The Martyrdom of Man by Winwood Reade (mini ebook reader .TXT) đź“•
The Egyptians were islanders, cut off from the rest of the world by sand and sea. They were rooted in their valley; they lived entirely upon its fruits, and happily these fruits sometimes failed. Had they always been able to obtain enough to eat, they would have remained always in the semi-savage state.
It may appear strange that Egypt should have suffered from famine, for there was no country in the ancient world where food was so abundant and so cheap. Not only did the land produce enormous crops of corn; the ditches and hollows which were filled by the overflowing Nile supplied a harvest of wholesome and nourishing aquatic plants, and on the borders of the des
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Ptolemies, who had first shown them how the huge beasts might be
entrapped. Hindus were probably employed by the Ptolemies, as they
were by the Carthaginians, for the management of the elephantine stud.
In the fourth century two shipwrecked Christians converted the king and
his people to the new religion—a beneficial event, for thus they were
brought into connection with the Roman Empire. The Patriarch of
Alexandria was the Abyssinian pope, as he is at the present day, and
during all these years he has never ceased to send them their aboona or
archbishop. This ecclesiastic is regarded with much reverence; he costs
six thousand dollars; he is never allowed to smoke; and by way of
blessing he spits upon his congregation, who believe that the episcopal
virtue resides in the saliva, and not, as we think, in the fingers´ends.
Abyssinia had still its ancient seaport in Annesley Bay, and sent trading
vessels to the India coast. The Byzantine emperor, having made his
proposals through the Patriarch of Alexandria, and having received from
the Negus a favourable reply, dispatched a fleet of transports down the
Red Sea; the king filled them with his brigand troops; Yemen was
invaded and subdued, and now it was the Christians who began to
persecute. Another Arab prince ran off for help, and he went to the
Persian king, who at first refused to take the country as a gift, saying it
was too distant and too poor. However, at last he ordered the prisons to
be opened, and placed all the able-bodied convicts they contained at the
disposal of the prince. The Abyssinians were driven out, but they
returned and reconquered the land. Chosroes then sent a regular army
with orders to kill all the men with black skins and curly hair. Thus
Yemen became a Persian province, and no less than three great
religions—that of Zoroaster, that of Moses, and that of Jesus—were
represented in Arabia.
Midway between Yemen and Egypt is a sandy valley two miles in length,
surrounded on all sides by naked hills. No gardens or fields are to be
seen; no trees except some low brushwood and the acacia of the desert.
On all sides are barren and sunburnt rocks. But in the midst of this valley
is a wonderful well. It is not that the water is unusually cool and sweet—
connoisseurs pronounce it “heavy” to the taste—but it affords an
inexhaustible supply. No matter what quantity may be drawn up, the
water in the well remains always at the same height. It is probably fed by
a perennial stream below.
This valley, on account of its well, was made the halting-place of the
India caravans, and there the goods changed carriers—the south delivered
them over to the north. As the north and south were frequently at war,
the valley was hallowed with solemn oaths for the protection of the trade.
A sanctuary was established; the well Zemzem became sacred; its fame
spread, and it was visited from all parts of the land by the diseased and
the devout. The tents of the valley tribe became a city of importance,
enriched by the customs receipts and dues of protection, and by the
carrier hire of the caravans. When the navigation of the Red Sea put an
end to the carrying trade by land the city was deserted; its inhabitants
returned to the wandering Bedouin life. In the fifth century, however, it
was restored by an enterprising man, and the shrine was rebuilt. Mecca
was no longer a wealthy town; it was no longer situated on one of the
highways of the world; but it manufactured a celebrated leather, and sent
out two caravans a year—one to Syria and one to Abyssinia. Some of the
Meccans were rich men; Byzantine gold pieces and Persian copper coins
circulated in abundance; the ladies dressed themselves in silk, had
Chinese looking-glasses, wore shoes of perfumed leather, and made
themselves odorous of musk. It was the fame of Mecca as a holy place
which brought this wealth into the town. The citizens lived upon the
pilgrims. However, they esteemed it a pious duty to give hospitality if it
was required to the “guests of God, who came from distant cities on their
lean and jaded camels, fatigued and harassed with the dirt and squalor of
the way.” The poor pilgrims were provided during six days with pottage
of meat and bread and dates; leather cisterns filled with water were also
placed at their disposal.
During four months of the year there was a Truce of God, and the Arab
tribes, suspending their hostilities, journeyed towards Mecca. As soon as
they entered the Sacred Valley they put on their palmers´weeds,
proceeded at once to the Caaba or house of God, walked round it naked
seven times, kissed the black stone and drank of the waters of the famous
well. Then a kind of Eisteddfod was held. The young men combated in
martial games; poems were recited, and those which gained the prize
were copied with illuminated characters and hung up on the Caaba before
the golden-plated door.
There was no regular government in the holy city, no laws that could be
enforced, no compulsory courts of justice, and no public treasury. The
city was composed of several families or clans belonging to the tribe of
the Corayshites, by whom New Mecca had been founded. Each family
inhabited a cluster of houses surrounding a courtyard and well, the whole
enclosed by solid walls. Each family was able to go to war and to sustain
a siege. If a murder was committed the injured family took the law into
its own hands; sometimes it would accept a pecuniary compensation—
there was a regular tariff—but more frequently the money was refused.
They had a belief that if blood was not avenged by blood a small winged
insect issued from the skull of the murdered person and fled screeching
through the sky. It was also a point of honour on the part of the guilty
clan to protect the murderer and to adopt his cause. Thus blood feuds
rose easily and died hard.
The head of the family was a despot, and enjoyed the power of life and
death over the members of his own house. But he had also severe
responsibilities. It was his duty to protect those who dwelt within the
circle of his yard; all its inmates called him father; to all of them he owed
the duties of a parent. If his son was little better than a slave, on the other
hand his slave was almost equal to a son. It sometimes happened that
masterless men, travellers, or outcasts required his protection. If it was
granted, the stranger entered the family, and the father was accountable
for his debts, delicts, and torts. The body of the delinquent might be
tendered in lieu of fine or feud, but this practice was condemned by
public opinion, and in all semi-savage communities public opinion has
considerable power.
There was a town-hall in which councils were held to discuss questions
relating to the common welfare of the federated families, but the minority
were not bound by the voice of the majority. If, for instance, it was
decided to make war, a single family could hold aloof. In this town-hall
marriages were celebrated, circumcisions were performed, and young
girls were invested with the dress of womanhood. It was the starting
place of the militia and the caravans. It was near the Caaba and opened
towards it: in Mecca the Church was closely united to the state.
Throughout all time Mecca had preserved its independence and its
religion; the ancient idolatry had there a sacred home. The Meccans
recognised a single creator, Allah Taala, the Most High God, who
Abraham, and others before Abraham, had adored. But they believed that
the stars were live beings, daughters of the Deity, who acted as
intercessors on behalf of men; and to propitiate their favour idols were
made to represent them. Within the Caaba or around it were also images
of foreign deities and of celebrated men; a picture of Mary with the child
Jesus in her lap was painted on a column, and a portrait of Abraham with
a bundle of divining arrows in his hands upon the wall.
Among the Meccans there were many who regarded that idolatry with
abhorrence and contempt; yet to that idolatry their town owed all that it
possessed, its wealth and its glory, which extended round a crescent of a
thousand miles. They were therefore obliged as good citizens to content
themselves with seeking a simpler religion for themselves, and those who
did protest against the Caaba gods were persuaded to silence by their
families, or, if they would not be silent, were banished from the town
under penalty of death if they returned.
But there rose up a man whose convictions were too strong to be hushed
by the love of family or to be quelled by the fear of death. Partly owing
to his age and dignified position and unblemished name, partly owing to
the chivalrous nature of his patriarch or patron, he was protected against
his enemies, his life was saved. Had there been a government at Mecca,
he would unquestionably have been put to death, and as it was he
narrowly escaped.
Mohammed was a poor lad subject to a nervous disease which made him
at first unfit for anything except the despised occupation of the shepherd.
When he grew up he became a commercial traveller, acted as agent for a
rich widow twenty-five years older than himself, and obtained her hand.
They lived happily together for many years. They were both of them
exceedingly religious people, and in the Ramadan, a month held sacred
by the ancient Arabs, they used to live in a cave outside the town, passing
the time in prayer and meditation.
The disease of his childhood returned upon him in his middle age; it
affected his mind in a strange manner, and produced illusions of his
senses. He thought that he was haunted, that his body was the house of
an evil spirit. “I see a light,” he said to his wife, “and I hear a sound. I
fear that I am one of the possessed.” This idea was most distressing to a
pious man. He became pale and haggard; he wandered about on the hill
near Mecca, crying out to God for help. More than once he drew near the
edge of a cliff, and was tempted to hurl himself down and so put an end
to his misery at once.
And then a new idea possessed his mind. He lived much in the open air,
gazing on the stars, watching the dry ground grown green beneath the
gentle rain, surveying the firmly rooted mountains and the broad
expanded plain. He pondered also on the religious legends of the Jews
which he had heard related on his journeys, at noonday beneath the palm-tree by the well mouth, at night by the camp fire; and as he looked and
thought, the darkness was dispelled, the clouds dispersed, and the vision
of God in solitary grandeur rose up within his mind. And there came
upon him an impulse to speak of God; there came upon him a belief that
he was a messenger of God sent on earth to restore the religion of
Abraham which the pagan Arabs had polluted with their idolatry, the
Christians in making Jesus a divinity, the Jews in corrupting their holy
books.
In the brain of a poet stanzas will sometimes arise fully formed without a
conscious effort of the will, as once happened to Coleridge in a dream;
and so into Mohammed´s half-dreaming mind there flew golden-winged
verses echoing to one another in harmonious
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