Hostilities in the mountains.-Enemy's camp in the valley of Au- tas.—Battle at the pass of Honein.-Capture of the enemy's Death of the prophet's daughter Zeinab.-Birth of his son Ibrahim. -Deputations from distant tribes.-Poetical contest in pres- ence of the prophet.-His susceptibility to the charms of poetry. -Reduction of the city of Tayef; destruction of its idols.-Ne- gotiation with Amir Ibn Tafiel, a proud Bedouin chief; inde- pendent spirit of the latter.-Interview of Adi, another chief, Preparations for an expedition against Syria.—Intrigues of Abdal- lah Ibn Obba.--Contributions of the faithful.-March of the army. The accursed region of Hajar.-Encampment at Ta- buc.--Subjugation of the neighboring provinces.-Khaled sur- prises Okaidor and his castle.-Return of the army to Medina, 282 Triumphal entry into Medina.-Punishment of those who had re- fused to join the campaign.-Effects of excommunication.— Death of Abdallah Ibn Obba.-Dissensions in the prophet's ha- Mahomet sends his captains on distant enterprises.-Appoints lieu- tenants to govern in Arabia Felix.-Sends Ali to suppress an insurrection in that province.-Death of the prophet's only son Ibrahim. His conduct at the death-bed and the grave.-His growing infirmities. His valedictory pilgrimage to Mecca, and An army prepared to march against Syria.-Command given to Osama. The prophet's farewell address to the troops.—His last PREFACE. SOME apology may seem necessary for presenting a life of Mahomet at the present day, when no new fact can be added to those already known concerning him. Many years since, during a residence in Madrid, the author projected a series of writings illustrative of the domination of the Arabs in Spain. These were to be introduced by a sketch of the life of the founder of the Islam faith, and the first mover of Arabian conquest. Most of the particulars for this were drawn from Spanish sources, and from Gagnier's translation of the Arabian historian Abulfeda, a copy of which the author found in the Jesuit's Library of the Convent of St. Isidro, at Madrid. Not having followed out in its extent, the literary plan devised, the manuscript life lay neglected among the author's papers until the year 1831, when he revised and enlarged it for the Family Library of Mr. John Murray. Circumstances prevented its publication at the time, and it again was thrown aside for years. During his last residence in Spain, the author beguiled the tediousness of a lingering indisposition, by again revising the manuscript, profiting in so doing by recent lights thrown on the subject by different writers, and particularly by Dr. Gustav Weil, the very intelligent and learned librarian of the University of Heidelberg, to whose industrious researches and able disquisitions, he acknowledges himself greatly indebted.* Such is the origin of the work now given to the public; on which the author lays no claim to novelty of fact, nor profundity of research. It still bears the type of a work intended for a Family Library; in constructing which the whole aim of the writer has been to digest into an easy, perspicuous and flowing narrative, the admitted facts concerning Mahomet, together with such legends and traditions as have been wrought into the whole system of oriental literature; and at the same time to give such a summary of his faith as * Mohammed der Prophet, sein Leben und seine Lehre. Stuttgart. 1843. |