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repeated to her a passage which he pretended had been revealedto him by the angel, with those other circumstances of this firstappearance, which are related by the Mohammedan writers. Kha-dijah received the news with great joy; swearing by him in whosehands her soul was, that she trusted he would be the prophet ofhis nation ; and immediately communicated what she had heardto her cousin Warakah Ebn Nawfal, who, being a Christian , couldwrite in the Hebrew character, and was tolerably well versed inthe scriptures; and he as readily came into her opinion, assuringher that the same angel who had formerly appeared unto Moses was now sent to Mohammed. After this he applied to the mostwealthy and powerful of his relatives, most of whom lie won overlo his party. lie now began to use bis influence and art of per-suasion on others, so that in three years his disciples were consider-ably numerous. On these he imposed the most marvellous tales,but well adapted to deceive ignorant and superstitious minds. Piepretended to have passed into the highest heavens in one night,on the back of a beautiful ass called Al Borak, and accompaniedby the angel Gabriel . There he had an interview with Adam,Abraham, Moses, David, and Jesus Christ , who acknowledged hissuperiority, which was confirmed to him by the Deity himself.This romance staggered even some of his best friends, and a pow-erful confederacy being formed against him, he was forced to quitMecca , and to seek a refuge in Medina. This retreat occasionedthe foundation of his empire, and of his religion. The Moham-medans adopt it as their chronological standard, calling it the Hegi-ra , that is the Flight or Persecution, being the first day of our July,A. D. 622. Hitherto Mohammed had propagated his religion by-fair means; so that the whose success of his enterprise, before hisflight to Medina, must be attributed to persuasion only, and notto compulsion. And lie was so far from allowing his followers touse force, that he exhorted them to bear patiently those injurieswhich were offered them on account of their faith; and, whenpersecuted himself, chose rather to quit the place of his birth andretire to Medina, than to make any resistance. But this great pas-siveness and moderation seem entirely owing to his want of power,and the great superiority of his opposers for the first 12 years ofhis mission ; for no sooner was he enabled, by the assistance ofthose of Medina, to make head against his enemies, than lie gaveout, that God had allowed him and his followers to defend them-selves against the infidels; and at length, as his forces increased,he pretended to have tire Divine leave to attack them, to destroyidolatry, and set up Ihe true faith by the sword. It is certainlyone of the most convincing proofs that Mohammedanism was noother than a human invention, that it owed its progress and esta-blishment almost entirely to the sword; aim it is one of thestrongest demonstrations of the divine original of Christianity , thatit prevailed against all the opposition, and power of the Pagan world by the mere force of its own truth, after having stood theassaults of all manner of persecution for 300 years together. Mo-hammed, being settled at Medina, began to send out small par-ties to make reprisals on the Koreish ; the first consisting of onlvnine men, who plundered a caravan belonging to thatlribc,and tooktwo prisoners. But what established his reputation, and laid thefoundation of all his succeeding greatness, was the gaining of thebattle ofBedr, fought in the 2d year of the Hegira . Some reckonno less than 27 expeditions wherein Mohammed was personally pre-sent,in nine of which he gave battle, besides several others, in whichhe was not present. II is forces he maintained partly by the con-tributions of his followers, which he called zacal or alms, and thepaying of which he very artfully made ail article of his religion ;and partlv bv ordering one-fifth of the plunder lo be brought intothe public treasury for that purpose, In a few years, by the suc-cess of his arms, (though he was sometimes defeated,) he consi-derably raised his credit and power. In the sixth year of the He-gira he set out with 1400 men to visit the temple of Mecca , notwith any intent of committing hostilities, but in a peaceable man-ner. However, when he came to Hodeibiva, which is partlywithin and partly without the sacred territory, the Koreish sent tolet him know that thev would not permit him lo enter Mecca ;whereupon he resolved to attack the city ; but the people of Mec-ca sending Arwa Elm Masutl, prince of the tribe of Thakif, astheir ambassador, to desire peace, a truce was concluded for tenyears, by which any person was allowed to enter info league eitherwith Mohammed, or with the Koreish , as he thought fit. lie af-

terwards violated this treaty, and stormed the place with fire amisword. Having made himself master of Arabia, he extended hisconquests into Syria , where lie took several cities, and laid someof the princes under tribute. The 8th year of the Hegira was avery fortunate year lo Mohammed. In the beginning ofit, KitaledEbn al Walid and Amru Ebn al As, both excellent soldiers, thefirst of whom afterwards conquered Syria and other countries, andthe latter Egypt , became proselytes to Mohammedanism. Andsoon after the prophet sent 3000 men against the Grecian forces,to revenge the death of one of his ambassadors. The Greciansbeing vastly superior in number (for, including the auxiliaryArabs,they had an army of 100,000 men), the Mohammedans wererepulsed m the first attack, and lost successively three of theirgenerals, viz. Zeid Ebn tlaretha Mohammed’s freed man, Juafarthe son of Abu Talcb, and Abdallah Ebn Rawaha: but KbalcbEbn al Walid succeeding to Ihe command, overthrew the Greekswith a great slaughter, and brought aw-ay abundance of rich spoil ;on occasion of which action Mohammed gave him the title ot Seifmin sovuf Allah, “ one of the swords of God .” The next year,being tfie ninth of the Hegira , the Mohammedans call the year ofembassies: for the Arabs were satisfied that it was not in theirtower to oppose Mohammed ; and therefore began to come in tolim in great numbers, and lo send embassies to make their sub-missions to him, both to Mecca , while he staid there, and also toMedina, whither lie returned this year. Thus was Mohamme-danism established, even in Mohammed’s lifetime, throughout thegreatest part of Arabia. And thus the Arabs found themselves ina condition of making those conquests which extended the Mo-hammedan faith over so great a part of the world, 't his famousimpostor died in the ninth year of the Hegira , aged 62. His grandwork, the Koran, contains a great deal of practical morality, drawnfrom the scriptures, hut blended with extravagant tales, and blas-phemous doctrines, lice Alcoran.

Mohammed II. snrnamed the Great, the 7lh king, and 1st empe-ror, of the Turks, was bom at Adrianoplc, March 24, 1430 ; and suc-ceeded his father Amurath II. in 14j 1. lie took Constantinople in1433, and thereby drove many learned Greeks into the West, whichwas a great cause of the restoration of learning in Europe , as theGreek literature was then introduced here. He was one of thegreatest men upon record, considered merely as a conqueror ; forhe conquered two empires, 12 kingdoms, and 200 considerablecities. He was very ambitious of the title of Great, which bothTurks and Christians have given him. And he was the first ofthe Ottoman emperors whom the Western nations dignified withthe title of Grand Seignior, or Great Turk, which posterity haspreserved to his descendants. Italy had suffered greater calami-ties, but had never felt a terror equal to that which this sultan’svictories imprinted. The inhabitants seemed already condemnedto wear the turban ; and Pope Sixtus IV . dreading the fate ofConstantinople, thought of escaping into Provence , and transfer-ring the holy see to Avignon . lienee, (he news of Mohammed’sdeath, which happened the 3d May 1481, was received at Koine with the greatest demonstrations of joy. Mohammed appears tohave been the first sultan who was a lover of arts and sciences;and even cultivated polite letters. He often rend the history ofAugustus , and the otlier (hrsars; and he perused those of Alex-ander, Constantine, and Theodosius , with more than ordinarypleasure, because these had reigned in the same country with him-self. He was fond of painting, music, sculpture, and agriculture,lie was much addicted lo astrology; and used to encourage histroops by giving out, that the influence of the heavenly bodiespromised him the empire of the world. Contrary to the genius ofhis country, he delighted so much in foreign languages, that henot only spoke the Arabic , hut also the Persic, Greek, andFrench, or corrupted Italian . Hamlin, a knight of Rhodes, col-lected several of his letters, written in Syriac, Greek, and 'Turkish ,and translated them into Latin . AVhere the originals are is un-known, but the translation has been published at Lyons 1320, in4to; at Basil 1334, in 12mo ; in a collection by Oporinus, atMnr-purg 1604, in 8vo; and at Leipsic, in 1690, 12mo. Prof. Mel-chior Junius, published utMontbeliard, 1593, a collection]!)! letters,in which there are three written by Mohammed II. to Scander-berg. These letters have nothing of Turkish ferocity in them :they arc written in as civil terms, and as obliging a manner, as themost polite prince in Christendom could have written.

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