five behaviour towards his friends, and of great condefcenfion towards
his inferiors '. T o all which were joined a comely agreeable perfon,
and a polite addrefs; accomplifhments of no fmall fervice in preventing
thofe in his favour, whom he attempted to perfuade.
As to acquired learning, it is confeffed he had none at a ll; having
had no other education than what was cuftomary in his tribe, who
negledted, and perhaps defpifed, what we call literature ; efteeming
no language in comparifon with their own, their Ikill in which they
gained by ufe and not by books, and contenting themfelves with improving
their private experience by committing to memory fuch paf-
fages of their poets as they judged might be of ufe to them in life.
This defedt was fo far from being prejudicial or putting a ftop to his
defign, that he made the greateft ufe o f it; infilling that the writings
which he produced as revelations from G od, could not poflibly
be a forgery of his own; becaufe it was not conceivable that a perfon
who could neither write nor read Ihould be able to compofe a
book of fuch excellent dodtrine, and in fo elegant a ftile; and thereby
obviating an objedtion that might have carried a great deal o f
weight \ And for this reafon his followers, inftead of being alhamed
of their mailer’s ignorance, glory in it, as an evident proof of his
divine million, and feruple not to call him (as he is indeed called in
the Koran itfelf 3) the illiterate prophet.
The firft The fcheme of religion which Mohammed framed, and the defign
^Mham and artful contrivance of thofe written revelations (as he pretended-.
„alto- them to be) which compofe his Koran, lhall be the fubjedt of the
wards the f*0H0wing fe&ions; I lhall therefore in the remainder of this relate,
of hispro- as briefly as poffible, the Heps he took towards the effedting of his
jefi. enterprize, and the accidents which concurred to his fuccefs therein.
Before he made any attempt abroad, he rightly judged that it was
necelfary for him to begin by the converfion of his own houfehold.
Having therefore retired with his family, as lie had done feveral times
before, to the above-mentioned cave in mount Hara, he there opened
the fecret of his million to his wife Khadijah-, and acquainted her
that the angel Gabriel had juft before appeared to him, and told him
that he was appointed the apoftle of G o d : he alfo repeated to her
a paffage 4 which he pretended had been revealed to him by the mi-
niftry of the angel, with thole other circumftances of this firft appearance,
which are related by the Mohammedan writers. Khadijah
1 V. Abdfed. ubi fup. 4 See Koran chap. 29. Prfd.life of Mah. p. 28, &c. 3 Chap. 7.
4 This paffage is generally agreed to be the firft five verfes of the 96th chapter.
received the news with great joy fwearing "by him in whofe hands
her foul was, that Ihe trufted he would be the prophet o f his nation:
and immediately communicated what Ihe had heard to her coufin
Warakah Ebn Nawfal, who being a Chrijlian could write in the Hebrew
character, and was tolerably well verfed in the fcriptures2;
and he as readily came into her opinion, alluring her that the fame 1
angel who had formerly appeared unto Mofes, was now fent to Mohammed
3. This firft overture the prophet made in the month of
Ramadan, in the fortieth year of his age, which is therefore ufually
called the year of his million.
Encouraged by fo good a beginning, he refolved to proceed, and
try for feme time what he could do by private perfuafion, not daring
to hazard the whole affair by expofing it too fuddenly to the publick.
He feon made profelytes of thofe under his own roof, v iz. his wife
Khadijah, his fervant Zeid Ebn Haretha (to whom he gave his freedom
4 on that occafion, which afterwards became a rule to his followers,)
and his coufin and pupil Alt, the fen of Abu ‘I ’aleb, tho’
then very young: but this laft, making no account of the other two,
ufed to ftile himfelf the firft o f believers. The next perfon Mohammed
applied to was Abdallah Ebn Abi Kohdfa, furnamed Abu Beer,
a man of great authority among the Koreijh, and one whofe intereft
he well knew would be of great fervice to him; as it feon appeared:
for Abu Beer being gained over, prevailed alfo on Othmdn Ebn Affan,
Abd’alrahman Ebn Awfi Saad Ebn Abi Wakkas, al Zobeir Ebn al
Awam, and Telha Ebn Obeid’dllah, all principal men in Mecca, to
follow his example. Thefe men were the fix chief companions, who,
with a few more, were converted in the fpace of three years; at the
end of which Mohammed having, as he hoped, a fufficient intereft to
fupport him, made his million no longer a fecret, but gave out that
G od had commanded him to admonilh his near relations s, and in
order to do it with more convenience and profpedt of fuccefs, he directed
A li to prepare an entertainment, and invite the fons and def-
cendants of Abd’almotalleb, intending then to open his mind to them;
this was done, and about forty of them came, but Abu Laheb, one of
his uncles, making the company break up before Mohammed had an
opportunity of fpeaking, obliged him to give them a fecond invita-
1 I do not remember to have read in any eaftern author, that Khadijah ever rejedled her husband's
pretences as delufions, or fufpedled him of any impofture. Yet fee Prideaux's life of Mahomet, p.
u , &c. 2 V. Poc. Spec. p. 157. 3 V. Abulfed. Vit. Moham. p. 16. Where the learned
tranflator has miftaken the meaning of this paffage. 4 For he was his purchafed Have, as Abul-
feda exprefly tells us; and not his coufin german, as Mr. de Boulainvill. afferts (Vie de Mah. p. 273.)
* Koran c. 74. See the notes thereon.