“He possessed the courage both of thought and action; and, although his designs might gradually expand with his success, the first idea he entertained of his divine mission bears the stamp of an original and superior genius. The son of Abdallah was educated in the bosom of the noblest race, in the use of the purest dialect; and the fluency of his speech was corrected and enhanced by the practice of discreet and seasonable silence. With these powers of eloquence, Mohammed was an illiterate barbarian. His youth had never been instructed in the arts of reading and writing. The common ignorance exempted him from shame and reproach; but he was reduced to a narrow circle of existence, and deprived of those faithful mirrors which reflect to our mind the minds of sages and heroes.”
Mohammed, like Emanuel Swedenborg, accepted both the Old and New Testament as of divine origin. He professed the most profound respect for both Moses and Jesus Christ as prophets sent from God. “Verily Christ Jesus,” writes Mohammed, “the son of Mary, is the Apostle of God, and his Word, which he conveyed unto Mary, and a Spirit proceeding from him, honorable in this world and in the world to come,and one of those who approach near to the presence of God.”[198]
Our Saviour had promised, that, after his departure from this world, he would send the Paraclete, or Holy Ghost, as a guide and comforter to his disciples. “But when the Comforter iscome, whom I will send unto you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father,he shall testify of me.”[199] Mohammed assumed that he was this divinely-commissioned Comforter. The Koran was produced in fragments to meet emergencies; and it was not until two years after the death of Mohammed that these fragments were collected in a single volume. This Koran is one of the most stupid of books, full of incoherent rhapsody and turgid declamation, from which it is difficult to extract a sentiment or an idea. Very few men in Christendom have found patience to read it.
Mohammed at first imposed upon his disciples the daily obligation of fifty prayers. Finding this too onerous to be borne, he diminished the number to five, which were to be performed daily, regardless of any engagements or any surroundings. These seasons of prayer were at daybreak, at noon, in the middle of the afternoon, in the evening, and at the first watch of the night. His precepts of morality were drawn from the Old and New Testaments. Friday was appointed as the Mohammedan sabbath, and vigorous fasts were enforced. All intoxicating drinks were positively interdicted. The Mussulman was enjoined to consecrate one-tenth of his income to charitable purposes. The doctrines of the resurrection and the final judgment were maintained.
“The sword,” says Mohammed, “is the key of heaven and of hell. A drop of blood shed in the cause of God, or a night spent in arms, is of more avail than two months of fasting or prayer. Whoever falls in battle, his sins are forgiven. At the day of judgment his wounds shall be resplendent as vermilion, and odoriferous as musk; and the loss of his limbs shall be supplied with the wings of angels and cherubim.”
This remarkable man died on the 7th of June, 632. His character was by no means blameless when judged by the standard of Christianity. Whenever he wished to indulge in any crime, he could easily find a fresh revelation authorizing him to do so. Major Price, after the most careful examination of documentary evidence, speaks as follows of his death:—
“In tracing the circumstances of Mohammed’s sickness, we look in vain for any proofs of that meek and heroic firmness which might be expected to dignify and embellish the last moments of the apostle of God. On some occasions he betrayed such want of fortitude, such marks of childish impatience, as are in general to be found in men only of the most ordinary stamp; and such as extorted from his wife Ayesha, in particular, the sarcastic remark, that, in herself or any of her family, a similar demeanor would long since have incurred his severe displeasure.He said that the acuteness and violence of his sufferings were necessarily in the proportion of those honors with which it had ever pleased the hand of Omnipotence to distinguish its peculiar favorites.”[200]
Immediately after the death of Mohammed, his disciples pushed their conquests with amazing energy. In the course of a few centuries, they overran all of Egypt and of Asia Minor, and established the most stern and unrelenting despotism earth has ever known. Their military organization and prowess were such, that they could bring into the field a more powerful army than any other nation.
They crossed the Bosphorus into Europe, and stormed Christian Constantinople with six hundred vessels of war and an army of three hundred thousand troops. Sixty thousand of the inhabitants of Constantinople were massacred in cold blood. The Christian maidens were dragged shrieking into the Moslem harems. The boys of tender age were compelled, under the blows of the scourge and of the cimeter, to adopt the religion of the Prophet, and to enlist under his banner. Thus the whole Eastern or Greek empire was soon blotted out. The crescent of Mohammed supplanted the cross of Christ over all the towers of the imperial city. The head of the Christian was crushed by the heel of the Turk.
The conqueror, assuming the title of Mohammed II., prepared to invade Italy. It was his boast that he would feed his horse from the altar of St. Peter’s, in Rome. He crossed the Adriatic, took Otranto, and was in the onward career of victory,with every prospect of annexing Italy to the Mohammedan empire, when he died. There was then a short respite for imperilled Christendom. But soon the flood of Mohammedan invasion rolled up the Danube in surges of flame and blood. Year after year, and generation after generation, the valley of this majestic stream was but a constant battle-field, where Christian and Moslem grappled each other in the death-struggle.