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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26370	The life and death of Mahumed, the author of the Turkish religion being an account of his tribe, parents, birth, name, education, marriages, filthiness of life, Alcoran, first proselytes, wars, doctrines, miracles, advancement, &c. / by L. Addison ... author of The present state of the Jews.	Addison, Lancelot, 1632-1703.	1679 (1679)	Wing A523; ESTC R33059	58,749	146

this sign God hath discovered all those who falsely boasted of the Spirit of Prophesie so that the truth herein might easily be found of those that sought it and errour be avoided By which rule of Maimonides if Mahumeds Prophetic Office were duely examined he would be found as indeed he was a most Pestilent Impostor being so far from renouncing his lusts that he reckoned them among the chief Priviledges of his Prophetick Function I shall close up this Chapter with remarking the groundlesness of that Tradition which makes Mahumed to be put into an Iron Chest that by the force of Loadstones hangs in the air Speaking with one Cidi Absolom upon his return from performing the Alhage to Mecca he told me it was an idle fable exploded by the Mahumedists who from this their conceit of the Hanging Tomb upbraid the Christians with ignorance in their story Mahumed being dead and the care of his Religion and Empire being devolved upon Abubecer who for his zeal was stiled the just The entrance of his Government was not a little molested with certain Men who pretended either to equal or exceed Mahumed in his pretentions of a Prophet Of these Aswad was the first who giving it out that he was a Prophet under that cloak drew many after him with whose aid he made himself Master of Zanaa Nazrana and Tayfa And as he began to grow famous he was killed in his own House by one Firus Dailamus After Abubecer had rid himself of Aswad one Taliha created him a second disturbance who likewise presenting himself to the people as a fellow-Prophet to Mahumed wanted not credulous adherents well fitted to adjust his prosecutions But he was quickly put to flight by Chalid Ben-Walid and upon the death of Abubecer came in to his Successor Omar to whom he made an Oath of Fidelity and thereupon was permitted to return to his Countrey Museilema was the third who pretended to be a companion of Mahumed in this prophetique Authority he Married one Thegjazis who made her self a Prophetess but in a very short time she forsook her Husband and returned to her own people The vanquishing of Museilema cost much blood of his party no fewer than ten thousand being slain in one Battel a wound which proved utterly uncurable to that Sect. The fourth great Pretender was one whom the Saracen History calls Almotenabbi or The Prophesier An excellent Poet and Souldier he in all things studied to be like Mahumed He wrote an Alcoran both in Verse and Prose and was the most considerable that ever rivall'd the Impostor but some years after his death all his followers were dissipated and his Sect crumbled to nothing CHAP. XVI Containing some of the more remarkable Doctrines taught by Mahumed THe things taught by Mahumed are so mixt and confused that it is no easie task to range them under distinct Heads And yet they are not more medly'd in themselves than disadvantageously represented by Writers Some hearing of Mahumedism think it to be nothing but a bundle of meer absurdities and a heap of monstrous and disingenious Fables wholly tending to the detriment and subversion of the Truth Of which mind I was my self till desire of satisfaction therein brought me into a more ingenuous acquaintance therewith And that I may give an unprejudiced account of the principles of Mahumedism I have consulted with none but such as have professedly written upon this Theme 'T is true that Mahumedism strictly considered is a hodge-podge of Judaism Gentilism and Christianism which makes it have so many excellent things contained in it and the very Alcoran it self mostly consists of express words of Scripture And so subtle was Mahumed in the composure of his Doctrine that he took it all out of the Books of the two Testaments and the Traditionals of the Jews adding little of his own besides some sorry and ridiculous stories not at all relating to the points of his Religion And yet notwithstanding all this so browless was this Heretique that he was not asham'd to tell the World That all he Preached was sent him immediately from Heaven As to the main structure of this execrable Heresie the Alcoran affords it to every Reader in our own Language But because things therein are so dispersedly laid down I shall here give a summary account of the chief points thereof collected out of the Saracen Authors And first Elmacinus hath reduced Mahumedism to Twelve Articles namely 1. To believe in one only God 2. To love and to adore him 3. To despise and renounce the worship of Idols 4. To observe Circumcision 5. Strictly to keep the Fast of the Month Ramadan of whose institution I have already spoken in my account of the Moresco-Customs 6. To pray or repeat the Zala five times in the compass of a natural day 7. To be careful to pay Tythes 8. That every one who is able once in his life-time perform the Alhage or Religious Pilgrimage to the Temple of Mecca 9. That they believe the Prophets and Apostles and all the Books that were written by them 11. That Christ the Son of Mary is the Son of God his Word and his Apostle 12. That they acknowledge the Law and the Gospel These are the Twelve things commanded by Mahumed and all who shall dare to deny the belief and observation thereof he commands to be compelled or ruin'd by the Sword and War This scheme of Doctrine was proclaim'd while Mahumed lived and the Constitution thereof was so specious that not a few of other Religions were therewith so far allured as to embrace it and become his Proselytes To which many were the more inclined because Mahumed was now in condition to secure and protect his Followers Besides those who owned him for their Prophet there were divers Jews Magicians and Pagans whom he took into his protection upon their Oath of Fidelity and promise of paying an annual Tribute Another Extract of Mahumeds Religion I find collected out of Ben-Abibecer which he received from one Moghahed who received it from Mahumeds own mouth who told his said contemporary Moghahed that whosoever desired to enjoy Paradise and would have God raise him up at the last day with the Apostles Prophets and Wisemen he was necessarily to observe and believe these Forty things 1. That there is a God 2. A last day 3. A Book 4. Prophets 5. A Resurrection after death 6. Providence about good and bad things 7. That there is one God and Mahumed his Prophet 8. To pray at appointed times having first washt and made clean their Bodies 9. Payment of Tythes 10. Fast the Month of Ramadan 11. To go in Pilgrimage if they were able 12. That in 24 hours they say 12 Recaas and three Ex abundanti to shew their love of Devotion 13. That they take no Vsury 14. That they drink no Wine 15. That they take not the Name of God in vain 16. That they judge not hastily 17. That they defraud not their brethren neither before

story gave a sudden and fearful shriek saying A sign is gone out whereby we are admonished that God will have mercy upon the Sons of Men and therefore we are forbid to ascend Heaven 6. His Nurse Alima had been always dry of one Breast but she no sooner began to give Mahumed suck but it was as full of Milk as the other 7. At his Birth a voice was heard from the four corners of Caaba from the first was heard Preach the truth is come and no lye will appear or return From the second it was said Now cometh an Apostle of your selves with whom is the mighty From the third was heard Light and a manifest Book is sent unto you from God And from the fourth corner issued these words O Prophet we have sent thee to be a Witness Evangelist and Monitor These are the seven Wonders which are confidently maintained to have hapned at Mahumeds Birth in whose larger relation so many Blasphemies are to be met with preferring and extolling this wicked Miscreant above our most blessed Saviour that I was afraid to give them a Transcription But it need not create our wonder that the Mahumedan Doctors should be thus large in the Encomiums of their Apostle when as strange things are attested of St. Francis by the Friars of his Order and also by the Dominicans in praise of their Founder But weary of this palpable trash I leave it to come to the time of Mahumeds Birth which I find generally fixed by the Moors in the 620 year of our Salvation His Father dyed say some within two years after he was born and others affirm that he was a Posthumus and that before he was two years old he was left an Orphan but his Mother tender of her Sons welfare and by the fatal tokens of her Distemper perceiving a few days would put her in an utter incapacity of looking after his Education she presently sent for his Nurse Lala Alima to whose care she most affectionately recommended young Mahumed whom at the same time she bequeathed to Hanza her Husbands Brother who bore the charge of his breeding till he was sixteen years old And indeed the Poverty of Mahumeds Parents had left him so devoid of subsistance that if his Unkle had not taken him into his Tuition he had certainly as we now speak come to the Parish But Hanza having brought him up to such years of discernment as he was fit to shift for himself and being not able or unwilling to be at farther charge with his Nephew he exposed him to sale in the open Market where one Abdael Mutalib liking the complexion of the youth bought him of his Unkle By his new Patron say some he was at first employed in very inferiour Offices till Abdael Mutalib perceiving in him a more then ordinary Ingenuity and sharpness of Wit raised him to employments more agreeable to his Temper And being a Merchant sent him to negotiate his Affairs abroad and by the first Caravan or Cafila dispatcht him his Factor in which capacity he so well acquitted himself that he no less advanced his Masters Trafique then his own Reputation In this way of business he continued till he was 25 years of age at which time his Master dyed and Mahumed managed his concerns so well that some say he succeeded him both in his Trade and Bed For through carefulness in his Mistresses businesses say some or through Sorceries say others he so gain'd upon her affections as that at last she took him for her Husband This Womans Name say the common stories of Mahumed was Gadisha of the same Tribe with himself and one who was both very beautiful and wealthy And though what has now been spoken concerning Mahumeds Education and Marriage has passed very currant in the Europaean Accounts of him yet I find it much otherwise related out of the Saracen Writers of his Life of which take this short report Mahumeds Father dyed two Months before he was Born and his Mother when he was six years of age his Unkle Abdolmutleb received him into his tuition upon his Mothers death who survived her about two years and he dying Mahumed fell into the care of his Unkle Abutabeb with whom he lived till he was fit to be disposed of in Marriage but both his own and Unkles fortunes were at that time so low that they wanted wherewith according to the ancient custom to purchase him a Wife Whereupon Abutaleb and his Wife Atechna resolved to send him abroad with the Caravan that went for Syria and to entrust him with the management of a small Adventure hoping by this means to lay the beginning of his future welfare And they were the more inclined thus to put their Nephew into the World by reason of his inclination to Merchandise as also that they saw in him such a composed Government of himself as promised him a fair acceptance with whomsoever he should happen to converse But how Mahumed performed his journey into Syria and what therein befel him we shall sum up in the next Chapter and conclude this with two Miracles that hapned to him when a Child When Mahumed was with his Nurse Alima and about four years old going with his Nurses Sons into the field to fetch home the Cows saith his famous Legendary Abunazar the Angel Gabriel came unto him in the likeness of a Man cloathed with a snow-white Garment and taking him by the hand led him behind a little hill where with a razor he opened the Childs breast and took out his Heart and let out of it a small quantity of black water which according to the Moors is the matter by which the Devil tempts Men. From whose temptations Mahumed was for ever delivered after the Angel had taken away this Core This being done Gabriel put the Boys Heart into its place and the Wound immediately closed and healed up Another passage which Abunazar calls a Miracle was that of the Monk Bohira who as Mahumed came to Bozra went forth to meet him and spoke openly how that some great thing pointing at Mahumed would be done by that Boy and that his fame should spread from East to West And the Monk having said thus Mahumed saith his Legend was covered with a Cloud to the astonishment of all that beheld him I shall not remark any thing upon these two stories but leave it to the judgment of every Reader Only give me leave to take notice that whether such things really hapned or not it matters not much while they are confidently believed by the Mahumedans and entertained as no frail arguments to prove the excellency of their Prophet CHAP. IV. Of Cadigha's Dream how Mahumed became her servant How he was sent into Syria by the Caravan what hapned to him in his Journey HAving heard how Mahumed was under the Tutorage of his Unkle Abutaleb and his Aunt Atechna and how they were unable to prefer him by reason of the narrowness of their fortunes as likewise of their

the City of the Prophet Because it was his Sanctuary when he was persecuted by the Meckezes CHAP. XIV Of Mahumeds first Wars THe first year of Mahumeds new Aera was signalized with the White Banner which he gave to his Unkle Hamza whom he sent with thirty Musulmin to propagate his Doctrine This first Essay of his Military attempts came to nothing And we read not of any more till the Battle of Bader where several of the chief of the Koraishites were cut off This hapned upon the 17th of Ramadan being Friday in the later end of the second of the Hegira While the more warlike of Mahumeds Proselytes thus followed the field he himself omitted noartifice to gather Proselytes at home and the number of these increased according to the Successes of the other When he found any of his Converts flag in their zeal or question either his actions or Doctrine he actuated the one and silenced the other with such Chapters as he pretended to be sent him from Heaven all which were afterward inserted in the Alcoran and they bear the Title of Chapters made at Medina Thus Mahumed feigned Revelations according to his purpose and had a Verse from Gabriel always ready to adjust his Enterprizes As he was zealously proselytizing at Medina news came that Abusophian Ben-Hareth was going into Syria with a considerable Caravan of the Goods of the Koraishites upon tidings whereof 319 Musulmin were instantly dispatcht to encounter and plunder them And the Infidels as the Mahumedists call them though a thousand in number were totally discomfited seventy being slain upon the place as many more taken Prisoners and the rest put to flight leaving their Goods a Booty to the Musulmin whereof only fourteen were slain or fell Martyrs for for Martyrs all are accounted who die in defence of that Religion This Victory is highly celebrated in the Arabian Chronicles and in the Alcoran is produced as a signal testimony of Gods approbation of the justice of Mahumedism for the Musulmin are bid to consider That though their Brethren were far inferiour in number to the Infidels yet they overcame them because they fought in the way of the Lord. But no less than a Miracle assisted the Musulmin in this Battel for their Enemies eyes are said to have seen double and thereupon to have thought the Mahumedans thrice as many as they were and of larger stature than ordinary From which imagination they suffered more than from their adversaries It is very observable that many of if not all those parcels of the Alcoran where the fight of the Infidels is spoken of and how God fought for the Believers are by the Commentators on the Alcoran generally understood of this Victory gained over the Caravan But after this we hear no more of Mahumeds Battels till the fifth of his Hegira when no less than ten thousand Jews and Koraishites set upon the Mahumedans who with an inconsiderable loss gave them a total overthrow In the same year hapned also the Battel with the Koraidae whom Mahumed Besieged twenty five days who at last oppressed with want surrendred themselves up to Saad Ben Maad who was yet scarce recovered of the Wounds he received in the former Battel The Koraidae being now wholly at Saads disposal he commanded all the Men to be put to death and the Women and Children to be made Slaves Whereupon between six or seven hundred persons were slain among whom was Hahibus the Son of Ahtab who was General And all the Men being thus destroyed the Children Women and Goods were divided among the Musulmin This Battel is called Praelium Fossae because the slain were cast into the ditches digg'd in the field of Medina for that purpose In the sixth year of the Hegira Mahumed had several conflicts with his Enemies the chief whereof was the Battel with the Mustalaki whom he utterly vanquisht taking the Women and Children captive Among whom was Gjuweira the Daughter of Harith whom Mahumed afterward Married and for her Dowry he released all her Kindred whom he had taken Prisoners In the same year likewise fell out the Battel of Haditia a place near Mecca in the way to Gjudda which proved so advantageous to Mahumed that his Enemies the Koraishites sought his friendship A League was concluded betwixt them for ten years upon these Articles 1. That during that time the Koraishites should have free liberty to follow their Tillages 2. That any who had a minde of the Koraishites might go to Mahumeds party and likewise those of the Mahumedans who desired had during the making of the Truce leave to join themselves to the Koraishites 3. That after the Truce was made if any of the Koraishites fled to Mahumed without leave of the Governour he should be sent back unto him but if any of the Mahumedans revolted he should not be sent back 4. That if Mahumed with his Souldiers should that year return to Mecca they were not to enter with more Arms than was usual for Travailers nor to stay there above three days This League on Mahumeds side was effected by Sahlus the Son of Omar and committed to writing by Ali the Son of Abutalib The same year saith Elmacinus in Hist Sarac p. 7. Mahumed was inaugurated what he means by it I know not under a Tree which afterward was swept away as they report by a great flux of water On the seventh year of the Hegira one of Mahumeds Wives having a Son that was a Carpenter she moved her Husband that he should make him a Pulpit To which he readily consented having before leaned upon a staff while he officiated in the Temple they had built This Pulpit was made of white Tamarisk and ascended by two steps and had in it a convenient seat In which condition it remain'd until the Reign of Muavias the Son of Abusofian who raised it six steps higher in which sort it continued until Osman the Son of Affan covered it with Tapestry Elmacinus Hist Sarac lib. 1. In this year hapned the Battel of Chaibar where Mahumed was absolute Victor and pursuing his Conquest took several Forts and Castles His personal valour and danger were here very remarkable Watiha and Selalima two great Cittadels cost him no small hazard and loss to subdue them But having made himself Master thereof with vast stores of Riches he spared the Besieged upon condition that they should annually pay him considerable Tributes and that it should be at his pleasure to turn them out of their Countrey when he thought fit The Inhabitants of Badra were taken into the same League as also many Jews who all enjoyed the benefit of the Truce until the Reign of Omar the Son of Alchitab who understanding how Mahumed had said upon his death-bed Let not two Religions concur in Arabia interpreted the words of the ejection of those Inhabitants who were not Mahumedans But to return Mahumed by his successes in the fore-mentioned Battels was grown so formidable that his Adversaries despaired

to prevail against him by open War whereupon they had recours to stratagem And here Elmacinus tells us how one Zainab the Daughter of Alharit a Jewess attempted to take away Mahumeds life with a joint of Mutton exquisitely poysoned But Mahumed tasting thereof instantly spit it out saying This Mutton tells me that it is poysoned And his deliverance herein is reckoned among his Miracles as shall be shown in a Chapter of that Subject This year Mahumed proved so succesful in Arms that all the Country about Mecca and Medina were subject to or in League with him And he had propagated his Victories which were now become the chief method of proselytizing the eighth of the Hegira had not the Meckezes diverted him who all on the suddain violated their Faith with Mahumed and became Truce-breakers to their utter overthrow For Mahumed finding them to have broken their Articles came against them with ten thousand Men who were suffered to enter Mecca upon condition that they should put none to the Sword which was granted to all except a few whom he chose rather to kill than to survive to the disturbance of his new Kingdome Elmacinus saith that all the people of Mecca at this time turn'd Musulmin following therein the example of Abbas the Son of Abdulmutalib and Abusofian the Son of Harith But his success at Mecca was greatly clouded by the overthrow he suffered in the vale of Honani where the Pagan Arabians under the command of Melick Son of Ausi put the Musulmin to flight and pursued them to the Gates of Mecca where Mahumed with a Javelin in his hand opposed their entrance upbraiding them with Cowardice and biding them restore the Battel promising them the assistance of many Myriads of Angels Whereupon returning and coming unawares upon the Enemy who were now careless through success they utterly overcame them and taking Captive the Women and Children the Men that escaped afterward became Musulmin upon condition their Wives and little ones should be restored them The last Battel that hapned in Mahumeds lifé-time was that of Tebuc with the Princes of Dauma and Eila whom having overcome he received to peace upon condition of receiving from them a yearly Tribute Here great rewards were bestowed upon the Army by Osman and a numerous company of Proselytes came in unto Mahumed This hapned the ninth of the Hegira in which year Mahumed went to Mecca where having spent some time in teaching and instructing the people in his Law he returned to Medina where he died of which in the next Chapter CHAP. XV. Of Mahumeds Death and many remarkable passages about it MAhumed loaden with Military successes and through fear or ignorance the Jews and Arabians having given up themselves to his Religion himself at last was forced to yield to Mortality To which he was prepared at first by a light Fever which at length increased to such violence that in a great degree it seem'd to bereave him of his senses His carriage under this distemper was very remarkable Some say that he desired to change many things which he before had delivered and that to that end he call'd for Pen and Paper saying that he would write them a Book which after his death should preserve them from Error But Omar hearing these words cryed out Alas the Distemper grows violent upon the Apostle of God the Book of God viz. the Alcoran is sufficient for us But their disputes grew warm and some were desirous that Pen and Paper might be brought to Mahumed but Omar with many others denied it confidently affirming that the Prophet knew not what he said Mahumed moved at their strife commanded them all to depart and no farther to dispute such things in his presence So that he writ nothing which many of his Followers bewail as fancying themselves thereby to have been defeated of many things which might have proved advantagious to their Religion Mahumed finding his sickness to increase upon him and falling into the apprehension of his approaching Death Elmacinus saith that he commanded Abubecer to pray with the people and that they said seventeen Prayers in his behalf He fell sick saith the same Author upon the 28 of Sofar and died upon Munday the 12th of the former Rabiah which some affirm was his Birth-day and the same day of the week on which he fell sick But the news of his death was very variously entertained some denying it as utterly impossible conceiving him to be immortal crying out How can he be our witness with God if he be dead and thereupon affirm'd that he was not dead but that he was taken away as Jesus the Son of Mary had been before him This stirred up the Multitude to withstand his Burial constantly affirming that he was not dead Omar in this contrast took part with the people and threatned to be the death of him who durst say the Apostle of God was dead adding That he was taken up into Heaven and gone away like Moses While the contention grew violent Abubecer stept in and said Though Mahumed be certainly dead yet the God of Mahumed cannot dye but liveth for ever And then he proved his saying out of the Alcoran which sets down that as others dyed who in their several times were Prophets so Mahumed was to dye And the people all rested satisfied with Abubecers Speech and from thenceforth believed the Death of their Prophet But no less contention hapned about his Burial for those Meckezes who had been the Companions of his Flight pleaded that he ought to be interr'd at Mecca the place of his Birth the Medinezes who received him when he was persecuted from Mecca said that he should rather be intombed at Medina because it was his Asylum and refuge in the day of his Afflictions Others said it was both most convenient and laudable to carry to and bury him at Jerusalem the burying place of the Prophets But at last they all agreed that he should be buried at Medina in the Chamber of his Wife Ayscha and under the bed wherein he died He died in the 63 year of his age after he had Merchanted 38 been two years in the Cave lived at Mecca 10 and 13 at Medina Phatema was the only Child that survived him who lived but forty days after him He had seven Wives besides Concubines He was unsatiable in his Lusts and so enormous therein that he spared no Mans bed The filthiness of whose life was a plain demonstration of the falseness of his Prophecy according to the rules of trying false Prophets laid down by Maimonides in Moreth lib. 2. cap. 40. In the tryal of Prophet saith that Learned Jew thou art to animadvert the perfection of his person to enquire diligently into his actions and to observe his conversation but the chief sign whereby he is to be discerned is the abdication and contemning of bodily pleasures which is the token of a wise Man much more of a Prophet and principally the filthiness of Venery By

are by common opinion divided into an hundred and four Books of which ten were sent to Adam fifty to Seth and thirty to Enoch whom they call Edris ten to Abraham the Law to Moses the Psalms to David the Gospel to Jesus Christ and at last the Alcoran was sent to Mahumed And all these Books of Scripture they believe to be sent from God for the benefit of Men. They believe a day of Resurrection after death and that some are predestinated to Fire by which they mean Hell and some to Paradise according to the Will of God For it is expresly said in the Alcoran There is none of you who has not his place in Paradise and his place in Inferno appointed for him They believe also a reward of good Men and the punishment of bad The Intercession of Saints It is also necessary that every Musulmin believe the Divine Pen which was created by the finger of God This Pen say the Mahumedan Doctors is made of Pearls and is of so great length and breadth that a swift Horse in fifty years cannot pass over it And it doth write all things past present and to come The Ink with which it writes is of light the Language wherein it writes none doth understand but the Arch-Angel Seraphael They believe also the punishment of Sepulchres or that the dead therein are often cruciated and of this they produce an instance of what hapned in a certain Sepulchre betwixt Mecca and Medina Thus far Gabriel Sionita The Doctrine of Mahumed in several of the particulars already mention'd is much otherwise reported by European Authors than it is done here But I have kept my self to the Orientals in this account and am induced to believe they are the fittest to be our informers as dealing in their own story and in such things as did most nearly concern them and in which we may imagine their care was to deal fairly But ere I shut up this tedious Chapter I hope the Reader will not take it ill that I advertise him of another account of the Mahumedans Religion set down by Doctor Pocock in his Learned Notes upon Greg. Abul Farajius pag. 284. c. which he cites out of Algazalius a Writer of great reputation among the Mahumedans and it is called The Interpretation of the Faith of the Orthodox which consists in these two points 1. That there is no God but the God 2. That Mahumed is his Messenger This is that Duplex Testimonium which Elmacinus saith was the Poesie or Motto of Mahumeds Seal though a learned Writer tells us out of Alkodaius that his Seal had no other Inscription than Mahumed Messenger of God which being but three words in the Arabick was written in so many lines This is the usual Devise of the Signets of the Barbarian Grandees CHAP. XVII Of the things conducing to the propagation of Mahumed's Heresie And first of his carriage towards the Christians HAving in the antecedent Chapters given a short account of the Origine and first State of Mahumedism and therein of the more remarkable passages relating to to the Birth Life and Death of the Author of that Heresie In pursuance of my first intention I am now to set down the things which are conjectured to have conduced to the first reception of that cursed Impostor among which some related to Mahumed's Carriage and Doctrine and some to the condition wherein he found Religion at his first setting up for a Prophet It has ever been the guise of the Ring-leaders of mischievous Enterprizes to gain if possible a popular esteem of their persons In which artifice Mahumed was both studious and successful For his seemingly rigid Zeal for Religion was tempered with such an affability of deportment that the very Koraishites his sorest Enemies highly commended his Demeanour though they resolutely withstood his Doctrine But that which some have reckoned for a main Engine to advance his Religion was his not suffering it like Moses his Rod to turn to a Serpent and devour all the rest For he granted a Toleration for every one had free liberty to enjoy his Worship according to that place of the Alcoran where he saith O Insidels I do not adore what you adore and you do not adore what I worship observe you your Law and I will observe mine At his first appearance under the Cloak of a divine Messenger he found a great part of the World enlightned with the Gospel and Christianity though it was greatly shaken with Intestine Heresies yet there was still that Zeal and Union of its Professors and power and activity of Civil Magistrates as render'd it so formidable to Mahumed that he could not hope to afright them into compliance Therefore during the first and weak state of Mahumedism its Author put on a modest Countenance and plausible Aspect especially toward the Christians whom he so far courted as to draw his own Tenets and Doctrine in some conformity to theirs highly praising the Person Actions and Rules of Christ and using a peculiar respect to all bearing his Name Elmacinus in the first book of his Saracen History tells us how that certain Christians coming to desire Mahumeds protection he freely granted their request conditioning onely the payment of a small Tribute He also commanded Omar to tell them That their Lives were as his Life and their Riches as this Riches That whatever befel them should befal him also This was written saith Elmacinus by the famous Author of the Book Almuhaddeb and is cited by Abunifa The same History reports likewise that when a Grandee who was a Christian came to visit the Prophet that he stood up to him in token of respect and being by some of his followers rebuked for so doing he told them The Christian was a Magistrate among his people and honour is due to men of that Quality He charged his Captains to be kinde to the Cophtites and that he would be an Enemy to that man in the day of Judgment who oppressed the Christians And to testifie to the world that his designe was not to oppress or ruinate their Religion he is reported to have made this following Covenant for the protection both of Christianity and its Professors CHAP. XVIII A Copy of the League Mahumed made with the Christians whose Original was found in a Monastery on Mount Carmel near Mount Libanus a days journey from Mecca and as some say was sent to the King's Library in France MAhumed sent from God to teach Mankinde and declare the Divine Commission in truth wrote these things That the Cause of Christian Religion determined by God might remain in all parts of the East and West as well amongst the Inhabitants as Strangers near and remote known and unknown To all these people I leave this present Writing as an inviolable League as a decision of all farther Controversies and a Law whereby Justice is declared and strict observance enjoyned Therefore whosoever of the Musulmin's Faith shall neglect to perform