gether. And if this be true, then with what an irresistible voice does piety urge upon you its claims! If in sober truth it should be accounted madness to resist them, even supposing we could gain heaven only by being wretched till we arrive there, O, what shall we account it to resist them, when submitting to them would bring heaven into the soul even here upon earth! To this glorious issue Christianity has committed herself, if we will but hear her voice and do faithfully her bidding. Of the certainty of this you may not doubt,-you have every confirmation of it which fact as well as promise can furnish; since thousands and thousands of those now living and of those who have lived, have tested this power of the gospel to make them happy, and have set to it the seal of their experience. O cease, then, to think of the Saviour as your enemy, because he is the enemy of your sins! Behold in that enmity itself the strongest proof of his love for you. His easy yoke he would impose upon you, that he may break from your neck the worse than iron bondage which is now oppressing you. He would have you bear his burden, for no other reason than that you may "labor and be heavy laden ” no more.

H.

ARTICLE V.

EARLY MOHAMMEDAN HISTORY.

Ir was about the commencement of the seventh century that the genius and fortune of Mohammed laid the foundation of the stupendous system of imposture which bears his name. Though sprung from the stock of the Koreish, one of the most considerable Arabian tribes, and the hereditary guardians of the Kaaba or holy temple of Mecca, yet, when he first assumed the prophetic office, the only means which it was in his power to employ for the establishment of his claims were the arts of persuasion. Nature had not been illiberal in her gifts to the pretended prophet. He was distinguished by special beauty of person, majesty of mien, and a conciliatory address. These endowments were turned to account by him, particularly

in the commencement of this career. In a few years the people of Mecca were divided into two factions; the one recognizing and supporting Mohammed's pretensions, the other violently and virulently opposing them. The latter party, however, was by far the most numerous and powerful; and its leaders, by their secret machinations and by public attacks, succeeded in exciting such a general commotion in the city, that the life of Mohammed was no longer secure within its walls. In order to avoid the peril he had incurred, he was compelled (A. D. 622) to flee from Mecca to Yathreb (now Medina), accompanied by but a single friend.* Many of the inhabitants of Medina had already been converted through the exertions of a few of their fellow-citizens, who, on occasion of a pilgrimage to Mecca, had listened with believing hearts to the preaching of Mohammed. These converts received him with open arms, and evinced a superstitious veneration of his person which almost tasks the power of credence. The water in which he had performed his ablutions, the parings of his nails, his very spittle, were carefully hoarded as consecrated relics.

Mohammed had hitherto appeared content with the sacerdotal dignity; but he now assumed in addition the exercise of regal functions. Henceforth his affairs wore a constantly brightening aspect. His authority acquired more efficient aid than the slow and uncertain process of persuasion. When his power was competent to enable him to use the sword with probable success, the sword instantly became his favorite means of making proselytes. 'He was not willing that his followers should be left to deduce the propriety of its use simply from his own example. By the religious sanction of the Koran he inculcated the belief that war against unbelievers was the most meritorious act of obedience to God, and would " cover a multitude of sins." His words in one passage are, "A drop of blood shed in the cause of God, a night spent in arms, is of more avail than two months of fasting or prayer." Under the name of zeal in the cause of religion, the wildest and most ruthless passions of the human heart were permitted to find ready, unrestricted

* This was the celebrated Hejera or Flight, which constitutes the Mohammedan era. It took place on Friday, July 16th. The city Yathreb to which this flight was directed, was thenceforward denominated Medina, or THE CITY, par excellence.

vent. Predatory warfare, even when successful, had hitherto afforded the barbarous hordes of Arabia no other recompense than the acquisition of booty or the satisfaction of revenge, under the incumbrance, frequently, of restless remorse in the recollection of inhuman deeds. The religion of Mohammed promised its votaries ineffable and unending bliss in another world, as the certain lot of him who, in behalf of that religion, should give free course to ferocious passions which before had been checked only by dim and dubious apprehensions of supernatural retribution. It cannot be questioned, that this peculiar and strongly marked feature in the Mohammedan religion was the principal source of its surprising success. The alter

native presented to the tribes of Arabia was, on the one hand, the profession of Islamism, with the privilege of fighting and plundering the whole infidel world, under, not merely the permission, but the smiles, of their God; and, on the other, rejection of the proffered faith, and exposure to the furious religious zeal of their more pliant neighbors. The presentation of such an alternative speedily wrought a revolution in the national faith of Arabia. The gross idolatry of former days was abandoned, and the two simple articles of belief to which Mohammed demanded assent were substituted in its stead. Before the death of Mohammed, the professed creed of every province of Arabia, with but a single exception, was, "There is only one God, and Mahomet is the apostle of God;" the former proposition being, as Gibbon remarks, "an eternal truth, and the latter a necessary fiction." The exception which we have mentioned was the province of Yamama. There Moseilama erected his standard and attempted to sustain rival pretensions to the prophetic office. His formidable power continued till sometime after the commencement of the first caliphate, when a decisive battle effected its destruction.

Mohammed fought personally in several battles, and numerous enterprises were undertaken by his lieutenants under his direction, during the ten years that intervened between his flight to Medina and his decease. He even projected the invasion and complete reduction of Syria. This country had long owned the supremacy of the Roman emperors, whose throne was then occupied by Heraclius. Mohammed himself proceeded, at the head of

an army of thirty thousand men, almost to Damascus, and, by his victories and the terror of his name, obtained the submission of the population of Syria, from the Euphrates to the Red Sea; but, from some cause not definitely ascertained (perhaps a famine among the troops, which was the more intolerable on account of a long-continued drought), a council of war decided that the enterprise should be abandoned in this stage of its progress, before measures had been taken to secure the permanence of the acquisition already made. The country, it is probable, immediately resumed its old allegiance to the Roman empire.

Mohammed died, in his own opinion, under the operation of poison administered to him, from a motive of revenge, by a Jewish woman. At his decease (June 7th, A. D. 632), the tribes of Arabia threw off the yoke that they had worn, and refused to acknowledge the authority of the Caliph Abubeker.* The Caliph even found his sway restricted to the cities of Mecca, Medina and Tayef. But the vigorous measures of his warlike general, Caled, surnamed the Sword of God, soon reclaimed the rebellious to obedience. The most formidable resistance to the Caliph's authority which Caled encountered in the progress of his arms, was made by the adherents to the false prophet Moseilama. In the first onset the army of Caled suffered a severe defeat, with the loss of a thousand men ; but in a subsequent battle, Moseilama himself, with ten thousand of his followers, fell before the victorious Mohammedans. This event established the dominion of Abubeker in Arabia; and he now turned his thoughts to foreign conquest. An expedition to Syria was very early undertaken. The Caliph despatched a circular letter to the various Arabian tribes, which was couched in the following terms: "This is to acquaint you that I purpose sending true believers into Syria, to take it from the hands of the infidels; and I would have you remember that to fight for religion is to obey God." A vast army was speedily collected. Its command was given to Abu Obeidah, while Caled, who had shown in former enterprises

*The word Caliph, as is commonly known, signifies vicar or substitute. Abubeker signifies father of the virgin, and, according to D'Herbelot (Bibl. Orient., art. Abubeer), the name was given to the Caliph because his daughter was the only one of Mohammed's wives who was not a widow.

that his military genius fitted him to be the chief leader of the Saracens, was content to serve in an inferior station under the banner of his faith. Bozra soon yielded to the spirited attack of the Moslems; and the victorious forces proceeded to the investment of Damascus, the capital of Syria. At this juncture, the Emperor Heraclius, aroused by the danger of losing an extensive and valuable province, and aware that the growing power of the Saracens would soon, if unchecked, menace the security of his throne, hastily assembled an army of seventy thousand men at Emesa and despatched it for the relief of Damascus. The tidings that an imperial army was approaching caused a suspension of the siege; and the Saracens advanced to encounter their enemies. The two parties met on the plain of Aiznadin. Their conflict was terribly disastrous to the forces of the Emperor, which were nearly annihilated. The feeble remnant took refuge in the neighboring cities. Returning to Damascus, the Saracens resumed the siege of the city, and at last it was forced to surrender. The fate of the capital was in no very long time the fate of all Syria. When the siege of Jerusalem had been prosecuted for four months, the patriarch Sophronius offered to deliver up the city to the Saracens, making, however, the singular stipulation, that the Caliph should be present in person to ratify the articles of surrender. This demand was conceded; and the Caliph travelled from Medina, and entered the Holy City in the guise of an ordinary pilgrim. Jerusalem was yielded up to him, and on the ruins of the temple of Solomon a Mohammedan mosque was soon erected, which is now termed the mosque of Omar. The conquest of Aleppo and Antioch followed. The victorious Moslems pressed onward to the north, passed Mount Taurus, subjecting the province of Cilicia to their arms, and advanced even to the vicinity of Constantinople. The Euphrates and Tigris were the boundaries of their conquests on the East. To the West, the whole coast of the Mediterranean acknowledged their sway, with the exception merely of an unimportant fortress; and a fleet was even equipped and despatched to ravage the neighboring isles of the sea.

Many years elapsed, however, after the first invasion of Syria by command of Abubeker, before its reduction became thus complete. Omar had, during this time, suc