Mobam- In the fame year Abu 'Taleb died, at the age of above fourfcore;
hifuncie an<^ 'r is the general opinion that he died an infidel, tho’ others fay
Abu Takt, that when he was at the point of death he embraced Mohammedifm,
w-ifc S an(l produce fome paflages out of his poetical compofitions, to confirm
their affertion. About a month, or as fome write, three days after
the death of this great benefactor and patron, Mohammed had the
additional mortification to lofe his wife Khadijah, who had fo ge-
neroufly made his fortune. For which reafon this year is called the
year of mourning '.
•The Ko- On the death of thefe two perfons the Koreijh began to be more
moretroiT tr°ubleibme than ever to their prophet, and efpecially fome who had
.blefome. formerly been his intimate friends; infomuch that he found himfelf
obliged to feek for fhelter elfewhere, and firll pitched upon Tdyef
about fixty miles eaft from Mecca, for the place of his retreat.
Thither therefore he went, accompanied by his fervant Zeid, and applied
himfelf to two of the chief of the tribe of Thaktf who were
the inhabitants of that place ; but they received him very coldly.
However he ftaied there a month; and fome o f the more confiderate
and better fort of men, treated him with a little refpedl: but the
Haves and inferior people at length rofe againft him, and bringing
him to the wall of the city, obliged him to depart, and return to
Mecca-, where he put himfelf under the protection of al Motaam
Ebn Adi \
six inha- This repulfe greatly difcouraged his followers: however Moham-
bitants of med was not wanting to himfelf, but boldly continued to preach to
Medina t^e pUbHc aflemblies at the pilgrimage, and gained feveral profe-
convcrte . jyte^ ancj among them fix of the inhabitants of Tathreb of the Jew-
ijh tribe o f Khazraj, who on their return home failed not to fpeak
much in commendation of their new religion, and exhorted their
fellow-citizens to embrace the fame.
Milam- In the twelfth year of his million it was that Mohammed gave out
»Ki feigns that he had made his night journey from Mecca to Jerufalem and
made's thence to heaven ’, fo much fpoken o f by all that write of him.
journey to Dr. Prideaux 4 thinks he invented it either to anfwer the expectations
heaven. 0£ tb0fe who demanded fome miracle as a proof of his million; or
elfe, by pretending to have converfed with G od, to eftablilh the
authority of whatever he Ihould think fit-to leave behind by way of
oral tradition, and make his fayings to ferve the fame purpofe as the *
* Abulfed. p. 28. Ebn Shohnah. 2 Ebn Shohnah. 3 See the nates on the 17th chap, of the
'Koran. 4 Life of Mahomet, p. 4-1, 51»
oral law of thej/frtw. But I do not find that Mohammed himfelf ever expected
fo great a regard Ihould be paid to his fayings, as his followers have
fince done; and feeing he all along difclaimed any power of performing
miracles, it feems rather to have been a fetch o f policy to raife
his reputation, by pretending to have actually converfed with G od
in heaven, as Mofes had heretofore done in the mount, and to have
received feveral inftitutions immediately from him, whereas before he
contented himfelf with perfuading them that he had all by the mi-
niltry of Gabriel.
However this llory feemed fo abfurd and incredible, that feveral
of his followers left him upon it, and it had probably ruined the
whole defign, had not Abu Beer vouched for his veracity, and declared
that if Mohammed affirmed it to be true, he verily believed the
whole. Which happy incident not only retrieved the prophet’s credit,
but increafed it to fuch a degree, that he was fecure o f being a-
ble to make his difciples fwallow whatever he pleafed to impofe on
them for the future. And I am apt to think this fiction, notwith-
ftanding its extravagance, was one o f the moft artful contrivances
Mohammed ever put in praCtife, and what chiefly contributed to the
railing of his reputation to that great height to which it afterwards,
arrived.
In this year, called by the Mohammedans the accepted year, twelve Twelve
men of Tathreb or Medina, of whom ten were of the tribe of Khaz-
raj, and the other two of that of Awsy came to Mecca, and took take an
an oath 'of fidelity to Mohammed at al Akaba, a hill on the north o f“ 1t0
that city. This oath was called the womens oath-, not that any wo- mlj.
men were prefent at this time, but becaule a man was not thereby
obliged to take up arms in defence of Mohammed or his religion; it
being the fame oath that was afterwards exaCted of the women, the
form of which we have in the Koran ', and is to this effeCt; v iz.
That they Ihould renounce all idolatry; that they Ihould not Heal,
nor commit fornication, nor kill their children (as the pagan Arabs
ufed to do when they apprehended they Ihould not be able to maintain
them s) nor forge calumnies; and that they Ihould obey the prophet
in all things that were reafonable. When they had folemnly
engaged to do all this, Mohammed fent one o f his difciples, named
Mafab Ebn Omair home with them, to inftruCt them more fully in
the grounds and ceremonies of his new religion.
1 Cap. 60. » V. Koran, c. 6.