Islam, Turkey, and Armenia, and How They Happened/Chapter I
CHAPTER I.
The Beginning of Islam or Mohametanism.
MOHAMET, THE FOUNDER OF ISLAM.
1. The parentage and traditions about the birth of Mohamet.—Mohamet was born in Mecca, Arabia, 569 A.D., of a noted parentage belonging to the tribe of Koreish. His father was called Abdullah "the Servant of Allah" (God), and his mother Emineh, "the faithful woman." So remarkable was Abdullah for his personal beauty and other qualities that, according to the Arabic traditions, on the day of his marriage with Emineh 200 virgins of the tribe of Koreish died of broken hearts.
Mohamet was the only child of this most envied family. His birth is related to accompany wonderful events. At the moment of his coming into the world a heavenly light enlightened the surrounding regions, and the new-born babe, raising his eyes to heaven, exclaimed: "Alláhu ékber; la iláhe íllallah, ve énna resúluhu." "Allah is the greatest; there is no deity but Allah, and I am his apostle." In that remarkable night the sacred fire of Zoroaster, which, under the care of Persian magi had burnt without ceasing for more than a thousand years, was said to have been extinguished suddenly, and all the idols in the world and the demons among the stars fell down. The river Tigris bursting its bounds, overflowed the neighboring lands; the palace of the Persian monarch shook to its foundation, several of its towers falling down, and the Judge of Persia saw in his dream a ferocious camel conquered by an Arabian courser.
2. The Childhood of Mohamet. His father died either before or shortly after his birth and the child when two months old was given by his relatives, after the fashion of the land, to a Bedouin nurse to be fostered in genuine desert life. On their journey from the city of Mecca to the tent of the nurse, the tradition says the animal which bore the babe, becoming endowed with speech, proclaimed aloud that it bore on its back the greatest of the Prophets and the favorite of Allah. The flocks of sheep and cattle bowed to him as he passed by, and the moon stooped towards him when he was gazing at it in his cradle.
He could stand alone, the tradition continues to say, when three months old; run abroad when seven; at eight months he could speak so intelligibly and fluently as to astonish all his hearers. At the age of three years, when he was playing in the field with the children of the nurse, two bright angels appeared before them, and taking hold of Mohamet laid him gently upon the ground, and opened his breast without causing any pain, and taking forth his heart washed it with snow from all impurities originated from Adam's sin, and after filling it with faith and wisdom and prophetic light replaced it in his bosom. Mohamet in his later life used to show the crescent-shaped scar of that angelic operation to his followers, who afterwards gave it the title of "the Seal of Prophecy." His nurse and her husband being frightened at this event, which they thought to be an epileptic fit caused by demons could not dare to keep the child any longer, so took him back to his kindred.
When six years old he lost his mother also, and was adopted by his grandfather, who died in two years, when the child was taken and protected by his uncle. It is supposed that the favorable disposition of the Mohametan law in regard to the widows' and orphans' rights was the result of this early bereavement of his parents and of the experience of an orphan's hard life.
3. The Young Mohamet and his Environment. In the house of his uncle, who was a wealthy merchant, and at the same time the chief guardian of the Kabeh—the most sacred temple of the Arab races from times immemorial—Mohamet was in contact with the commercial and religious leaders. The unceasing arrival and departure of the pilgrims from all parts of the land, and of commercial caravans from the southern and northern districts, caused Mecca to be the seat of a perpetual fair, where, besides the commercial enterprises, the popular traditions of Arabs were recited and various religions were discussed and enforced, and the heroism of the ancient chiefs and the beauty of fair women were sung by celebrated poets, and poetic contests were held before the people, and the poems to which the prize was awarded were re-written in golden characters and suspended in the Kabeh. All these were exciting events for the young Mohamet and carried his imagination to other parts of the country. At his youthful age and upon his hearty requests his uncle permitted him to accompany some of these caravans in their slow but delightful journeys. The careful observations he made on his way and the interesting tales he heard during his travels, and especially the free and detailed conversations he had with some Nestorian Christian monks residing in a secluded convent, which, being on the way of these caravans, showed great hospitality to them during their journeys from and to home, and other such coincidences, induced the mind of Mohamet to reform the paganish religions of his race by establishing a better system more similar to their original faith supposed to be founded by Abraham and Ishmael, the ancestors of the Arabian races. He was not in favor with the doctrines and practices of Christianity which was divided into various sects, all conflicting with each other and none corresponding with the primitive simplicity of the Apostolic church. He felt much opposition against Judaism of his time and country, calling it a subversion of the ancient religion of Israel, which he mentions very frequently in his later teachings.
4. The Beginning of the Mohametan Religion. While forming the design of a new religious system Mohamet was for years in the habit of retiring to a cave not very far from Mecca, and there spending days and weeks in silent meditation. According to some historians his isolation in that cave was not altogether for thoughtful planning, but was due to epileptic fits to which he was a victim from his childhood. The important crisis having at last arrived—not before his fortieth year, however—he supposed or pretended to have received the first divine communication in the solitude of the cave, where the archangel Gabriel appeared to him in human form, with a written revelation in his hand, which was in Arabic, and giving it to him commanded him to "read." Mohamet, his followers say, did not know how to read, but as soon as he looked over the "waraka" (the writing) he was endowed with a miraculous gift of reading and began to rehearse it fluently and eagerly. This was the first of 114 warakas which Gabriel brought him from time to time and on various occasions, and which, being compiled after the death of Mohamet, composed the book of the Koran.
On the day he received this first divine message he returned home, and at once broke to his wife the solemn news of supernatural visions and heavenly voices in his seclusion, and recited before her the "waraka" which he claimed to be conveyed to him by the archangel Gabriel, and invited her to accept this true religion and to become the first believer among his kindred and countrymen. Being unable to resist such a powerful exhortation, she immediately accepted the invitation and became the first proselyte among the future hosts of the Mohametan world.
5. The Rapid Progress of Islam. Mohamet's teachings, especially those that were against the idols of Kabeh, were very much opposed by his own tribe and kindreds. But owing to the circumstances of his time and country, namely, to the discord and corruption among the Christian sects, and the hostility between the proselyte Jews and the Christians, and to the adaptation of Islamic militio-religious system to the adventurous spirit of the Arab races, and to the sensual and avaricious nature of savage tribes, and to the absence of a mighty power to check its fury, this system was firmly established in Arabia "by the edge of the sword," and these local successes encouraged the followers of Islam to carry on their expeditions by the force and fire of the "Holy Wars" which burned all the surrounding countries, ruined and defiled the Christian churches, killed and enslaved the Jews and the Christians, until, in the short space of 80 years from the death of their prophet they could extend the Mohametan dominion from Egypt to India, and from Lisbon to Samarcand, thus waving the bloody banner of the "Crescent" over the continents of Asia, Africa and Europe. Had it not been for the bravery of Charles Martel Europe would have been overwhelmed by the torrent of Islam, and would most probably be covered with its gloom even unto this day. As an illustration of the rapid progress of Islam, so much would suffice to mention that in the fourth year of his mission Mohamet could only make 40 Proselytes, chiefly slaves and the people of the lower ranks, while towards the twentieth year of his ministry he entered the city of Mecca with 40,000 followers to perform pilgrimage in the Kabeh, the sacred temple that was already Mohametanized. The present number of Mohametans is estimated to be over 200,000,000.