cepted, that volume throughout is written in the person of the Almighty. Its readers plunge at once into things invested with the most awful sublimity. Remonstrances, instructions, promises, threats, blessings, and curses are all represented as coming directly from God; and though sometimes the strong current of enthusiasm and indignation, it pours forth makes its writer apparently forget the source whence his sentences come, he constantly recals himself before the end of the period. Mahomet had continued his visits to the cave for some four or five years, when, according to the opening of the seventyfourth chapter of the Koran, he was commanded to "arise and preach, and magnify the Lord." The voice proceeded of course from his supernatural attendant, who continually waited on him, revealing divine doctrine, urging him to make known what he had received, and promising success to all his undertakings. At length he acquainted his beloved Kadijah with the commission he had received, who probably was prepared to submit to it instantly, partly by the austerities she had engaged in with her husband, and partly by that supreme devotion to him and his interests which she seems on all occasions to have manifested. The best authorities make her receive the news of Mahomet's honour with great joy, swearing by the author of her life, that she regarded him as the prophet of his nation.

A subsequent chapter of the Koran * describes the night on which Mahomet received his commission as the most memorable of all nights. "In the name of the most merciful God. Verily, we * Chap. xcvii.

morn."*

sent down the Koran in the night of Al Kadr. And what shall make thee understand how excellent the night of Al Kadr is? This night is better than a thousand months. Therein do the angels descend, and the spirit Gabriel also, by the permission of their Lord, with his decrees concerning every matter. It is peace until the rising of the On this favoured night, between the 23d and 24th of Ramadan, according to the prophet, the angel appeared to him, in glorious form, to communicate the happy tidings of his mission. The light issuing from his body, was too dazzling for mortal eyes to behold; he fainted under the splendour; nor was it till Gabriel had assumed a human form, that he could venture to approach or look upon him. The angel then cried aloud, "O MAHOMET, THOU ART THE APOSTLE OF GOD, AND I AM THE ANGEL GABRIEL !" "Read!" continued the angel; the prophet declared that he was unable to read. "Read!" Gabriel again exclaimed, “read, in the name of thy Lord, who hath created all things; who hath created man of congealed blood. Read, by thy most beneficent Lord, who hath taught the use of the pen; who teacheth man that which he knoweth not."+ The prophet, who professed hitherto to have been illiterate, then read the joyful tidings respecting his ministry on earth, when the angel, having accomplished his mission, majestically ascended to heaven, and disappeared from his view.

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Kadijah, overjoyed, is said to have immediately imparted what she had heard to one Waraka, her cousin, who is supposed by some to have been in the secret, and who had learned to write in the * Chap. xcvii. † Chap. xcvi.

Hebrew character, and was tolerably well versed in the Jewish and Christian Scriptures. He unhesitatingly assented to her opinion respecting the divine designation of her husband, and even affirmed, that Mahomet was no other than the great prophet foretold by Moses, the son of Amram. This belief, that both the prophet and his religion were subjects of inspired prediction in the Old Testament Scriptures, is studiously inculcated in the Koran. "Thy Lord is the mighty, the merciful. This book is certainly a revelation from the Lord of all creatures, which the faithful spirit (Gabriel) hath caused to descend upon thy heart, that thou mightest be a preacher to thy people in the perspicuous Arabic tongue; and it is borne witness to in the Scriptures of former ages. Was it not a sign unto them that the wise men among the children of Israel knew it ?" *

Having succeeded in gaining over his wife, he persevered in that retired and austere kind of life which tends to beget the reputation of pre-eminent sanctity, and ere long had his servant, Zeid Ebn Hareth, added to the list of proselytes. He rewarded the faith of Zeid by manumitting him from servitude, and it has hence become a standing rule among his followers always to grant freedom to such of their slaves as embrace the religion of the prophet. Ali, the son of Abu Taleb, Mahomet's cousin, was his next convert, but the impetuous youth, disregarding the other two as persons of comparatively little note, used to style himself the first of believers. His fourth and most important convert was Abubeker, a powerful citizen of Mecca, by whose influence a number of * Chap. xxiii.

persons possessed of rank and authority were induced to profess the religion of Islam. These were Othman, Zobair, Saad, Abdorrahman, and Abu Obeidah, who afterwards became the principal leaders in his armies, and his main instruments in the establishment both of his imposture and of his empire. Four years were spent in the arduous task of winning over these nine individuals to the faith, some of whom were the principal men of the city, and who composed the whole party of his proselytes previously to his beginning to proclaim his mission in public. Mahomet was now forty-four years of age.

Hitherto his mission had been conducted with comparative privacy; now however, having as he hoped sufficient interest to support him, the prophet made it no longer a secret. God had commanded him, he said, to admonish his near relations, and he obeyed. In order to enable him the more successfully to gain their attention, he directed his cousin Ali to prepare a generous entertainment, and invite to it the sons and descendants of Abdol Motalleb, where, when they were all convened, he would formally divulge to them the solemn fact of his apostolic commission. Some disturbance, occasioned by Abu Laheb, caused the company to break up before he had an opportunity of effecting his purpose, which induced him to give them a second invitation on the ensuing day. About forty of them accordingly assembled around his board, when the prophet arose, and thus addressed his wondering guests:-"I know no man in the whole peninsula of the Arabs who can propose any thing more excellent to his relations than what I now do to you; I offer you happiness both in this

my

life and in that which is to come; God Almighty hath commanded me to call you unto him; who therefore among you will be my vizier (assistant), and will become my brother and vicegerent?" General astonishment kept the assembly silent; none accepted the proferred office till the fiery Ali burst forth and declared that he would be the brother and assistant of the prophet. "I," said he, "O prophet of God, will be thy vizier; self will beat out the teeth, pull out the eyes, rip open the bellies, and cut off the legs, of all those who shall dare to oppose thee.". The prophet caught the young proselyte in his arms, exclaiming, "This is my brother, my deputy, my successor; show yourselves obedient unto him." At this apparently extravagant command, the whole company burst into laughter, telling Abu Taleb that he must now pay obedience and submission to his own son! As words were multiplied, surprise began to give way to indignation, the pretensions of the prophet were seriously resented, and in the issue the assembly broke up in confusion, affording the ardent apostle but slender prospects of success among his kinsmen.

Undeterred by the failure of his first public attempt, Mahomet began to preach still more openly before the people of Mecca. He announced to them that he was commissioned by the Almighty to be his prophet on the earth; to assert the unity of God; to denounce the worship of images; to recall the people to the true and only religion; to bear the tidings of paradise to the believing; and to threaten the deaf and unbelieving with terrible vengeance. The bold freedom of his denunciations soon weared out the patience with which his tribe