MAHOMET

AND

HIS SUCCESSORS.

BY

WASHINGTON IRVING.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

NEW-YORK:

GEORGE P. PUTNAM, 155 BROADWAY.

M.DCCC.L.

HARVARD
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
050136

ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1849, by

WASHINGTON IRVING,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New-York.

JOHN F. TROW, Printer and Stereotyper, 49 and 51 Ann-st., New-York.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

. 13

Preliminary notice of Arabia and the Arabs,

CHAPTER II.

Birth and parentage of Mahomet.-His infancy and childhood,

CHAPTER III.

Traditions concerning Mecca and the Caaba,

30

37

CHAPTER IV.

First journey of Mahomet with the caravan to Syria,

42

CHAPTER V.

Commercial occupations of Mahomet.—His marriage with Cadijah,

CHAPTER VI.

Conduct of Mahomet after his marriage.-Becomes anxious for reli-

gious reform.-His habits of solitary abstraction.-The vision of

the cave. His annunciation as a prophet,

49

54

CHAPTER VII.

Mahomet inculcates his doctrines secretly and slowly.-Receives fur-

ther revelations and commands.-Announces it to his kindred.—

Manner in which it was received.-Enthusiastic devotion of Ali.

Ridicule cast on Mahomet and his doctrines.-Demand for miracles.

-Conduct of Abu Taleb.-Violence of the Koreishites.-Ma-

homet's daughter Rokaia, with her uncle Othman, and a number

of disciples take refuge in Abyssinia.-Mahomet in the house of

Orkham.-Hostility of Abu Jahl; his punishment,

CHAPTER X.

Omar Ibn al Kattab, nephew of Abu Jahl, undertakes to revenge

his uncle by slaying Mahomet.-His wonderful conversion to the

faith. Mahomet takes refuge in a castle of Abu Taleb.-Abu

Sofian, at the head of the rival branch of Koreishites, persecutes

Mahomet and his followers.-Obtains a decree of non-intercourse

with them.-Mahomet leaves his retreat and makes converts dur-

ing the month of pilgrimage.-Legend of the conversion of Habib

the Wise,

CHAPTER XI.

The ban of non-intercourse mysteriously destroyed.-Mahomet en-

abled to return to Mecca.-Death of Abu Taleb; of Cadijah.—

Mahomet betroths himself to Ayesha.-Marries Sawda.-The

Koreishites renew their persecution.-Mahomet seeks an asylum

in Tayef. His expulsion thence.-Visited by genii in the desert

of Naklah,

102

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