MOHAMMED (Arab. the Praised *), the name taken, at a later period, by the founder of Islam. He was originally called Halabi. He was born about the year 570 A. D., at Mecca, and was the son of Abdallah, of the family of the Hashim; and of Amina, of the family of Zuhra, both of the powerful tribe of the Koreish, but of a side-branch only, and therefore of little or no influence. His father, a poor merchant, died either before or shortly after M.'s birth, whom his mother then (according to a doubtful tradition) is supposed to have handed over, after the fashion of her tribe, to a Beduin woman, that she might nurse him in the salubrious air of the desert. In consequence of the repeated fits of the child, however, which were ascribed to demons, the nurse sent him back in his third year. When six years old, he also lost his mother. His grandfather, Abd-Al-Mutallib, adopted the boy; and when, two years later, he too died, M.'s uncle, Abu Talib, though poor himself, took him into his house, and remained his best friend and protector throughout his whole life. The accounts which have survived of the time of his youth are of too legendary a nature to deserve credit; certain, however, it seems to be that he at first gained a scanty livelihood by tending the flocks of the Meccans, and that he once or twice accompanied his uncle on his journeys to Southern Arabia and Syria. In his 25th year, he entered the service of a rich widow, named Chadidja, likewise descended from the Koreish, and accompanied her caravans-in an inferior capacity, perhaps as a camel-driver-to the fairs. Up to that time, his circumstances were very poor. Suddenly his fortune changed. The wealthy, but much older, and twice widowed Chadidja offered him her hand, which he accepted. She bore him a son, Al-Kâsim-whence M. adopted the name Abu Al-Kâsim-and four daughters: Zainab, Rukaija, Umm Kulthum, and Fatima; and afterwards a second son, whom he called Abd Manâf, after an idol worshipped among his tribe. Both his sons, however, died early. M. continued his merchant's trade at Mecca, but without much energy, spending most of his time in solitary contemplations. In his 35th year, he is said to have, by chance only, been chosen arbiter in a quarrel about the replacing of the sacred black stone in the Kaaba (q.v.); but not before his 40th year is there anything really important to be told of his life.

Before, however, entering on the weighty events of the subsequent period, it is by no means unimportant to advert to such traits of M.'s outward appearance as are yet recoverable. He was of middle height, rather lean, but broad shouldered, and altogether of strong build; slightly curled black hair flowed round his strongly developed head; his eyes, overhung with thick eyelashes, were large and coal-black; his nose, large and slightly bent, was well formed. A long beard added to the dignity of his appearance. A black mole between his shoulders became afterwards among the faithful the seal of prophecy.' In his walk, he moved his whole body violently, 'as if descending a mountain.' His gait and presence were altogether of an extremely imposing nature. In his 40th year M. received his first revelation,' or, in other words, became first aware that he had a 'mission.' About the year 600 A. D., Christianity had penetrated into the heart of Arabia, through Syria on the one, and Abyssinia on the other hand. Judaism no less played a prominent part in the peninsula, chiefly in its northern parts, which were dotted over with Jewish colonies, founded by emigrants after the *Or, according to Deutsch, whose view is fully corroborated and adopted by Sprenger in his recent Leben und Lehre Mohammads, in allusion to Hag. ii. 7, the predicted Messiah.

destruction of Jerusalem; and round about Yathrib (Medina). Besides these two all-important religious elements, several sects, remnants of the numerous ancient sects which had sprung up every where during the first Christian centuries: Sabians, Mandæans, &c., on the frontiers of Syria and Babylonia, heightened the religious ferment which, shortly before the time of M., had begun to move the minds of the thoughtful. At that time there arose, according to undoubted historical accounts, several men in the Hedjaz (Waraka, Obeid Allah, Othman, Zayd, &c.), who preached the futility of the ancient pagan creed, with its star-worship, its pilgrimages, and festive ceremonies, its temples and fetiches. It had in reality long ceased to be a living faith, and only the great mass of the people clung to it as to a sacred inheritance from times immemorial. The unity of God, the 'ancient religion of Abraham,' was the doctrine promulgated by these forerunners of M., and many of those who, roused by their words, began to search for a form of religion which should embody both the traditions of their forefathers and a purer doctrine of the Divinity, turned either to Judaism or to Christianity. The principal scene of these missionary labours was Mecca, then the centre of the pilgrimages of most of the Arabian tribes, and where, from times immemorial, long anterior to the city itself, the Kaaba (q. v.), Mount Arafat, the Valley of Mina, &c., were held sacred— the Koreish, M.'s tribe, having the supreme care over these sanctuaries, ever since the 5th century. It was under these circumstances that M. felt 'moved' to teach a new faith, which should dispense with idolatry on the one, as with Judaism and Christianity on the other hand. He was 40 years of age, as we said, when he received the first divine' communi. cation in the solitude of the mountain Hirà, near Mecca. Gabriel appeared to him, and in the name of God commanded him to 'read'—that is, to preach the true religion, and to spread it abroad by committing it to writing (Sur. xcvi.). How far M. was a 'prophet,' in the common sense of the word, has been the subject of endless and utterly futile discussions in the Christian world. That he was no vulgar impostor, is now as generally recognised as that other once popular doctrine, that he was in league with the devil, is rejected by thinking men. What part his epilepsy had in his visions,' we are not able to determine. Certain it is that, after long and painful solitary broodings, a something-not clearly known to himself-at times moved him with such fearfully rapturous vehemence, that, during his revelations, he is said to have roared like a camel, and to have streamed with perspiration; his eyes turned red, and the foam stood before his mouth. The voices he heard were sometimes those of a bell, sometimes of a man, sometimes they came in his dreams, or they were laid in his heart. Waraka, one of his wife's relatives, who had embraced Judaism, spoke to him of the Jewish doctrine, and told him the story of the patriarchs and Israel; not so much as it is told in the Bible, but in the Midrash; and the gorgeous hues of the legendary poetry of the latter seem to have made as deep an impression on M.'s poetical mind as the doctrine of the unity of God and the morale-in its broad outlinesof the Old Testament, together with those civil and religious laws, scriptural and oral, which are either contained as germs or fully developed in this record. Christianity exercised a minor influence upon him and his spiritual offspring. All his knowledge of the New Testament was confined to a few apocryJesus, whom, together with Moses, he calls the phal books, and with all the deep reverence before greatest prophet, next to himself, his notions of the Christian religion and its founder were excessively

his death. The most important act in the first year of the Hedjrah was his permission to go to war with the enemies of Islam in the name of God-a kind of manifesto chiefly directed against the Meccans. Not being able at first to fight his enemies in open field, he endeavoured to weaken their power by attacking the caravans of the Koreish on their way to Syria. Being successful enough to disturb their trade, and, at the same time, to conclude alliances with the adjoining Beduin tribes, he at last dared to break even the peace of the sacred month of Radjab, and with this the signal to open warfare was given. A battle, the first, between 314 Moslims and about 600 Meccans was fought at Badr, in the second year of the Hedjrah; the former gained the victory, and made many prisoners. A great number of adventurers now flocked to M.'s colours, and he successfully continued his expeditions against the Koreish and the Jewish tribes, chiefly the Beni Keinuka, whose fortified castles he took after a long siege. Notwithstanding a severe loss which he suffered in the battle near Ohod, in which he himself was dangerously wounded, his power increased so rapidly that in the sixth year of the Hedjrah already he was able to proclaim a public pilgrimage to Mecca. Although the Meccans did not allow this to be carried out, he gained the still greater advantage that they concluded a formal peace with him, and thus recognised him as an equal power and belligerent. He was now allowed to send his missionaries all over Arabia, and even beyond the frontiers, without any hindrance; and in the following year he had the satisfaction of celebrating the pilgrimage for three days undisturbed at Mecca. Shortly afterwards, during his expeditions against the Jews of Chaibar and Fadak, M. very nearly lost his life: a Jewess, Zainab by name, a relative of whom had fallen in the fight against him, placed a poisoned piece of roast meat before him, and although he merely tasted it, he yet, up to his death, suffered from the effects of the poison. His missionaries at this time began to carry his doctrines abroad, to Chosroes II., to Heraclius, to the king of Abyssinia, the Viceroy of Egypt, and the chiefs of several Arabic provinces. Some received the new gospel; but Chosra Parvis, the king of Persia, and Amru the Ghassanide, rejected his proposals with scorn, and the latter had the messenger executed. This was the cause of the first war between the Christians and the Muslims, in which the latter were beaten with great loss by Amru. The Meccans now thought the long-desired moment of revenge at hand, and broke the peace by committing several acts of violence against the Chuzaites, the allies of Mohammed. The latter, however, marched at the head of 10,000 men against Mecca, before its inhabitants had had time to prepare for the siege, took it, and was publicly recognised by them as chief and prophet. With this the victory of the new religion was secured in Arabia. While, however, employed in destroying all traces of idolatry in the besieged city, and fixing the minor laws and ceremonies of the true faith, M. heard of new armies which several warlike Arabic tribes marched against him, and which were concentrated near Taif (630). Again he was victorious, and his dominion and creed extended further and further every day. From all parts flocked the deputations to do homage to him in the name of the various tribes, either as the messenger of God, or at least as the Prince of Arabia, and the year 8 of the Hedjrah was therefore called the year of the Deputations. Once more he made most extensive preparations for a war against the Byzantines; but not being able to bring together a sufficient army, he had to be satisfied with the

homage of a few minor princes on his way to the frontiers, and to return without having carried out his intention. Towards the end of the 10th year of the Hedjrah he undertook, at the head of at least 40,000 Muslims, his last solemn pilgrimage to Mecca, and there (on the Mount Arafat) instructed them in all the important laws and ordinances, chiefly of the pilgrimage; and the ceremonies observed by him on that occasion were fixed for all times. [HAJJ.] He again solemnly exhorted his believers to righteousness and piety, and chiefly recommended them to protect the weak, the poor, and the women, and to abstain from usury.

Returned from Mecca, he occupied himself again with the carrying out of his expedition against Syria, but fell dangerously ill very soon after his return. One night, while suffering from an attack of fever, he went to the cemetery of Medina, and prayed and wept upon the tombs, praising the dead, and wishing that he himself might soon be delivered from the storms of this world. For a few more days he went about; at last, too weak further to visit his wives, he chose the house of Ayeshah, situated near a mosque, as his abode during his sickness. He continued to take part in the public prayers as long as he could; until at last, feeling that his hour had come, he once more preached to the people, recommending Abu Bekr and Usma, the son of Zaid, as the generals whom he had chosen for the army. He then asked, like Moses, whether he had wronged any one, and read to them passages from the Koran, preparing the minds of his hearers for his death, and exhorting them to peace among themselves, and to strict obedience to the tenets of the faith. A few days afterwards, he asked for writing materials, probably in order to fix a successor to his office as chief of the faithful; but Omar, fearing he might chose Ali, while he himself inclined to Abu Bekr, would not allow him to be furnished with them. In his last wanderings he only spoke of angels and heaven. He died in the lap of Ayeshah, about noon of Monday the 12th (11th) of the third month, in the year 11 of the Hedjrah (8th of June 632). His death caused an immense excitement and distress among the faithful, and Omar, who himself would not believe in it, tried to persuade the people of his still being alive. But Abu Bekr said to the assembled multitude: Whoever among you has served Mohammed, let him know that Mohammed is dead; but he who has served the God of Mohammed, let him continue in his service, for he is still alive, and never dies.' While his corpse was yet unburied, the quarrels about his successor, whom he had not definitively been able to appoint, commenced; and finally, Abu Bekr received the homage of the principal Muslims at Medina. M. was then buried in the night from the 9th to the 10th of June, after long discussions, in the house of Ayeshah, where he had died, and which afterwards became part of the adjoining mosque.

This, in briefest outline, is M.'s career. We have not been able to dwell, as we could have wished to do, with any length, either on the peculiar circumstances of his inner life, which preceded and accompanied his 'prophetic' course, nor on the part which Idolatry, Judaism, Christianity, and his own reflection respectively, bore in the formation of his religion; nor have we been able to trace the process by which his 'mission' grew upon him, as it were, and he, from a simple admonisher of his family, became the founder of a faith to which now above 130 millions are said to adhere. The articles KORAN and MOHAMMEDANISM contain some further details on his doctrine and its history. We have, in addition to the few observations on the points indicated at the beginning,

only to reiterate, that a man of Mohammed's extraordinary powers and gifts is not to be judged by a modern common-place standard; and that the manners and morals of his own time and country must also be taken into consideration. We are far from overrating his character. He was at times deceitful, cunning, even revengeful and cowardly; and generally addicted beyond limit to sensuality. But all this does not justify the savage and silly abuse which has been heaped upon his name for centuries by ignorance and fanaticism. Not only his public station as prophet, preacher, and prince, but also his private character, his amiability, his faithfulness towards friends, his tenderness towards his family, and the frequent readiness to forgive an enemy; besides the extreme simplicity of his domestic life (he lived, when already in full power, in a miserable hut, mended his own clothes, and freed all his slaves), must be taken into consideration; and, to do him full justice, his melancholic temperament, his nervousness, often bordering on frenzy, and which brought him to the brink of suicide, and his being a poet of the highest order, with all the weaknesses of a poet developed to excess, must not be forgotten. Altogether, his mind contained the strangest mixture of right and wrong, of truth and error. Although his self-chosen mission was the abolition of superstition, he yet believed in Jins, omens, charms, and dreams, and this is an additional reason against the, as we said, now generally abandoned notion, that he was a vulgar designer, who by no means deceived himself about those revelations which he pretended to have received. And however much the religion of Islam may, rightly or wrongly, be considered the bane and prime cause of the rottenness of eastern states and nations in our day, it must, in the first place, not be forgotten that it is not necessarily Islam which has caused the corruption, as indeed its ethics are for the most part of the highest order; and in the second place, that Mohammed is not to be made responsible for all the errors of his successors. Take him all in all, the history of humanity has seen few more earnest, noble, and sincere prophets'-using the word prophet in the broad human sense of one irresistibly impelled by an inner power to admonish, and to teach, and to utter austere and sublime truths, the full purport of which is often unknown to himself.

The most important European biographies of M. are those of Sprenger, Weil, Muir, Nöldeke, Reinaud. See also KORAN, MOHAMMEDANISM, SUNNAH.

MOHAMMED, the name of four sultans of Turkey, of whom the most noted is MOHAMMED II., surnamed Bujuk or THE GREAT, the conqueror of Constantinople. He was born at Adrianople in 1430, and succeeded his father, Amurath II., in 1450. His first acts were the murder of his two brothers, and the suppression of a rebellion in Karaman. Having thus secured himself on the throne, he bent all his energies to the accomplishment of the great project which had always been kept prominently in view by his predecessors-the capture of Constantinople. This city was now the sole remnant of the once mighty empire of the Cæsars; and after more than a year spent in preparations, M. commenced the siege, 6th April 1453, with an army of 258,000 men, and a fleet of 320 vessels. The Greeks, aided by a gallant band of 2000 strangers, under Gian Justiniani, a noble Genoese, long maintained an obstinate resistance. On the morning of the 29th May, a combined attack was made by land and sea without success; but the retirement from the ramparts of Justiniani, who had been severely wounded, and despaired of a successful defence, caused a panic among his followers, and the simultaneous charge of

a chosen body of janizaries, with M. himself at their head, was irresistible. Constantine XIIL died in the breach, and the Turks poured in over his corpse to plunder and devastate his capital. M. now transferred the seat of his government to Constantinople, and sought to win back the inhabi tants by promising them the free exercise of their religion. He next reduced the kingdoms of Morea and Trebizond, offshoots of the Greek empire, obtained possession of Servia on the death of its last prince, and made formidable preparations for the invasion of Hungary. Belgrade was the first point of attack; and with 100,000 men, supported by a fleet of 200 ships on the Danube, M. sat down before its walls. The enormous ordnance which had done such good service at Constantinople, were employed to batter the ramparts; but the valour, skill, and activity of the defenders foiled his utmost efforts. John Hunyady (q. v.), who, with 5000 chosen troops, had reinforced the garrison, destroyed or captured all his vessels, and soon after, by a sudden sally, defeated his army, and carried off the battering-train, compelling him to raise the siege, 6th August 1456. His next enterprise was the invasion of Epirus, where Scanderbeg had hitherto successfully defied the sultan's power. Three Turkish armies were destroyed in rapid succession, and a fourth and fifth under M. himself met with no greater success; but the death of the gallant Epirote, in 1467, removed the only obstacle to the success of the sultan's plans, and Epirus was forthwith annexed to Turkey. The latter half of M.'s reign was also fruitful in important achievements, but our space will permit only a cursory notice of them. He reduced the Khan of the Crimea to the condition of a vassal, deprived the Genoese of Caffa, and the Venetians of Friuli, Istria, Negropont, and Lemnos; but the Knights of St John repelled him from Rhodes, and the Venetians from Scodra. He carried his arms into Italy, and took Otranto, but died in 1481 at Nicomedia, while on the way to join his son Bajazet, who was warring with the Persians and Egyptians. His frequent contests with the former of these nations had always interfered very much with the successful prosecution of his designs of conquest in Europe. M. was possessed of great abilities; he was brave, enterprising, and sagacious; nor was he deficient in learning, for he spoke four languages fluently, was well versed in geography, ancient history, and the natural sciences, and was practically acquainted with the fine arts. But the brilliancy of his career, and the occasional generosity and even magnanimity which he shewed, cannot obliterate the recollection of those acts of cruelty and treachery which have justly branded him as the most ruthless tyrant of the House of Osman. As the founder of the Turkish power in Europe, his memory has always been revered by the Turks.

MOHAMMEDANISM, the religion founded by Mohammed, or, according to him, the only orthodox creed existing from the beginning of the world, and preached by all the prophets ever since Adam. It is also called Islâm, Resignation, entire Submission to the will and precepts of God. In its exclusively dogmatical or theoretical part, it is Imán, Faith; in its practical, Din, Religion (by way of eminence). The fundamental principles of the former are contained in the two articles of belief: There is no God but God; and Mohammed is God's Apostle." The Mohammedan doctrine of God's nature and attributes coincides with the Christian, in so far as he is by both taught to be the Creator of all things in heaven and earth, who rules and preserves all things, without beginning, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and full of mercy. Yet, according to

the Mohammedan belief, he has no offspring: 'He begetteth not, nor is he begotten.' Nor is Jesus called anything but a prophet and apostle, although his birth is said to have been due to a miraculous divine operation; and as the Koran superseded the Gospel, so Mohammed, Christ. The crucifixion is said to have been executed upon another person, Christ having been taken up unto God before the decree was carried out. He will come again upon the earth, to establish everywhere the Moslem religion, and to be a sign of the coming of the day of judgment. Next to the belief in God, that in angels forms a prominent dogma. Created of fire, and endowed with a kind of uncorporeal body, they stand between God and man, adoring or waiting upon the former, or interceding for and guarding the latter. The four chief angels are The Holy Spirit,' or Angel of Revelations'-Gabriel; the special protector and guardian of the Jews-Michael; the Angel of Death'-Azraël (Raphael, in the apocryphal gospel of Barnabas), and Israfil-Uriel, whose office it will be to sound the trumpet at the Resurrection. It will hardly be necessary, after what we said under MOHAMMED, to point out, in every individual instance, how most of his 'religious' notions were taken almost bodily from the Jewish legends; his angelology, however, the Jews had borrowed themselves from the Persians, only altering the names, and, in a few cases, the offices of the chief angelic dignitaries. Besides angels, there are good and evil genii, the chief of the latter being | Iblis (Despair), once called Azazil, who, refusing to pay homage to Adam, was rejected by God. These Jin are of a grosser fabric than angels, and subject to death. They, too, have different names and offices (Peri, Fairies; Div, Giants; Takvíns, Fates, &c.), and are, in almost every respect, like the Shédim in the Talmud and Midrash. A further point of belief is that in certain God-given Scriptures, revealed successively to the different prophets. Four only of the original one hundred and four sacred books: viz., the Pentateuch, the Psalms, the Gospel, and the Koran, are said to have survived; the three former, however, in a mutilated and falsified condition. Besides these, a certain apocryphal gospel, attributed to St Barnabas, and the writings of Daniel, together with those of a few other prophets, are taken notice of by the Moslems, but not as canonical books. The number of prophets, sent at various times, is stated variously at between two and three hundred thousand, among whom 313 were apostles, and six were specially commissioned to proclaim new laws and dispensations, which abrogated the preceding_ones. These were Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed-the last the greatest of them all, and the propagator of the final dispensation. The belief in the resurrection and the final judgment is the next article of faith. The dead are received in their graves by an angel announcing the coming of the two examiners, Monker and Nakir, who put questions to the corpse respecting his belief in God and Mohammed, and who, in accordance with the answers, either torture or comfort him. This, again, is the Jewish Chibbut hakkeber,' the Beating of the Grave, a hyperbolical description of the sufferings during the intermediate state after death (purgatory). The soul, awaiting the general resurrection, enters according to its rank, either immediately into paradise (prophets), or partakes, in the shape of a green bird, of the delights of the abode of bliss (martyrs), or in the case of common believers-is supposed either to stay near the grave, or to be with Adam in | the lowest heaven, or to remain either in the well of Zem-Zem, or in the trumpet of the resurrection. According to others, it rests in the shape of a white

bird under the throne of God. The souls of the infidels dwell in a certain well in the province of Hadramaut (Heb. Chambers of Death), or, being first offered to heaven, then offered to earth, and rejected by either, subject to unspeakable tortures until the day of resurrection. Concerning the latter, great discrepancy reigns among the Mohammedan theologians. Mohammed himself seems to have held that both soul and body will be raised, and the 'Bone Luz' of the Jewish Haggadah was by him transformed into the bone Al Ajb, the rumpbone, which will remain uncorrupted till the last day, and from which the whole body will spring anew, after a forty days' rain. Among the signs by which the approach of the last day may be known-nearly all taken from the legendary part of the Talmud and Midrash, where the signs of the coming of the Messiah are enumerated-are the decay of faith among men, the advancing of the meanest persons to highest dignities, wars, seditions, and tumults, and consequent dire distress, so that a man passing another's grave shall say: 'Would to God I were in his place!' Certain provinces shall revolt, and the buildings of Medina shall reach to Yahâb. Again: the sun will rise in the west, the Beast will appear, Constantinople will be taken by the descendants of Isaac, the Anti-Christ will come, and be killed by Jesus at Lud. There will further take place a war with the Jews, Gog and Magog's (Jajug and Majuj's) eruption, a great smoke, an eclipse, the Mohammedans will return to idolatry, a great treasure will be found in the Euphrates, the Kaaba will be destroyed by the Ethiopians, beasts and inanimate things will speak, and finally, a wind will sweep away the souls of those who have faith, even if equal only to a grain of mustard seed, so that the world shall be left in ignorance. The time of the resurrection, even Mohammed could not learn from Gabriel: it is a mystery. Three blasts will announce it: that of consternation, of such terrible powers, that mothers shall neglect the babes on their breasts, and that heaven and earth will melt; that of exanimation, which will annihilate all things and beings, even the angel of death, save paradise and hell, and their inhabitants; and forty years later, that of resurrection, when all men, Mohammed first, shall have their souls breathed into their restored bodies, and will sleep in their sepulchres until the final doom has been passed upon them. The day of judgment, lasting from one to fifty thousand years, will call up angels, genii, men, and animals. The trial over, the righteous will enter paradise, to the right hand, and the wicked will pass to the left, into hell; both, however, have first to go over the bridge Al Sirât, laid over the midst of hell, and finer than a hair, and sharper than the edge of a sword, and beset with thorns on either side. The righteous will proceed on their path with ease and swiftness, but the wicked will fall down headlong to hell below-a place divided into seven stories or apartments, respectively assigned to Mohammedans, Jews, Christians, Sabians, Magians, idolaters, and the lowest of all-to the hypocrites, who, outwardly professing a religion, in reality had none. The degrees of pain-chiefly consisting in intense heat and cold-vary; but the Mohammedans, and all those who professed the unity of God, will finally be released, while unbelievers and idolaters will be condemned to eternal punishment. Paradise is divided from hell by a partition (Orf), in which a certain number of half-saints will find place. The blessed, destined for the abodes of eternal delight (Jannat Aden, Heb. Gan Eden)-of which it is, however, not quite certain whether it is created already-will first drink of the Pond of

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