Most of our readers, even the youngest, must have heard of Mahomet, the founder of the Mahometan religion ; a kind of faith which has occupied the largest and fairest portion of the Old WorM for nearly 1200 years, and is at present professed by not less than 150,000,000 of human beings! A fair record of the actions of such a man, of his opinions, his sayings, his sufferings, and his successes—in his various capacities as a trader, a pretended prophet, a negotiator, a warrior, and an emperor—might be considered as furnishing one of the must interesting pieces of biography that could be wished.
Towards the commencement of the seventh century of the Christian era, the eastern churches were overrun with many heresies and vices of various kinds. They were engaged in perpetual controversies, and torn to pieces by the disputes of the Arians, Snbellians, Nestoriitns, and Eutychians ; whilst the t&imonv, the incontinence, and general barbarism and ignorance which were to he found amongst the clergy, caused great scandal to the Christian religion, and introduced universal profligacy of manners amongst the people. A rabia was of old famous for heresies, which might be in some measure attributed to the liberty and independency of the triltes. Some of the Christians of that nation believed the soul died with the body, and «-;:s to be raised again with it at the last day. These Origen is s;iid to have convinced. Among the Arabs it was that the heresies of Ebion, Beryllus, and the Nazara>ans, and also that of the Collyridians, were broached, or at least pnjpagated: the latter introduced
the Virgin Mary for God, or worshipped her as such, offering her a sort of twisted cake called eollyris, whence the sect had its name. Other sects there were of many deuominations within the borders of Arabia, which took refuge there from the proscriptions of the imperial edicts; several of whose notions Mahomet incorporated with his religion.
Though the Jews were an inconsiderable and despised people in other parts of the world, yet in A > ;.liia, whither many of them fled from the destruction of Jerusalem, they grew very powerful, several tribes and princesembracing their religion; which made Mahomet at first show great regard to them ; adopting many of their opinions, doctrines, and customs; thereby to draw them, if possible, into his interest. But that people were so far from becoming his proselytes, that they were some of the bitterest enemies he hud, waging continual war with him, so that their reduction cost him infinite trouble and danger, and at last his life. This aversion of theirs created, at length, as great a one in him to them; so that ho used them, during the latter part of his life, much worse than he did the Christians, and frequently exclaims against them in his Koran: his followers, to this day, observe the same difference between them and the Christians; treating the Jews always as the most abject and contemptible people on earth.
As the Roman and Grecian empires, and also the kingdom of the Persians, were weak and declining, so Arabia, at the time of Mahomet's setting up, was strong and flourishing, having been peopled at the expense of the Grecian empire, whence the violent proceedings of the domineering sects forced many to seek refuge in a free country, as Arabia then was, where they who could not enjoy tranquillity and their conscience at home found a secure retreat. The Arabians were not only a populous nation, but unacquainted with the luxury and delicacies of the Greeks and Persians, and inured to hardships of all sortsliving in a most parsimonious manner, seldom eating any flesh, drinking no wine, aud sitting on the ground. Their political government was also such as favoured the designs of such an impostor as Mahomet; for the division and independency of their tribes was so necessary to the propagation of his religion, and the foundation of his power, that it would have been scarcely possible for him to have effected either, had the Arabs been united in one society. But when they had embraced his religion, the consequent union of their tribes was no less necessary and conducive to their future conquests and grandeur.
Such was the posture of public affairs in the eastern world, both as to its religious and political state, at | the time of Mahomet's appearance ; and as he was a man of extraordinary parts and address, he Kue« m. rf to make the best use of every incident, and turn what might seem dangerous to another to his own advantage.