The Life Of Mohammad

PREFACE


_An existence, so full of stirring events as that of the Prophet
Mohammad, cannot be described by us in all its details. As there are
limits to all books, we have had to rest content with a selection of
the most important episodes, so that each might be developed as we
deemed necessary. Thus we present to the reader a series of pictures
and not a complete history._

_Our scaffolding and sketches are borrowed from very ancient authors
such as Ibn Hisham, Ibn Sad, etc., without forgetting a more modern
writer, Ali Borhan id-Din Al-Halabi who, in his book known by the
title of "Es Sirat'al Halabia," gathered together different versions
from all the best-known historians. An incontestable proof of their
veracity, in our opinion, is that these narratives, some dating as far
back as twelve centuries, fit in perfectly with the manners, customs,
hopes and language of the Moslems of the desert; those who at the
present day, by their mode of living, are more akin to the Arabs of
the Hijaz among whom Mohammad accomplished his Mission._

_These remarks will serve to warn the reader that in this work will be
found none of those learned paradoxes destined to destroy traditions,
such sophisms delighting modern Orientalists by reason of their love
of novelty._

_The study of innovations introduced in this way into the Prophet's
history has caused us to note that they were often prompted by
feelings inimical to Islam which were not only out of place in
scientific research, but were also unworthy of our epoch. As displayed
by their authors, they generally denoted strange ignorance of Arab
customs, notwithstanding that these commentaries were accompanied by
considerable erudition, although too bookish. In order to refute such
new-fangled assertions, it was enough to check each in turn. Being so
contradictory, one killed the other. Their extreme improbabilities,
from the standpoint of Oriental psychology, only served to enhance
with still greater clarity the perfect likelihood of those traditions
sanctioned in the world of Islam._

_We have been guided by them. We have been satisfied to choose those
that seemed most characteristic, setting each in its proper place,
thanks to information gleaned in long interviews with pilgrims
visiting the Holy Cities of the Hijaz, while reviewing these episodes
in the light of our experience of Moslem life, in the Great Desert of
Sahara, where one of us two had lived from birth and the other for the
last thirty years and more._

_In strict agreement with the Qur'an, the only indisputable book
according to the Moslem Doctors of the earliest times and those imbued
with the modern liberal spirit, such as the celebrated Shaikh Abdu, we
have put aside all the posthumous miracles attributed to the Arab
Prophet and which only serve to blur his true physiognomy._

_Among all the Prophets founders of religions, Mohammad is the only
one who, relying solely on the evidence shown by his Mission and the
divine eloquence of the Qur'an, was able to do without the assistance
of miracles, thus performing the greatest of all--the one which Ernest
Renan, forgetting his example, declared to be utterly impossible. "The
greatest miracle," said he, speaking of Jesus Christ, "would have been
if he had wrought not any. Never would the laws of history and popular
psychology have been more violently infringed."_

_On the other hand, we have taken care not to turn a deaf ear to tales
in legendary shape. A legend, and above all, an Oriental legend, is an
incomparable means of expression. It serves to paint mere facts in
lasting colours and make them stand out in bold relief, far removed
from the icy and so-called impartial account of an up-to-date
reporter._

_Our readers, enlightened by the foregoing warning, must therefore not
let themselves be the victims of the numerous errors committed by
Hellenism, Latinism and Scholasticism, when interpreting "literally"
the sacred books of the East, while beneath seeming magic allegories
scattered here and there in this narrative, will easily be discerned
realities, poetically transposed, but not at all disfigured by the
imagination of the Arabs._

_With still more reason, the Qur'an should be read in the same way,
for is it not written:_ "God setteth forth these similitudes to men
that haply they may be admonished." (THE QUR'AN, XIV, 30.)

_It may also seem strange that in the illustrations accompanying the
text, no portrait of the Prophet will be found, nor any picturing of
events in which he figured as the hero._