Mohammed proclaimed a religion of the sword-

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Mohammed, the great prophet and legislator of the Mussulmans, and the founder of the religion which bears his name, was born in the city of Mecca, about 569 or 570 after Jesus Christ. He was of the powerful and illustrious tribe of Koreish, which claimed direct descent from Ishmael, the son of Abraham, and had possessed for five generations the sovereignty of Mecca, and the guardianship of the Caaba or shrine of the sacred city.. Of the Koreish tribe there were two powerful and rival branches, descended from two brothers, Haschem and Abed Schem. Haschem, the progenitor of Mohammed, had become the foremost citizen and greatest benefactor of the city of Mecca.  About the beginning of the sixth century, he was largely engaged in commerce, and had established two annual caravans, one fo rthe summer trade with Syria in the North, the other one for the winter trade with Yemen in the South. In addition to the influence derived from his extensive commercial relationships, Haschem was custodian of the Caaba, and office entrusted only to the most honorable families, and practically conferring on the person holding it the supreme control of the city. On Haschem’s death, he was succeeded by his son, Abdal Motalleb, a warrior and patriot, and father of four distinguished sons; of whom Abdallah, the youngest, married Amina, a Koreish damsel, the fairest and the purest of her tribe.  Abdallah, too, was endowed with such personal attractions that, according to Moslem traditions, on the night of his marriage to Amina two hundred Arab maids died of broken hearts.  Mohammed was the first and only child of this remarkable alliance.  Shortly after his marriage Abdallah wen t on a mercantile expedition to Gaza, in the South of Syria, and had reached Medina on his return journey, when he sickened and died, in his twenty -fifth year, leaving to his lovely widow and her son, only two months old, a heritage of five camels, a flock of goats, and a female Ethiopian slave. As the air of Mecca was unwholesome, it was customary for women of the wealthier classes to give out their children to nurse among the females of the Bedouin tribes, with whom they had the advantage of the clearer atmosphere, the purer speech, and the freer manners of the desert.  The child Mohammed was committed to the care of Halema, a Saadite shepherd’s wife, and by her was nurtured for two years, when he was about six years old his mother, Amina, wishing to visit his Father’s tomb, and also to show the child to her relatives, made journey to Medina. In her return she had arrived at Abwa, a village half way between Medina and Mecca, when she suddenly fell sick and died.  The faithful slave returned with the orphan boy to Mecca, and handed him over to his grandfather, Abdal Motalleb, who cared for him with all the tenderness of a parent for two years, when he too died,  leaving his precious charge to the care of his eldest son.   Abu Taleb, now of the Koreish tribe.  at twelve years of age, Mohammed, who had a leaning to the commercial pursuits of the Arabs, accompanied his uncle on one of his mercantile expeditions to Syria.  As the caravan wended its way through the sites of former greatness, the local legends were duly recounted to the admiring youth, two  of which he quotes in the Koran as instances of divine judgement against idolatry that of the wild valley of Hejer, where the children of Thamud were swept from the face of the earth and their country laid under the curse of heaven; and that Egla, near the Red Sea, where the young men were turned into monkeys and the old men were turned into swine.Arriving at Bostra (or Bozrah), beyond the Jordan, Abu Taleb and his nephew were received with great hospitality at a convent of Nestorian Christians, where one of the monks is said to have remarked Mohammed’s precocity and his eager desire for information, especially on matter connected with religion.   To conversation with the monks on this and other occasions, and especially to intercourse with a learned rabbi, who had become Christian convert, may be traced Mohamed’s knowledge to the principles and traditions of the Christian faith. After this Mohammed made several mercantile expedition both to Yemen in the South and Syria in the North, and also engaged in a tribal war which the allied Koreishites and Kenanites waged against the Hawazans.  Thus had the acquired an extensive acquaintance with commercial affairs, and also in insight into the modes of Arab warfare.  His ability and integrity gained for him and introduction to Kadijah, a wealthy widow of forty, who needed a manager for the extensive business of her house. Mohammed was now twenty-five of age, handsome in person, and pleasant in manner. Kadijah appointed him conductor of a caravan she was sending to Syria; and so well was she pleased with his business capacity and his personal attractions, that she paid him double his stipulated wages, and with remarkable promptness and sagacity contrived to secure him as her third husband. Their marriage was celebrated in true Arab style, with wine and revelry, the sound of timbrel, and the dancing of Abyssinian slaves.After the marriage Mohammed found leisure to indulge his predilection for religious speculation.  the fanatic zeal of gross idolatry was visible on every hand.  The Sabean and Magian religious had lost whatever spiritual meaning they once had and lapsed into a wild and degrading superstition. Although many Jews had found their way into Arabia when Palestine was ravaged by the Romans and had acquired possessions, built fortresses and risen to considerable power, still Judaism had made but little way among natives. Christianity had been introduced by St. Paul himself; and the fierce dissensions and mutual persecutions of the different sections  of the Eastern church had filled the deserts of Arabia with exiles and anchorites, who had, to some extent, planted the Christian faith among the native tribes. But the Arabs and the people as a whole were bound by no tie, religious or political.   They were dispirited and isolated, and, consequently, powerless and harmless, except against each other.  Mohammed was now about to take the first step towards the uniting of these disjointed limbs, breathing into them the breath of life, and leading them forth in one compact body to shake the empires of the earth.  The sacred city of Mecca had become a polluting centre of fanatical filth and superstition.  Around the sacred shrine stood three hundred and sixty dumb idols, representing the days of the year and their deities.  The once revered prophets, Abraham and Ishmael, had been converted into symbolical antics with divining rods in their hands.  The fervor of religious reform took possession of Mohammed’s soul, and led to habits of reverie and deep meditation, which he indulged in a neighboring mountain cave, remaining there for days and nights together in solitary fasting and prayer.  At last the revelation came, and , in his fortieth year, Mohammed assumed the office of a prophet.  His views and principles were made known and explained a first only to the members of his domestic, circle.  Kadijah, his wife, waraka, the Christian convert and quondam Jew, Abu Taleb and others readily acknowledged the divine mission, and declared Mohammed the apostle of Allah. From many members of the house of Haschem, the new faith met with opposition, which soon grew into bitter persecution.  Still slowly and secretly, in the privacy of a conver’s house, or the depths of the cavern, made its way, gaining but few adherent, and those, too, mostly young persons and slaves,.  The doctrines w, which were but ungraciously received by many kinsfolk and friends, nevertheless found favor among the people, and especially among women, who are ever ready to befriend and persecuted cause.  Many Jews had signified their assent, but when they found that new religion permitted the eating of camel’s flesh, hastily withdrew; for, according to the Jewish law, the camel is an unclean animal.  With new revelations came increasing enthusiasm,  and Mohammed began to preach on Mount Hara and the hills of Safa, declaring himself the prophet of God come to break the spell of blind idolatry, and mitigate rigor of the Jewish and the Christian laws.  When appealed to for miracles to confirm his divine behest, Hohammed discreetly explained that signs and wonders would destroy the merit of faith, and pointed to the internal evidences of his doctrines, reciting fragment of the Koran, preaching the unity of God, and exhorting his hearers to the service of a supreme and most merciful being.  By degrees some of the most powerful citizens were gained over to the prophet’s side.  His faithful and beloved wife, Kadihah, had died, and he had increasded his personal influence by marrying Ayesha, the daughter of Abu Beker’ still the new faith made but slow progress, and might never have never have been known beyond the walls of Mecca, had not the hatred adn persecution of the rival branch of the Koreish tribe-that of Abed Schem- roused the anger of the Haschem branch, , from which Mohammed was descended.  At las Huzmu, the prophet’s uncle, enraged by an insult and personal outrage committed on his nephew, became a convert, and publicly chastised the offender.  A revolt having broken out at Mecca, in which Mohammed’s life was threatened, he found himself obliged to flee for refuge to Yatreb, henceforth called Medina.  This occurred on the 16th of July 622, and is reckoned the beginning of the Mohammedan Era, called the hegira.  The citizens of Medina accepted the reformer’s doctrines, and not only protected him from his enemies, but promised to aid in the propagation of Islamism.   In the meantime Mohammed unexpectedly found at his hand the means of avenging himself on his enemies.  In addition to the converts being daily made in Medina, fugitives flocked to him form Mecca, and proselytes from the desert, men of resolute will, warriors from their youth, and naturally inclined to partisan warfare.  Thus supported, the prophet, with out delay, proclaimed a religion of the sword, promising the everlasting pleasures of paradise in the arms of black - eyed houris to those who fell in battle fighting for the sacred cause. Thus did Islamism, from being a religion of meekness and forbearance, suddenly become one of violence and the sword as soon as the means of retaliation were with reach. Yet no violence was inculcated, but expressly forbidden against those who persisted in their unbelief, provide, only, they acknowledged the prophet’s sway, and agreed to pay the tribute imposed.  Here appears the first dawn of policy and worldly ambition, and the desire for temporal power. Still, when that power was gained, it was used mainly in propagating the new faith.  Mohammed’s first warlike enterprise was directed against his implacable enemy, Abu Sofian, now chief of the rival branch of the Koreish tribe, and guardian of the Caaba.  Thi shostile kinsman was returning form Syria with a troop of thirty horsemen, as a convoy to a caravan of one thousand camels laden with rich merchandise. The prophet, with three hundred men and seventy fleet camels, set out to waylay his enemy in the Valley of Beder, about twenty miles from Median.  Abu Sofian, warned of the ambuscade, changed his route, and escaped to Mecca; but the followers of Mohammed fell upon the troop of horsemen prisoner, with a large quantity of baggage, arms, and others spoil.  As soon as Abu Sofian reached Mecca, he took the route to Medina with two hundred horsemen, to avenge the death of his kinsfolk at Beder, but on being met by Mohammed with a superior force, turned and fled precipitately. Again in the third year of the Hegira, the Koreishites of Mecca took th efield with three thousand men, and defeated the Moslems in the bloody battle of Mount Chud, , in which Mohammed was severely wounded.   Many other warlike expeditions and excursions took place, with various results; but at last a truce of ten years was agreed upon between Mecca and Medina.  This interval Mohammed diligently employed in making converts amon the Jewish tribes, or bringing them into subjection by the sword. As the prophet’s power increased, do did his ambition.  Accusing the Koreishites of breaking the truce, he advanced against Mecca with an army of ten thousand men. To be continue.....