The life of Mohammed Author:George Bush Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. Birth and Parentage of Mohammed—Loses his Parents in early Childhood—Is placed under the care of his uncle Abu Taleb—Goes into Syria on a trading ... more »expedition with his uncle at the age of thirteen— Enters the service of Cadijali,awidow of Mecca, whom he afterward marries. Mohammed, the Legislatorof Arabia, the Founder of the Moslem or Mohammedan religion, and thence dignified by himself and by his followers with the title of Prophet and Apostle of God, was born at Mecca, a city of Arabia, A. D. 569. JliS lineage, notwithstanding that many of the earlier Christian writers, under the influence of inveterate prejudice against the prophet and his religion, have represented his origin as base and ignoble, is clearly shown to have been honourable and illustrious ; at least, when rated by the common standard of distinction among his countrymen. The ancient Arabians, deriving their pedigree from Ishmael, and inheriting the nomadic habits of their ancestor, had from time immemorial been divided into a number of separate independent tribes, roving at large over the immense sandy regions of which then1 country is composed, except where here and there a few thousands of them were gathered into cities, and engaged in merchandise. Some of these tribes,from various causes, were more numerous, powerful, and renowned than others. That of Koreish, from the founder of which Mohammed was in a direct line descended, had long been accounted the most noble of them all, and his ancestors, for several generations, had ranked among the princes of Mecca, and the keepers of the keys of the Caaba, its sacred temple. His father's name was Abdallah, one of the thirteen sons of Abdol Motalleb, the chief personage in his day among the Koreish, and inheriting from his father Hashem the principal pl...« less