The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1877-06-28
MAHOMETS FAITH.



dnnisn.
The probability that Mohammedan
nations will come to the support of Tur.
key in case the sultan makes the appeal
by unIurling the flag OF the prophet, a."
makes thu relations that these nations
sustain to Christian nations, and the
characteristic or special features Of the
Mohammedan religion, questions of pres
ent and vital interest. The people at
large have always held vague notions as
to the real character of Mohammed, the
founder of Islamism, and have hcsitated
to admit that the religion was anything
more than idolatry, or that the Mosems
were ever more than an ignorant and
superstitious people. In both cases the
opposite is true Mohammcdanism has
always been the invetcrate foe Of dola-
try, and MosIcm learning and art had at
one time great influence in Europe.
Mohammcd, Mahomet, the founder Of
the Mussulman religion, was born in
Mecca, Arabia, November 10, $40, and
died at Medina, June s, G32. His family
belonged to the distinguished tribe of
Koresh, who claimed to be directly de-
scendcd from Abraham by his son Ish.
macl. Before he was twelve years old
the boy Mohammed made Journeys
through Syria and other countries and
became acquainted with Christian monks.
He also travelled extensively in Arabia.
At the age Of twenty-five he married,
and for ten years he lived a quiet, com
monplace life
When thirtyiivc or forty years Of age,
Monammed gave himself up to religious
contemplation. Ike was in the habit of
retiring to a cave OF Mt Hare, and there
amid spasmodic commissions he had, ac-
cording to the Mohammcdan story, his
first vision. The angel Gabriel appeared
and commanded him to rccite what he
(the angel said. He was much troubled
about this, and on consultation with an
old Arab, who knew the scriptures Of the
Jews and Christians, he was informed
that Good had chosen him to be the
prophet of his people, The revelations
continued from that time to the end of
his life, were committed to memory by
his adherents, and after his death col,
lected and written down.
His first convert was bis wife. At the |
end of three years his adherents num-
bered only forty. When he declared his
mission as the prophet of God his own
tribe Outlawed him, and for some years
he was prosecuted. He fled from Mecca
in six hundred and sixty.two (thc date
of the Hegira, the beginning of the
Moslem era,) to Medina, and established
his religion
In the succeeding years he returned to
Mecca, Overcame the Koreishitcs, and
was acknowledged as sovereign and
prophet, aud in few years subjected
Arabia to his rule. In the ninth year of
The Hegira he proclaimed his first holy
war against the Byzantine or Greek en-
pire. This was complete failure, The
next year he made his celebrated pill
yrimage to Mecca, at the head of forty
thousand pilgrims. Three months after
MS return to Medina he was taken seri-
,usly ILL., lie announced his own death
n the mosque, and prayed that God
night support him in the agony Of death,
He left only one child, Fatima, who be-
anne the wife of Ali.
Students of MOslem literature concede
hat MOhammed was man of great
,ower. He was acquainted with the
doctrines of both Jews and Christians,
mt in his lectures to his followers misre~
PRESENTED both. His visions were re-
eived in a state similar to that made so
amiliar by clairvoyants and spiritualists.
The spasmodic commissions which at
ended every manifestation of revelation,
s described in the records were very
imilar to the phenomena connected with
lairvoyant speaking, etc. He an
bounced himself as the restorer of the
'ure religion revealed by God to Abra-
am. He required Pagans to leave their
dolls and worship the one true God;
equired Jews to exchange the law of
loses for what he claimed was the new
nd final revelation given to him, and
eguired Christians to cease worshipping
Jhrist as God, claiming that this was
Inconsistent with the doctrine taught by
jhrist himself. Many trace the religion
# MOhammed to the forms of Judaism
nd Christianity existing in Arabia at
he time, which he intermingled with the
raditions and allegories of his race.
The fundamental doctrine of the
<Oran, or of Mohammedanism, is this a:
There is but one God, and Mohammed
! his Prophet" This idea of God does
ot differ in matter of points from that
ED by Christians, except that they 4