Mohammed, "The Praised," the posthumous son of Abdu Allah, a member of the Koraish tribe, by Aminah, was born at Mecca Aug. 20, 570, and died at Medina June 8, 632. His grandfather, Abdu al-Muttalib, took charge of him when at the age of six he lost his mother, and his foster mother gave him additional protectors by the fact that she belonged to the Bani Saad. He was again bereaved at the age of eight by the death of his grandfather, and he then entered the family of his uncle, Abu Talib. From his mother he inherited a nervous, excitable temperament and a tendency to epilepsy, manifested by a fit when he was four years old, again when he was six, and later in life by relapses into the cataleptic state, the latter at that time apparently under control. He was melancholy in disposition, easily depressed, exceedingly sensitive to disagreeable odors, superstitious, a believer in jinn, omens, dreams and charms, vivid in imagination, and with a taste for the sublime. In maturity he was of medium height, of large but somewhat stooping frame. He had a large head covered with long wavy hair, an oval face, blood shot but keen black eyes with shifty gaze, a prominent nose, and a large mouth with well separated teeth. A fleshy tumor surrounded with moles on his back was claimed by him as a sign of his prophetic mission. He was careful in habit, fond of the bath and of perfumes, amorous in disposition, and exceedingly fond of the delights of the table. His spiritual development began at the age of twelve, when his uncle took him to Syria and he came into closer touch with both Jews and Christians than he had so far experienced. It was possibly at that time that he gained his first insight by contrast into the enormities of Arabic idolatry and immorality. When he was twenty-five he entered the service of Hadijah, a rich Meccan widow, was entrusted with the charge of her trading ventures, and again visited Syria, where he gained new insight into Judaism and Christianity. Probably at the initiative of Hadijah, he married her, though she was fifteen years his senior, and while she lived he married no other. Meanwhile, by the exercise of native sagacity he had obtained a reputation for practical wisdom and was frequently appealed to as the arbiter of disputes. When thirty-five years of age he settled in characteristic fashion a hot religious quarrel among four parties at Mecca, each of which claimed the right to replace in its niche the Black Stone of Mecca--representatives of the four parties raised it to the level of its position by lifting the four corners of a cloth placed beneath it; and then Mohammed himself put the stone in place. It was at this period that he began to feel his mission; he became more highly contemplative, used to retire to a mountain cave for meditation, and finally, in 609, in consequence of a vision in which Gabriel commanded him (though illiterate)
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