The Preliminary Difcotirfe. Se£b. VIII,
flown into feveral countries, and occafioned great mifchiefs-, fo that it is
more for the advantage of G o d ’j true religion to put to death one of
thofe who utter fuch things, than to befiow life on ten others l.
Thus far have we treated of the chief feds among the Mohammedans
of the firft ages; omitting to fay any thing of the more modern
feds, becaufe the fame are taken little or no notice of by their own
writers, and would be of no ufe to our prefent defign *. It may be
proper, however, to mention a word or two of the great fchifm at this
day fubfifting between the Sonnites and the Shiites, or partifans of Ali,
and maintained on either fide with implacable hatred and furious
zeal. Tho’ the difference arofe at firft on a political occafion, it has
notwithftanding been fo well improved by additional circumftances,
and the fpirit of contradiction, that each party deteft and anathematize'the
other as abominable heretics, and farther from the truth
than either the Chriftians or the Jews 3. The chief points wherein
they differ are, i. That the Shiites rejed Abu Beer, Omar, and
Othman, the three firft Khalifs, as ufurpers and intruders; whereas
the Sonnites acknowledge and refped them as rightful Imams. 2. The
Shiites prefer A li to Mohammed, or, at leaft, efteem them both
equal; but the Sonnites admit neither A li, nor any of the prophets,
to be equal to Mohammed. 3. The Sonnites charge .the Shiites with
corrupting the Koran, and negleding its precepts; and the Shi tits
retort the fame charge on the Sonnites. 4. The Sonnites receive the
Sonna, or book of traditions of their prophet, as of canonical authority
; whereas the Shiites rejed it as apocryphal and unworthy
o f credit. And to thefe difputes, and fome others of lefs moment,
is principally owing the antipathy which has Tong reigned between
the Turks, who are Sonnites, and the Perfians, who are of the left
of A li. It feems ftrange that Spinofa, had he known of no other
fchifm among the Mohammedans, fhould yet never have heard of
one fo publickly notorious as this between the Turks and Perfians;,
but it is plain he did not, or he would never have affigned it as the
reafon o f his preferring the order of the Mohammedan church to
that of the Roman, that there have arifen no fchifms in the former
fince its birth 4.
1 Al Ghazali, apud Poc. ubi fop. 1 The reader may meet with fome account o f them iff
Ryeaut's State of the Ottom. Empire, 1. 2. chap. iz . 3 V. ib. ch. 10. & Chardin. Voy.
ferfe, T . II. p. 169, 170, &c. 4 The words of Spinofa are; Ordinem Roman* ecclefi#— ■“
politician & plurimis lucrofum ejfe fateor; nec ad decipiendam phbem, & bominum animoi coercendutfi
commodiorem ijlo crederem, ni ordo Mahumedanas ecctefia ejfet, qui longe eundem antecellit. Nam »
quo tempore bac fuperjlitio in cep it, nulla in eorumecclejia febifmata ortafunt. Opera Pofth. p. 613-
! Sect. VIII- The Preliminary Difcourje. • 179
As fuccefs in any projed feldom fails to draw in imitators, Mo- j?£spsjre"_
\ hammed's having raifed himfelf to fuch a degree o f power and r e - t°^£gto
[ n u t a t i o n by ading the prophet, induced others to imagine they
i might arrive at the fame height by the fame means. His moft con-
fiderable competitors in the prophetic office were Mofeilama and al and fince.
Afwad, whom the Mohammedans ufually call the two lyars.
The former was of the tribe of Honeifa, who inhabited the pro- of Mtfei-
1 ’ vince o f Tamama, and a principal man among them. He headed I an embafly font.by his tribe to Mohammed in the ninth year of
I the Hejra, and profefled himfelf a Mofiem 1 : but on his return home,
■ confidering that he might poffibly fhare with Mohammed in his
I power, the next year he fet up for a prophet alfo, pretending to be
I joined with him in the .commiffion to recal mankind from idolatry
I to the worfhip of the true G o d ! ; and he publifhed written reve-
1 lations, in imitation of the Koran, of which Abu'Ifaragius s has pre- I ferved the following paflage, v iz. Now hath G od been gracious unto I her that was with child, and hath brought forth from her the foul, I which runneth between the peritonaeum and the bowels. Mofeilama, hav- I ing formed a confiderable party among, thofe of Honeifa, began to I think himfelf upon equal terms with Mohammed, and lent him a I letter, offering to go halves with him4, in thefe words: From
I Mofeilama the apoftle o f G od, to Mohammed the apofile of G od. I Now let the earth be half mine, and half thine. But Mohammed,
I thinking himfelf too well eftablifhed to need a partner, wrote him
I this anfwer: From Mohammed the apofile o f G o d , to Mofeilama the
I lyar. The earth is G od’s : he giveth the fame fo r inheritance unto
I fuch of his fervants as . he pleafetb; and the happy iffue J.hall attend
I thofe who fear him.5. During the few months which Mohammed
I lived after this revolt, Mofeilama rather gained than loft ground, and
I grew very formidable; but Abu Beer, his fucceffor, in the eleventh
I year of the Hejra, fent a great army againft him, under the com-
I mand of that confummate general Khdled Ebn al Waltd, who en- I gaged Mofeilama in a bloody battle, wherein the falfe prophet hap-
I pening to be flam by Wahfha, the negro Have who had killed Ham- I za at Ohod, and by the fame lance 6, the Mofiems gained an entire I victory, ten thoufand of the apoftates being left dead on the fpot, I and the reft returning to Mohammedifm 7.
1 Abulfed. p. 160. a Idem, Elmac. p. 9. 7 Hill. Dynaft. p. 164. 4 Abulfed. ubi
[ lup. * Al Beidawi, in Kor. c: 5. 6 Abulfed. ubi fup. 7 Idem, ib. AbuIFarag. p. 173*
Elmac. p, 16, &c. See Qcklefs Hift, of the Same. Vol. I. p. 15, &c.
a a 2 5ff