"I am informed by the commander that we shall be off Yembo, the nearest seaport to Medina, at about half-past three this afternoon; and this place is a hundred and thirty-two miles from it. The two cities of Medina and Mecca are the holy places of the Mohammedans. The principal and enjoined pilgrimage of the sect is to the latter, though many devout Moslems visit the other with pious intentions.
"Mecca is the birthplace of Mohammed; but, for reasons which will presently be given, he went to Medina at the age of fifty-two, where he lived the rest of his life, and died there. What I have to say of Medina will come in better after we have followed the prophet through the first portion of his life.
"I give the name according to the best English authorities at the present time, though some call it Mahomet still, as we call it in French. The word means 'praised' in Arabic. Mohammed the Prophet was born at Mecca about a.d. 570; but the precise year is not known, though the date I give is within a year of it. His father's name was Abdallah, a poor merchant, who died about the time of the child's birth. A great many stories have been invented in later years about the mother and the child.
"The father was said to be the handsomest man of his time, and it is claimed that his wife Aminah was of a noble family. She was of a nervous temperament, and fancied she was visited by spirits. She was inclined to epilepsy, which may explain her visions. Mohammed was her only child. As soon as he was born, his mother is said to have raised her eyes to heaven, exclaiming: 'There is no God but God, and I am his Prophet.' It is also declared that the fire of the fire-worshippers, which had burned without going out for a thousand-years, was suddenly quenched, and all the idols in the world dropped from their pedestals."
"Goodness, gracious!" exclaimed Mrs. Blossom.
"The mother of the Prophet handed him over to a Bedouin woman to bring up, in order that he might have the benefit of the desert air; but the child appears to have been afflicted with his mother's malady, and the nurse returned him because he was subject to frequent fits. When he was six years old his mother died, and his grandfather adopted him; but the old man lived only two years after, and then he was taken by Abu Talib, his uncle, who, though poor himself, gave him a home, and continued to be his best friend through life.
"At first the boy gained a precarious living by tending the flocks of the Meccans. When he was twenty-five years old he went into the service of a rich widow named Khadija, having the blood of the same ancestors in their veins. Up to this time his position had been in a low grade of poverty. He did not take the advice of Mr. Weller, and 'beware of the vidders,' and his fortunes suddenly changed. Doubtless he was a handsome man, as his father was said to be; and he was too much for the susceptible Khadija, twice widowed, and fifteen years older than her employe, and she offered him her hand and heart, which he accepted.
"They had two sons and four daughters; but both of the former died in early life. He established himself as a merchant after his marriage; and he continued in the business, though he spent most of his time in meditation by himself. Up to the age of forty Mohammed was a strict devotee in the religion of his fathers, which was a species of idolatry. When he was about thirty years old Christianity had made its way into Arabia through Syria on one side, and Abyssinia on the other, and there were Jewish colonies in the peninsula. Though the missionaries of the new faith pervaded Mecca and Medina, the future Prophet was not converted, more is the pity!
"It was at this time that he was moved to teach a new religion which should displace the idolatry of the people, and come into competition, as it were, with the teachings of the missionaries of Judaism and Christianity. He was forty years old when he received what he claimed as his first divine communication, on a mountain near Mecca. He declared that Gabriel appeared to him there, and commanded him to preach the true religion. It is now generally admitted that he was no vulgar and tricky impostor, and it cannot be known to what extent his inherited epilepsy or hysteria governed the alleged revelations.
"After his long and lonely vigils passed in meditation, he proclaimed what he insisted had been revealed to him; and at these times he appears to have been little better than a lunatic, for he was moved to the most frightful fanatical vehemence. He frothed at the mouth, his eyes became red, and the perspiration rained from his head and face. He roared like a camel in his wrath, and such an exhibition could hardly fail to make a strong impression upon his ignorant audience.