PREFACE.

THE present work lays claim to no higher character than that of a compilation. This indeed must necessarily be the character of any work attempted, at this day, upon the same subject. All the accessible facts in the life and fortunes of the Arabian prophet have long since been given to the world. New theories and speculations, moral and philosophical, founded upon these facts, and many of them richly deserving attention, are frequently propounded to the reflecting, but they add little or nothing to the amount of our positive information. All therefore that can now be expected is such a selection and arrangement and investment of the leading particulars of the Impostor's history, as shall convey to the English reader, in a correct and concentrated form, those details which are otherwise diffused through a great number of rare books, and couched in several different languages. Such a work, discreetly prepared, would supply, if we mistake not, a very considerable desideratum in our language-one which is beginning to be more sensibly felt than ever, and which the spirit of the age loudly requires to have supplied. How

far the present sketch may go towards meeting the demand, it becomes others than the writer to judge. He has aimed to make the most judicious use of the materials before him, and from the whole mass to elicit a candid moral estimate of the character of the Founder of Islam. In one respect he may venture to assure the reader he will find the plan of the ensuing pages an improvement upon preceding Memoirs; and that is, in the careful collation of the chapters of the Koran with the events of the narrative. He will probably find the history illustrated to an unexpected extent from this source-a circumstance, which, while it serves greatly to authenticate the facts related, imparts a zest also to the tenor of the narrative scarcely to be expected from the nature of the theme.

In order to preserve the continuity of the story from being broken by incessant reference to authorities, the following catalogue is submitted, which will present at one view the principal works consulted and employed in preparing the present Life-Sale's Koran, 2 vols. ; Universal History, Mod. Series, vol. i.; Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. iii.; Prideaux's Life of Mahomet; Boulainvillier's do. ; do. in Library of Useful Knowledge, No. 45; Bayle's Historical Dictionary, Art. Mahomet; Hottinger's Historia Orientalis: Abul-Faragii Historia Dynastarum, Pocock's Transl.; Morgan's Mahometism Explained, 2 vols.; Forster's Mahometanism Unveiled, 2 vols.; D'Herbeiot's Bibliotheque Orien

tale; Rycaut's Present State of the Ottoman Empire; Ockley's History of the Saracens, 2 vols. ; White's Bampton Lectures; Lee's Translation of the Rev. H. Martyn's Controversial Tracts; Whitaker's Origin of Arianism; Faber's Sacred Calendar of Prophecy, 3 vols.; Buckingham's, Keppel's, Burckhardt's, and Madden's Travels in the East.

So

On the subject of the Arabic proper names so frequently occurring in this work, it may be useful to the English reader to be informed, that Al is a particle equivalent to our definite article The. Thus, Alcoran is composed of two distinct words signifying The Koran, of which the last only ought to be retained in English. Again, Ebn is the Arabic word for son, as is Bint or Binta for daughter, and with the particle Al after it, according to the Arabic usage, Ebno'l is, the son. Abu, father, with the article after it, Abu'l, the father. Thus, Said Ebn Obeidah Abu Omri, is, Said, the son of Obeidah father of Omri; it being usual with the Arabs to take their names of distinction from their sons as well as their fathers. In like manner, Ebno'l Athir, is, the son of Athir; Abu'l Abbas, the father of Abbas: and as Abd signifies servant, and Allah, God; Abdo'lah or Abdallah is, servant of God; Abdo'l Shems, servant of the sun, &c.

The deciding between the different modes in which the prophet's name is, or ought to be, writ

ten, and the adoption of the most eligible, has been a matter of perplexing deliberation. Upon consulting the Greek Byzantine historians, it appears that the same diversity of appellation which now prevails, has obtained for seven centuries. In some of them we meet with Maometis, from which comes our Mahomet, the most popular and familiar title to the English ear; and in others, Machomed. Other varieties among ancient authors might doubtless be specified. But it will be observed, for the most part, that writers acquainted with the Arabic tongue and who have drawn their materials directly from the original fountains, as well as the great body of recent Oriental travellers, are very unanimous in adopting the orthography of the name which appears in our title page. If the Arabic usage be in fact the proper standard, as will probably be admitted, Mohammed, instead of either Mahomet, Mahomed, or Mahommed, is the genuine form of the name, and the mode in which it should be uniformly written and pronounced. The fact, that the example of most Oriental scholars of the present day has given currency to this form, and the probability that it will finally supplant all others, has induced us, on the whole, to adopt it, though with considerable hesitation.

The following list of names and titles frequently occurring in connexion with the affairs of the East, together with their etymological import, will not be deemed inappropriate to the object of the present work,

MOHAMMED,
AHMED.

MOSLEM,

. MUSSULMAN,

ISLAM,

ISLAMISM.

From HAMAD; praised, highly celebrated, illustrious, glorious.

All from the same root, Aslam ; signifying to yield up, dedicate, consecrate entirely to the service of religion.

KORAN.-From KARA, to read; the reading, legend, or that which ought to be read.

CALIPH.-Auccessor; from the Hebrew CHALAPH; to be changed, to succeed, to pass round in a revolution.

SULTAN.-Originally from the Chaldaic SOLTAN; signifying authority, dominion, principality.

VIZIER. An assistant.

HADJ.-Pilgrimage; HADл; one who makes the pilgrimage to Mecca.

SARACEN.-Etymology doubtful; supposed to be from SARAK, to steal; a plunderer, a robber.

HEJIRA, The Flight; applied emphatically to Mohammed's flight from Mecca to Medina. See page 106.

or

HEJRA..

MUFTI. The principal head of the Mohammedan religion, and the resolver of all doubtful points of the law.-An office of great dignity in the Turkish empire.

IMAM.-A kind of priest attached to the mosques, whose duty it is occasionally to expound