Mahometanism.

Manawatu Herald, 7 December 1895, Page 3

Mahometanism.

In the year 569 or 570 Mahomet

- or Mohammed, the name is spelt in ways, was born at Mecca, a large town in the province of Hedjaz, a portion of Arabia on the coast of the Bed Sea, being part of what is commonly known as Turkey in Asia. In the year'6ll Mahomet announced himself as a prophet and on one of

the neighbouring hills is a cttve where he declared the greatest part of the Koran was brought to him by the, angel Gabriel. Mahometanism embodied in the Koran, includes— theTunity of God, the immortality of thle* sou 1 , predestination, a last judgment, and a sensual paradise. Mahomet enjoined on his disciples circumcision, and fasting, and permitted polygamy and concubinage. Mahomet after fleeing from his enemies in 622 overcame them in 628. and was acknowledged sovereign in 680. The Mahometans are divided into several sects, the two chief being the Bounties, or the Orthodox (who recognised as caliph Abubekar, the^alher-in-law of Mahomet, in pjefgence to Omar and Ali) and the Families, the followers of Ali, who majSjftl -Fatima, the prophet's -fflßs/unnecessary to trace how the yjppi&etaas, otherwise Saracens, overran and subdued Arabia, North Africa, part of Asia and part of Europe, the result being that after a long contest the Turks, under Mahomet II took Constantinople, and made it his capital and the chief seat of his religion. This is where his representative is to-day, and though Mahometans are supposed to be declining their numbers are still roughly estimated at one hundred millions.