apostle just before his dissolution, having first obtained his leave, and the pious discourses of all three. Gabriel assured him he could not take his life without his express permission: nay, he gave him, as they tell us, his option of life or death; which the Moslem doctors look upon as one of the most singular and illustrious prerogatives of the prophet. Whereupon Mahomet, continue these authors, having chosen death, and desired the aforesaid angel, Azrael, to exccute his office, he was immediately thrown into agonies, that terminated with his life. Thus Mahomet died at noon, on a Monday, the twelfth of the month, called Rabbi the First, in the eleventh year of the Hejira; being about sixty-three years old. Historians take notice that he was born on a Monday; began his apostolical functions on a Monday; fled from Mecca on a Monday; made his entry into Medina on a Monday; took Mecca on a Monday; and at last died on a Monday. His death was thought so extraordinary, that it was called an assumption. Some said, He is not dead, he is only taken up into heaven, like JESUS in an ecstacy. Others said, He is gone to his Lord, as Moses, who left his people for forty days and came again. Their disputes ran high respecting his death; but Abu-Beker, who succeeded him, put an end to those quarrels by giving a final sentence, that Mahomet was dead, like all other apostles and prophets who had gone before him. This decision being unanimously received, his body was washed and perfumed, especially those parts which touched the ground at the adoration paid to God, viz. the feet, the hands, the knees, and the forehead. The ablution called Wodhu, was also performed on the face, the arms, the palms of the hands, and soles of the feet. Lastly, the whole body was embalmed by Ali, whom Mahomet had ordered to do it; and those who helped him were hoodwinked, because the prophet had foretold that blindness would be the fate of any other person, who should see him naked. Strange wonders and sweet odours accompanied this ceremony; at least so say the Mussulmen writers. Ali dipped some cloths in the water, with which he had been washed; they imbibed the virtues of it, and Ali, who kept them and wore them, became a partaker of those virtues.

Prayers were now said for him and his family by all the faithful in order. Gagnier asserts, that his body was not hung up in an iron chest, as is generally reported.

In relation to the place where the prophet's remains were to be deposited, there happened some disputes among his follow

ers.

The Mohajerins insisted upon his being buried at Mecca, the place of his nativity; and the Ansars, at Medina,

the place of his residence during the last ten years of his life. Others were for transporting him to Jerusalem, and erecting a monument for him there amongst the sepulchres of the prophets. But his successor, Abu-Beker, decided the whole affair at once, by declaring that a prophet ought to be interred in the place where he died; and that he had heard Mahomet, in his lifetime, own himself to be of this opinion. Whereupon the body was buried in a grave dug under the bed on which he died, in the apartment of Ayesha, his best beloved wife, at Medina, where it remains to this day, in a magnificent building, covered with a cupola, and adjoining to the east side of the great temple, which is built in the midst of the city.

The sorrow and doleful complaints of the Mussulmen on this occasion were no doubt very great; but we shall omit the enthusiastic description of them given by Arabian historians, to give the true character of this prophet. As to his person and outward appearance, he was of a middle stature, neither endowed with extraordinary beauty, nor in any way deformed. The Arabians, indeed, assert, that the prophetic light, which descended lineally from Adam to him, made his face as bright as the sun. Nor must we omit what they say of his spittle, viz. that it was so sweet, and of so good a taste, that children might have been fed with it. A wen which he had between his shoulders, and which disappeared at his death, was, they say, the seal of prophecy; to which they add, that flies and other insects were never troublesome to him, and that, consequently, his skin was always soft and shining. Those authors are likewise as extravagant in their description of his mind. We may easily believe, however, that he was far more ingenious than others of his countrymen, upon whom he prevailed by his subtle devices, natural eloquence, and remarkable affability: the latter quality was, however, sometimes assumed, not without a mixture of severity. He affected likewise to be thought a great lover of justice and truth. He was so liberal to the poor as to be called their father, never refused to give alms to them, and maintained constantly forty at his own charge. It is said, too, that though he was master of an immense estate, yet he often had nothing left but what was absolutely necessary for the support of his family. He was very sparing in his diet, and ate only some dates, and drank nothing but water for several months of the year. The Arabians, likewise, say of him, that he took his meals standing, or in an uneasy situation, with his servant; made his own shoes, his clothes; swept the house, and even prepared the victuals for his men! So far the austerity of his life seemed

to imitate the severity of the anchorets and solitaries of Egypt, and the neighbourhood of Arabia. This mortification was no doubt practised in order to dazzle the common people, and inspire them with the highest opinion of, and veneration for, his sanctity.

But with all these hardships, he indulged himself in a seraglio of twenty-one, and even twenty-five wives; women, it seems, to use his own expression, rejoiced his sight, and raised his fervour at his prayers. Five of his wives died before him; from six he was divorced, and ten remained in a state of widowhood after the prophet's death.

Mahomet had four sons and four daughters by his first wife, and none by any of his other wives or concubines, except Mary, the Copt. All his sons died in their infancy. Such was the life, such the death, and such the character of Mahomet. That the desire of satisfying his sensuality was one of the principal motives of his undertaking, seems indisputably clear, from the great number of wives and concubines he maintained, as well as from the wicked and unjustifiable methods he was obliged to make use of, in order to obtain possession of some of them.

conquests.

Before the death of Mahomet, he had become master of all Arabia; had extended his conquest to the borders of the Greek and Persian empires; had rendered his Mahometan name formidable to those once mighty kingdoms; had tried his arms against the disciplined troops of the former, and defeated them in a desperate encounter at Muta. His throne was now firmly established; and an impulse given to the Arabian nations, which induced them to invade, and enabled them to conquer, a large portion of the globe. India, Persia, the Greek empire, the whole of Asia Minor, Egypt, Barbary, and Spain, were eventually reduced by their victorious arms. Mahomet himself did not indeed live to see such mighty conquests achieved, but he commenced the train which resulted in this wide-spread dominion; and before his death, had established over the whole of Arabia, and some parts of Asia, the religion which he had devised.

CHAPTER II.

RELIGIOUS TENETS CEREMONIES, AND CUSTOMS OF THE MAHOMETANS.

ALL Mussulmen look upon the pilgrimage to Pilgrimage the tomb of Mahomet, as one of the chief duties to the tomb of of their religion. The Arabian doctors say that Mahomet. Mahomet enjoined it, and it is well known that superstition lays a great stress on such ceremonies. Whoever undertakes to perform it, must often, even upon the road, turn himself towards Medina to pray; as soon as he sees the tops of the trees about the town, he ought to renew his devotion, and repeat without intermission the appointed form of prayers, to beg of God that this visit to the holy sanctuary of the prophet may be acceptable, and may deliver him from hell. Before he enters the city, he is enjoined to wash himself, to use perfumes, put on his best apparel, and to give alms. Having entered, he says a prayer, and another when he comes into the mosque; this latter is for Mahomet and his family. The pilgrim then goes towards the tomb, stays some time at the place where the Prophet prayed, and also at some other places, accordingly as his devotion suggests to him. Being at last arrived near the holy place, he first prostrates himself on the ground, pays his adoration to God, gives him thanks for having conducted him safely thither; then standing up, with his face turned towards Mecca, he prays for the prophet and his two successors, AbuBeker and Omar; he does not, whilst praying, even lean against the wall which encloses the monument, as that would be considered indecent, and a profanation. Gagnier says, that "The pilgrim looks on the ground, and there fixing his eyes, salutes the Prophet, with the utmost veneration and respect; at the same time withdrawing his thoughts and affections from all worldly concerns, as becomes one who is in the presence of God and his apostle," &c. On the Friday following, he goes to a burying-ground, called Al-Baki, where seve ral of the companions of Mahomet lie interred, and visits the tombs of the chief ladies and others of his family, servants, and successors; as well as of Fatima, his daughter, Ibrahim, his son, and the Mussulmen martyrs, &c. Then, he washes himself in, and drinks some of the water of the well called Aris, into which the prophet had spitten; and performs several prostrations at other mosques, oratories, and wells in Medina,

&c. Mahomet himself said, that one prayer in his own mosque is better than a thousand any where else; and that he would intercede for all those who die at Medina.

The Caaba is a stone edifice in the temple of Mecca, which has been revered with superior sanctity by the Arabians, The Caaba from the remotest antiquity; and to which eveor Temple of ry Mahometan is required by the Koran to direct himself in prayer.

Mecca.

Among the variety of fabulous traditions which have been propagated by the followers of Mahomet, concerning the origin of this building, we find it asserted, that its existence is coeval with our first parents, and that it was built by Adam, after his expulsion from Paradise, from a representation of the celestial temple, which the Almighty let down from heaven in curtains of light, and placed in Mecca, perpendicular under the original. To this the patriarch was commanded to turn his face when he prayed, and to compass it by way of devotion, as the angels did the heavenly one. After the destruction of this temple by the deluge, it was rebuilt by Abraham and his son Ishmael on the same spot, and after the same model, according to directions, which they received by revelation; and since that time, it has continued to be the object of veneration to Ishmael's descendants. Whatever discredit we may give to these, and other ravings of the Moslem impostor concerning the Caaba, its high antiquity cannot be disputed; and the most probable account is, that it was built and used for religious purposes, by some of the early patriarchs; and after the introduction of idols, it came to be appropriated to the reception of the Pagan divinities. Diodorus Siculus, in his description of the coast of the Red Sea, mentions this temple as being, in his time, held in great veneration by all the Arabians; and Pocoke informs us, that the linen or silken veil, with which it is covered, was first offered by a pious king of the Hamyarites, seven hundred years before the time of Mahomet. It had been frequently repaired, and was rebuilt a few years after the birth of this prophet, by the tribe of Koreish, who had acquired the possession of it either by fraud or violence from the Khozaites. The Caaba then contained three hundred and sixty images of men, lions, eagles, &c., the objects of idolatrous worship, which were all destroyed by Mahomet, after the taking of Mecca, when it was purified and adorned, and consecrated to the service of Islam. It received several reparations after his death, and was rebuilt by one of his successors, with some alterations, in the form in which it now stands.

As no European is permitted to visit Mecca, the only