his crown.

lid Ebn_al Walid, succeeding to the command, overthrew the Greeks with great slaughter, and brought away abundance of rich spoil; on occasion of which action Mahomet gave him the title of Seif min soyuf Ällah, one of the swords of God."

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to give the prophet no further disturbance. Whereupon Bashan, and the Persians with him, turned Mahometans. The emperor Heraclius, as the Arabian historians assure us, received Mahomet's letter with great respect, laying it on his pillow, and dismissed the bearer honourably. And some pretend In this year also Mahomet took the that he would have professed this new city of Mecca, the inhabitants whereof faith, had he not been afraid of losing || had broken the truce concluded on two years before; for the tribe of Becr, who Mahomet wrote to the same effect to were confederates with the Koreish, the king of Ethiopia, though he had attacking those of Kozah, who were albeen converted before, according to the lies of Mahomet, killed several of them, Arab writers; and to Mokawkas, go- being supported in the action by a vernor of Egypt, who gave the messen-party of the Koreish themselves. 'The ger a very favourable reception, and consequence of this violation was soon sent several valuable presents to Ma-apprehended, and Abu Sosian himself homet, and among the rest two girls, made a journey to Medina on purpose one of which, named Mary, became a to heal the breach and renew the truce, great favourite with him. He also sent but in vain; for Mahomet, glad of letters of the like purport to several this opportunity, refused to see him: Arab princes; particularly one to Al whereupon he appliedto Abu Becr and Hareth Ebn Abi Shamer, king of Ghas- Ali; but they giving him no answer, san, who returning for answer that he he was obliged to return to Mecca as would go to Mahomet himself, the prohe came. phet said, May his kingdom perish; another to Hawdha Ebn Ali, king of Yamama, who was a Christian, and, having sometime before professed Islamism, had lately returned to his former faith: this prince, sent back a very rough answer, upon which Mahomet cursing him, he died soon after; and a third to Al Mondar Ebn Sawa, king of Bahrein, who embraced Mahometanism, and all the Arabs of that country followed his example.

Mahomet immediately gave orders for preparations to be made that he might surprise the Meccans while they were unprovided to receive him: in a little time he began his march thither; and by the time he came near the city, his forces were increased to ten thousand men. Those of Mecca not being in a condition to defend themselves against so formidable an army, surrendered at discretion, and Abu Sosian saved his life by turning Mahometan. The eighth year of the Hegira was a About twenty-eight of the idolaters very fortunate year to Mahomet. In were killed by a party under the comthe beginning of it Khaled Ebn al Wa- mand of Khaled; but this happened conlid and Amru Ebn al As, both excellent trary to Mahomet's orders, who, when soldiers, the first of whom afterwards he entered the town, pardoned all the conquered Syria and other countries, Koreish on their submission, except only and the latter Egypt, became proselytes six men and four women, who were to Mahometanism. And soon after the more obnoxious than ordinary, (some of prophet sent 3000 men against the Gre- them having apostatized,) and were cian forces, to revenge the death of one solemnly proscribed by the prophet himof his ambassadors who, being sent to self: but of these no more than one man the governor of Bosra on the same er- and one woman were put to death, the rand as those who went to the above- rest obtaining pardon on their embracmentioned princes, was slain by aning Mahometanism, and one of the woArab of the tribe of Ghassan, at Muta, men making her escape. a town in the territory of Balka, in Syria, about three days journey eastward from Jerusalem, near which town they encountered. The Grecians being vastly superior in number (for, including the auxiliary Arabs, they had an army of 100,000 men,) the Mahometans were repulsed in the first attack, and lost The next year, being the ninth of the successively three of their generals, viz. Hegira, the Mahometans call the year Zeib Ebn Haretha, Mahomet's freed- of embassies; for the Arabs had been man; Jaasar, the son of Abu Taleb; hitherto expecting the issue of the war and Abdaliah Ebn Rawalia; but Kha-between Mahomet and the Koreish:

The remainder of this year Mahomet employed in destroying the idols in and round Mecca, sending several of the generals on expeditions for that purpose, and to invite the Arabs to Islamism; wherein it is no wonder if they now met with success.

Tt

but, so soon as that tribe, the principal || beings, or hates any of them, or asserts of the whole nation, and the genuine any distinction of sexes among them. descendants of Ishmael, whose preroga- They believe them to have pure and tives none offered to dispute, had sub- subtle bodies, created of fire; that they mitted, they were satisfied that it was neither eat nor drink, nor propagate not in their power to oppose Mahomet. their species; that they have various and therefore began to come in to him || forms and offices, some adoring God in in great numbers, and to send embassies different postures, others singing praises to make their submission to him, both to him, or interceding for mankind. to Mecca, while he staid there, and also They hold, that some of them are emto Medina, whither he returned this ployed in writing down the actions of year. Among the rest, five kings of men; others in carrying the throne of the tribe of Hamyar professed Maho- God, and other services. metanism, and sent ambassadors to notify the same.

Of the Mahometan faith. 1. That both Mahomet, and those among his followers who are reckoned orthodox, had and continued to have just and true notions of God and his attributes, appears so plain from the Koran itself, || and all the Mahometan divines, that it would be loss of time to refute those who suppose the God of Mahomet to be different from the true God, and only a fictitious deity or idol of his own creation.

2. The existence of angels and their purity, are absolutely required to be believed in the Koran; and he is reckoned an infidel who denies there are such ||

among them, and hold some of them to be more excellent and honourable than others. The first place they give to the revealers and establishers of new dispensations, and the next to the apostles.

In this great number of prophets they not only reckon divers patriarchs and persons named in Scripture, but not recorded to have been prophets (wherein the Jewish and Christian writers have sometimes led the way.) as Adam, Seth, Lot, Ishmael, Nun, Joshua, &c. and introduced some of them under different names, as Enoch, Heber, and Jethro, who are called in the Koran, Edris, Hud, and Shoaib but several others whose very names do not appear in Scripture (though they endeavour to find some persons there to fix them on,) as Selah, Khedr, Dhu'lkefl, &c.

5. The belief of a general resurrection and a future judgment.

The time of the resurrection the Mahometans allow to be a perfect secret to all but God alone; the angel Gabriel himself acknowledging his ignorance in this point, when Mahomet asked him about it. However, they say, the approach of that day may be known from certain signs which are to precede it.

of God's dealing with mankind. As to brutes, after they shall have likewise taken vengeance of one another, he will command them to be changed into dust; wicked men being reserved to more grievous punishment, so that they shall cry out, on hearing this sentence passed on the brutes, Would to God that we were dust also! As to the genii, many Mahometans are of opinion that such of them as are true believers, will undergo the same fate as the irrational animals, and have no other reward than the favour of being converted into dust; and for this they quote the authority of their prophet.

The trials being over, and the assembly dissolved, the Mahometans hold, that those who are to be admitted into Paradise will take the right hand way,' and those who are destined into hell-fire will take the left: but both of them must first pass the bridge called in Arabic Al Sirat, which, they say, is laid over the midst of hell, and describe to be finer than a hair, and sharper than the edge of a sword; so that it seems very difficult to conceive how any one shall be able to stand upon it; for which reason most of the sect of the Motazalites reject it as a fable; though the orthodox think it a sufficient proof of the truth of this article, that it was After examination is past, (the ac- seriously affirmed by him who never count of which is too long and tedious asserted a falsehood, meaning their for this place,) and every one's work prophet; who, to add to the difficulty weighed in a just balance, they say, of the passage, has likewise declared, that mutual retaliation will follow, ac- that this bridge is beset on each side cording to which every creature will with briers and hooked thorns, which take vengeance one of another, or have will, however, be no impediment to the satisfaction made them for the injuries good; for they shall pass with wonderwhich they have suffered. And, since || ful ease and swiftness, like lightning, or there will then be no other way of the wind, Mahomet and his Moslems returning like for like, the manner of leading the way; whereas the wicked, giving this satisfaction will be by taking what with the slipperiness and extreme away a proportional part of the good narrowness of the path, the entangling works of him who offered the injury, of the thorns, and the extinction of the and adding it to those of him who suf- light which directed the former to Pafered it. Which being done, if the an- radise, will soon miss their footing, and gels (by whose ministry this is to be fall down headlong into hell, which is performed) say, Lord, we have given gaping beneath them. to every one his due, and there remaineth of this person's good works so much as equalleth the weight of an ant, God will of his mercy, cause it to be doubled unto him, that he may be admitted into Paradise; but if, on the contrary, his good works be exhausted, and there remain evil works only, and there be any who have not yet received satisfaction from him, God will order that an equal weight of their sins be added unto his, that he may be punished for them in their stead, and he will be sent to hell laden with both. This will be the method

As to the punishment of the wicked, the Mahometans are taught, that hell is divided into seven stories or apartments, one below another, designed for the reception of as many distinct classes of the damned.

The first, which they call Jehenan, they say, will be the receptable of those who acknowledged one God, that is, the wicked Mahometans; who, after having been punished according to their demerits, will at length be released; the second, named Ladha, they assign to the Jews; the third, named al Hota

sootiness or filth from the flames and smoke of hell, will be immersed in one of the rivers of Paradise, called the River of Life, which will wash them whiter than pearls.

it be already created, or to be created hereafter; the Motazalites and some other sectaries asserting, that there is not at present any such place in nature, and that the Paradise which the righteous will inhabit in the next life will be different from that from which Adam was expelled. However, the orthodox profess the contrary, maintaining that it was created even before the world, and describe it from their prophet's traditions, in the following manner:

ma, to the Christians; the fourth, named al Sair, to the Sabians; the fifth, named Sakar, to the Magians; the sixth, named al Jahin to the idolaters; and the seventh, which is the lowest and worst of all, and is called al Hawyat, to the The righteous, as the Mahometans hypocrites, or those who outwardly are taught to believe, having surmountprofessed some religion, but in their ed the difficulties, and passed the sharp hearts were of none. Over each of these bridge above mentioned, before they apartments they believe there will be enter Paradise, will be refreshed by set a guard of angels, nineteen in num-drinking at the pond of their prophet, ber: to whom the damned will confess who describes it to be an exact square, the just judgment of God, and beg them of a month's journey in compass; its to intercede with him for some allevia-water, which is supplied by two pipes tion of their pain, or that they may be from al Cawthay, one of the rivers delivered by being annihilated. of Paradise, being whiter than milk or Mahomet has, in his Koran and tra- silver, and more odoriferous than musk, ditions, been very exact in describing with as many cups set around it as there the various torments of hell, which, ac- are stars in the firmament; of which cording to him, the wicked will suffer water whoever drinks will thirst no both from intense heat and excessive more for ever. This is the first taste cold. We shall, however, enter into which the blessed will have of their funo detail of them here; but only ob- ture and now near approaching felicity. serve, that the degrees of these pains Though Paradise be so very frequentwill also vary in proportion to the ly mentioned in the Koran, yet it is a discrimes of the sufferer, and the apart-pute among the Mahometans, whether ment he is condemned to; and that he who is punished the most lightly of all will be shod with shoes of fire, the fervour of which will cause his skull to boil like a cauldron. The condition of these unhappy wretches, as the same prophet teaches, cannot be properly called either life or death; and their misery will be greatly increased by their despair of being ever delivered from that place, since, according to that frequent expression in the Koran,|| they must remain therein forever. It must be remarked, however, that the infidels alone will be liable to eternity of damnation; for the Moslems, or those who have embraced the true religion, and have been guilty of heinous sins, will be delivered thence after they shall have expiated their crimes by their sufferings. The time which these believers shall be detained there, according to a tradition handed down from their prophet, will not be less than nine hundred years, nor more than seven thousand. And, as to the manner of their delivery, they say that they shall be distinguished by the marks of prostration on those parts of their bodies with which they used to touch the ground in prayer, and over which the hre will therefore have no power; and that, being known by this characteristic, || they will be released by the mercy of God, at the intercession of Mahomet and the blessed: whereupon those who shall have been dead will be restored to life, as has been said: and those whose bodies shall have contracted any

They say it is situated above the seven heavens, (or in the seventh heaven,) and next under the throne of God; and, to express the amenity of the place, tell us, that the earth of it is of the finest wheat-flour, or of the purest musk, or as others will have it, of saffron; that its stones are pearls and jacinths, the walls of its building enriched with gold and silver, and that the trunks of all its trees are of gold; among which the most remarkable is the tree called tuba, or the tree of happiness. Concerning this tree, they fable, that it stands in the palace of Mahomet, though a branch of it will reach to the house of every true believer; that it will be laden with pomegranates, grapes, dates, and other fruits, of surprising bigness, and of tastes unknown to mortals. So that, if a man desire to eat of any particular kind of fruit, it will immediately be presented him; or, if he choose flesh, birds ready dressed will be set before him, according to his wish. They add, that the boughs of this tree will spontaneously

bend down to the hand of the person tination both of good and evil. The orwho would gather of its fruits, and that thodox doctrine is, that whatever hath it will supply the blessed not only with or shall come to pass in this world, food, but also with silken garments, and whether it be good, or whether it be beasts to ride on ready saddled and bri- bad, proceedeth entirely from the didled, and adorned with rich trappings, vine will, and is irrevocably fixed and which will burst forth from its fruits; recorded from all eternity in the preand that this tree is so large, that a per served table; God having secretly preson mounted on the fleetest horse, would determined not only the adverse and not be able to gallop from one end of its prosperous fortune of every person in shade to the other in one hundred years. this world, in the most minute particuAs plenty of water is one of the great-lars, but also his faith or infidelity, his est additions to the pleasantness of any obedience or disobedience, and conseplace, the Koran often speaks of the ri- quently his everlasting happiness or vers of Paradise as a principal ornament misery after death; which fate or prethereof: some of these rivers, they say, destination it is not possible by any foreflow with water, some with milk, some sight or wisdom to avoid. with wine, and others with honey; all taking their rise from the root of the