Great leaders: Historic portraits from the great historians
History
Great leaders: Historic portraits from the great historians
Biography
The glory of Abdol Motalleb was crowned with domestic happiness, his
life was prolonged to the age of one hundred and ten years, and he
became the father of six daughters and thirteen sons. His best beloved
Abdallah was the most beautiful and modest of the Arabian youth.
Mahomet, or more properly Mohammed, the only son of Abdallah and Amina,
of the noble race of the Zahrites, was born at Mecca, four years after
the death of Justinian. In his early infancy he was deprived of his
father, his mother, and his grandfather; his uncles were strong and
numerous; and in the division of the inheritance the orphan’s share was
reduced to five camels and an Ethiopian maid-servant. At home and
abroad, in peace and war, Abu Taleb, the most respectable of his uncles,
was the guide and guardian of his youth; in his twenty-fifth year he
entered into the service of Cadijah, a rich and noble widow of Mecca,
who soon rewarded his fidelity with the gift of her hand and fortune.
The marriage contract, in the simple style of antiquity, recites the
mutual love of Mahomet and Cadijah; describes him as the most
accomplished of the tribe of Koreish; and stipulates a dowry of twelve
ounces of gold and twenty camels, which was supplied by the liberality
of his uncle. By this alliance the son of Abdallah was restored to the
station of his ancestors, and the judicious matron was content with his
domestic virtues, till, in the fortieth year of his age, he assumed the
title of a prophet and proclaimed the religion of the Koran.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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