URING THOSE TRANSACTIONS, Mahomet was born about the year of Christ 580. Some place it in 570, others in 600, others in 620; but I follow the most probable account since it is generally agreed that he was forty years old in 620, at which time he began his prophesy.1 He was of the most noble tribe of the Coreischites. His father’s name was Abdalla, his mother Amena or Emena, both of that tribe.2 He was born at Mecca; his father was curious to have his nativity calculated, and it was predicted that he should be exceedingly advanced by the propagation of a new law and monarchy. Not long after his birth, his father died, as did his mother when he was about six years old, whereupon his grandfather Abdolmutleb took care of him and he dying about two years after, his uncle Abutaleb undertook his education.The Mahometans report several miracles which happened at his birth, but would be tedious to relate here. During his infancy he gave pregnant signs of a singular nature, great wit, and good behavior. His uncle gave him all the instruction the country could yield, which being then divided into sundry religions of the Christians, Trinitarians, Jacobites, Nestorians, Arians, Idolaters, and Jews, and those each as it were refracting other (as contrary elements do upon mixture), he was not ignorant of what each of those religions held. Abutaleb his uncle, having occasion to go to Jerusalem and not only to Damascus, carried him with him where he was more perfectly instructed in the principles and various sects of Christianity.3 As he went to <57> Damascus, about Bosra,4 as soon as he saw him was astonished and seizing upon his hand said it was a prodigious youth, that, as he came along, he saw a cloud overshadow him and that the renown of that stripling should fill both eastern and western world.5
Being returned from thence, as well educated as was possible for his uncle to breed him, and being educated to all the martial exercises of the Arabians, at twenty years old he gave great proofs of his valor and conduct in a fight between the Coreischites and the tribe Kais Ailan, which happened in the month Moharra, at what time it was unlawful for the Arabians to fight, it being the time of pilgrimage to the Caaba, whence the Arabians called it dies sceleris, or the wicked day.6
After this, his military genius not permitting him to live idle at home while many of his countrymen served in the Christian armies, he went into the field under his uncle Abubacr who commanded a brigade under the Christians.7 For albeit the Arabians were not tributaries or subjects to the Christians or Persians, yet their country lying between both empires, some of their princes confederated with one and some with the other, according as their situation made them obnoxious, and served either prince upon certain conditions.8 Here he accomplished himself in civil and military prudence and withal discovered the divisions and weaknesses of the Christians. During his being abroad in Syria, a noble lady being a widow (and who, for riches and birth, was courted by sundry Arabians, princes) falling in love with him (or directed by a vision as was pretended),9 invites him to relinquish the war and live with her, promising him a noble maintenance and to accommodate him in order to further travels with a large cargo that he might improve his intellectuals and estate together.10 He who thought (according to the opinion of his country) that merchandise might very well consist with nobility accepted of the overture.11 Nor is this more to his disparagement than it is to the nobles of Venice or Genoa; such were Vespasian, Pertinax, Tarquinius, Priscus among the Romans and even of late Spinola.12
Being thus accommodated, he made several advantageous expeditions to Alexandria and other parts of Egypt. And curiosity or ambition prompting his great spirit, he undertook a voyage into Africa from whence he passed into Spain (AD 605), where he found the kingdom unsettled in religion. For the Goths, having been from the beginning of their Christianity zealous Arians, were forced to turn Trinitarians (AD 589) by their King Ricaredus. And it not being so easy to extirpate inveterate opinions as to alter the profession of them, the <58> populace (and many others) retained their former sentiments. And after the death of Ricaredus, endeavors had been made (AD 603) to resettle Arianism. He finding it in this condition is said to have endeavored to instill into that nation some of his principles and had embroiled them. But the return of St. Isidore from Rome (whose esteem and power in that country was very great) enforced him to return the same way he came.13
This voyage gave him an opportunity of seeing the weakness, the secret animosities, factions of the Christians, not only in Spain but Africa (where were the remains of the Donatists and Arian Vandals) and in Egypt. In his voyage I suppose he discovered the plantation and use of rice wherewith he acquainted his countrymen, recommending it to them as an excellent nourishing durable food: for which he was honored that it is still a tradition among them that Mahomet, being in paradise (before his assuming to be a prophet) and compassing the throne of God, fell into a sweat and one drop falling from him to the earth produced rice.14 Another became a rose.
After his return, Chadija married him.15 And it being the custom of the Arabians that the husband should endow the wife upon marriage, since his fortunes were not proportionable to the quality and riches of Chadija, I find that Abutaleb did make her a dowry of twenty camels and twelve ounces of gold, adding this speech:
Glory be to God who hath caused us to descend from Abraham and to be of the race of Ismael, and hath given us the holy land to possess, and the Caaba to keep where to pilgrims from all places resort; who hath also made us judges and rulers in our country. Mahomet, the son of Abdalla, my nephew, with whom none of the Coreischites can compare for virtue, bravery, glory, understanding, and wit, although his riches do not equal his birth and accomplishments (in truth riches are transitory as a shadow, and are lent to us by heaven so as to be recalled when Allah pleaseth) is passionately in love with Chadija, the daughter of Chowailed, and she likewise with him: whatsoever is demanded by way of dowry I will see it settled.16
I think I follow the most probable story by placing Chadija in Syria, though she were a Coreischite. But it makes nothing to the prejudice of my narration, if Chadija be supposed to live in Mecca and there (upon a dream) fall in love with him and invite him, upon a large salary, to live with her and oversee her estate and conduct her merchandise into Syria and Egypt.17 The Arabians acknowledge the poverty of their prophet, and, for his being retained in her service, they plead that it hath often been the fortune of such as God hath designed <59> for His prophets and the greatest dignities that they should arise from servitude to empire and by a long practiced obedience learn to command; that Joseph was a servant in Egypt, and Moses in Midian; that nobility is not extinguished by poverty; that Noah was a carpenter; that Isa (so they call Jesus Christ and so I shall name him in the subsequent story) followed the same trade.18 That since the nobility of his extraction is not questionable, it is malice and envy to upbraid him with this employment, as if it had been servile and mean; that this objection did not become the followers of Isa; that Mahomet had rendered eminent testimonies of his valor in the wars and might have been rich if he would have been less generous or more rapacious and extorting.
That whereas they said Mahomet was but a camel driver: there is nothing of contumely in that if we consider that wealth of the Arabians consisted much in camels; that the most illustrious and rich nobles of that country did usually attend their own business and drive or feed them themselves; that it is not imaginable he was the most inferior servant of Chadija, his warlike spirit would not have submitted to it, especially his uncle being of such quality and riches, or that Chadija would put him to any such inferior duties whom from the beginning she designed for her husband, dissembling only her passion for a time.
Mahomet, having added to the splendor of his family the riches and power of Chadija, entertained no mean thoughts of himself. She had an uncle called Warekeh or Varkah who understood Hebrew or Syriac well and could write the character.19 Him she did employ to teach Mahomet to write (for amongst the Coreischites scarce any could write at all). The invention of Arabic letters was then but new, one Moramer had found them out, one Ebn Mooklah three hundred years after Mahomet, and after him Ali Ebn Bozea perfected them as they are now.20 Of the Arabian tribe thence they were propagated to the Cendian tribe, and by one Bashar introduced at Mecca a little before the original of Mahomet’s usurpation.21 Mahomet immediately acquainted himself with this new character, and it added much to his repute that he seemed ignorant of nothing. At Jerusalem he had been perfectly instructed in Christianity and had in sundry places conversed with the Nestorians, Jacobites, and Arians: by them he had been informed of the vanity of idols and talismans, <60> of the unity of the Godhead, providence, virtue, and vice, the tenets of the Jews and Jewish Christians.
Thus he became very well versed in the scripture, the doctrine of the Old and New Testament, the traditions of the several sorts of Christians, especially of those Judaizing Churches which Peter had planted all along from Jerusalem to Babylon and all Mesopotamia. Nor is this all which I find written of him: for Rodericus Toletanus assures me that he was well acquainted with natural philosophy.22 In fine, the Arabians had such a repute for his universal knowledge that they believe he understood all things. Though the Arabians did much affect the glory of being eloquent and excellent poets, yet in those qualities did Mahomet surpass them all, not only in sublimity of thoughts, quaintness of speech, wittiness of his parables or apologies, but in choice of words and phrases.23 To all which as his great learning and education had much contributed, so it was an artifice of his to conceal those arts by which he had attained those excellencies. Being asked how he attained to so refined a language, rather than discover the means he had used, he told them that he had learned it from the Angel Gabriel who had taught him the dialect of Ismael himself.
Thus Mahomet gained upon the admiration and esteem of all men, and, by way of gratitude to his uncle Abutaleb, he contracted a particular friendship with young Ali his son and instructed him in writing and all manner of knowledge.24
Ali was of a brown complexion, a little man with a belly somewhat large. He had a contempt for the world, its glory and pomp. He feared God much, gave many alms, was just in all his actions, humble and affable, of an exceeding quick wit, of an ingenuity that was uncommon.25 He was exceeding learned, not only in those sciences which terminate in speculation, but those which tend to practice and are the useful arts of life and supports of civil society. He had a great dexterity in managing the great house and a courage so extraordinary that it seemed to approach to rashness. In his company did Mahomet pass much of his time, and Ali was so surprised at the extraordinary abilities of his cousin that he did believe him to be no less than a prophet. It was no unusual thing for prophets to arise and to be owned in Arabia: the common traditions of the nation and the Sabian <61> principles did incline them to believe it possible that, under certain configurations of the stars, a prophet might be born and that he might do great miracles.
It is most certain that those people were much addicted to judiciary astrology, and this is one tradition of it. The nativity of Mahomet had been calculated, and it had been predicted by a Jewish Genethlia that he should be a great prophet and prince.26 Abu Maasor said of him in defense of those (as Elmain) who write that he was born in the latter end of the night: “Necessariò Muhammedem fuisse natum in fine noctis, quando libra medium cœli teneret, media nocte verò meridiem transiisset signum tauri aliâs enim Prophetiam & principatum ei competere non potuisse.”27 Nor was it held unusual among them for a prophet to bring his Coran, or sacred writ, derived from God.28 So they held that Edris, and Seth did so, Zaradast or Zoroaster, Moses, also his laws, and Isa and his apostles their gospels, so did Mani who gave a beginning to the Manichees, a sect diffused through Persia and Arabia even at that time, which they avowed to be the incorrupt word of God. Nor were the Manichees singular herein: the Gnostics, Nicolatians, Valentinians, Montanists had their sacred writs, which they reverenced, and contemned as spurious the testament or canon of the Trinitarians; and that the Nazarenes and churches planted by Peter had their peculiar gospel I have already showed.
Whilst the esteem of Mahomet thus began to grow, and that the people beheld him as an extraordinary person, the death of Mauritius with its odious circumstances, having taken off from the value of Christianity, and Chosroes having destroyed all the Christians in Persia or made them revolt to Nestorianism, and having wanted and made desolate Palestine, Jerusalem, Syria, and Egypt, and those Arabians who usually adhered to the Christians and served for pay, being discontented that Mauritius first, and then Phocas, denied them their salaries, and that they were involved in the troubles and calamities which Chosroes brought upon the Christians, Mahomet saw a fit opportunity to erect a new empire among the Coreischites. It did not a little contribute thereto that the other Arabians of Yemen had joined with Chosroes and shared in the rich booties of Egypt, which seems to have raised envy in those of Arabia the Desert. And afterwards, Heraclius having murdered Phocas and gained the empire, he marched against Chosroes, won three general battles, carried on the war into Persia, having in his army Abubacr and a brigade of the Scenites or desert Arabians.29 These misfortunes did create such troubles in Persia that Chosroes resigned his kingdom to Medorses, one of his sons, but Sirces, his other son, being disgusted at that, puts his father to death, assumes the crown, makes an ignominious peace.30
Now were the Arabians of Yemen miserable, divided and <62> broken into factions, and disquieted with the troublesome consequence of so disastrous a war.31 Those Scenites who had served valiantly under Heraclius, finding no acknowledgments proportionate to their merits, were sufficiently discontented. Mahomet gains to his friendship Abubacr surnamed the just, and Omar, and Othman, all persons of great power and esteem among the Coreischites, and men of mortified lives, so unconcerned in ambitious aims and private ends that they were able to give any party a luster and to any cause the face of justice and piety.32 Now began all Arabia the Desert to ring with the fame of Mahomet and Othman and Ali being his secretaries; his divine poems were divulged, nor was anything ever read with greater applause. The Arabians were great admirers of poetry (songs were their pandects, their laws and chronicles were contained in them),33 and when any poet had gained renown above others, all his tribe kept a public festival: the drums were beaten, processions made to him by men, women, and children to congratulate him.34 This, as it added to the glory and interest of Mahomet, so it was much to his advantage that in token of his humility and to show how great an enemy he was to luxury, he always wore woolen garments (a garb said to be used by the ancient prophets, and then much used by the ascetics or such Christians as pretended to austerity of life), and that he lodged commonly upon mattresses, whence he had that double appellation of the man clothed with woolen and the man that lodgeth on the mattress.35
The Christians say he lodged thus because he was troubled with epileptic fits. But what is that to his garb or lodging? These fits seize the patient in any place, and most seldom when they are laid down. In the Arabian writers, though Christian, I find no such account of him nor can I believe it, because he was much addicted to venery and so able therein to gratify forty women in one night,36 whereas nothing is more inconsistent with, or pernicious in, that disease than immoderate venery. Besides, it is a disease not to be dissembled and in which no dissimulation can be used. I grant he might either naturally or by some other unknown means frequently fall into ecstasies, and lie entranced, but as this differs much from the falling sickness, so it was no incredible accident among the Arabians who might have learned from the Jews and Christians concerning the ecstasies of the old prophets and of Paul.37 But it was a common tenet with the Arabians that some men might fall into such raptures, and might converse with angels: I find of late that Cardan and his father could fall into them when they pleased.38 And I am apt to believe that the illustrious Cardinal Ximenes did the like sometimes.39
Let us then imagine that in all those cases, nothing befell, nothing was done by Mahomet but what served to imprint in the people an opinion <63> that he was a prophet, which he the more fomented in them by framing his poems to the great God and magnifying him and frequently, in public, crying “Allah Allah Howa Cabah Allah, God, God, the great God.”40 Having given these testimonies of his piety, and in his discourses enlarging in defense of the unity of the deity, he began to inveigh against the mediator gods or idols erected in and about the Caaba and write a surat or chapter of the Alcoran called “Anaan,” in which he introduceth God, complaining that the Arabians did pay really more honor to the associate gods than to Him,41 and that they robbed Him of that veneration which was due to Him.42 He told them that the Caaba was the temple of the great God, that Abraham and Ismael had dedicated it to His worship alone, that the introduction of idols was a novel practice, that the prophets and patriarchs, especially Abraham, Isaac, and their father Ismael, did worship God without associating any with Him; that all associating of others with the great God, either in worship or in essence or both, was idolatry and therefore the Coreischites and other Arabians that did worship these idols were idolaters. So were those Christians who either held a trinity of persons or trinity of gods or did hold the deity of the Virgin Mary. So also were the Jews who did associate Ozair or Ezra to the great God, saying that he was the son of God.43
Among those, for whom the Arabians had a traditional reverence, who though he were not a prophet, yet was he for his witty apothegms and fables of as great credit as any of the prophets in a manner, there was one named Lockman or Lusman (most of the learned imagine him to be Ӕsop, the author of the vulgar fables).44 But Mahomet either feigned or met with other stories of him and fixed him in the time of King David. Him he bringeth in giving this character to his son. “Oh son, do not thou join with God any companion.”
Those latter discourses occasioned Mahomet a great deal of trouble, for the chief of the Coreischites, the rulers of Mecca, and others that were devoted to idolatry and Sabiism began to resent these proceedings, and some out of religion opposed him and his followers, others out of interest, fearing that this doctrine might destroy the glory of the Caaba and prevent the usual resort to it and so extinguish the repute of the Coreischites, whose honor and profit seemed now at stake. Mahomet strengthened his interest by a marriage with the daughter of Abubacr and used all manner of insinuation and address to increase his party. But the number of those that firmly adhered to him was but small, and he placed so little consideration in the respects of the vulgar not cemented to him by a religious tie that he would not adventure his design upon their affection, it being too mutable to build any dangerous lasting design upon. He made some small sallies into the countries and endeavored <64> to draw them into his party. But though he could not so effect his designs as to engage them into his religion or defense, yet by his demeanor and eloquent and sage apothegms he contrived them all in the opinion that he was a prophet.
He daily spread abroad relations of his discourses with God and his conferences with the angel Gabriel and used such a sagacity in discovering all plots and counsels held against him that his followers believed God almighty did reveal all to him. And Abutaleb did vigorously protect him, forbidding any to approach the presence of the prophet having a sword or any offensive weapon about him. The number of his adherents were now increased to forty when Abutaleb died at the age of eighty years.45 The reputation of that prudent and ancient person, and who died in the religion of his country, was a great support to Mahomet. Yet did not his decease abate the courage of Mahomet. He considered well the juncture of affairs that whilst the Christians and Persians were so embroiled, and the Arabians so divided into several factions and more religions, it became him to protract his designs. For great attempts like great trees must have a deep root or every contrast overthrows them.
Not long after, there came to him seventy-three resolute men from Awas and Chezra and two women.46 They came with great devotion and took oath unto the prophet that they would live and die in the profession of the faith of Ismael their common parent and patriarch and first propagator (under Abraham) of the Mahometan faith, who now denominates his followers Moslemin, that is, such as believe in God alone.47 He knew well enough the importance of giving his party a specious appellation: his adversaries he calls associates, very invidiously if we consider what influence those appellations would have upon such as could look no further than the names and appearances of things.48 Out of these last assistants, he chose twelve as principals or doctors, who, departing, did inveigle the inhabitants of Medina that they resolutely declared for him to assist him.49
Medina, then called Yathrib, was the second city of Arabia Deserta, distant from Mecca 10 days’ journey or 270 miles and the ways difficult to pass.50 It was seated conveniently so that he might upon any occasion retire into Yemen or Arabia Fælix (which it borders upon) or otherwise draw any converts or aid thence or even out of Persia. And it is observable that the more remote the people are from the court, church, or chief cities, the less devotion they retain for them. And the frontiers, by reason of the mixture of passengers and conflux of several strangers, are more civil and gentle to all comers than the more inland countries. Mahomet, understanding now the multitudes that would be faithful to him <65> in Medina, demeans himself with more haughtiness than before at Mecca. He declares that he was the apostle of God sent to revive the glory of Ismael and the religion anciently professed amongst them.51 He commands all people to relinquish idolatry, to destroy their idols and worship only one God. He declares his faith to be the true faith, yet so that all which believed Moses or Isa might be saved, and should be protected, paying a moderate tribute. He enjoins all to believe the truth of the apostles and prophets, and to receive the sacred books, not declaring which were they particularly in favor of the Christians.52 He approved their laws and declared Christ to be the spirit of God and the word of God.53
The Christians, finding such a declaration, entertained a favorable opinion of him, resorted unto him and recommended themselves to his most benign protection, and took a cartel of security from him. He commended them for opposing idolatry, as he did also the Jews, never mentioning any of the patriarchs, or Moses, Isa, or the apostles but with this honorable addition: “God’s peace be upon them.”
These tidings engaged the Coreischites against him, seeing all Arabia to divide. Hereupon Mahomet commands his followers to depart for Medina and promiseth to follow them. He retained with him Abubacr and Ali, sending the rest before. All of them arrived safe at Medina, Mahomet lodged at the house of Chalid Abiol till he had built a temple and a house for himself.54
