The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 5

E >> Edward Gibbon >> The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 5

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[Footnote 106: See Herodotus (l. ii. c. 123) and our learned
countryman Sir John Marsham, (Canon. Chronicus, p. 46.) The same
writer (p. 254 - 274) is an elaborate sketch of the infernal
regions, as they were painted by the fancy of the Egyptians and
Greeks, of the poets and philosophers of antiquity.]

[Footnote 107: The Koran (c. 2, p. 259, &c.; of Sale, p. 32; of
Maracci, p. 97) relates an ingenious miracle, which satisfied the
curiosity, and confirmed the faith, of Abraham.]

The reunion of the soul and body will be followed by the
final judgment of mankind; and in his copy of the Magian picture,
the prophet has too faithfully represented the forms of
proceeding, and even the slow and successive operations, of an
earthly tribunal. By his intolerant adversaries he is upbraided
for extending, even to themselves, the hope of salvation, for
asserting the blackest heresy, that every man who believes in
God, and accomplishes good works, may expect in the last day a
favorable sentence. Such rational indifference is ill adapted to
the character of a fanatic; nor is it probable that a messenger
from heaven should depreciate the value and necessity of his own
revelation. In the idiom of the Koran, ^108 the belief of God is
inseparable from that of Mahomet: the good works are those which
he has enjoined, and the two qualifications imply the profession
of Islam, to which all nations and all sects are equally invited.

Their spiritual blindness, though excused by ignorance and
crowned with virtue, will be scourged with everlasting torments;
and the tears which Mahomet shed over the tomb of his mother for
whom he was forbidden to pray, display a striking contrast of
humanity and enthusiasm. ^109 The doom of the infidels is common:
the measure of their guilt and punishment is determined by the
degree of evidence which they have rejected, by the magnitude of
the errors which they have entertained: the eternal mansions of
the Christians, the Jews, the Sabians, the Magians, and
idolaters, are sunk below each other in the abyss; and the lowest
hell is reserved for the faithless hypocrites who have assumed
the mask of religion. After the greater part of mankind has been
condemned for their opinions, the true believers only will be
judged by their actions. The good and evil of each Mussulman will
be accurately weighed in a real or allegorical balance; and a
singular mode of compensation will be allowed for the payment of
injuries: the aggressor will refund an equivalent of his own good
actions, for the benefit of the person whom he has wronged; and
if he should be destitute of any moral property, the weight of
his sins will be loaded with an adequate share of the demerits of
the sufferer. According as the shares of guilt or virtue shall
preponderate, the sentence will be pronounced, and all, without
distinction, will pass over the sharp and perilous bridge of the
abyss; but the innocent, treading in the footsteps of Mahomet,
will gloriously enter the gates of paradise, while the guilty
will fall into the first and mildest of the seven hells. The
term of expiation will vary from nine hundred to seven thousand
years; but the prophet has judiciously promised, that all his
disciples, whatever may be their sins, shall be saved, by their
own faith and his intercession from eternal damnation. It is not
surprising that superstition should act most powerfully on the
fears of her votaries, since the human fancy can paint with more
energy the misery than the bliss of a future life. With the two
simple elements of darkness and fire, we create a sensation of
pain, which may be aggravated to an infinite degree by the idea
of endless duration. But the same idea operates with an opposite
effect on the continuity of pleasure; and too much of our present
enjoyments is obtained from the relief, or the comparison, of
evil. It is natural enough that an Arabian prophet should dwell
with rapture on the groves, the fountains, and the rivers of
paradise; but instead of inspiring the blessed inhabitants with a
liberal taste for harmony and science, conversation and
friendship, he idly celebrates the pearls and diamonds, the robes
of silk, palaces of marble, dishes of gold, rich wines,
artificial dainties, numerous attendants, and the whole train of
sensual and costly luxury, which becomes insipid to the owner,
even in the short period of this mortal life. Seventy-two
Houris, or black-eyed girls, of resplendent beauty, blooming
youth, virgin purity, and exquisite sensibility, will be created
for the use of the meanest believer; a moment of pleasure will be
prolonged to a thousand years; and his faculties will be
increased a hundred fold, to render him worthy of his felicity.
Notwithstanding a vulgar prejudice, the gates of heaven will be
open to both sexes; but Mahomet has not specified the male
companions of the female elect, lest he should either alarm the
jealousy of their former husbands, or disturb their felicity, by
the suspicion of an everlasting marriage. This image of a carnal
paradise has provoked the indignation, perhaps the envy, of the
monks: they declaim against the impure religion of Mahomet; and
his modest apologists are driven to the poor excuse of figures
and allegories. But the sounder and more consistent party adhere
without shame, to the literal interpretation of the Koran:
useless would be the resurrection of the body, unless it were
restored to the possession and exercise of its worthiest
faculties; and the union of sensual and intellectual enjoyment is
requisite to complete the happiness of the double animal, the
perfect man. Yet the joys of the Mahometan paradise will not be
confined to the indulgence of luxury and appetite; and the
prophet has expressly declared that all meaner happiness will be
forgotten and despised by the saints and martyrs, who shall be
admitted to the beatitude of the divine vision. ^110

[Footnote 108: The candid Reland has demonstrated, that Mahomet
damns all unbelievers, (de Religion. Moham. p. 128 - 142;) that
devils will not be finally saved, (p. 196 - 199;) that paradise
will not solely consist of corporeal delights, (p. 199 - 205;)
and that women's souls are immortal. (p. 205 - 209.)]

[Footnote 109: A Beidawi, apud Sale. Koran, c. 9, p. 164. The
refusal to pray for an unbelieving kindred is justified,
according to Mahomet, by the duty of a prophet, and the example
of Abraham, who reprobated his own father as an enemy of God.
Yet Abraham (he adds, c. 9, v. 116. Maracci, tom. ii. p. 317)
fuit sane pius, mitis.]

[Footnote 110: For the day of judgment, hell, paradise, &c.,
consult the Koran, (c. 2, v. 25, c. 56, 78, &c.;) with Maracci's
virulent, but learned, refutation, (in his notes, and in the
Prodromus, part iv. p. 78, 120, 122, &c.;) D'Herbelot,
(Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 368, 375;) Reland, (p. 47 - 61;) and
Sale, (p. 76 - 103.) The original ideas of the Magi are darkly
and doubtfully explored by their apologist, Dr. Hyde, (Hist.
Religionis Persarum, c. 33, p. 402 - 412, Oxon. 1760.) In the
article of Mahomet, Bayle has shown how indifferently wit and
philosophy supply the absence of genuine information.]

The first and most arduous conquests of Mahomet ^111 were
those of his wife, his servant, his pupil, and his friend; ^112
since he presented himself as a prophet to those who were most
conversant with his infirmities as a man. Yet Cadijah believed
the words, and cherished the glory, of her husband; the
obsequious and affectionate Zeid was tempted by the prospect of
freedom; the illustrious Ali, the son of Abu Taleb, embraced the
sentiments of his cousin with the spirit of a youthful hero; and
the wealth, the moderation, the veracity of Abubeker confirmed
the religion of the prophet whom he was destined to succeed. By
his persuasion, ten of the most respectable citizens of Mecca
were introduced to the private lessons of Islam; they yielded to
the voice of reason and enthusiasm; they repeated the fundamental
creed, "There is but one God, and Mahomet is the apostle of God;"
and their faith, even in this life, was rewarded with riches and
honors, with the command of armies and the government of
kingdoms. Three years were silently employed in the conversion
of fourteen proselytes, the first-fruits of his mission; but in
the fourth year he assumed the prophetic office, and resolving to
impart to his family the light of divine truth, he prepared a
banquet, a lamb, as it is said, and a bowl of milk, for the
entertainment of forty guests of the race of Hashem. "Friends and
kinsmen," said Mahomet to the assembly, "I offer you, and I alone
can offer, the most precious of gifts, the treasures of this
world and of the world to come. God has commanded me to call you
to his service. Who among you will support my burden? Who among
you will be my companion and my vizier?" ^113 No answer was
returned, till the silence of astonishment, and doubt, and
contempt, was at length broken by the impatient courage of Ali, a
youth in the fourteenth year of his age. "O prophet, I am the
man: whosoever rises against thee, I will dash out his teeth,
tear out his eyes, break his legs, rip up his belly. O prophet,
I will be thy vizier over them." Mahomet accepted his offer with
transport, and Abu Taled was ironically exhorted to respect the
superior dignity of his son. In a more serious tone, the father
of Ali advised his nephew to relinquish his impracticable design.

"Spare your remonstrances," replied the intrepid fanatic to his
uncle and benefactor; "if they should place the sun on my right
hand, and the moon on my left, they should not divert me from my
course." He persevered ten years in the exercise of his mission;
and the religion which has overspread the East and the West
advanced with a slow and painful progress within the walls of
Mecca. Yet Mahomet enjoyed the satisfaction of beholding the
increase of his infant congregation of Unitarians, who revered
him as a prophet, and to whom he seasonably dispensed the
spiritual nourishment of the Koran. The number of proselytes may
be esteemed by the absence of eighty-three men and eighteen
women, who retired to Aethiopia in the seventh year of his
mission; and his party was fortified by the timely conversion of
his uncle Hamza, and of the fierce and inflexible Omar, who
signalized in the cause of Islam the same zeal, which he had
exerted for its destruction. Nor was the charity of Mahomet
confined to the tribe of Koreish, or the precincts of Mecca: on
solemn festivals, in the days of pilgrimage, he frequented the
Caaba, accosted the strangers of every tribe, and urged, both in
private converse and public discourse, the belief and worship of
a sole Deity. Conscious of his reason and of his weakness, he
asserted the liberty of conscience, and disclaimed the use of
religious violence: ^114 but he called the Arabs to repentance,
and conjured them to remember the ancient idolaters of Ad and
Thamud, whom the divine justice had swept away from the face of
the earth. ^115

[Footnote 111: Before I enter on the history of the prophet, it
is incumbent on me to produce my evidence. The Latin, French,
and English versions of the Koran are preceded by historical
discourses, and the three translators, Maracci, (tom. i. p. 10 -
32,) Savary, (tom. i. p. 1 - 248,) and Sale, (Preliminary
Discourse, p. 33 - 56,) had accurately studied the language and
character of their author. Two professed Lives of Mahomet have
been composed by Dr. Prideaux (Life of Mahomet, seventh edition,
London, 1718, in octavo) and the count de Boulainvilliers, (Vie
de Mahomed, Londres, 1730, in octavo: ) but the adverse wish of
finding an impostor or a hero, has too often corrupted the
learning of the doctor and the ingenuity of the count. The
article in D'Herbelot (Bibliot. Orient. p. 598 - 603) is chiefly
drawn from Novairi and Mirkond; but the best and most authentic
of our guides is M. Gagnier, a Frenchman by birth, and professor
at Oxford of the Oriental tongues. In two elaborate works,
(Ismael Abulfeda de Vita et Rebus gestis Mohammedis, &c. Latine
vertit, Praefatione et Notis illustravit Johannes Gagnier, Oxon.
1723, in folio. La Vie de Mahomet traduite et compilee de
l'Alcoran, des Traditions Authentiques de la Sonna et des
meilleurs Auteurs Arabes; Amsterdam, 1748, 3 vols. in 12mo.,) he
has interpreted, illustrated, and supplied the Arabic text of
Abulfeda and Al Jannabi; the first, an enlightened prince who
reigned at Hamah, in Syria, A.D. 1310 - 1332, (see Gagnier
Praefat. ad Abulfed.;) the second, a credulous doctor, who
visited Mecca A.D. 1556. (D'Herbelot, p. 397. Gagnier, tom. iii.
p. 209, 210.) These are my general vouchers, and the inquisitive
reader may follow the order of time, and the division of
chapters. Yet I must observe that both Abulfeda and Al Jannabi
are modern historians, and that they cannot appeal to any writers
of the first century of the Hegira.

Note: A new Life, by Dr. Weil, (Stuttgart. 1843,) has added
some few traditions unknown in Europe. Of Dr. Weil's Arabic
scholarship, which professes to correct many errors in Gagnier,
in Maracci, and in M. von Hammer, I am no judge. But it is
remarkable that he does not seem acquainted with the passage of
Tabari, translated by Colonel Vans Kennedy, in the Bombay
Transactions, (vol. iii.,) the earliest and most important
addition made to the traditionary Life of Mahomet. I am inclined
to think Colonel Vans Kennedy's appreciation of the prophet's
character, which may be overlooked in a criticism on Voltaire's
Mahomet, the most just which I have ever read. The work of Dr.
Weil appears to me most valuable in its dissection and
chronological view of the Koran. - M. 1845]

[Footnote 112: After the Greeks, Prideaux (p. 8) discloses the
secret doubts of the wife of Mahomet. As if he had been a privy
counsellor of the prophet, Boulainvilliers (p. 272, &c.) unfolds
the sublime and patriotic views of Cadijah and the first
disciples.]

[Footnote 113: Vezirus, portitor, bajulus, onus ferens; and this
plebeian name was transferred by an apt metaphor to the pillars
of the state, (Gagnier, Not. ad Abulfed. p. 19.) I endeavor to
preserve the Arabian idiom, as far as I can feel it myself in a
Latin or French translation.]

[Footnote 114: The passages of the Koran in behalf of toleration
are strong and numerous: c. 2, v. 257, c. 16, 129, c. 17, 54, c.
45, 15, c. 50, 39, c. 88, 21, &c., with the notes of Maracci and
Sale. This character alone may generally decide the doubts of
the learned, whether a chapter was revealed at Mecca or Medina.]

[Footnote 115: See the Koran, (passim, and especially c. 7, p.
123, 124, &c.,) and the tradition of the Arabs, (Pocock,
Specimen, p. 35 - 37.) The caverns of the tribe of Thamud, fit
for men of the ordinary stature, were shown in the midway between
Medina and Damascus. (Abulfed Arabiae Descript. p. 43, 44,) and
may be probably ascribed to the Throglodytes of the primitive
world, (Michaelis, ad Lowth de Poesi Hebraeor. p. 131 - 134.
Recherches sur les Egyptiens, tom. ii. p. 48, &c.)]

Chapter L: Description Of Arabia And Its Inhabitants.

Part V.

The people of Mecca were hardened in their unbelief by
superstition and envy. The elders of the city, the uncles of the
prophet, affected to despise the presumption of an orphan, the
reformer of his country: the pious orations of Mahomet in the
Caaba were answered by the clamors of Abu Taleb. "Citizens and
pilgrims, listen not to the tempter, hearken not to his impious
novelties. Stand fast in the worship of Al Lata and Al Uzzah."
Yet the son of Abdallah was ever dear to the aged chief: and he
protected the fame and person of his nephew against the assaults
of the Koreishites, who had long been jealous of the preeminence
of the family of Hashem. Their malice was colored with the
pretence of religion: in the age of Job, the crime of impiety was
punished by the Arabian magistrate; ^116 and Mahomet was guilty
of deserting and denying the national deities. But so loose was
the policy of Mecca, that the leaders of the Koreish, instead of
accusing a criminal, were compelled to employ the measures of
persuasion or violence. They repeatedly addressed Abu Taleb in
the style of reproach and menace. "Thy nephew reviles our
religion; he accuses our wise forefathers of ignorance and folly;
silence him quickly, lest he kindle tumult and discord in the
city. If he persevere, we shall draw our swords against him and
his adherents, and thou wilt be responsible for the blood of thy
fellow-citizens." The weight and moderation of Abu Taleb eluded
the violence of religious faction; the most helpless or timid of
the disciples retired to Aethiopia, and the prophet withdrew
himself to various places of strength in the town and country.
As he was still supported by his family, the rest of the tribe of
Koreish engaged themselves to renounce all intercourse with the
children of Hashem, neither to buy nor sell, neither to marry not
to give in marriage, but to pursue them with implacable enmity,
till they should deliver the person of Mahomet to the justice of
the gods. The decree was suspended in the Caaba before the eyes
of the nation; the messengers of the Koreish pursued the
Mussulman exiles in the heart of Africa: they besieged the
prophet and his most faithful followers, intercepted their water,
and inflamed their mutual animosity by the retaliation of
injuries and insults. A doubtful truce restored the appearances
of concord till the death of Abu Taleb abandoned Mahomet to the
power of his enemies, at the moment when he was deprived of his
domestic comforts by the loss of his faithful and generous
Cadijah. Abu Sophian, the chief of the branch of Ommiyah,
succeeded to the principality of the republic of Mecca. A
zealous votary of the idols, a mortal foe of the line of Hashem,
he convened an assembly of the Koreishites and their allies, to
decide the fate of the apostle. His imprisonment might provoke
the despair of his enthusiasm; and the exile of an eloquent and
popular fanatic would diffuse the mischief through the provinces
of Arabia. His death was resolved; and they agreed that a sword
from each tribe should be buried in his heart, to divide the
guilt of his blood, and baffle the vengeance of the Hashemites.
An angel or a spy revealed their conspiracy; and flight was the
only resource of Mahomet. ^117 At the dead of night, accompanied
by his friend Abubeker, he silently escaped from his house: the
assassins watched at the door; but they were deceived by the
figure of Ali, who reposed on the bed, and was covered with the
green vestment of the apostle. The Koreish respected the piety of
the heroic youth; but some verses of Ali, which are still extant,
exhibit an interesting picture of his anxiety, his tenderness,
and his religious confidence. Three days Mahomet and his
companion were concealed in the cave of Thor, at the distance of
a league from Mecca; and in the close of each evening, they
received from the son and daughter of Abubeker a secret supply of
intelligence and food. The diligence of the Koreish explored
every haunt in the neighborhood of the city: they arrived at the
entrance of the cavern; but the providential deceit of a spider's
web and a pigeon's nest is supposed to convince them that the
place was solitary and inviolate. "We are only two," said the
trembling Abubeker. "There is a third," replied the prophet; "it
is God himself." No sooner was the pursuit abated than the two
fugitives issued from the rock, and mounted their camels: on the
road to Medina, they were overtaken by the emissaries of the
Koreish; they redeemed themselves with prayers and promises from
their hands. In this eventful moment, the lance of an Arab might
have changed the history of the world. The flight of the prophet
from Mecca to Medina has fixed the memorable aera of the Hegira,
^118 which, at the end of twelve centuries, still discriminates
the lunar years of the Mahometan nations. ^119

[Footnote 116: In the time of Job, the crime of impiety was
punished by the Arabian magistrate, (c. 21, v. 26, 27, 28.) I
blush for a respectable prelate (de Poesi Hebraeorum, p. 650,
651, edit. Michaelis; and letter of a late professor in the
university of Oxford, p. 15 - 53,) who justifies and applauds
this patriarchal inquisition.]

[Footnote 117: D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. p. 445. He quotes a
particular history of the flight of Mahomet.]

[Footnote 118: The Hegira was instituted by Omar, the second
caliph, in imitation of the aera of the martyrs of the
Christians, (D'Herbelot, p. 444;) and properly commenced
sixty-eight days before the flight of Mahomet, with the first of
Moharren, or first day of that Arabian year which coincides with
Friday, July 16th, A.D. 622, (Abulfeda, Vit Moham, c. 22, 23, p.
45 - 50; and Greaves's edition of Ullug Beg's Epochae Arabum,
&c., c. 1, p. 8, 10, &c.)

Note: Chronologists dispute between the 15th and 16th of
July. St. Martin inclines to the 8th, ch. xi. p. 70. - M.]

[Footnote 119: Mahomet's life, from his mission to the Hegira,
may be found in Abulfeda (p. 14 - 45) and Gagnier, (tom. i. p.
134 - 251, 342 - 383.) The legend from p. 187 - 234 is vouched by
Al Jannabi, and disdained by Abulfeda.]

The religion of the Koran might have perished in its cradle,
had not Medina embraced with faith and reverence the holy
outcasts of Mecca. Medina, or the city, known under the name of
Yathreb, before it was sanctified by the throne of the prophet,
was divided between the tribes of the Charegites and the Awsites,
whose hereditary feud was rekindled by the slightest
provocations: two colonies of Jews, who boasted a sacerdotal
race, were their humble allies, and without converting the Arabs,
they introduced the taste of science and religion, which
distinguished Medina as the city of the Book. Some of her noblest
citizens, in a pilgrimage to the Canaba, were converted by the
preaching of Mahomet; on their return, they diffused the belief
of God and his prophet, and the new alliance was ratified by
their deputies in two secret and nocturnal interviews on a hill
in the suburbs of Mecca. In the first, ten Charegites and two
Awsites united in faith and love, protested, in the name of their
wives, their children, and their absent brethren, that they would
forever profess the creed, and observe the precepts, of the
Koran. The second was a political association, the first vital
spark of the empire of the Saracens. ^120 Seventy-three men and
two women of Medina held a solemn conference with Mahomet, his
kinsman, and his disciples; and pledged themselves to each other
by a mutual oath of fidelity. They promised, in the name of the
city, that if he should be banished, they would receive him as a
confederate, obey him as a leader, and defend him to the last
extremity, like their wives and children. "But if you are
recalled by your country," they asked with a flattering anxiety,
"will you not abandon your new allies?" "All things," replied
Mahomet with a smile, "are now common between us your blood is as
my blood, your ruin as my ruin. We are bound to each other by
the ties of honor and interest. I am your friend, and the enemy
of your foes." "But if we are killed in your service, what,"
exclaimed the deputies of Medina, "will be our reward?"
"Paradise," replied the prophet. "Stretch forth thy hand." He
stretched it forth, and they reiterated the oath of allegiance
and fidelity. Their treaty was ratified by the people, who
unanimously embraced the profession of Islam; they rejoiced in
the exile of the apostle, but they trembled for his safety, and
impatiently expected his arrival. After a perilous and rapid
journey along the sea-coast, he halted at Koba, two miles from
the city, and made his public entry into Medina, sixteen days
after his flight from Mecca. Five hundred of the citizens
advanced to meet him; he was hailed with acclamations of loyalty
and devotion; Mahomet was mounted on a she-camel, an umbrella
shaded his head, and a turban was unfurled before him to supply
the deficiency of a standard. His bravest disciples, who had
been scattered by the storm, assembled round his person; and the
equal, though various, merit of the Moslems was distinguished by
the names of Mohagerians and Ansars, the fugitives of Mecca, and
the auxiliaries of Medina. To eradicate the seeds of jealousy,
Mahomet judiciously coupled his principal followers with the
rights and obligations of brethren; and when Ali found himself
without a peer, the prophet tenderly declared, that he would be
the companion and brother of the noble youth. The expedient was
crowned with success; the holy fraternity was respected in peace
and war, and the two parties vied with each other in a generous
emulation of courage and fidelity. Once only the concord was
slightly ruffled by an accidental quarrel: a patriot of Medina
arraigned the insolence of the strangers, but the hint of their
expulsion was heard with abhorrence; and his own son most eagerly
offered to lay at the apostle's feet the head of his father.