Mahomet Sentence Examples

At this period the religion of Mahomet was spreading over the east, and in 637 the caliph Omar marched on Jerusalem, which capitulated after a siege of four months.

According to Moslem traditionists Mahomet declared that one of his descendants, the imam of God, who would fill the earth with equity and justice, would bear the name of al-mandi.

It is true that Arabian polytheism in the time of Mahomet was in a state of decay.

Ockley's book on the Saracens " first opened his eyes " to the striking career of Mahomet and his hordes; and with his characteristic ardour of literary research, after exhausting all that could be learned in English of the Arabs and Persians, the Tatars and Turks, he forthwith plunged into the French of D'Herbelot, and the Latin of Pocock's version of Abulfaragius, sometimes understanding them, but oftener only guessing their meaning.

The great rabbinic academies at Sura and Nehardea, the former of which retained something of its dominant role till the rrth century, had been founded, Sura by Abba Arika (c. 219), but Nehardea, the more ancient seat of the two, famous in the 3rd century for its association with Abba Arika's renowned contemporary Samuel, lost its Jewish importance in the age of Mahomet.

The new religion inaugurated by Mahomet differed in its theory from the Roman Catholic Church.

The language of the Kirghiz is Turki and their religion that of Mahomet.

Jenghiz Khan and Timur covered more ground than Napoleon, and no European has had such an effect on the world as Mahomet.

The last false prophet was M'hammad or Ahmat bar Bisbat (Mahomet), but Anosh, who remained close beside him and his immediate successors, prevented hostilities against the true believers, who claim to have had in Babylonia, under the Abbasids, four hundred places of worship. Subsequent persecutions compelled their withdrawal to `Ammara in the neighbourhood of Wasit, and ultimately to Khuzistan.

The acquisition of Aleppo could only make that supreme object more readily attainable; and so Saladin had spent his time in acquiring Aleppo, but only in order that he might ultimately "attain the goal of his desires, and set the mosque of Asha free, to which Allah once led in the night his servant Mahomet."

All these claim descent from a member of the Hashim branch of the Koreish (Mahomet's tribe), !who founded a powerful state in the Zaila district.

Many of the Franciscans refused to abandon their work, and in 1463 they received a charter from the sultan Mahomet II., which is still preserved in the monastery of Fojnica, near Travnik.

Thus, in 1570, Ali Pasha, a native of Herzegovina, became grand vizier; and he was succeeded by the distinguished soldier and statesman, Mahomet Beg Sokolovic, a Bosnian.

The integration of the scattered tribes of Arabia in the 7th century by the stirring religious propaganda of Mahomet was accompanied by a meteoric rise in the intellectual powers of a hitherto obscure race.

It appears to be traceable in its Greek dress in writings of the philosopher Democritus and the dramatist Menander; it was certainly known to the author of Tobit and perhaps to the author of Daniel; some would trace its influence in the New Testament, in the parable of the wicked servant and elsewhere; it was known to Mahomet and is referred to in the Koran; it has been included among the tales in the Arabian Nights; and it survives in a good many versions ancient and modern.

In the same year he wrote a poem on Fontenoy, he received medals from the pope and dedicated Mahomet to him, a.nd he wrote court divertissements and other things to admiration.

From that time till the conquests of Mahomet, Yemen was dependent on Persia, and a Persian governor resided here.

Apart from the tribesmen there is in Hejaz and south Arabia a privileged, religious class, the Sharifs or Seyyids, who claim descent from Mahomet through his daughter Fatima.

The famous well Zemzem at Mecca is said to belong to the early times, when the eastern traffic passed from the south to the north-west of Arabia through the Hejaz, and to have been rediscovered shortly before the time of Mahomet.

Of all these stories current at the time of Mahomet, the only ones of any value are the accounts of the " days of the Arabs," i.e.

A part of the same tribe inhabited Yathrib (Medina) at the time of Mahomet.

Mahomet appealed at once to religion and patriotism, or rather created a feeling for both.

Mahomet early found an excuse for attacking the Jews, who were naturally in the way of his schemes.

At his death in 623 Mahomet left Arabia practically unified.

It is true that rival prophets were leading rebellions in various parts of Arabia, that the tax-collectors were not always paid, and that the warriors of the land were much distressed for want of work owing to the brotherhood of Arabs proclaimed by Mahomet.

He understood the intention of Mahomet as to foreign nations, and set himself resolutely to carry it out in the face of much difficulty.

He, too, desired that Mahomet's wish should be carried out and that Arabia should be purely Moslem.

It already, however, bore within it the germ of decay; the accumulation of treasure in the capital had led to a corruption of the simple manners of the earlier times; the exhaustion of the tribes through the heavy blood tax had roused discontent among them; the plundering of the holy places, the attacks on the pilgrim caravans under the escort of Turkish soldiers, and finally, in 1810, the desecration of the tomb of Mahomet and the removal of its costly treasures, raised a cry of dismay throughout the Mahommedan world, and made it clear even to the Turkish sultan that unless the Wahhabi power were crushed his claims to the caliphate were at an end.

Before Mahomet the ethics of the Arabs were summed up in muruwwa (custom).

One poet, a younger contemporary of Mahomet, has attracted much attention because his poems were religious and he was a monotheist.

So at Medina a school was gradually formed, where the chief part of the traditions about Mahomet and his first successors took a form more or less fixed.

Mahomet's life before he appeared as a prophet and the story of his ancestors are indeed mixed with many fables illustrated by spurious verses.

He also wrote the Kitab ushShama'il on the character and life of Mahomet (printed at Calcutta, 1846).

Seven more books bring us to the rise of Mahomet (xxiii.) and the days of Charlemagne (xxiv.).

He was believed to have descended in direct line from Ali by his wife Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet Mahomet.

Ali's son, Hosain, having married a daughter of one of the rulers of Persia before the time of Mahomet, the Aga Khan traced his descent from the royal house of Persia from the most remote, almost prehistoric, times.

Many of its Arab inhabitants claim descent from Mahomet.

In his youth he was an antagonist of Mahomet.

In a pathetic speech to his children on his deathbed, he bitterly lamented his youthful offence in opposing the prophet, although Mahomet had forgiven him and had frequently affirmed that "there was no Mussulman more sincere and steadfast in the faith than `Amr."

Charlemagne's wars in Italy, Spain and Saxony formed part of the common epic material, and there are references to his wars against the Sla y s; but especially he remained in the popular mind as the great champion of Christianity against the creed of Mahomet, and even his Norman and Saxon enemies became Saracens in current legend.

He was originally called Abd-el-Ka`ba ("servant of the temple"), and received the name by which he is known historically in consequence of the marriage of his virgin daughter Ayesha to Mahomet.

His own belief in Mahomet and his doctrines was so thorough as to procure for him the title El Siddik (the faithful), and his success in gaining converts was correspondingly great.

When Mahomet fled from Mecca, Abu-Bekr was his sole companion, and shared both his hardships and his triumphs, remaining constantly with him until the day of his death.

The choice was ratified by the chiefs of the army, and ultimately confirmed, though Ali, Mahomet's sonin-law, disputed it, asserting his own title to the dignity.

The record, when completed, was deposited with Hafsa, daughter of Omar, and one of the wives of Mahomet.

Shortly before his death, which one tradition ascribes to poison, another to natural causes, he indicated Omar as his successor, after the manner Mahomet had observed in his own case.

Prophecies current among the Christians in Syria of the destruction of Mahomet's sect after six centuries of duration added to the excitement attending these rumours.

Bukhari [[[Mahommed Ahmed Ibn Seyyid Abdullah|Mahommed ibn]] Isma`il al-Bukhari] (810-872), Arabic author of the most generally accepted collection of traditions (hadith) from Mahomet, was born at Bokhara (Bukhdra), of an Iranian family, in A.H.

The word originally signified a military commander, but very early came to be extended to anyone bearing rule, Mahomet himself being styled by the pagan Arabs amir of Mecca.

His principal works, besides the translation of Aristotle and a number of studies connected with the same subject, are Des Vedas (1854), Du Bouddhisme (1856) and Mahomet et le Coran (1865).

They were present when the believers in Mahomet held sway in the Asiatic and African provinces which Alexander had once brought under the intellectual influence of Hellenism; while the Lombards, the West Goths, the Franks and the AngloSaxons had established kingdoms in Italy, Spain, Gaul and Britain.

In October 732 - just 100 years after the death of Mahomet - Charles gained a brilliant victory over Abdur Rahman, who was called back to Africa by the revolts of the Berbers and had to give up the struggle.

His family were sherifs or descendants of Mahomet, and his father, Mahi-ed-Din, was celebrated throughout North Africa for his piety and charity.

Randon (1795-1871), named governorgeneral of Algeria after the coup d'etat, had at first to repress in the south a rising of a new " master of the hour," Mahomet ben Abdallah, the sherif of Wargla.

The Sunnites insist that the office belongs to the tribe of Koreish (Quraish) to which Mahomet himself belonged, but this condition would vitiate the claim of the Turkish sultans, who have held the office since its transference by the last caliph to Selim I.

According to a tradition falsely ascribed to Mahomet, there can be but one caliph at a time; should a second be set up, he must be killed, for he "is a rebel."

The Mahommedan Era, Or Era Of The Hegira, Used In Turkey, Persia, Arabia, &C., Is Dated From The First Day Of The Month Preceding The Flight Of Mahomet From Mecca To Medina, I.E.

Hashem, an ancestor of Mahomet, lies buried in the town.

A mysterious symbol much used in their ceremonies of initiation consists of the three letters these being the initials of `Ali, Mahomet and Salman.

This mosque is specially sacred as possessing what are said to be three hairs of the Prophet's beard, buried with the saint, who was one of the companions of Mahomet.

The legend says that Okba determined to found a city which should be a rallying-point for the followers of Mahomet in Africa.

Gregory and Mahomet were contemporaries, and, though Saracen occupation did not begin in Early Sicily till more than two centuries after Gregory's Y death, Saracen inroads began much sooner.

They had been converted to Mahommedanism in the early times of the Arab conquest, but their knowledge of Islam did not go much beyond the formula of the creed - "there is no god but God, and Mahomet is the apostle of God," - and they were ignorant of the law.

Besides, it is the work of Mahomet, and as such is fitted to afford a clue to the spiritual development of that most successful of all prophets and religious personalities.

Mahomet, however, really felt Mahomet's himself to be the instrument of God; this con- View of sciousness was no doubt brighter at his first appear- Revelation.

Mahomet issued his revelations in fly-leaves of greater or less.

The last became, in the lifetime of Mahomet, the regular designation of the individual sections.

How these revelations actually arose in Mahomet's mind is a question which it is almost as idle to discuss as it would be to analyse the workings of the mind of a poet.

It is said that Mahomet occasionally uttered such a passage immediately after one of those epileptic fits which not only his followers, but (for a time at least) he himself also, regarded as tokens of intercourse with the higher powers.

Mahomet himself, so far as we can discover, never wrote down anything.

On one occasion, when a dispute arose between two of his own followers as to the true reading of a passage which both had received from the Prophet himself, Mahomet is said to have explained that the Koran was revealed in seven forms.

A great number of explanations are current, some of which claim the authority of the Prophet himself; as, indeed, fictitious utterances of Mahomet play throughout a conspicuous part in the exegesis of the Koran.

When such discrepancies came to the cognizance of Mahomet it was doubtless his desire that only one of the conflicting texts should be considered authentic; only he never gave h i mself much trouble to have his wish carried into effect.

There is nothing in this at variance with Mahomet's idea of God.

But Mahomet showed no anxiety to have these superseded enactments destroyed.

That later generations might not so easily distinguish the " abrogated " from the " abrogating " did not occur to Mahomet, whose vision, naturally enough, seldom extended to the future of his religious community.

Not unfrequently the divine word was found to coincide with the advice which Mahomet had received from his most intimate disciples.

We are reminded of the greatness, the goodness, the righteousness of God as manifested in Nature, in history, and in revelation through the prophets, especially through Mahomet.

A great number contain ceremonial or civil laws, or even special commands to individuals down to such matters as the regulation of Mahomet's harem.

Mahomet himself, too, repeatedly receives direct injunctions, and does not escape an occasional rebuke.

The purpose of Mahomet is to show from these histories how God in forme/ times had rewarded the righteous and punished their enemies.

For the most part the old prophets only serve to introduce a little variety in point of form, for they are almost in every case facsimiles of Mahomet himself.

The Koran even goes so far as to make Noah contend against the worship of certain false gods, mentioned by name, who were worshipped by the Arabs of Mahomet's time.

In addition to his misconceptions there are sundry capricious alterations, some of them very grotesque, due to Mahomet himself.

The opinion has already been expressed that Mahomet did not make use of written sources.

Otherwise we might even conclude that Mahomet had studied the Talmud; e.g.

But Mahomet's mistake consists in persistent and slavish adherence to the semi-poetic form which he had at first adopted in accordance with his own taste and that of his hearers.

Rhymed prose was a favourite form of composition among the Arabs of that day, and Mahomet adopted it; but if it imparts a certain sprightliness to some passages, it proves on the whole a burdensome yoke.

Mahomet, in short, is not in any sense a master of style.

However little real originality there is in Mahomet's doctrines, as against his own countrymen he was thoroughly original, even in the form of his oracles.

And if such a character appeared after Mahomet, still he could never be anything but an imitator, like the false prophets who arose about the time of his death and afterwards.

All beginnings are difficult; and it can never be esteemed a serious charge against Mahomet that his book, the first prose work of a high order in the language, testifies to the awkwardness of the beginner.

Mahomet repeatedly calls attention to the fact that the Koran is not written, like other sacred books, in a strange language, but in Arabic, and therefore is intelligible to all.

Mahomet, who could not fully express his new ideas in the common language of his countrymen, but had frequently to find out new terms for himself, made free use of such Jewish and Christian words, as was done, though perhaps to a smaller extent, by certain thinkers and poets of that age who had more or less risen above the level of heathenism.

In Mahomet's case this is the less wonderful because he was indebted to the instruction of Jews and Christians, whose Arabic - as the Koran pretty clearly intimates with regard to one of them - was very defective.

Thus, forgan means really " redemption," but Mahomet uses it for " revelation."

Revelations of the kind which Mahomet uttered, no unbeliever could more probably, among Christians, since Christianity is in a very peculiar sense the religion of salvation.

It is actually used of the religion of the Jews and Christians (once), of the heathen (5 times), but mostly (8 times) of the religion of Abraham, which Mahomet in the Medina period places on the same level with Islam.

Illiyun, which Mahomet uses of a heavenly book (Sara 83; 18, 19), is clearly the Hebrew elyon, " high " or " exalted."

Sprenger has rightly observed that Mahomet makes a certain parade of these foreign terms, as of other peculiarly constructed expressions; in this he followed a favourite practice of contemporary poets.

Mahomet's position in Medina was entirely different from that which he had occupied in his native town.

According to this, Ibrahim, after the controversy with the Jews, first of all became Mahomet's special forerunner in Medina, then the first Moslem, and finally the founder of the Ka'ba.

Be- sides, it is a priori unlikely that a contemporary of Mahomet should have drawn up such a list; and if any one had made the attempt he would have found it almost impossible to obtain reliable information as to the order of the earlier Meccan suras.

In fact the whole history of Mahomet previous to the Flight is so imperfectly related that we are not even sure in what year he appeared as a prophet.

Here and there Mahomet speaks of visions, and appears even to see angels before him in bodily form.

That tradition goes back to the Prophet's favourite wife Ayesha; but as she was not born at the time when the revelation is said to have been made, it can only contain at the best what Mahomet told her years afterwards, from his own not very clear recollection, with or without fictitious additions, and this woman is little trustworthy.

It was only after Mahomet encountered obstinate resistance that the tone of the revelations became thoroughly passionate.

Since Mahomet's strength lay in his enthusiastic and fiery imagination rather than in the wealth of ideas and clearness of abstract thought on which exact reasoning depends, it follows that the older suras, in which the former qualities have free scope, must be more attractive to us than the later.

It is true that there is not a single original idea of Mahomet's in it.

On the other hand, the question must remain open whether Mahomet only gave free renderings of the several borrowed formulae, or whether in actually composing them he kept existing models.

Mahomet seems for a while to have entertained the thought of adopting al-Rahman as a proper name of God, in place of Allah, which was already used by the heathens.'

It may therefore even be doubted whether Mahomet at the outset looked upon the latter as revealed.

Mahomet's mission was Rot to Europeans, but to a people who, though quick-witted and receptive, were not accustomed to logical thinking, while they had outgrown their ancient religion.

The close connexion of the two expressions, it is true, makes it probable that Mahomet only added the adjective Rahim to the substantive Rahman in order to strengthen the conception.

Mahomet in Medina is tolerably complete.

For the Moslems Mahomet has many different messages.

They are no consolidated party, but to Mahomet they are all equally vexatious, because, as soon as danger has to be encountered, or a contribution is levied, they all alike fall away.

There are frequent outbursts, ever increasing in bitterness, against the Jews, who were very numerous in Medina and its neighbourhood when Mahomet arrived.

The most objectionable parts of the whole Koran are those which treat of Mahomet's relations with women.

Sprenger arrives at this explanation by a very artificial method; and besides, Mahomet was not so simple as the Moslem traditionalists, who imagined that the Abyssinians could read a piece of the Arabic Koran.

In any case, when Mahomet died, the separate pieces of the Koran, notwithstanding their theoretical sacredness, existed only in scattered copies; they Trans= were consequently in great danger of being partially mission of or entirely destroyed.

It was inevitable, however, that discrepancies should emerge between the texts of professed scholars, and as these men in their several localities were authorities on the reading of the Koran, quarrels began to break out between the levies from different districts about the true form that these initials did not belong to Mahomet's text, but might be the monograms of possessors of codices, which, through negligence on the part of the editors, were incorporated in the final form of the Koran; he now deems it more probable that they are to be traced to the Prophet himself, as Sprenger, Loth and others suppose.

Mahomet seems to have meant these letters for a mystic reference to the archetypal text in heaven.

Amongst these are some which there is no reason to suppose Mahomet desired to suppress.

But it must be remembered that it was never Mahomet's practice to refer explicitly to contemporary persons and affairs in the Koran.

Ubay, on the other hand, had embodied two additional short prayers, which we may regard as Mahomet's.

Shortly after Mahomet's death certain individuals applied themselves to the exposition of the Koran.

Ibn 'Abbas, a cousin of Mahomet, and the chief source of the traditional exegesis of the Koran, has, on theological and other grounds, given currency to a number of falsehoods; and at least some of his pupils have emulated his example.

This council consists of the sheikh or religious chief of each of the four orthodox sects, the sheikh of the mosque of Azhar, who is of the sect of the Shafiis, the chief (nakib) of the Sherifs, or descendants of Mahomet, and others.

Notwithstanding its condemnation by Mahomet, music is the most favorite recreation of the people; the songs of the boatmen, the religious chants, and the cries in the streets are all musical.

Mahomet himself made a concession to heathen traditions when he recognized the Ka`ba and the black stone; and the worship of saints, which is now spread throughout Islam and supported by obviously forged traditions, is an example of the same thing.

Some authorities, however, hold that it commemorates the red flare of the torches by whose light the work of construction was carried on nightly for many years; others associate it with the name of the founder, Mahomet Ibn Al Ahmar; and others derive it from the Arabic Dar al Amra, " House of the Master."

For Mahomet proclaimed it the duty of every Mussulman, once at least in his life, to visit Mecca; the result being that the birthplace of the Prophet is now the religious centre of the whole Mahommedan world (see Mahommedan Religion; Caravan; Mecca) .

The exuberance of the young poet's genius is also to be seen in the many unfinished fragments of this period; at one time we find him occupied with dramas on Caesar and Mahomet, at another with an epic on Der ewige Jude, and again with a tragedy on Prometheus, of which a magnificent fragment has passed into his works.

In such a case there is resort to a controlling authority, whether self-imposed (like the divine Pharaoh of the Amarna age), or mutually agreed (as Mahomet and the Arabian clans).

The separate tribal units of Arabia, more or less impotent when divided and at war with one another, received for the first time an indissoluble bond of union from the prophet Mahomet, whose perfect knowledge of human nature (at least of Arab human nature) enabled him to formulate a religious system that was calculated.

Mahomet, the founder of Islam, died at Medina in A.D.

A peculiar compliment to Mahomet was involved in the fact that the leaders of the rebellion in the various districts did not pose as princes and kings, but as prophets; in this appeared to lie the secret of Islam's success.

In the first place, he allowed the expedition against the Greeks, already arranged by Mahomet, quietly to set out, limiting himself for the time to the defence of Medina.

The holy war against the border countries which Mahomet had already inaugurated, was the best means for making the new religion popular among the Arabs, for opportunity was at the same time afforded for gaining rich booty.

We have already seen that Mahomet himself prepared the way for this transference; Abu Bekr and Omar likewise helped it; the Emigrants were unanimous among themselves in thinking that the precedence and leadership belonged to them as of right.

Mahomet was a practical man; he realized that the growing state needed skilful administrators, and that such were found in much greater number among the antagonists of yesterday than among the honest citizens of Medina.

In the great revolt of the Arabic tribes after the death of Mahomet, and in the invasion of Irak and Syria by the Moslems, the principal generals belonged to them.

The elements of this opposition were of very various kinds (r) The old-fashioned Moslems, sons of the Ansar and Mohajir, who had been Mahomet's first companions and supporters, and could not bear the thought that the sons of the old enemies of the Prophet in Mecca, whom they nicknamed tolaga (freedmen), should be in control of the imamate, which carried with it the management of affairs both civil and religious.

He was even chosen to be one of the secretaries of Mahomet.

With Ibn Zobair perished the influence which the early companions of Mahomet had exercised over Islam.

But he forbade extortion and suppressed more than 1 Seyid Ameer Ali, A Critical Examination of the Life and Teachings of Mahomet, pp. 341-343.

But they arrived at Kufa in the latter half of September 749, where in the meantime the head of the propaganda, Abu Salama, called the wazir of the family of Mahomet, had previously undertaken the government.

He not only caused the mourning for the death of Hosain and other Shiite festivals to be celebrated at Bagdad, but also allowed imprecations against Moawiya and even against Mahomet's wife Ayesha and the caliphs Abu Bekr, Omar and Othman, to be posted up at the doors of the mosques.

It is used to designate the religious duty inculcated in the Koran on the followers of Mahomet to wage war upon those who do not accept the doctrines of Islam.

This duty is laid down in five surasall of these suras belonging to the period after Mahomet had established his power.

The most noted and the most successful of the native leaders was a Bajau named Mat Saleh (Mahomet Saleh), who for many years defied the company, whose policy in his regard was marked by considerable weakness and vacillation.

How Mahomet understood the ' In the 18th century there was discovered in one of the catacombs of Rome an inscription containing the words "qui et Filius diceris et Pater inveniris."

Curiously enough, the name "Sabian" was used by theMeccanidolaters to denote Mahomet himself andhisMoslem converts, apparently on account of the frequent ceremonial ablutions which formed a striking feature of the new religion.

It is the note of every great religious reformer, Moses, Buddha, Paul, Mani, Mahomet, St Francis, Luther, to enlighten and direct it to higher aims, substituting a true personal holiness for a ritual purity or taboo, which at the best was viewed as a kind of physical condition and contagion, inherent as well in things and animals as in man.

His father, Abu Talib, was an uncle of the prophet, and Ali himself was adopted by Mahomet and educated under his care.

As a mere boy he distinguished himself by being one of the first to declare his adhesion to the cause of Mahomet, who some years afterwards gave him his daughter Fatima in marriage.

Ali proved himself to be a brave and faithful soldier, and when Mahomet died without male issue, a few emigrants thought him to have the best claim to succeed him.

Almost the first act of his reign was the suppression of a rebellion under Talha and Zobair, who were instigated by Ayesha, Mahomet's widow, a bitter enemy of Ali, and one of the chief hindrances to his advancement to the caliphate.

This is to enable the prophet Mahomet to draw up the believer into paradise.

Obviously, it was through this preaching of a judgment to come and a direct moral responsibility of the individual man, that, like Mahomet among the Arabs, Zoroaster and his disciples gained their adherents and exercised their greatest influence.

The term is supposed to be a corruption of Mahomet, who in several medieval Latin poems seems to be called by this name.

He was the founder of the present capital of Tibet, now known as Lhasa; and in the year 622 (the same year as that in which Mahomet fled from Mecca) he began the formal introduction of Buddhism into Tibet.

It contains an account of the early conquests of Mahomet and the early caliphs.

It is entirely in praise of Mahomet, who cured the poet of paralysis by appearing to him in a dream and wrapping him in a mantle.

In the internecine struggle that followed amongst the sons of Bayezid, Mircea espoused the cause of Musa; but, though he thus obtained for a while considerable influence in the Turkish councils, this policy eventually drew on him the vengeance of the sultan Mahomet I., who succeeded in reducing him to a tributary position.

He is said to have feasted amongst his impaled victims. When the sultan Mahomet, infuriated at the impalement of his envoy, the pasha of Vidin, who had been charged with Vlad's deposition, invaded Walachia in person with an immense host, he is said to have found at one spot a forest of pales on which were the bodies of men, women and children.

In 1456 the voivode Peter, alarmed at the progress of the Turks, who were now dominant in Servia and Walachia, offered the sultan Mahomet II.

In the .autumn of 1474 the sultan Mahomet entered Moldavia at the head of an army estimated by the Polish historian Dlugosz at 120,000 men.

In 1476 Mahomet again invaded Moldavia, but, though successful in the open field, the Turks were sorely harassed by Stephen's guerilla onslaughts, and, being thinned by pestilence, were again constrained to retire.

The people of the principalities were to enjoy all the privileges that they had possessed under Mahomet IV.; they were to be freed from tribute for two years, as some compensation for the ruinous effects of the last war; they were to pay a moderate tribute; the agents of Walachia and Moldavia at Constantinople were to enjoy the rights of national representatives, and the Russian minister at the Porte should on occasion watch over the interests of the principalities.

The stipulations of the treaty, though deficient in precision (the Walachians, for instance, had no authentic record of the privileges enjoyed under Mahomet IV.), formed the basis of future liberties in both principalities; but for the moment all reforms were postponed.

Mahomet, anxious to invest the call with the dignity of a ceremony, took counsel of his followers.

At all events, long before Mahomet we find Mecca established in the twofold quality of a commercial centre and a privileged holy place, surrounded by an inviolable territory (the Haram), which was not the sanctuary of a single tribe but a place of pilgrimage, where religious observances were associated with a series of annual fairs at different points in the vicinity.

Beyond the gate, in a place called the Hajun, is the chief cemetery, commonly called el Ma'la, and said to be the resting-place of many of the companions of Mahomet.

Long before Mahomet the chief sanctuary of Mecca was the Ka`ba, a rude stone building without windows, and having a door 7 ft.

The Ka`ba has been rebuilt more than once since Mahomet purged it of idols and adopted it as the chief sanctuary of Islam, but the old form has been preserved, except in secondary details;2 so that the "Ancient House," as it is titled, is still essentially a heathen temple, adapted to the worship of Islam by the clumsy fiction that it was built by Abraham and Ishmael by divine revelation as a temple of pure monotheism, and that it was only temporarily perverted to idol worship from the time when `Amr ibn Lohai introduced the statue of Hobal from Syria' till the victory of Islam.

The Ka`ba of Mahomet's time was the successor of an older building, said to have been destroyed by fire.

In Mahomet's time the outer walls were covered by a veil (or kiswa) of striped Yemen cloth.

The pilgrimage was so intimately connected with the wellbeing of Mecca, and had already such a hold on the Arabs round about, that Mahomet could not afford to sacrifice it to an abstract purity of religion, and thus the old usages were transplanted into Islam in the double form of the omra or vow of pilgrimage to Mecca, which can be discharged at any time, and the hajj or pilgrimage at the great annual feast.

While there he published Three Letters from Mr Whitefield, in which he referred to the "mystery of iniquity" in Tillotson, and asserted that that divine knew no more of Christ than Mahomet did.

Mahomet himself called fasting the " gate of religion," and forbade it only on the two great festivals, namely, on that which immediately follows Ramadan and on that which succeeds the pilgrimage.

Jesus appears to be accepted as one such incarnation, but not Mahomet, although it is agreed that, in his time, the "Universal Intelligence" (see later) was made flesh, in the person of Mikdad al-Aswad.

The philosophers in their way, like the mystics of Persia (the Sufites) in another, tended towards a theory of the communion of man with the spiritual world, which may be considered a protest against the practical and almost prosaic definiteness of the creed of Mahomet.

In works of contemporary art Averroes is at one time the comrade of Mahomet and Antichrist; at another he lies with Arius and Sabellius, vanquished by the lance of St Thomas.

Thereupon Fodio unfurled the green banner of Mahomet and preached a jihad or religious war.

At one time the mosques were covered with mosaics, analogous to those of Ravenna, depicting scenes from the life of Mahomet and the prophets.

It was not only the first territorial conquest from the Tatars, before whom Muscovy had humbled herself for generations; at Kazan Asia, in the name of Mahomet, had fought behind its last trench against Christian Europe marshalled beneath the banner of the tsar of Muscovy.

This work, scarcely begun in Mecca, was really started after the migration to Medina by the formation of a party of men - the Muhajirun (Refugees or Emigrants) and the Ansdr (Helpers or Defenders) - who accepted Mahomet as their religious leader.

The attempt of Mahomet to unify Arabia had.

But in Ibn Ishaq's day these fables were generally accepted as history - for many of them had been first related by contemporaries of Mahomet - and no one certainly thought it blameworthy to put pious verses in the mouth of the Prophet's forefathers, though, according to the Fihrist (p. 92), Ibn Ishaq was duped by others with regard to the poems he quotes.

The interest in all that concerned Mahomet and in the allusions of the Koran to old prophets and races led many professional narrators to choose these subjects.

In Islam" according to an unconfirmed tradition Mahomet is said to have foretold that his community would split into seventy-three sects (see Mahommedan Religion, § Sects), of which only one would escape the flames of hell.

Caussin de Perceval published (1828) a useful Grammaire arabe vulgaire, which passed through several editions (4th ed., 1858), and edited and enlarged Elie Bocthor's 1 Dictionnaire francais-arabe (2 vols., 1828; 3rd ed., 1864); but his great reputation rests almost entirely on one book, the Essai sur l'histoire des Arabes avant l'Islamisme, pendant l'epoque de Mahomet (3 vols., 1847-1849), in which the native traditions as to the early history of the Arabs, down to the death of Mahommed and the complete subjection of all the tribes to Islam, are brought together with wonderful industry and set forth with much learning and lucidity.

On the fall of the Omayyad dynasty at Damascus, the title was assumed by the Spanish branch of the family who ruled in Spain at Cordova (75510 3 1), and the Fatimite rulers of Egypt, who pretended to descent from Ali, and Fatima, Mahomet's daughter, also assumed the name (see Fatimites).

Like Mahomet after him and the founder of the Elkesaites before him, he gave himself out for the last and highest prophet, who was to surpass all previous divine revelation, which only possessed a relative value, and to set up the perfect religion.

The Babis are Muhammadans only in the sense that the Muhammadans are Christians or the Christians Jews; that is to say, they recognize Muhammad (Mahomet) as a true prophet and the Qur'an (Koran) as a revelation, but deny their finality.

When Mahomet spoke of the goodness of the Lord in creating the clouds, and bringing them across the cheerless desert, and pouring them out on the earth to restore its rich vegetation, that must have been a picture of thrilling interest to the Arabs, who are accustomed to see from three to five years elapse before a copious shower comes to clothe the wilderness once more with luxuriant pastures.

Mahomet himself had to disclaim such titles, because he felt himself to be a divinely inspired prophet; but we too, from our standpoint, shall fully acquit him of poetic genius.

In the later pieces, Mahomet often inserts edifying remarks, entirely out of keeping with the context, merely to complete his rhyme.

It is no doubt conceivable - as Sprenger supposes - that Mahomet might have returned at intervals to his earlier mariner; but since this group possesses a remarkable similarity of style, and since the gradual formation of a different style is on the whole an unmistakable fact, the assumption has little probability; and we shall therefore abide by the opinion that these form a distinct group.

It is probable (see above) that Mahomet had already caused revelations to be written down at Mecca, and that this began from the moment when he felt certain that he was the transmitter of the actual text of a heavenly book to mankind.

It has been conjectured that in deference to his superiors he kept out of the book the names of Mahomet's enemies, if they or their families came afterwards to be respected.

The ostensible object of the French expedition to Egypt was to reinstate the authority of the Sublime Porte, and suppress the Mamelukes; and in the proclamation printed with the Arabic types brought from the Propaganda press, and issued shortly after the taking of Alexandria, Bonaparte declared that he reverenced the prophet Mahomet and the Koran far more than the Mamelukes reverenced either, and argued that all men were equal except so far as they were distinguished by their intellectual and moral excellences, of neither of which the Mamelukes had any great share.

But the Emigrants (see Mahomet) asserted their opposing claims, and with success, having brought into the town a considerable number of outside Moslems, so as to terrorize the men of Medina, who besides were still divided into two parties.

Mahomet, it is said, declared that the house-dwelling snakes were a kind of jinn, and the heathen Arabs invariably regarded them as alike malevolent or benevolent demoniacal beings."

Leo Africanus, who in 1526 gave an account of the Alchemists of Fez in Africa (see the English translation of his Africae descriptio by John Pory, A Geographical History of Africa, London, 1600, p. 155), states that their principal authority was Geber, a Greek who had apostatized to Mahommedanism and lived a century after Mahomet.

The Syrian caravan intercepted, on its return, at Badr (see Mahomet) represented capital to the value of X20,000, an enormous sum for those days.'

Mr Earle's listener on these occasions confesses that he heard with a doubting mind, and that belief in what he heard still keeps company with Mahomet's coffin.

Now the first Sura revealed to Mahomet was the 96th, Recite in the name of the Lord, &c.