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rend the kingdom of Khosrú!" a prophecy which, like many others, not a little accelerated its own accomplishment.

While the Asiatic provinces were thus a prey to the Persians, Con. stantinople itself was so hardly pressed by the Avars, that Heraclius was on the point of abandoning the capital, and seeking refuge with his treasures in Carthage. He was with difficulty dissuaded from this dishonorable measure by the entreaties of the patriarch; but his prospects appeared to become darker every hour; the Avars, by a treacherous attack, had nearly seized the capital, and the ambassadors sent to sup. plicate pardon and peace from Khosrú, were dismissed with contumely and scorn; the Persian despot declaring that he would not grant peace until either Heraclius was brought bound in chains to his footstool, or had abjured Christianity and embraced the Magian religion.

For about twelve years Heraclius had patiently witnessed the cala:nities of the empire without making any effort to protect his subjects; but this last insult roused his slumbering energies, and he entered on a career as glorious as his former inactivity had been disgraceful. He did not venture with his raw levies to attack the Persian camp at Chalcedon; but he passed over to the coast of Cilicia, and fortified himself on the ground where Alexander had fought the battle of Issus, not far from the modern town of Scanderoon, whose excellent harbor offered a good station for the imperial fleet. A splendid victory over the Persian cavalry enabled him to establish his winter-quarters in Cappadocia, on he banks of the Halys (Kizil Irmak), and to mature his plans for one of the boldest enterprises recorded in history-the invasion of Persia through its northern provinces (A. D. 623). Early in the ensuing spring, Heraclius, with a chosen band of five thousand men, sailed from Constantinople to Trebizond, assembled his forces from the southern regions, and, joined by the Christians of Armenia, entered the province of Atropatene (Azerbiján). Tauris (Tabriz), the ancient and modern capital of the country, was taken by storm, almost in sight of Khosrú's army, while the Persian monarch had neither the courage to hazard a battle. nor the justice to conclude an equitable peace. Several equally glorious campaigns followed; the greater part of Persia was overrun by the victorious Byzantines; they defeated the Asiatics wherever they encountered them, and marched in one direction as far as the Caspian, in the other to Ispahan, destroying in their progress all Khosrú's splendid palaces, plundering his hoarded treasures, and dispersing in every direction the countless slaves of his pleasure. Khosrú made no effort to stop the mighty work of ruin, and yet he rejected the terms of peace offered him by the humanity of the conqueror. His subjects soon lost all regard for a monarch whom they deemed the sole cause of the desolation of his country: a conspiracy was formed against him; he was deposed by his eldest son Shiroueh, cast into a dungeon, and put to death by an unnatural prince, who pretended that he was compelled to the parricide by the clamors and importunities of the people and nobles of the empire.

After six glorious campaigns, Heraclius returned to Constantinople, bringing with him the wood of the "True Cross," which Khosrú had taken at Jerusalem-a precious relic, which was deemed a more splendid trophy of his victories than all his spoils and conquests. The

kingdom of Persia, exhausted by the late sanguinary contest, was left to perish under the accumulated evils of a dreadful famine, the disputes of proud and luxurious nobles, a succession of weak sovereigns, or rather pageants of power, and the attack of a new and terrible enemy. The flame which Mohammed had kindled in Arabia already began to spread, and to threaten an equal fate to the degraded and decaying monarchies of Byzantium and Persia.

Victory itself was fatal to Heraclius; the best and bravest of his soldiers had perished in the sanguinary war, his treasury was empty, taxes were levied with difficulty in the desolated provinces, and the emperor himself, as if exhausted by his great efforts, sunk into hopeless lethargy. While Heraclius was enjoying the empty honors of a triumph, the Saracens appeared on the confines of Syria: thenceforth the empire sunk rapidly before their fanatic valor; and in the last eight years of his reign, the emperor lost to them all that he had rescued from the the Persians.

SECTION II.-State of Arabia at the coming of Mohammed.

THE peninsula of Arabia is in shape a large and irregular triangle, between Persia, Syria, Egypt, and Ethiopia; its extreme length is about fifteen hundred miles, and its mean breadth about seven hundred. Though it contains several lofty ranges of mountains, the greater part of the country consists of level, sandy, and arid plains, which can support but few inhabitants. Water is difficult to be obtained; there is scarcely any wood to shelter from the direct and intense rays of a tropical sun; the winds, instead of being refreshing breezes, frequently come loaded with pestilential vapors, or raise eddying billows of sand that have overwhelmed, not only caravans, but entire armies. The high lands that border on the Indian ocean are distinguished by a superior abundance of wood and water, and hence this part of the peninsula has been called Happy Arabia: but the groves, even of this favored district, are thinly scattered; the streams. though pure, are small, and the country could only be deemed delightful by persons whose eyes were unaccustomed to vegetation, and who had often felt the want of a cooling shade or a refreshing drink. The northern part of Arabia is occupied by ranges of naked, rocky mountains, from which it received the name of Arabia Petræa, or the Stony; but notwithstanding its rugged and desert aspect, it was in ancient times the centre of a flourishing trade, being the great high road of trade between Egypt and southeastern Asia.

The Arabs are an original and unmixed race; they boast that their country has never been subdued, but the greater part of it has little that could tempt the cupidity of a conqueror. In the reign of Trajan, the Romans made Arabia Petræa a province; Yemen, or Arabia Felix, has been frequently subject to Persia, and about the time of Mohammed's appearance, the southern part of the peninsula was ruled by the Najáshi of Ethiopia. The Arab is not very robust, but he is active and well made, able to endure great fatigue, and, both from habit and education, reckless of danger. In his mental constitution, he displays quickness rather than intelligence his imagination is warm, but his judgment is

The horse

not vigorous. In all his pleasures, dangers, and fatigues, he makes the horse and camel of his deserts associates rather than servants, and these animals appear to have obtained an actual superiority in Arabia. from being elevated into the companions of their masters. of Arabia is equally remarkable for speed, temper, and power of endurance; and it is remarkable that the best breeds of this animal in Europe, Asia, and Africa, have been derived from an Arabian stock. The camel and dromedary of the desert are regarded by the Arab as scarcely inferior to his horse. This patient and powerful animal supplies him with milk for his sustenance, transports his property and family from one quarter of the desert to another, and when occasion requires, enables him to pursue or fly from his enemy with almost incredible speed.

The ancient religion of the Arabs was the Sabean form of idolatry which consisted in the worship of the sun, moon, and planets; but long before the coming of Mohammed, they were distracted by a great variety of creeds; some adhered to the faith of their ancestors, others embraced Judaism, and several tribes became Christians. Unfortunately Christianity, when introduced into the peninsula, had been deeply sullied by man's devices; the different Christian tribes were imbued with a fierce sectarian spirit, and hated each other more bitterly than Jews or pagans. The vivid imaginations of the Arabs led them to investigate questions beyond the powers of man's understanding; and the consequence was so abundant a supply of new doctrines, that one of the early fathers described Arabia as the land most fruitful in heresies.

The principal Arabian cities of ancient times were in Yemen; but their fame was destined to be eclipsed by the glories of Mecca and Medina, both in the Hejaz, the two great sanctuaries of the national religion. Mecca was a place of considerable trade from the earliest stages, being situated at the intersection of two important routes, that between Syria and Arabia Felix, and that between Abyssinia or upper Egypt and southeastern Asia. Commerce flourished under the sanctuary of religion. The temple of Mecca was regarded as the national metropolis of the Arabic faith, before Judaism and Christianity appeared in the peninsula; its custody raised the Koreishites to a rank above the other tribes, and the failure of the attempt made to storm it by the Ethiopians in the very year that Mohammed was born, may be considered the great check that impeded, or rather prevented, the further extension of Christianity in the country. Mecca is built in a winding valley at the foot of three barren mountains; the soil is a rock, and the waters brackish. The pastures are remote from the city, and good fruits can not be procured at a nearer place than the gardens of Tayef, which are about seventy miles distant.

The Arabs believe that Mecca was founded by Adam, and the temple erected by Abraham. Its early prosperity they ascribe to Ishmael, who fixed his residence there, because, as their traditions assert, the brackish well Zemzem was that to which Hagar was directed by the angel. It must have been a very ancient city, if, as commentators sup pose, it was the Mesha which Moses mentions as inhabited by the posterity of Joktan.*

• Genesis x. and xxxi.

Medina, called Yatreb before the appearance of Mohammed, enjoys more natural advantages than Mecca; but it is not so conveniently situated for traffic. Its citizens appear to have been always jealous of the supremacy claimed by the Meccans, and this probably induced them to espouse the cause of Mohammed when he was banished by their rivals.

Literature was zealously cultivated by the ancient Arabs; they were enthusiastically attached to eloquence and poetry, for both of which, their rich harmonious language affords peculiar facilities. A meeting of the tribes was held annually, at which the poets recited their compositions, and those which were judged the best, were preserved in the public treasury. The most celebrated of these were seven poems called Moallakat, which were written on Egyptian silk in letters of gold, and suspended in the Kaaba, or temple of Mecca. Science was not similarly valued; their history was merely genealogical tables; their astronomy such a rude knowledge of the stars as served to mark the variation of the seasons; and the mechanical arts were almost wholly neglected. They used to say that God had given them four peculiarities: turbans instead of diadems; tents instead of houses; swords instead of fortresses; and poems instead of written laws.

SECTION III.-The Preaching of Mohammed.

MOHAMMED, the great legislator of the Arabians, and the founder of a religion which has long prevailed over the fairest portions of the globe, was born at Mecca. His father, Abdallah, was an idolater; but his mother, Emina, was a Jewess, who had been converted to Christianity, and from her early instructions he probably derived the religious impressions for which he was distinguished even in boyhood. Both his parents died while he was yet a child, but their place was supplied by his uncles, Abd-al-Motalleb, and Abu-Taleb, the latter of whom became a tender parent to the orphan. At the age of thirteen he accompanied Abu-Taleb on a mercantile journey into Syria, and soon after made his first campaign against some neighboring tribes of predatory Arabs.

From this time Mohammed appears to have engaged actively in trade. He displayed so much talent, that a rich widow, named Kadijah, appointed him her chief pastor; and after some years, was so pleased with his zeal and industry, that she gave him her hand in marriage, and made him master of her splendid fortune. After his marriage, Mohammed ranked among the first citizens of Mecca, and it must be added that he was not corrupted by good fortune. The earliest use he made of prosperity was to relieve his kind guardian and uncle AbuTaleb, who had fallen into distress; he placed Abu-Taleb above want, and undertook the education of a portion of his family.

Little is known of Mohammed's history during the next fifteen years, but there is every reason to believe that this interval was spent in maturing his plans for the great revolution he contemplated. Every year he retired for a month to a cave in Mount Hira, near Mecca, where he spent his time in meditation and prayer. His travels as a merchant had made him acquainted with the principal forms of religion that then

prevailed in the east. In Syria he met Christians of various sects Jews, Magians, and Sabæans; Arabia presented to him countless va rieties of idolatry; exiles from the Persian and Byzantine empires informed him of the dangerous doctrines preached by the Mani and Mazdak. A singular dream led him to believe that he was chosen by the Deity to reconcile all these jarring creeds, and to unite mankind in the worship of the one true God. In the solitude of his cave he dreamed that the angel Gabriel appeared to him, and hailed him as a prophet. On his return he announced his mission to Kadijah, who at once recognised his claims. Her example was followed by Ali, the son of Abu-Taleb, by Abu-Beker, Othman, and a few friends accustomed tc regard the recluse of Hira with reverence.

These converts were called Mussulmans, that is, persons resigned to the divine will; their faith was confirmed by revelations which Mohammed pretended to receive from Gabriel, and which, as he did not then know how to read and write, or at least but imperfectly, he communicated orally to his disciples. These revelations were preserved by them in a volume, which they called the Koran, or book that ought to be read. The progress of the new religion was slow; many of Mohammed's friends rejected his prophetic claims with something like horror, and three years elapsed before he ventured to announce his mission publicly. Having invited his friends and relatives to a splendid banquet, he declared to them that God had chosen him to preach the doctrine of the divine unity; Ali, with the generous enthusiasm of youth, warmly offered to support the prophet's claims, but many of the other guests doubted or laughed them to scorn.

Undismayed by the imperfect result of his first essay, Mohammed began to preach to the people of Mecca in the market-place. Converts were made slowly; and the guardians of the city opposed doctrines that threatened to subvert the influence they derived from the worship of the Kaaba. Several of the Mussulmans, most remarkable for their zeal, were forced by persecution to abandon their homes, and seek refuge in Abyssinia; but the spirit of Mohammed quailed not; he refused to quit Mecca, and when asked to suspend his preaching for a season, he replied, "Were my enemies to place the sun on my right hand, and the moon on my left, they would not reduce me to silence."

At one of the great annual fairs held in Mecca, Mohammed preached his mission to the merchants assembled from all parts of Arabia. Among his auditors were some citizens of Yatreb, or, as it was afterward called, Medina, whom peculiar circumstances rendered attentive to his claims. The Yatrebites had just conquered a Jewish tribe; they heard their captives boast of their speedy liberation on the coming of the Messiah, and supposing that the new prophet might be the expected deliverer, they resolved to conciliate his favor. Mohammed profited by their delusion; and this appears to have been his first direct step in imposture, though in the tangled web of human motives, it is hard to say where enthusiasm ends and fraud begins.

Inspired by his success with the Yatrebites, and some other tribes in the interior of Arabia, Mohammed, who had hitherto preached patience and submission under persecution, directed his disciples to defend themselves when attacked, declaring that all who died in defence of

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