in the Kaaba, where, it is said, a worm ate out every word of the deed, except the name of God. Upon this the whole tribe held a public meeting, and cancelled the agreement.* * Some say that the hand of the notary who drew up the writing was dried up as soon as he had finished it. The Mussulman writers, however, do not agree amongst themselves about this miracle. Maracci quotes an account in which it is asserted that the name of God was eaten out of the instrument, wherever it occurred, every other part of it being perfectly legible; upon which, it was observed, that as God had been averse to the drawing up of the instrument before them, he had taken care that everything relating to him in it should be obliterated, and that everything that was the effect of their wickedness should remain. "In the tenth year of the mission of the prophet died Abu Taleb. Before his death, whilst he was very ill, the apostle of God said to him, 'Uncle, make the profession which will entitle you to happiness at the day of the resurrection;' and Abu Taleb answered, 'So I would, nephew, if it were not for the disgrace; for if I should do so, the Koreishites would say I did it for fear of death.' In his last moments he began to move his lips, and Al Abbas, putting his ear close to them, said, 'O nephew, he has repeated the words that you exhorted him to say. Upon hearing this, the apostle of God said, 'Praised be God who has directed you, dear uncle.' Very soon after Kadija died also.* Whereupon, Mohammed, meeting with more and more opposition at Mecca, where Abu Sofian, his mortal enemy, bore the chief sway, took a journey to Taïf, a town about sixty miles east of Mecca, wherein Al Abbas, another of his uncles, often resided, to try if he could make any converts there; but having no success, he returned to Mecca, where his followers were greatly mortified by the repulse he had met with. Mohammed, however, continued his preaching, even, says Abulfeda, at the hazard of his life; going occasionally among the pilgrims, and calling to them, "O ye of such and such a tribe (which he named), I am the apostle of God, who commands you to serve God, and not to associate any other with him; and to believe and testify that I am a true apostle." One time, being at a place called Alkaba (a mountain north of Mecca), where there were some pilgrims from Yathreb, he addressed them, and made converts of six. These, upon • Of Mohammed's affection for his wife Kadija, Abulfeda relates the following anecdote. His subsequent wife Ayesha one day reproached him with his grief on her account. "Was she not old ?" said Ayesha, with the insolence of blooming beauty; "has not God given you a younger, a better, and a more beautiful wife in her place?" "More beautiful, truly," said the prophet, "and younger, but not better. There cannot be a better she believed in me when men despised me she relieved my wants when I was poor and persecuted." Mr. Burckhardt informs us that the tomb of Kadija is still remaining, and is regularly visited by hadjys (pilgrims), especially on Friday mornings. It is enclosed by a square wal', and presents no objects of curiosity except the tomb-stone, which has a fine inscription in Cufic characters, containing a passage from the Koran, from the chapter entitled, Souret el Kursy.-Arabia, p. 172. с their return to Yathreb, spread his fame there, and propagated Islamism with great success. The chief points of religion which, besides some moral duties, Mahommed first insisted upon were, the unity of God, a resurrection, and a future state of rewards and punishments. The only profession necessary to be made in order to be one of his disciples consisted of these two articles: "There is no God but one," and "Mohammed is his prophet." The former was in opposition, not only directly to all who worship idols, or own a plurality of gods, but indirectly against Christians also, as holding the divinity of our blessed Saviour, and the doctrine of the Trinity. The profession of the second article was the most essential means he could take to bind his followers to swallow everything, how absurd soever, that he should propose to them for belief or practice. Islamism, he declared, was not a new religion, but a restoration to its original purity of the ancient religion, taught and practised by the prophets Adam, Abraham, Moses, David, and Jesus. He did indeed purge the religion of the Arabians, which in his time was rank idolatry, from some gross abuses, as Sabæism, or the worship of the host of heaven, the worship of idols, and divination. In order, however, to make his new system the more acceptable to his countrymen, he retained several of their old superstitious services, such as frequent washing, the pilgrimage to Mecca, with the absurd ceremonies appendant to it, of going seven times round the Kaaba, throwing stones to drive away the devil, &c. The fewness of the things he proposed to their profession and belief certainly made it more easy for him to gain proselytes. And although the paradise he promised them was, as we shall see hereafter, very gross and sensual, it was nevertheless very well suited to the taste of the people he had to deal with, while, on the other hand, the hell with which he threatened unbelievers was terrible. He may be supposed to have dwelt much on the latter subject, as it is so frequently repeated in the Koran. By his artful, insinuating address, in which he is said to have exceeded all men living, he surmounted all difficulties that lay in his way. At his first setting out upon his prophetic office, he bore all affronts without seeming to resent them; and when any of his followers were injured he recommended patience to them, and |