They afterwards went
on to the very banks of the Bosphorus, and seemed likely to take
Constantinople itself; but the emperor, Heraclius, who had hitherto been
very dull and sleepy, suddenly woke up to a sense of the danger, and
proved himself an able warrior, hunting the Persians back into their own
country, and rescuing the Cross, which he carried up the hill of Calvary
again upon his own shoulders.
But a worse foe was growing up among the wild sons of Ishmael in Arabia.
Nobody can tell what kind of religion these wandering tribes had in
the old times, except that they honoured their father, Abraham, still
circumcised their sons, and believed in one God, though they paid some
sort of worship to a black stone, which was kept at Mecca. Some bad
learnt a little Christianity, some had picked up some notions from the
Jews; but they cared for hardly anything, except their camels, horses,
and tents, and had small thought beyond this life. Among these men there
arose, about the year 600, a person named Mahomet. He had at first been
servant to a rich widow, whom he afterwards married. Either he fancied,
or persuaded others that he believed, that the angel Gabriel spoke to
him in a trance, and told him that he was chosen as a great prophet, to
announce the will of God, and restore the faith to what it had been in
Abraham's days.
Pages:
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220