notorious as this between the Turks and Persians; but it is plain he did not, or he would never have assigned it as the reason of his preferring the order of the Mohammedan church to that of the Roman, that there have arisen no schisms in the former since its birth.4 6 Vide Ibid. Art. Bastham. 1 Al Ghazâli, apud Poc. ubi sup. 2 The reader may meet with some account of them in Ricaut's State of the Ottom. Empire, l. 2, c. 12. 3 Vide ibid. c. 10, and Chardin, Voy. de Perse, t. ii. p. 169, 170, &c. 4 The words of the Spinosa are: "Ordinem Romanæ ecclesiæ-politicum et plurimis lucrosum esse fateor; nec ad decipiendam plebem, et hominum animos coercendrum commo- As success in any project seldom fails to draw in imitators, Mohammed's having raised himself to such a degree of power and reputation by acting the prophet, induced others to imagine they might arrive at the same height by the same means. His most considerable competitors in the prophetic office were Moseilama and al Aswad, whom the Mohammedans usually call the two liars. The former was of the tribe of Honeifa, who inhabited the province of Yamâma, and a principal man among them. He headed an embassy sent by his tribe to Mohammed in the ninth year of the Hejra, and professed himself a Moslem:1 but on his return home, considering that he might possibly share with Mohammed in his power, the next year he set up for a prophet also, pretending to be joined with him the commission to recall mankind from idolatry to the worship of the true GOD;2 and he published written revelations, in imitation of the Korân, of which Abulfargius3 has preserved the following passage, viz.: "now hath GOD been gracious unto her that was with child, and hath brought forth from her the soul, which runneth between the peritonæum and the bowels." Moseilama, having formed a considerable party among those of Honeifa, began to think himself upon equal terms with Mohammed, and sent him a letter, offering to go halves with him,4 in these words: "From Moseilama the apostle of GOD, to Mohammed the apostle of GOD. Now let the earth be half mine, and half thine." But Mohammed, thinking himself too well established to need a partner, wrote him this answer: "From Mohammed the apostle of GOD, to Moseilama the liar. The earth is GOD'S: he giveth the same for inheritance unto such of his servants as he pleaseth; and the happy issue shall attend those who fear him."5 During the few months which Mohammed lived after this revolt, Moseilama rather gained than lost ground, and grew very formidable; but Abu Becr, his successor, in the eleventh year of the Hejra, sent a great army against him, under the command of that consummate general, Khâled Ebn al Walîd, who engaged Moseilama in a bloody battle, wherein the false prophet, happening to be slain by Wahsha, the negro slave who had killed Hamza at Ohod, and by the same lance,6 the Moslems gained an entire victory, ten thousand of