prises; and the active and enthusiastic race of people whom he governed, as soon as they tasted plunder from victory, were ready for any career of foreign conquest, and Mahomet himself was led or driven by spirits more fiery than his own. He was an extraordinary man, and of vast genius and prompt imagination :-he was so beloved as to become almost the very idol of his followers-he was kind in his family, and generous abroad-and so disinterested as to leave, at his death, nothing but "his grey mule Daldal, his arms, and the ground which he bestowed upon his wives, his children, and the poor." And an Arabian writer says:“Allah offered him the keys of all the treasures of the earth, but he refused to accept them." *

In the period between the birth of Mahomet and the date of his official character as the founder of a new religion, the metropolitan bishops of Constantinople and Rome had raised their pretensions to the highest, and their respective priests and followers supported them.† The contest between them was the old one of "WHO SHOULD BE THE GREATEST;" and the bishops of Rome, when they appeal to the charter of such a wretch as Phocas as their authority for universal sway over the church, give up their claims to be the successors of St. Peter. The scandalous rivalship between the eastern and western churches-the bone worship and image worship that prevailed, and the

* Irving's Life.

By the friend already quoted :

"It is deserving of notice, that the bishop of Rome [Theodorus I., 642-649] did not claim to be the Vicar of Christ and Sovereign Pontiff, until about ten years after the titles of Khalif (Vicar) of the Prophet and Sovereign of the Faithful were assumed by the immediate successor of Mahomet; thereby establishing that the chief claims of the bishop of Rome were plagiarised from the impostors of Mecca.

licentious lives of the clergy and monks generally, no doubt confirmed Mahomet in his determination to extend his religion. In one sense, Mahometanism may be said to be the monstrous offspring of the corruption of Christianity.

The genius and prophetic intuition of Mahomet are perceived in the bold messages that he sent to the two great warlike monarchs who then were struggling for the empire of Western Asia. He was living quietly at Medina when he dispatched his messengers to Heraclius and Chosroes urging them to embrace the new faith and at the end of only twenty years from the death of Mahomet, the Arabians had conquered Persia. Within fifty years later, Constantinople itself was besieged, and with difficulty saved; and at the end of the first century of the Hegira, the Caliphs, the inheritors of his power, were the most potent and absolute monarchs of the globe.* It was towards the end of Mahomet's life that he promulgated the chapter or law of the Koran that has given such a stern severity to Mahometanism, which was to put to the sword all idolators taken in battle, or all those who should refuse to submit to his power. Among the early applicants for mercy was a lieutenant of the Emperor Heraclius, governor of Ammon, a city of Syria; but this act of submission was disavowed and punished by the emperor.†

It is an interesting subject to inquire into the causes of the first hostile collision between the forces of Mahomet and those of the Roman power under the standard of the cross. An envoy, whom Mahomet had sent into Syria, was murdered at Muta, a small town about three days' journey eastward of Jerusalem. To

* Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall, A.D. 718, chap. li. + Irving's Life.

avenge his death, an expedition of three thousand men was sent against Muta. But, in anticipation that it might come in contact with the Roman forces, the command was entrusted to Zeid, the freedman of Mahomet, and chosen officers were appointed to guard the sacred white banner of Islamism. "The holy banner was intrusted to Zeid: and such was the discipline or enthusiasm of the rising sect, that the noblest chiefs served without reluctance under the slave of the prophet. In the event of his decease, Jaafar and Abdallah were appointed successively to the command; and if the three should perish in the war, the troops were authorised to elect their general. The three leaders were slain in the battle of Muta, the first military action which tried the valour of the Moslems against a foreign country. Zeid fell, like a soldier, in the foremost ranks. The death of Jaafar was heroic and memorable-he lost his right hand— he shifted the standard to his left-the left was severed from his body-he embraced the standard with his bleeding stumps, till he was transfixed to the ground with fifty honourable wounds. "Advance," cried Abdallah, who stepped into the vacant place—" Advance with confidence, either victory or paradise is our own." The lance of a Roman decided the alternative, but the falling standard was rescued by Caled, the proselyte of Mecca. Nine swords were broken in his hand, and his valour withstood and repulsed the superior numbers of the Christians. In the nocturnal council of the camp, he was chosen to command. His skilful evolutions of the ensuing day secured either the victory or the retreat of the Saracens; and Caled is renowned among his brethren and his enemies by the glorious appellation of the sword of God." *

* Gibbon's History, A.D. 629–630, chap. 1.

Such is the account of the first bloody and decisive encounter between the Roman forces, under the standard of the cross, and the forces of Mahomet under the sacred banner of his faith. The battle of Muta may, in the terrible list of battles, be an obscure and almost a nameless one; but in its consequences it was, and yet is, one of those momentous conflicts that affect the destiny of man. Gibbon adds:-" The sovereign of Arabia affected to prevent the hostile preparations of Heraclius, and solemnly proclaimed war against the Romans, without attempting to disguise the hardships and dangers of the enterprise." That declaration of war was made against the only political and military government of the world at that time which professed Christianity, and made it part and parcel of the constitution under the union of Church and State. And Mahomet, in proclaiming war, unfurled his banner for war against the cross.

The battle of Muta took place in A.D. 629 or 630, and the battle of Saxa Rubra in 312, leaving an interval of about 318 years between the invention of the war cross and the display of the standard of Mahomet.

CHAPTER III.

Continuation of the Wars under the Crescent and the Cross in Asia, Africa, and Europe.-The rapid and extraordinary spread of Mahometanism from the two great IDEAS of the Unity of God and the equality of Man.-Striking contrast between Mahometanism and Hinduism.-The British have subdued Hindustan, but they lower the Cross to Idolatry, and acknowledge and administer the laws of the Koran.

WE have taken the pains to trace with considerable detail the origin of the crescent and the cross as standards of war, and we have fixed the date and the circumstances of their first display, and have described the appearance of Mahomet as the most determined and indefatigable enemy of the religion of the cross. From the battle of Muta, in the year 629 or 630, a new era commenced in the struggles between the religions of Christ and Mahomet, and at the present day they yet stand front to front, while political and military powers are ready prepared to advance to a final conflict.

To follow the crescent in its victories and defeats from the battle of Muta to the capture of Acre in 1840, and to its present posture of opposition to the cross of the Greek or Eastern Church, or, in other language, the present hostile attitude of Turkey and Russia, would be to traverse the history of Asia, Arabia, Spain, Italy, Austria, Russia, and northern Africa. We assume that figure as the generic emblem