the zodiac into as many parts, through one of which the moon passes every night;' as some of them set in the morning, others rise opposite to them, which happens every thirteenth night, and from their rising and setting the Arabs, by long experience, observed what changes happened. in the air; and at length, as has been said, came to ascribe divine power to them, saying, that their rain was from such or such a star; which expression Mohammed condemned, and absolutely forbade them to use it in the old sense, unless they meant no more by it than that God had so ordered the seasons, that when the moon was in such or such a mansion or house, or at the rising or setting of such and such a star, it should rain or be windy, hot or cold.

The old Arabians, therefore, seem to have made no further progress in astronomy, which science they afterwards cultivated with so much success and applause, than to observe the influence of the stars on the weather, and to give them names; and this it was obvious for them to do by reason of their pastoral way of life, lying night and day in the open plains. The names they imposed on the stars generally alluded to cattle and flocks, and they were so nice in distinguishing them, that no language has so many names of stars and asterisms as the Arabic; for though they have since borrowed the names of several constellations from the Greeks, yet the far greater part are of their own growth, and much more ancient, particularly those of the more conspicuous stars, dispersed in several constellations, and those of the lesser constellations which are contained within the greater, and were not observed or named by the Greeks.

Thus have I given the most succinct account I have been able, of the state of the ancient Arabians before Mohammed, or, to use their expres sion, in the time of ignorance. I shall now proceed briefly to consider the state of religion in the east, and of the two great empires which divided that part of the world between them, at the time of Mohammed's setting up for a prophet, and what were the conducive circumstances and accidents that favoured his success.

OF THE

SECTION II.

STATE OF CHRISTIANITY, PARTICULARLY OF THE EASTERN CHURCHES, AND OF JUDAISM, AT THE TIME OF MOHAMMED'S APPEARANCE; AND OF THE METHODS TAKEN BY HIM FOR THE ESTABLISHING OF HIS RELIGION, AND THE CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH CONCURRED THERETO.

If we look into the ecclesiastical historians even from the third century, we shall find the Christian world to have then had a very different aspect from what some authors have represented; and so far from being endued with active grace, zeal, and devotion, and established within itself with purity of doctrine, union, and firm profession of the faith, that, on the contrary, what by the ambition of the clergy, and what by drawing the abstrusest niceties into controversy, and dividing and subdividing about them into endless schisms and contentions, they had so destroyed that peace, love, and charity from among them, which the gospel was given to promote; and instead thereof continually provoked each other to that Vide Hyde, in not. ad Tabulas stellar. fixar. Ulugh Beigh, p. 5. Vide Poc. Spec. p. 163, &c. Vide Hyde ubi sup. p. 4. Ricaut's State of the Ottoman Empire, p. 187.

malice, rancour, and every evil work; that they had lost the whole substance of their religion, while they thus eagerly contended for their own imaginations concerning it; and in a manner quite drove Christianity out of the world by those very controversies in which they disputed with each other about it. In these dark ages it was that most of those superstitions and corruptions we now justly abhor in the church of Rome were not only broached, but established; which gave great advantages to the propagation of Mohammedism. The worship of saints and images, in particular, was then arrived of such a scandalous pitch, that it even surpassed what is now practised among the Romanists.

After the Nicene council, the eastern church was engaged in perpetual controversies, and torn to pieces by the disputes of the Arians, Sabellians, Nestorians, and Eutychians: the heresies of the two last of which have been shown to have consisted more in the words and form of expression than in the doctrines themselves and were rather the pretences than real motives of those frequent councils, to and from which the contentious prelates were continually riding post, that they might bring every thing to their own will and pleasure. And to support themselves by dependants and bribery, the clergy in any credit at court undertook the protection of some officer in the army, under the colour of which justice was publicly sold, and all corruption encouraged.

In the western church, Damasus and Ursicinus carried their contests at Rome for the episcopal seat so high, that they came to open violence and murder, which Viventius the governor not being able to suppress, he retired into the country, and left them to themselves, till Damasus prevail. ed. It is said that on this occasion, in the church of Sicininus, there were no less than 137 found killed in one day. And no wonder they were so fond of these seats, when they became by that means enriched by the presents of matrons, and went abroad in their chariots and sedans in great state, feasting sumptuously even beyond the luxury of princes, quite contrary to the way of the living of the country prelates, who alone seemed to have some temperance and modesty left."

These dissensions were greatly owing to the emperors, and particularly to Constantius, who, confounding the pure and simple Christian religion with anile superstitions, and perplexing it with intricate questions, instead of reconciling different opinions, excited many disputes, which he fomented as they proceeded with infinite altercations. This grew worse in the time of Justinian, who, not to be behind the bishops of the fifth and sixth centuries in zeal, thought it no crime to condemn to death a man of a different persuasion from his own.2

This corruption of doctrine and morals in the princes and clergy was necessarily followed by a general depravity of the people; those of all conditions making it their sole business to get money by any means, and then to squander it away, when they had got it, in luxury and debauchery.

But, to be more particular as to the nation we are now writing of, Arabia was of old famous for heresies; which might be in some measure

•Am* See

Prideaux's Pref. to his Life of Mohammed. • Vide La vie de Mohammed, par Boulainvilliers, d. 219, &c. Vide Simon, Hist. Crit. de la creance, &c. des nations du Levant. Ammian. Marcellin. lib. 21. Vide etiam Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. 8. c. 1. Sozom. lib. 1, c. 14, &c. Hilar. and Sulpic. Sever. in Hist. Sacr. p. 112, &c. mian. Marcellin. lib. 27. 2 Procop. in Anecd. p. 60. an instance of the wickedness of the Christian army even when they were under the terror of the Saracons, in Ockley's Hist. of the Sarac, vol. i. p. 239. Vide Boulainvill. Vide Sozomen. Hist. Eccles. lib. 1. c. 16, 17. Sulpic. Sever.

Vie de Moh. ubi. @vp.

ubi supra.

1 Idem. lib. 21.

attributed to the liberty and independency of the tribes. Some of the Christians of that nation believed the soul died with the body, and was to be raised again with it at the last day : these Origen is said to have con. vinced. Among the Arabs it was that the heresies of Ebion, Beryllus, and the Nazaræans, and also that of the Collyridians, were broached, or at least propagated; the latter introduced the Virgin Mary for God, or worshipped her as such, offering her a sort of twisted cake called collyris, whence the sect had its name."

This notion of the divinity of the virgin Mary was also believed by some at the council of Nice, who said there were two gods besides the Father, viz. Christ and the virgin Mary, and were thence named Mariamites.1 Others imagined her to be exempt from humanity, and deified; which goes but little beyond the popish superstition in calling her the complement of the Trinity, as if it were imperfect without her. This foolish imagination is justly condemned in the Korân' as idolatrous, and gave a handle to Mohammed to attack the Trinity itself,

Other sects there were of many denominations within the borders of Arabia, which took refuge there from the proscriptions of the imperial edicts; several of whose notions Mohammed incorporated with his religion, as may be observed hereafter.

Though the Jews were an inconsiderable and despised people in other parts of the world, yet in Arabia, whither many of them fled from the destruction of Jerusalem, they grew very powerful, several tribes and princes embracing their religion; which made Mohammed at first show great regard to them, adopting many of their opinions, doctrines, and customs; thereby to draw them, if possible, into his interest. But that people, agreeably to their wonted obstinacy, were so far from being his proselytes, that they were some of the bitterest enemies he had, waging continual war with him, so that their reduction cost him infinite trouble and danger, and at last his life. This aversion of theirs created at length as great a one in him to them, so that he used them, for the latter part of his life, much worse than he did the Christians, and frequently exclaims against them in his Korân; his followers to this day observe the same difference between them and the Christians, treating the former as the most abject and contemptible people on earth.

It has been observed by a great politician,3 that it is impossible a person should make himself a prince and found a state without opportunities. If the distracted state of religion favoured the designs of Mohammed on that side, the weakness of the Roman and Persian monarchies might flatter him with no less hopes in any attempt on those once formidable empires, either of which, had they been in their full vigour, must have crushed Mohammedisin in its birth; whereas nothing nourished it more than the success the Arabians met with in their enterprises against those powers, which success they failed not to attribute to their new religion and the divine assistance thereof.

The Roman empire declined apace after Constantine, whose successors were for the generality remarkable for their ill qualities, especially cowardice and cruelty. By Mohammed's time the western half of the empire was overrun by the Goths; and the eastern so reduced by the Huns on the one side, and the Persians on the other, that it was not in a capacity of stemming the violence of a powerful invasion. The emperor Maurice paid tribute to the Khagân or king of the Huns; and after Phocas

Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. 6, c. 33.

Epiphan. de Hæresi, Elmacin. Eutych. Cap. 5.

Idem, ibid. c. 37. lib. 1, Hær. 40. Idem, ibid. lib. 3, Hæres. 75, 79. 'Machiavelli, Princ. c. 6, p. 19.

2

had murdered his master, such lamentable havoc there was among the soldiers, that when Heraclius came, not above seven years after, to muster the army, there were only two soldiers left alive, of all those who had borne arms when Phocas first usurped the empire. And though Heraclius was a prince of admirable courage and conduct, and had done what possibly could be done to restore the discipline of the army, and had had great success against the Persians, so as to drive them not only out of his own dominions, but even out of part of their own; yet still the very vitals of the empire seemed to be mortally wounded; that there could no time have happened more fatal to the empire, or more favourable to the enterprises of the Arabs; who seem to have been raised up on purpose by God, to be a scourge to the Christian church, for not living answerably to that most holy religion which they had received."

The general luxury and degeneracy of manners, into which the Grecians were sunk, also contributed not a little to the enervating their forces, which were still further drained by those two great destroyers, monachism and persecution.

The Persians had also been in a declining condition for some time before Mohammed, occasioned chiefly by their intestine broils and dissensions; great part of which arose from the devilish doctrines of Manes and Mazdak. The opinions of the former are tolerably well known: the latter lived in the reign of Khosru Kobâd, and pretended himself a prophet sent from God to preach a community of women and possessions, since all men were brothers and descended from the same common parents. This he imagined would put an end to all feuds and quarrels among men, which generally arose on account of one of the two. Kobâd himself embraced the opinions of this impostor, to whom he gave leave, according to his new doctrine, to lie with the queen his wife; which permission Anushirwân, his son, with much difficulty prevailed on Mazdak not to make use of. These sects had certainly been the immediate ruin of the Persian empire, had not Anushirwân, as soon as he succeeded his father, put Mazdak to death with all his followers, and the Manicheans also, restoring the ancient Magian religion."

In the reign of this prince, deservedly surnamed the just, Mohammed was born. He was the last king of Persia who deserved the throne, which after him was almost perpetually contended for, till subverted by the Arabs. His son Hormûz lost the love of his subjects by his excessive cruelty : having had his eyes put out by his wife's brothers, he was obliged to resign the crown to his son Khorsû Parviz, who at the instigation of Bahrâm Chubîn had rebelled against him, and was afterwards strangled. Parvîz was soon obliged to quit the throne to Bahrâm; but obtaining succours of the Greek emperor Maurice, he recovered the crown: yet towards the latter end of a long reign he grew so tyrannical and hateful to his subjects, that they held a private correspondence with the Arabs; and he was at length deposed, imprisoned, and slain by his son Shirûyeh. After Parvîz no less than six princes possessed the throne in less than six years. These domestic broils effectually brought ruin upon the Persians; for though they did, rather by the weakness of the Greeks than their own force, ravage Syria and sack Jerusalem and Damascus under Khosrû Parvîz; and, while the Arabs were divided and independent, had some power in the province of Yaman, where they set up the four last kings before

4

Ockley's Hist. of the Saracens, vol. i. p. 19, &c.

Vide Teixeira, Relaciones de los Reyes de Persia, p. 195, &c.

Vide Poc. Spec. p. 70

Mohammed; yet when attacked by the Greeks under Heraclius, they not only lost their new conquests, but part of their own dominions, and no sooner were the Arabs united by Mohammedism, than they beat them in every battle, and in a few years totally subdued them.

As these empires were weak and declining, so Arabia, at Mohammed's setting up, was strong and flourishing; having been peopled at the expense of the Grecian empire, whence the violent proceedings of the domineering sects forced many to seek refuge in a free country, as Arabia then was, where they who could not enjoy tranquillity and their conscience at home, found a secure retreat. The Arabians were not only a populous nation, but unacquainted with the luxury and delicacies of the Greeks and Persians, and inured to hardships of all sorts; living in a most parsimonious manner, seldom eating any flesh, drinking no wine, and sitting on the ground. Their political government was also such as favoured the designs of Mohammed; for the division and independency of their tribes were so necessary to the first propagation of his religion, and the foundation of his power, that it would have been scarce possible for him to have effected either, had the Arabs been united in one society. But when they had embraced his religion, the consequent union of their tribes was no less necessary and conducive to their future conquests and grandeur.

This posture of public affairs in the eastern world, both as to its religious and political state, it is more than probable Mohammed was well acquainted with; he having had sufficient opportunities of informing himself in those particulars, in his travels as a merchant in his younger years: and though it is not to be supposed his views at first were so extensive as afterwards, when they were enlarged by his good fortune, yet he might reasonably promise himself success in his first attempts from thence. As he was a man of extraordinary parts and address, he knew how to make the best of every incident, and turn what might seem dangerous to another to his own advantage.

Mohammed came into the world under some disadvantages, which he soon surmounted. His father Abd'allah was a younger son of Abd'almotalleb, and dying very young and in his father's lifetime, left his widow and infant son in very mean circumstances; his whole substance consisting but of five camels and one Ethiopian she-slave. Abd'almotalleb was therefore obliged to take care of his grandchild Mohammed, which he not only did during his life, but at his death enjoined his eldest son Abu Tâleb, who was brother to Abd'allah by the same mother, to provide for him for the future; which he very affectionately did, and instructed him in the business of a merchant, which he followed; and to that end he took him with him into Syria when he was but thirteen, and afterward recommended him to Khadijah, a noble and rich widow, for her factor, in whose service he behaved himself so well, that by making him her husband she soon raised him to an equality with the richest in Mecca.

After he began by this advantageous match to live at his ease it was that he formed the scheme of establishing a new religion, or, as he expressed it, of replanting the only true and ancient one, professed by Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and all the prophets, by destroying the gross idolatry into which the generality of his countrymen had fallen, and

He was not his eldest son, as Dr. Prideaux tells us; whose reflections built on that foundation must necessarily fail (see his life of Mohammed, p. 9 ;) nor yet his youngest son, as M. de Boulainvilliers (Vie de Mohammed, p. 182, &c.) supposes; for Hamza and al Abbâs were both younger than Abd'allah.

Abulfeda, Vit. Moham. p. 2. • See Korân, c. 2.