because I have found my God to be nearer to me than they.'

It is related, after Nu'mân B. Bashyr the Anssary, that one of the professors of Islâm had died at Madinah, that his body had been dressed and laid out in state, and that when the women assembled around him he uttered the following words in eloquent and distinct language: 'Muhammad the apostle of Allah is the illiterate prophet. This was written down in the book.' After that he said: 'He has spoken the truth.' Then he mentioned the names of some of the companions, and said: 'Greeting to thee, O apostle of God! may the blessing and mercy of God be upon thee!' After uttering these words he relapsed into his former state and expired.

O'thmân B. Hanyf relates that a blind man requested the apostle of God to pray that his sight might be restored, and his lordship said: 'Go, perform thy religious ablution; pray with two flexions, and then utter the following invocation: O God Most High, I desire to make Thy apostle, who is the prophet of mercy, my intercessor with Thee, that the veil of cecity may be uplifted from before my eyes. O God, accept the intercession of Muhammad for me.' The narrator states that the blind man obeyed the injunction, and his wish was fulfilled.

There is a tradition of Qotâdah B. Nu'mân that he said: I prayed one night the dormitory prayers with his lordship, and although it was raining a little, and the nightwas very dark, I wished to return home. His lordship put a stick made of date-tree-wood into my hand, saying: "Go with this, because from this stick ten lights will be kindled in thy front, and ten in thy rear. When thou enterest thy house, thou wilt see something black; strike it till it goes out; for it is Satan." Qotádah says: 'When

I departed, the words of the apostle of God were fulfilled, there being ten lights before and ten behind me. When I entered my house, I perceived a man, whom I struck, as his lordship had commanded me, till he went out.'

6

One of the miracles of his lordship was the knowledge of events which happened after his decease. Thus, for instance, he predicted that some members of his family would be killed, and said to A'li: The worst of men is he who will slay thee.' He also said: 'A'li is the bestower of paradise and of hell; he will send his friends to the former, and his enemies to the latter place, and schismatics will be his foes.' He further said Dhu-n-nûryin [endowed with two lights] [viz., Othman] will be slain whilst reading the Quran, and his blood will fall on the blessed verse: 'Verily Allah will reward you; for He hears everything, and He is most hearing and wise.' His lordship also predicted that intestine wars would arise during the life-time of O'mar. He also gave information of the war of A'li the Commander of the Faithful and of Zobayr Ala'wwâm, which will soon be narrated in these pages. At the time the Musalmans were engaged in digging the fosse,441 he predicted that the insurgents would kill O'mmâr Yâser, and to A'bdullah Zobayr he said: 'Woe to the people from thy hands, and woe to thee from the hands of the people.' Further, with reference to the Emâm Hasan-salutation to him-he said: 'He is the best man who makes peace between two factions.' He also said: 'Among my wives she is the best whose hands are the longest,' meaning Zaynab, whose hands were the longest,442 and surpassed those of all the others. He also said: 'Between the Tigris and the Euphrates a town will be built to which the houses of the earth will be drawn,' namely, Baghdad. He said to Abu Ka'b: Congratulate this nation on its splendour, greatness, conquests, and pomp on earth; but whoever covets a reward in this world will receive none in the next.'

The writer of these pages says that records of all the miracles, and accounts of the pure wives, freed men, relicts, and everything else connected with his lordship the prince of existences-the most excellent salutations to him-have 442 Stretched out in giving alms.

441 Qurân, ch. xxxiii., 9-13.

been composed in detailed biographical works, by celebrated ancient and modern authors, and that, as all of them could not be mentioned in this book, some miracles only have been narrated by way of a blessing, with the hope that the unworthy author of this work will not incur the blame of his learned and intelligent readers.

END OF THE LIFE OF MUHAMMAD.

APPENDIX A.

THE following pages, translated from the Habib-us-Syar by Khondemir, the maternal grandson of Mirkhond, the author of the Rauzat-us-saja, and containing an account of the wives, concubines, children, amanuenses, alms-gatherers, servants, freed men and women of Muhammad the apostle, will be found interesting as a supplement to the life of the prophet.

RECORD OF THE PURE SPOUSES OF HIS LORDSHIP THE PRINCE OF EXISTENCES-THE PERFUMES OF BLESSINGS AND THE BREEZES OF SALUTATIONS BE UPON HIM.

In the Raudzatu-l-âhbâb it is recorded, according to trustworthy authorities, that his holy and prophetic lordship introduced during his life-time twelve women into the bonds of matrimony, and consummated it with them. Concerning eleven of these there is no difference of opinion, but of one it is not certain whether she was a wife or a concubine, as shall be noticed hereafter, if it pleaseth Allah the Most High. All biographers agree that the first spouse of the prince of mankind was Khodayjah the greater-may Allah reward her. She was the daughter of Khowylad, son of Asad, s. of A'bdu-l-u'zza, s. of Qossai, s. of Kallâb. The noble pedigree of the most excellent of virtuous ladies and paragon of innocence converges in Qossai with the genealogy of his lordship the seal of prophecy. In dignity and relationship Khodayjah stood nearer to the prince of Arabs and non-Arabs than any of his other wives. The cognomen of Khodayjah was Omm Hind [mother of Hind], and her

sobriquet was Ttâherah [the pure one]. Her mother was Fattimah the daughter of Asad, s. of Alassum, of the tribe Bani A'amer B. Lowa. The first husband of Khodayjah was A'tyq, s. of A'abed, s. of A'bdullah Makhzûmy, by whom she had a son and a daughter. After his death Abu Hâlah, s. of Unnabâsh, s. of Zoràrah Bayhâqy, married her. According to one tradition the name of Abu Hâlah was Málek, according to another Zorarah, and some allege that it was Zobayr, whilst others say it was Hind. The Sunnis admit that Khodayjah-may Allah reward her had also by Abu Hâlah two sons, namely, Hâlah and Hind. Some chroniclers assert that Abu Hâlah was Khodayjah's first and A'tyq her second husband; but this tradition originated from Mukhtar, s. of Khoz.

In short, when the second husband of Khodayjahm. A. r. h.-had died, many chiefs and nobles of the Qoraish desired to marry her, but her ladyship would bestow her hand on no one, because when the waning moon of the existence of Abu Hâlah had set in the west of annihilation, she dreamt one night that the sun had descended from the sky into her house, from which its light radiated. She related this dream to her cousin Waraqah, s. of Naofel, who replied: The interpretation of this vision is, that the prophet of the latter times will take thee into the bonds of matrimony.' Hereon Khodayjah― m. A. r. h.-inquired for the name and position of the prophet of the Arabs and non-Arabs, and Waraqah communicated to her ladyship the seat of innocence all he knew on the subject. Khodayjah therefore always expected the rise of that sun of the sphere of prophecy, until she was exalted to the felicity of becoming his wife. At the time when the rays of the favour of the prince of existences. shone upon the cheeks of her circumstances, his lordship was twenty-five years old, and according to the traditions of all Sunnis, Khodayjah-m. A. r. h.-was at that time forty years of age. In the Kashafu-l-ghummah there is a tradition of Ebn A'bbâs-m. A. r. h.-that Khodayjah was married to his holy and prophetic lordship in her twenty