PREFACE. SOME apology may seem necessary for presenting a life of Mahomet at the present day, when no new fact can be added to those already known concerning him. Many years since, during a residence in Madrid, the author projected a series of writings illustrative of the domination of the Arabs in Spain. These were to be introduced by a sketch of the life of the founder of the Islam faith, and the first mover of Arabian conquest. Most of the particulars for this were drawn from Spanish sources, and from Gagnier's translation of the Arabian historian Abulfeda, a copy of which the author found in the Jesuits' Library of the Convent of St. Isidro, at Madrid. Not having followed out in its extent, the literary plan devised, the manuscript life lay neglected among the author's papers until the year 1831, when he revised and enlarged it for the Family Library of Mr. John Murray. Circumstances prevented its publication at the time, and it again was thrown aside for years. During his last residence in Spain, the author beguiled the tediousness of a lingering indisposition, by again revising the manuscript, profiting in so doing by recent lights thrown on the sub ject by different writers, and particularly by Dr. Gustav Weil, the very intelligent and learned librarian of the University of Heidelberg, to whose industrious researches and able disquisitions, he acknowledges himself greatly indebted.* Such is the origin of the work now given to the public; on which the author lays no claim to novelty of fact, nor profundity of research. It still bears the type of a work intended for a family library; in constructing which the whole aim of the writer has been to digest into an easy, perspicuous, and flowing narrative, the admitted facts concerning Mahomet, together with such legends and traditions as have been wrought into the whole system of oriental literature; and at the same time to give such a summary of his faith as might be sufficient for the more general reader. Under such circumstances, he has not thought it worth while to incumber his pages with a scaffolding of references and citations, nor depart from the old English nomenclature of oriental names. SUNNYSIDE, 1849. W. I. * Mohammed der Prophet, sein Leben und seine Lehre. Stuttgart, 1843. MAHOMET AND HIS SUCCESSORS. BY WASHINGTON IRVING. CHAPTER I. PRELIMINARY NOTICE OF ARABIA AND THE ARABS. by the patriarch Abraham. DURING a long succession of ages, extending from the earliest period of recorded history down to the seventh century of the Christian era, that great chersonese or peninsula formed by the Red Sea, the Euphrates, the Gulf of Persia, and the Indian Ocean, and known by the name of Arabia, Such is the account given by the peninsular remained unchanged and almost unaffected by the events which convulsed the rest of Asia, and Arabs of their origin; and Christian writers cite shook Europe and Africa to their centre. While God with Abraham, as recorded in Holy Writ. it as containing the fulfilment of the covenant of kingdoms and empires rose and fell; while ancient dynasties passed away; while the bounda-And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael ries and names of countries were changed, and might live before thee! And God said, As for Behold, I have their inhabitants were exterminated or carried Ishmael, I have heard thee. into captivity, Arabia, though its frontier prov- multiply him exceedingly: twelve princes shall blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will inces experienced some vicissitudes, preserved in the depths of its deserts its primitive character he beget, and I will make him a great nation" and independence, nor had its nomadic tribes (Genesis 17:18, 20). ever bent their haughty necks to servitude. The Arabs carry back the traditions of their country to the highest antiquity. It was peopled, they say, soon after the deluge, by the progeny of Shem, the son of Noah, who gradually formed themselves into several tribes, the most noted of which are the Adites and Thamudites. All these primitive tribes are said to have been either swept from the earth in punishment of their iniquities, or obliterated in subsequent modifications of the races, so that little remains concerning them but shadowy traditions and a few passages in the Koran. They are occasionally mentioned in oriental history as the "old primitive Arabians"the "lost tribes." These twelve princes with their tribes are further spoken of in the Scriptures (Genesis 25: 18) Shur, that is before Egypt, as thou goest toward as occupying the country "from Havilah unto Assyria a region identified by sacred geograthem agrees with that of the Arabs of the present phers with part of Arabia. The description of castles, others as dwelling in tents, or having vilday. Some are mentioned as holding towns and lages in the wilderness. Nebaioth and Kedar, the two first-born of Ishmael, are most noted among the princes for their wealth in flocks and herds, and for the fine wool of their sheep. From Nebaioth came the Nabathai who inhabited Stony Arabia; while the name of Kedar is occasionally The permanent population of the peninsula is. ascribed, by the same authorities, to Kahtan or Joctan, a descendant in the fourth generation from Shem. His posterity spread over the southern part of the peninsula and along the Red Sea. Yarab, one of his sons, founded the kingdom of Yemen, where the territory of Araba was called after him; whence the Arabs derive the names of themselves and their country. Jurham, another son, founded the kingdom of Hedjaz, over which his descendants bore sway for many generations. Among these people Hagar and her son Ishmael were kindly received, when exiled from their homeArabia Proper. *Besides the Arabs of the peninsula, who were all of the Shemitic race, there were others called Cushites, being descended from Cush the son of Ham. They inhabited the banks of the Euphrates and the Persian Gulf. The name of Cush is often given in Scripture to the Arabs generally as well as to their country. It must be the Arabs of this race who at and have been employed recently in disinterring the present roam the deserted regions of ancient Assyria, long-buried ruins of Nineveh. They are sometimes distinguished as the Syro-Arabians. The present work relates only to the Arabs of the peninsula, or |