PREFACE.

This work is a continuation of the ‘Life of Mahomet.’ Taking up the thread from his death and burial, it tells the story of the spread of the Religion which he founded, and seeks to trace the special causes—national, tribal, and spiritual—which moulded the Faith, created its expansive power, and guided its onward progress. The object is, in short, to float the bark of Islam over the rapids and devious currents of its early course until, becoming more or less subject to ordinary human influences, it emerges on the great stream of time. I have, therefore, given the first four Caliphates in full detail; I have endeavoured to explain the ascendency of the Omeyyad house; and then, briefly showing how the Abbasside dynasty rose upon its ruins, my purpose being ended, I close the book. Thereafter the history of Islam spreads itself out into the history of the world.

The materials for the work will be understood by the reader as he goes along. They are purely Arabian. Christian authorities there are absolutely none to speak of. We depend entirely upon Mahometan tradition; and that in a form very different from what we have been accustomed to in the Life of Mahomet. The substance of tradition becomes, after the Prophet’s death, more of a general outline; altogether wanting (excepting some of the special episodes) in that profuse detail with which the life of Mahomet is overlaid.

Such as it is, however, the story can be worked out broadly with consistency, and the progress of the Moslem arms and faith, as a whole, depicted truthfully. The great treasury of tradition on which the historian must draw is the Annals of Tabari, happily styled by Gibbon the Livy of the Arabians, who flourished in the third century of the Hegira. Unfortunately his work has hitherto been accessible to me, in its original form, only as far as the great battle of Câdesîya, in the fourteenth year of the Hegira—that is, three years after the Prophet’s death.[1] The materials, however, so laboriously collected by Tabari, have been copiously used by later writers, especially by Ibn al Athîr (d. A.H. 630), whose History has been mainly followed in these Annals, from the point at which Tabari, as at present available, ends. I have not neglected other sources, such as Belâdzori (3rd cent.) and Ibn Khaldûn, a later writer. In all essential points I believe that the picture which I have endeavoured to draw of the rise and spread of the Faith may be accepted with confidence.

I have received much help from the invaluable work of Dr. Weil,[2] whose literary acumen and candour are equalled only by his marvellous industry and research. I have also freely made use of M. Caussin de Perceval’s admirable Essai sur l’Histoire des Arabes; but it unfortunately ends with the Caliphate of Omar. On the general condition of early Mussulman society I have found the scholarly volumes of H. von Kremer most valuable.[3]

I have followed the same system of rendering names as in the ‘Life of Mahomet’ (adopted mainly from Caussin de Perceval), excepting in such received forms as Bussorah, Mecca, &c.; namely:

  is represented byth.
  „  „   „ j.
  „  „   „ kh.
  „  „   „ dz.
  „  „   „ z.>
  „  „   „ dh.
  „  „   „ tz.
 by a sharp accent, asá, ó.
  is represented bygh.
  „  „   „ c or ck.
 „  „   „ k.

In quoting from the ‘Life of Mahomet,’ I refer to the Second Edition in one volume, unless the First Edition in four volumes is specified.

I am indebted for the map which illustrates the campaigns, to Mr. Trelawney Saunders, whose close acquaintance with the geography of Syria and Chaldæa peculiarly qualifies him to identify many of the sites, routes, &c.

The reader must remember that the Mussulman year is a purely lunar one, being eleven days shorter than ours, so that passing through the solar cycle it gains a year in about every thirty-three years.

At the death of Mahomet, in the eleventh year of the Hegira, Moharram (the first month of the Arabian year) began on the 29th of March, so that the corresponding months of the European calendar fell at that period as in the following table:

Arabian Months. Corresponding Months
Moharram, A.H. XI. April, A.D. 632.
Safar May „
Rabî I. June „
Rabî II. July „
Jumâd I. August „
Jumâd II. September „
Rajab October „
Shábân November „
Ramadhân (Ramzân) December „
Shawwâl January, A.D. 633.
Dzul Cáda February „
Dzul Hijj March „

To keep the notation distinct, I have ordinarily marked the years of the Hegira by Roman numerals.

W. M.

November 1882.