MAHOMETANISM UNVEILED. INTRODUCTION. * THE success of Mahometanism has been fairly stated, as the only event in the history of the human species, which admits of comparison with the propagation of Christianity. This consideration is sufficient to account for the interest. with which the religion of Mahomet has been surveyed, and continues to be surveyed, by men of reading and reflection: especially when the fact of its exclusiveness is taken in connection with the intrinsic force of the comparison between the two creeds. Beginning alike in silence and obscurity, they have advanced to a dominion equally unknown in any other age or institution t: while the general features of their * Paley. † For the course run by Mahometanism, see Hottinger, Historia Orientalis, p. 274. and pp. 279, 280. edit. 1651; White, Bampton Lectures, edit. Dublin, 1785; Oelsner, Effets de la Religion de Mohammed, chapitre iii. B history present resemblances and agreements abundantly in character with this fundamental coincidence, to fix universal attention on the parallel. The importance of the subject may be fairly measured, by the degree in which it has exercised the conflicting zeal of the enemies and friends of our holy faith. In the estimation of the unbeliever, this parallel is still seen to furnish his most specious ground of attack; in that of the Christian advocate, it opens an arduous and anxious field for the defence of Revelation; while, by competent minds, neither deficient in sound learning and philosophy, nor wanting in genuine attachment to the great truths of Christianity, the question is, to this day, regarded as unsettled, and the causes which induced the success of Mahometanism pronounced an unsolved problem.* Where the subject involves the best interests of mankind, this is obviously a state of the question in which the human mind will hardly consent to rest. Inquiry must, and eventually will, proceed. But the success of inquiry will inevit 1 Throughout this work, the figures refer to the Notes at the end. * See Sale's Koran, Advertisement to Reader, pp. iii, iv. ; Retrospective Review, vol. iii. article, Sale's Koran; and Philosophy of Modern History, vol. i. pp. 235, 236. "A full explanation of the causes which contributed to the progress of Mohammedanism is not, perhaps, at present attainable, by those most conversant with this department of literature.” History of the Middle Ages, vol. ii. p. 163. ably depend on its being instituted on a sound principle, and on its taking, from the outset, a right direction. The investigation of Mahometanism upon such a basis is plainly much to be desired and where there is any reasonable hope that such a basis may be found, the research after it becomes an object, not merely of laudable pursuit, but (the great interests at stake duly considered) of positive and paramount obliga tion. It is designed, in the following pages, to attempt an inquiry into the character of Mahometanism, and the causes of its success, upon new and untried ground: an undertaking which, if without better apology, is at least justified by the confessed failure or imperfection of the various solutions heretofore advanced. Whatever may be the fate of this inquiry, the writer will have at least the satisfaction to reflect, that it had its rise in an earnest solicitude for the honour of Christianity, and has been undertaken under a conscientious sense of the attending responsibilities. The pretensions of the arch-heresy which is to form the subject of the present work, will be best understood from a short and impartial review of the leading phenomena of its history. The world is already familiar, indeed, with statements of these phenomena: but such statements have too generally been made under the influence of a preconceived system. On the part both of infidel and of Christian writers, prejudice has been suffered to usurp the place of sound judgment; and indisputable facts have been made to bend, or accommodate themselves, to crude and undigested theories. It is, therefore, matter of serious moment, in the outset of an inquiry like that now proposed, that an impartial and dispassionate survey should be made afresh of the general features of Mahometanism ; which survey may stand as the groundwork of our subsequent reasoning. 1. On a retrospect of the history of this vast superstition, the characteristic that first offers itself for consideration, is the obscurity of its origin. The religion of Mahomet, which extends its dominion over so many nations, and covers with its shadow so large and fair a portion of the earth, arose silently and unobserved, in a remote corner of the East, in a dark age, among a wild and ignorant people.* It owned for its founder a solitary Arab, bred up in the prevailing national idolatry †, professedly illiterate, and apparently without better opportunities of in * Ockley, History of the Saracens, preface, pp. vii. xv. edit. 1757. + Hottinger, Hist. Orient. p. 152. struction than were common to him with his untutored and barbarous countrymen. 2 Mahomet, it is true, possessed the hereditary advantage of powerful local connections. But much as this advantage has been insisted on by controversialists, it contributed little to his success in the earlier and more arduous stages of his career* for his prophetic claim was rejected with scorn by his own family, and opposed with rancorous violence by the tribe of which he was a member. Whatever personal weight may have accrued to him from a lucrative marriage, certain it is, that this circumstance has not been shown, either to have materially increased the number or devotion of his friends, or at all to have diminished the muster and malignity of his enemies. 2. Neither was the obscurity of its origin the sole or chief impediment originally opposed to the progress of Mahometanism. Other and more formidable obstacles existed, in the social and political state of Arabia, and in the immemorial character and customs of its extraordinary population. So far back as the lights of history can reach, one uniform spirit of external hostility and internal dissension has characterised the tribes of these deserts. Beyond the bounds of the Peninsula, the roving Bedoweens, in every • White, Bampt. Lect. p. 90. |