The form Muhammad (ordinarily transliterated Mohammed; Mahomet, Mehmet, &c., represent the Turkish pronunciation) is found in a pre-Islamic inscription, and appears to have been fairly common in Arabia. In Hag. ii. 7 a derivative of the Hebrew equivalent root occurs in the prophecy "and the desired of all nations shall come," and this passage has suggested the idea that the name may have been taken by the Prophet as the equivalent of "Messiah," while the Moslems themselves find its equivalent in the _Paraclete_ of the Fourth Gospel, though this identification requires more ingenuity. His _kunyah_ (i.e. the Arab title of respect, in which a man is called after his son) is Abu'l-Qasim; other names by which he is called are titles of honour, e.g. Mustafa "chosen." (See further the genealogical table, _ad fin._) Early Life. In the Koran, Allah says that He found the Prophet an orphan, poor and astray; it is possible that all these expressions should be understood figuratively, like the "poor, naked, blind" of Christian hymns; the Arabs, however, take them literally, and Mahomet is said to have been a posthumous child, whose mother died a few months or years after his birth, and who was brought up first by his grandfather, and then by his uncle Abu Talib, one of the poorer members of the family; in the controversy between the Alid and Abbasid pretenders of the 2nd century of Islam the Abbasid Mansur claims that his ancestor fed the ancestor of `Ali, i.e. Abu Talib, otherwise he would have had to beg. There was evidently an apparent inconsistency between Mahomet's being a poor orphan and the favourite grandchild of the eminent and wealthy `Abd al-Mottalib; and it was solved in this way. There was a tradition that in his early years he was sent into the desert to acquire the habits and the language of the Bedouins; and this seems to have been attested by the Prophet himself. In a tribal fight he is said to have acted as armour-bearer to one of his uncles, Zubair. There seems no doubt that he often accompanied Meccan caravans to the countries with which the Meccans had trade relations; such especially were Syria and south Arabia, and perhaps Egypt and Mesopotamia. It is conceivable that he may have visited Abyssinia by sea. For though accurate knowledge is nowhere to be found in the Koran, it exhibits a large amount of miscellaneous information, such as a trader might well pick up. His career as a caravan-conductor appears to have terminated with his marriage to Khadija, daughter of Khuwailid, represented by the tradition as a wealthy widow, fifteen years his senior and forty years of age at the time of the union. As she became the mother of a numerous family, a special rule was discovered by Moslem physiologists extending the child-bearing period of Korashite women beyond that of others. Since it is claimed for Mahomet that he first gave Arab women the right to