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 CONT E N T S

Preface ix
Introduction xi

1 Muhammad and the Quran: Messenger and Message 1

Muhammad and the Muslim Community 2
Muhammad and the West 16
The Quran: The Word of God 19
Conclusion 34

2 The Muslim Community in History 37

Muhammad and the Medinan State 37
The Caliphate (632–1258) 42
Islam and the West: The Crusades and Muslim Response
to Militant Christianity 63
The Sultanate Period: Medieval Muslim Empires 67
Islam in the West 75

3 Religious Life: Belief and Practice 92

Theology 92
Islamic Law 99
Conclusion 144

4 Modern Islamic Reform Movements 148

From Imperial Islam to Islamic Revivalism 148
Revivalism in Islam 149
Modern Islamic Movements 159
Conclusion 191

vii
viii C ontents

5 The Resurgence of Religion in Politics 194

The Islamic Resurgence 194
A Quiet Islamic Revolution 230
Global Terrorism 232
The Globalization and Hijacking of Jihad 232
Sayyid Qutb: Martyr of Islamic Radicalism 234
The Making of a Terrorist and His Global Jihad 236
Terrorists and Suicide Bombing 239
Arab Spring/Arab Winter? 245
ISIS 253
Conclusion 256

6 The Struggle for Islam in the Twenty-First Century 259

Contemporary Islamic Religious Reform 259
The Bifurcation of Society 260
The Ulama and Reform 261
Tradition: Anchor or Albatross? 262
A Spectrum of Reformers and Approaches 264
Cyberspace and High-Tech Islam 269
Critical Areas of Islamic Reform 274
The Challenge of Religious Pluralism 287
Global Muslim Multifaith and Intercivilizational Initiatives 290
The Challenge of Pluralism for Western Secular Democracies 293
Conclusion 300
Timeline 307
Glossary 319
Select Bibliography 325
photo credits 336
Index 337
 PREFACE

Islam: The Straight Path has enjoyed a broad audience as a textbook

and as an introduction to Islam for educated readers not only in the
English-speaking world, but also through translations from Europe to
Southeast Asia. Earlier editions provided essential coverage of the origins,
spread, and development of Islam and its roles in Muslim societies. This
fifth edition has offered an occasion to reorganize the presentation of
materials within some chapters significantly and to update and add mate-
rials in response to developments and events that have occurred since the
publication of the fourth edition in 2009.

CHANGES TO THE FIFTH EDITION

In addition to updating the map of the Muslim world, chronological time-
line, and bibliography and increasing the number of breakout boxes, a
new feature has been added—discussion questions placed at the end of
each chapter. More substantially, several chapters have been substan-
tially reorganized and expanded. Chapter 2, “The Muslim Community
in History,” now includes extensive coverage of Islam in the West, a topic
further developed in Chapter 6. Chapter 5, “The Resurgence of Religion
in Politics,” incorporates the unexpected and stunning Arab Spring: peo-
ples’ uprisings that overthrew entrenched authoritarian regimes in broad-
based movements in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya; popular revolts in Syria,
Bahrain, and Yemen; and Islamic parties’ (Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood
and Tunisia’s Ennahda) victories in presidential and parliamentary elec-
tions. Equally unexpected were the Egyptian military-led coup and res-
toration of authoritarianism and the emergence and rapid spread of ISIS,
the Islamic State, with its victories in Iraq and Syria and vision of a res-
toration of a caliphate. However different, both the Arab Spring and ISIS

ix
x P reface

underscore the need for and significance of Islamic reform, the subject
of Chapter 6, “The Struggle for Islam in the Twenty-First Century.” The
chapter presents a selection of major religious scholars, intellectuals, and
popular preachers who address critical questions and issues of Islamic
reform. It surveys diverse and sometimes competing positions of tradi-
tionalist and more modernist Muslim reformers on issues of religious
authority, violence and terrorism, Islam and democracy, Shariah reform,
women’s rights, human rights, and religious pluralism in Muslim coun-
tries and in the West. Finally, the chapter looks in detail at the American
Muslim community, its challenges and accomplishments in becoming
an integral part of the American mosaic as the exponential development
of Islamophobia, anti-Islam and anti-Muslim bias, prejudice toward and
discrimination against Muslims on the basis of their religion or religious
identity, and the extent to which the actions of a small minority of Muslim
extremists and terrorist American and European Muslims brushstroke
the mainstream majority of Muslim citizens and affect their security,
safety, and civil liberties.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many people have been supportive in the production of this book. At
Oxford University Press the most important are my two editors: Cynthia
Read, my longtime editor at Oxford who first contracted Islam: The Straight
Path, and, in recent years, Robert Miller, with whom I have worked on
subsequent editions.
I have been fortunate to have very talented and responsive senior
research assistants: Melanie Trexler, Nathan Lean, Rahel Fishback, and
especially Tasi Perkins, who assisted me at every stage in the writing
and production process. I am indebted to Dalia Mogahed, with whom
I co-authored Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think
and related articles, as well as my colleagues John Voll and Tamara Sonn,
co-authors of Islam and Democracy after the Arab Spring and other works,
who inform my writing and are always responsive when I ask for feedback.
And last but most, special thanks to Jean Esposito, my wife and partner
for fifty years, who, as with all my projects, has been always been my best
editor and critic.
John L. Esposito
Washington, D.C.
 INTRO D UCT IO N

Few religions have had a greater impact as a faith and on world affairs,
past and present, than Islam. Muslims, numbering 1.6 billion worldwide,
account for one out of four people on our planet. Islam, the second larg-
est of the world’s religions, has a global presence. Muslims live in some
fifty-seven Muslim countries, stretching from North Africa to the Middle
East, to Central, South, and Southeast Asia. Muslims live as religious
minorities from Europe and America to Asia and Australia. Islam in
Europe and America in a matter of decades has gone from being invis-
ible to being the second or third largest religion. Older Muslim minority
communities extend from Africa to India—where the Muslim minority
population of 160 million is the fourth largest Muslim population in the
world—to the southern Philippines.
For more than fourteen centuries, Islam has grown and spread from
the seventh-century Arabia of the Prophet Muhammad to a world reli-
gion with followers across the globe. It has spawned and informed Islamic
empires and states as well as a great world civilization that stretched from
North Africa to Southeast Asia. In the process, a great monotheistic tradi-
tion, sharing common roots with Judaism and Christianity, has guided
and transformed the lives of millions of believers down through the ages.
Characterized by an uncompromising belief in the one, true God—His
revelation and Prophet—Islam developed a spiritual path with law, eth-
ics, theology, and mysticism that have made it one of the fastest growing
religions, both in the past and today.
Media images of Islam have often obscured the fact that Muslims,
Jews, and Christians share much in common; they are indeed all chil-
dren of Abraham. Like Jews and Christians, Muslims worship the God of
Abraham and Moses, believe in God’s revelation and prophets, and place
a strong emphasis on moral responsibility and accountability. The vast

xi
xii I ntroduction

majority of Muslims, like most members of other religious traditions, are

pious, hardworking women and men, family and community oriented,
who wish to live in peace and harmony rather than in warfare.
Despite Islam’s global presence and rich faith, Islam and Muslims
have been relatively invisible on the cognitive maps of most American and
European citizens, educators, policymakers, and the media. All of this
changed with the Iranian revolution and subsequent events in the Muslim
world, in particular the impact of global terrorist attacks from Nigeria to
Indonesia and in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere by al-Qaeda,
ISIS, and other militant groups. However, too often interest in and cov-
erage of Islam was driven by explosive headline events, acts of violence
and terror that all but obscured the breadth and diversity of the Muslim
experience and which were seen through the lens of a monolithic threat,
commonly referred to as Islamic fundamentalism or Islamism, terms
often signifying militant radicalism and violence. Thus Islam, a rich and
dynamic religious tradition of the mainstream majority, became all but
buried by menacing headlines and slogans, images of hostage takers and
gun-toting mullahs.
In an increasingly globally interdependent world, understanding
Islam as well as its multiple roles in Muslim politics and society is not
only intellectually and religiously fruitful but also, as events in recent
decades have demonstrated, politically important. This volume seeks to
explain the faith, the belief, and the doctrines of Islam. It provides a guide
to understanding how Islam has developed, spread, and informed the lives
of Muslims, their faith, their politics, and their communities throughout
the ages.
Islam: The Straight Path addresses a variety of questions that under-
score the strength, vitality, and diversity of Islam as well as its role in
Muslim history: What is Islam? Who are Muslims and what do they
believe? How did Islam develop and spread throughout the world? How
has Islam informed the faith and politics of Muslim life? Is Islam a par-
ticularly violent religion? Are Islam and democracy, gender, and human
rights incompatible? Have Muslims, like religious believers throughout
the world, wrestled with issues of change and reform to assure the con-
tinued relevance of Islam to modern Muslim life? What role did Islam
play in the Arab Spring and in governments that emerged. What are the
causes and impact of anti-Islam and anti-Muslim bias and discrimination
(Islamophobia). The answers to these and other questions are concerns for
all of us.
The foundation of Islamic belief and practice is the Quran, for Muslims
the revealed literal word of God, and the example and teachings of the
 Introduction xiii

Prophet Muhammad. Chapter 1, “Muhammad and the Quran: Messenger

and Message,” describes the emergence of Islam, focusing in particular on
the life and role of the Prophet and the teachings of the Quran regarding
God, prophecy, and revelation; the purpose and goal of human life; moral-
ity; and the afterlife. Where relevant, comparisons are drawn between
Muslim, Jewish, and Christian teachings.
The Muslim community has been the central vehicle for the spread
and actualization of Islam’s universal message and mission. Chapter 2,
“The Muslim Community in History,” discusses the formation and devel-
opment of the Muslim community, the phenomenal expansion of Islam,
the creation of Islamic empires and states, the emergence of the Sunni
and Shii branches of the Islamic community, and the florescence of Islam
as a world civilization that made major contributions to the history of
­philosophy, theology, the sciences, literature, mathematics, astronomy,
and medicine.
Muslim faith and practice are rooted in revelation but expressed in a
variety of beliefs, attitudes, rituals, laws, and values. Chapter 3, “Religious
Life: Belief and Practice,” analyzes the development of Islamic theology,
philosophy, law, and mysticism. In particular, it discusses the Five Pillars
of Islam, those fundamental acts that provide the unity underlying the
rich cultural diversity of Muslim life, as well as Muslim family law. As the
Five Pillars are the core of a Muslim’s duty to worship God, family law
is central to social life, providing guidelines for marriage, divorce, and
inheritance.
Like all great world religions, Islam has passed through many stages
in its development. Throughout its long history, the community has had
to respond to internal and external threats to its continued life and vital-
ity. As a result, Islam has a long tradition of religious renewal and reform,
extending from its earliest history to the present. The eighteenth century
proved to be a turning point in Islamic history. The power, prosperity,
and dynamic expansionism of imperial Islam went into decline. A previ-
ously ascendant and expanding community and civilization has had to
struggle for its survival in the face of indigenous forces and the political
and religiocultural threat of European colonialism. Chapter 4, “Modern
Islamic Reform Movements,” chronicles the rise of Islamic activist (“fun-
damentalist”) movements, bent on the restoration of Islam, that sprang
up across much of the Islamic world—the Wahhabi in Saudi Arabia, the
Mahdi in the Sudan, the Sanusi in Libya—and that served as forerunners
to twentieth-century revivalism. Most important, this chapter analyzes
key individuals, movements, and organizations, such as the Islamic mod-
ernist movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Jamaat-i-Islami, who
xiv I ntroduction

have had a profound effect on twentieth- and twenty-first-century Islam,

its faith, intellectual, and community life.
Although the Iranian revolution drew the attention of many to Islam
and the Islamic resurgence, contemporary Islamic revivalism has had
an impact on the personal and public lives of Muslims for the past two
decades. Chapter 5, “The Resurgence of Religion in Politics,” reviews the
causes, worldview, and manifestations of Islamic revivalism. A series of
case studies from Saudi Arabia, Libya, Iran, Lebanon, and Egypt is briefly
presented to demonstrate the diversity of ways in which Islam has been
used by governments and by mainstream and extremist opposition groups.
The events of September 11, 2001, signaled a watershed moment in
global history and politics. Islam has been used to legitimate holy and
unholy wars, movements of resistance and liberation, and violence
and terror. In addition to the origins and growth of religious extrem-
ism: Chapter 5 deals with the relationship of Islam to violence and ter-
rorism, the meaning of jihad, the origins of a global jihad ideology, the
role of suicide bombing, and the political conditions and the influence of
Wahhabi and of Salafi Islam, which are relevant to understanding Osama
bin Laden and al-Qaeda as well as ISIS in Syria and Iraq. Finally, what role
did religion and politics play in the Arab uprisings or Arab Spring, espe-
cially in Tunisia and Egypt, and what were the results?
Muslims today, like believers the world over, continue to grapple
with the continued relevance of their faith to the realities of contempo-
rary society. The adaptability of a religious tradition, its relevance to life
in the twenty-first century, raises as many questions as it offers poten-
tial answers. The history of modern Islam has challenged many presup-
positions and expectations—in particular, the notion that modernization
results in the secularization of societies. Islamic revival and reform, the
attempt to apply Islam to modern or postmodern life, have generated many
questions and issues that are examined in Chapter 6, “The Struggle for
Islam in the Twenty-First Century,” which looks at the process of modern
reform: Who are the reformers? What are the parameters and direction of
Islamic reform—a restoration of the past or a process of reinterpretation
and reconstruction? Is the future of Islam to be left in the hands of tradi-
tional religious leaders (ulama), Muslim rulers, or the laity? If change is to
occur, how much is necessary or possible? What are the implications for
democratization, pluralism, the rights of women and religious minorities,
and interfaith relations?
Today, Islam is the religion of one quarter of the world’s popula-
tion. Muslims are truly global citizens, who are also part of the mosaic
of Western societies; they are no longer foreign visitors but fellow citizens
 Introduction xv

and colleagues. Increased recognition has led to an appreciation among

many that Islam is an integral part of a theologically interconnected and
historically intertwined Judeo-Christian-Islamic heritage.
As in the past, Islam is among the fastest growing religions in many
parts of the world and has taken on diverse forms, depending on local
political, social, and cultural contexts. The vast majority of mainstream
Muslims, like many other global citizens of faith, lead constructive and
productive lives informed by their faith. A very small but dangerous and
deadly minority terrorize Muslim and Western societies alike. Relations
between the Muslim world and the West will continue to require a joint
effort, a process of constructive engagement, dialogue, self-criticism,
and change. Regardless of religious and cultural differences, Muslims,
Christians, Jews, and many other global citizens share common religious
and civilizational principles, values, and aspirations: belief in God and His
prophets, revelation, moral responsibility and accountability, the sanctity
of life, the value of the family, a desire for economic prosperity, access to
education, technology, peace and security, social justice, political partici-
pation, freedom, and human rights. The goal of Islam: The Straight Path
is primarily to contribute to a better understanding of the faith of Islam,
which, as in the past, inspires, guides, and motivates the vast majority of
Muslims as believers and global citizens.
The Muslim world.
 Chapter 1

Muhammad and the Quran:

Messenger and Message
In the name of God, the Merciful and Compassionate:
praise belongs to God, the Lord of the Worlds, the
Merciful, the Compassionate; Master of the Day of
Judgment, You do we worship and You do we call on
for help; guide us on the Straight Path, the path of
those whom You have blessed, not of those who earn
your anger nor those who go astray.
(Quran 1:1–7)

F ive times each day, hundreds of millions of Muslims face Mecca to

pray. They are part of an Islamic community that spans the globe,
numbers perhaps 1.6 billion adherents, and continues to spread its mes-
sage successfully throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America.
The fifty-seven Muslim countries extend from Senegal to Indonesia, but
the message of Islam and significant Muslim populations can be found in
such diverse environments as the former Soviet republics, China, India,
England, and the United States. Islam, the second largest of the world’s
religions, is indeed a world presence and force. If much of the Western
world had missed that fact, events in the decades since the Iranian revo-
lution have rectified this oversight. However, Muslim politics, from the
Iranian revolution to the 9/11 attacks and subsequent terrorist attacks in
the West and in Muslim countries, have often obscured or, at the very
least, raised questions about the faith of Islam and its relationship to vio-
lence and terrorism.
Islam stands in a long line of Semitic, prophetic religious traditions
that share an uncompromising monotheism and belief in God’s revela-
tion, His prophets, ethical responsibility and accountability, and the Day

1
2 I slam

of Judgment. Indeed, Muslims, like Christians and Jews, are the Children
of Abraham, because all trace their communities back to him: Islam’s
historic religious and political relationship to Christendom and Judaism
has remained strong throughout history. This interaction has been the
source of mutual benefit and borrowing as well as misunderstanding and
conflict.
Although the followers of Islam belong to a single community of
believers, there are two major historic divisions: Sunni and Shii. Sunni
Muslims constitute 85 percent of the world’s Muslims; Shii about 15 per-
cent. Although this volume focuses on their common faith and belief,
attention will also be given to differences in Muslim belief and practice.
For although, as we shall see, all Muslims enjoy a unity of faith in Allah,
the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad, the interpretations and
applications of Islam have varied in different cultural contexts and eras.
Despite this recognition of diversity, the focus of this volume is the core
of beliefs, practices, and institutions that unite and are integral to Muslim
life, whatever the differences might be.

MUHAMMAD AND THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY

The Near East spawned and nurtured a rich variety of religious tradi-
tions: ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian religions, Zoroastrianism,
Judaism, and Christianity. However, given the nature of tribal society in
seventh-century Arabia and the presence of the Roman (Byzantine) and
Persian (Sasanid) empires as buffer states of the Arabian Peninsula, the
rise of a new religious movement and the inauguration of a new stage in
world history would have seemed unthinkable. Yet, this occurred with
the revelation of the Quran and under the leadership of the Prophet
Muhammad. Islamic religion and the activity of the Muslim community
produced a new empire and a rich civilization that came to dominate
much of Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. Because Islam devel-
oped in central Arabia, its religious and social milieu provides the context
for Muhammad’s reformist message and mission.

Arabia
Arabian religion and society reflected the tribal realities of the Peninsula.
Arabia’s 1 million square miles (nearly one third the size of the United
States or Europe) were dominated by desert and steppe areas. Bedouin
tribes pursuing a pastoral and nomadic lifestyle traveled from one area
to another, seeking water and pasture for their flocks of sheep and cam-
els. The landscape was dotted with oasis towns and cities. Among the
 Muhammad and the Quran 3

more prominent was Mecca, a center of trade and commerce, and Yathrib
(Medina), an important agricultural settlement. The principal sources of
livelihood were herding, agriculture, trade, and raiding. Intertribal war-
fare was a long-established activity governed by clear guidelines and rules.
For example, raiding was illegal during the four sacred months of pilgrim-
age. Its object was to capture livestock from enemy Bedouin tribes with a
minimum of casualties. Its ultimate goal was to weaken and eventually
absorb other tribes by reducing them to a dependent or “client” status.
Whether nomadic or sedentary, the peoples of Arabia lived in a
Bedouin tribal society and culture. Social organization and identity were
rooted in membership in an extended family. A grouping of several related
families comprised a clan. A cluster of several clans constituted a tribe.
Tribes were led by a chief (shaykh) who was selected by a consensus of his
peers—that is, the heads of leading clans or families. These tribal elders
formed an advisory council within which the tribal chief exercised his
leadership and authority as the first among equals. Muhammad belonged
to the Banu Hashim (sons of Hashim), a lesser clan of the powerful
Quraysh tribe that dominated Meccan society.
The Arabs placed great emphasis on tribal ties, group loyalty, or soli-
darity as the source of power for a clan or tribe. The celebrated rugged
individualism of the Bedouin Arab ethos was counterbalanced by sub-
ordination to tribal authority and tribal customs, the unwritten oral law
of society. Tribal affiliation and law were the basis not only for identity
but also for protection. The threat of family or group vendetta, the law of
retaliation, was of vital importance in a society lacking a central political
authority or law.
The religion of Arabia reflected its tribal nature and social structure.
Gods and goddesses served as protectors of individual tribes, and their
spirits were associated with sacred objects—trees, stones, springs, and
wells. Local tribal deities were feared and respected rather than loved, the
objects of cultic rituals (sacrifice, pilgrimage, prayer) and of supplication
and propitiation celebrated at local shrines. Mecca possessed a central
shrine of the gods, the Kaba, a cube-shaped building that housed the 360
idols of tribal patron deities and was the site of a great annual pilgrim-
age and fair. These deities were primary religious actors and objects of
worship, but beyond this tribal polytheism was a shared belief in Allah
(God). Allah, the supreme high god, was the creator and sustainer of life
but remote from everyday concerns and thus not the object of cult or rit-
ual. Associated with Allah were three goddesses who were the daughters
of Allah: al-Lat, Manat, and al-Uzza.
4 I slam

The value system or ethical code of Arabia has been aptly termed a
“tribal humanism,” a way of life with origins that were not ascribed to
God but were the product of tribal experience or tradition.1 It was epito-
mized by its key virtue, manliness, which emphasized bravery in battle,
loyalty to family and protection of its members, hospitality, patience, and
persistence—in sum, the preservation of tribal and family honor. This was
accompanied by a fatalism that saw no meaning or accountability beyond
this life—no resurrection of the body, divine judgment, or eternal punish-
ment or reward. Justice was guaranteed and administered not by God but
by the threat of group vengeance or retaliation. Thus, Arabian religion had
little sense of cosmic moral purpose or of individual or communal moral
responsibility.
Although it is common to speak of Islam’s origins in seventh-century
Arabia, such a notion is historically inaccurate and, from a Muslim
perspective, theologically false. Islam was not an isolated, totally new
monotheistic religion. The monotheistic message of the Quran and the
preaching of Muhammad did not occur in a vacuum. Monotheism had
been flourishing in Semitic and Persian cultures for centuries preced-
ing Muhammad’s ministry. The scriptures and prophets of Judaism,
Christianity, and Zoroastrianism had a long-established presence and
roots in Irano-Semitic societies. Beyond their distinctive differences,
all three religious traditions shared a monotheistic faith (the conviction
that God is one), prophets, scriptures, beliefs in angels and devils, and
a moral universe encompassing individual and communal accountabil-
ity and responsibility. All were the product of primarily urban, not rural
or desert, experiences and were institutionalized in commercial centers
by scholarly elites, often supported by state patronage, who interpreted
the early preaching of their prophets and apostles. Among their com-
mon themes were community, fidelity and infidelity, individual moral
decision-making, social justice, final judgment, and reward and punish-
ment. In contrast to Indian religious notions of cyclical history, rebirth,
and personal perfection, the Judeo-Christian and Zoroastrian traditions
affirmed a sacred history with a beginning and an end within which believ-
ers were to follow God’s will and realize their eternal destiny in the next
life. To differing degrees, all had become associated with political power;
that is, all had become official state religions: Judaism in the k­ ingdoms
of Judea and Israel, Christianity in the Roman (Byzantine) empire, and
Zoroastrianism in the Persian (Sasanid) empire.
Forms of monotheism did exist in Arabia alongside pre-Islamic tribal
polytheism. Both Jewish and Christian Arab communities had been
 Muhammad and the Quran 5

present in Arabia before Muhammad. Jewish communities in Khaybar,

Tayma, and Yathrib (later called Medina) were successful in agriculture
and trade. Although some Christians were settled in Mecca, most of the
Christian communities were on the periphery of central Arabia (the Hijaz),
along caravan routes in North and South Arabia. Particular contact with
monotheism resulted from the caravan trade that brought Zoroastrian,
Jewish, and Christian merchants to Mecca, a thriving commercial cen-
ter, as well as from the travels of Meccan traders far and wide through-
out the Middle East. Finally, in addition to biblical monotheism, native
or pre-Islamic Arab monotheists, called hanifs, seem to have existed.
The Quran (3:95) and Muslim tradition portray them as descendants of
Abraham and his son Ismail.
Arabian tribal society, with its Bedouin, polytheistic ethos, provided the
context for the rise of Islam. Of equal importance, this period was marked by
the tensions and questioning that accompany change in a transitional soci-
ety, for this was a period when cities like Mecca and Medina were prospering
and attracting many from a nomadic to a more sedentary life. The emergence
of Mecca as a major mercantile center precipitated the beginnings of a new
political, social, and economic order. New wealth, the rise of a new com-
mercial oligarchy from within the Quraysh tribe, greater division between
social classes, and a growing disparity between rich and poor strained the
traditional system of Arab tribal values and social security—its way of life.
This was the time and social milieu in which Muhammad was born.

Muhammad: Prophet of God

History, legend, and Muslim belief portray Muhammad as a remarkable
man and prophet. We know a good deal about Muhammad’s life after
his “call” to be God’s messenger, but historical records tell us little about
Muhammad’s early years prior to becoming a prophet at the age of forty
in 610 C.E. The Quran has served as a major source for information regard-
ing the life of the Prophet. In addition, hadiths or Prophetic traditions
(reports about what Muhammad said and did) and biographies give us a
picture of his meaning and significance in early Islam, as do Islamic cal-
ligraphy and art, where the names of Allah and Muhammad often occur
side by side—God and His Prophet. Muhammad serves both as God’s
human instrument in bearing His revelation and as the model or ideal all
believers should emulate. Thus, understanding Muhammad and his role
in the early Islamic community is crucial for an appreciation of the devel-
opment of early Islam as well as the dynamics of contemporary Muslim
belief and practice.
6 I slam

Muhammad ibn Abdullah (the son of Abd Allah) was born in 570 C.E.
Tradition tells us that he was orphaned at a young age. His father was
a trader who died before Muhammad was born; his mother, Amina,
died when he was only six years old. As a young man, Muhammad was
employed in Mecca’s thriving caravan trade. The city was at the cross-
roads of trade routes between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean.
Central Arabia was emerging as a major commercial power, sitting astride
important trade routes that extended from Africa across the Middle East
to China and Malaysia. Muhammad became a steward or business man-
ager for the caravans of a wealthy widow, Khadija, whom he subsequently
married. Tradition tells us that at the time, Muhammad was twenty-five
years old and Khadija was forty. During their fifteen years of marriage,
they enjoyed a very close relationship and had three sons (who died in
infancy) and four daughters. The most famous of Muhammad’s surviving
children was Fatima, who would marry Ali, the revered fourth caliph of
Sunni Islam and the first legitimate imam (leader) of Shii Islam.
Mecca was a prosperous center of trade and commerce. Yet it was a
society in which traditional tribal ways were strained by Mecca’s transi-
tion from a semi-Bedouin to a commercial, urban society. This process
was accompanied by serious economic and social cleavages. Muhammad,
who had become a successful member of Meccan society, was apparently
profoundly affected by these changes. He enjoyed great respect for his
judgment and trustworthiness, as was reflected by his nickname al-Amin,
the trusted one. This rectitude was complemented by a reflective nature
that led him to retreat regularly to a cave on Mt. Hira, a few miles north
of Mecca. Here, in long periods of solitude, he contemplated his life and
the ills of his society, seeking greater meaning and insight. Here, at the age
of forty during the month of Ramadan, Muhammad the caravan leader
became Muhammad the messenger of God. On the night Muslims call
“The Night of Power and Excellence,” he received the first of many revela-
tions from God. A heavenly intermediary, later identified by tradition as
the angel Gabriel, commanded, “Recite.” Muhammad responded that he
had nothing to recite. Twice the angel repeated the command, and each
time a frightened and bewildered Muhammad pleaded that he did not
know what to say. Finally, the words came to him:
Recite in the name of your Lord who has created, Created man out of
a germ-cell. Recite for your Lord is the Most Generous One Who has
taught by the pen, Taught man what he did not know! (Quran, 96:1–5)
 Muhammad and the Quran 7

Mosque of the Prophet in Medina, Saudi Arabia, the first mosque in Islam, originally built
by the Prophet Muhammad and the second-most sacred site in Islam.
8 I slam

With this revelation, Muhammad joined that group of individuals

whom Semitic faiths acknowledge as divinely inspired messengers or
prophets of God. Muhammad continued to receive divine revelations over
a period of twenty-two years (610–632). These messages were finally col-
lected and written down in the Quran (“The Recitation”), Islam’s sacred
scripture.
Muslim tradition reports that Muhammad reacted to his “call” fol-
lowing the pattern of the Hebrew prophets. He was both frightened and
reluctant: frightened by the unknown—for surely he did not expect such
an experience—and reluctant, at first, because he feared he was possessed
and that others would dismiss his claims as inspired by spirits, or jinns.
Despondent and confused, Muhammad resolved to kill himself but was
stopped when he again heard the voice say, “O Muhammad! You are the
messenger of God and I am Gabriel.” Khadija, his wife, reinforced this
message, reassuring him that he was neither mad nor possessed; the mes-
senger was from God and not a demon. Interestingly, according to Muslim
tradition a Christian played an important role as well. One of those to
whom Khadija and Muhammad turned for advice was her Christian
cousin, Waraqa ibn Qusayy. When he heard of Muhammad’s experience,
Waraqa reassured him:

Surely, by Him in whose hand is Waraqa’s soul, thou art the prophet of
this people. There hath come unto thee the greatest Namus (angel or
Gabriel) who came unto Moses. Like the Hebrew prophets, Thou wilt
be called a liar, and they will use thee despitefully and cast thee out and
fight against thee.2

For just such reasons, Muhammad, like many of the prophets before
him, was initially reluctant to preach God’s message. His fears were well
founded.
The first ten years of Muhammad’s preaching were difficult, marked
by Meccan resistance and rejection. Although there was a trickle of con-
verts, opposition to Muhammad was formidable. For the powerful and
prosperous Meccan oligarchy, the monotheistic message of this would-be
reformer, with its condemnation of Mecca’s socioeconomic inequities,
constituted a direct challenge not only to traditional polytheistic reli-
gion but also to the power and prestige of the establishment, threatening
their economic, social, and political interests. The Prophet denounced
false contracts, usury, and the neglect and exploitation of orphans and
widows. He defended the rights of the poor and the oppressed, assert-
ing that the rich had an obligation to the poor and dispossessed. This
sense of social commitment and responsibility was institutionalized in
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animo viam ingressus est. Constituit, quantùm fieri posset, littus
sequi, nec sylvestribus locis se committere, ne in feras incideret.

Ac primo die nihil ei in itinere accidit memorandum. Sex milliaria

circiter eo die confecit ; et quo longiùs progrediebatur, eò certiùs
comperit se in sterilissimâ insulæ parte sedem posuisse. Multis
nimirùm in locis arbores invenit vario fructuum genere abundantes,
unde victum non salubrem minùs quàm jucundum petere
[119]potuisset. Horum posteà usus nominaque didicit.

Primam noctem Robinson in arbore egit, ut tutus à feris esset ;

et posterâ die iter persecutus est. Nec multum viæ confecerat, cùm
extremam insulæ partem versùs meridiem attigit. Solum nonnullis in
locis erat arenosum. Dum autem tendit ad tractum terræ in mare
procurrentem, ecce pedem fert retrò ; tum pallescere, contremiscere,
oculos circumferre, et subito hærere quasi fulmine repentino ictus.
Videt nimirum quod hic visurum se nunquàm speraverat, vestigia
hominum arenæ impressa...!

Tum ille territus undique circumspicit : audito vel levissimo

foliorum strepitu stupet, sensusque adeo perturbantur, ut stet inops
consilii ; tandem collectis viribus, fugam corripit, quasi instarent à
tergo, nec præ terrore respicere ausus est. At ecce repentè substitit.
Metus in horrorem vertitur. Videt nimirùm fossam rotundam,
[120]atque in medio ignis exstincti focum. Quem circà, horresco
referens, crania, manus, pedes, aliaque corporis ossa adspicit,
exsecrandas reliquias convivii à quo natura abhorret. Scilicet tunc
temporis in insulis Caraibicis feri homines degebant, cannibales
vocati aut anthropophagi : quibus solemnis erat consuetudo captivis
mactatis assatisque immanes epulas celebrare, in quibus lætitiâ
atrociùs debacchabantur, saltantes, canentes, aut potiùs, satiatâ
feritate, ululantes.

Robinson oculos ab horribili spectaculo avertit. Nauseâ etiam

correptus, animi deliquio laboraturus fuisset, nisi stomachum vomitu
levâsset. Ubi primùm paululùm refectus est, fugit tantâ velocitate, ut
vix fugientem fidelis lama sequi potuerit. Tantoperè verò mentem
Robinsonis timor alienaverat, ut lamæ sui planè oblitus, audito
sequentis socii gressu, instantem à tergo sibi cannibalem fingeret,
omnibusque viribus effugere conaretur.
[121]

Ac ne cursum morarentur, hastam, arcum, sagittas, securim

abjicit : quam sibi videt expeditiorem, viam potiorem habet ;
iteratisque per totam horam ambagibus sic efficit, ut circumeundo ad
locum eumdem, unde aufugerat, redierit. Tunc novus horror animum
ejus attonitum occupat. Quo in loco versetur non agnoscit, nec
animadvertit eumdem esse, quem anteà viderat ; sed putat invenisse
se novum immanitatis eorum quos fugit monumentum. Itaque
violentissimo impetu se proripit, neque priùs currere desiit quam
fessum cursu corpus vires desererent. Tunc omninò exhaustus
sensuque orbatus procidit. Hùc quoque lama advenit, nec fessus
minùs juxtà dominum procumbit. Fortè is ipse erat locus ubi anteà
Robinson arma abjecerat. Oculis itaque non multo post apertis, hæc
prima in gramine conspexit. Quodquidem somnium ipsi omninò
visum est, nec intelligebat quomodo et arma sic jacerent, et ipse in
eum locum venisset : [122]tantopere formido animum ejus
perturbaverat !

Ac brevì surrexit, ut locum istum quàm celerrimè linqueret. Sed

tunc paululùm ad se reversus, nec tam imprudens ut arma
oblivisceretur, statuit ea jam non exuere quibus solis vitam poterat
defendere. Tantopere autem erat debilitatus, ut, licet instante metu,
jam non eâdem, quâ anteà, pernicitate fugeret. Per totum reliquum
diem cibi appetitum planè amisit, semelque tantummodò substitit, ut
sitim fontis aquâ restingueret.

Frustra speravit se eodem die ad sedem suam perventurum.

Obscurâ jam luce, dimidiæ circiter horæ spatio aberat à domicilio, eo
scilicet in loco quem rusculum suum vocaverat. Quippe spatium erat
clausum, et satis amplum, in quo partem gregis coercebat, quia
nempe pinguiora ibi quam prope habitaculum suum crescebant
gramina. Ibi nonnullas noctes superiori æstate degerat, ne ab
insectis, quæ eum [123]domi fodiebant, infestaretur. Sed viribus
planè exhaustis longiùs progredi non poterat. Etsi periculosissimum
ei videbatur pernoctare in loco nullis præsidiis munito, attamen
necessitas illud postulabat. Vix autem humi se prostraverat, cùm
neque omnino sopitus, neque omnino vigil, in ambiguâ somni
exspectatione, ecce subito terrore perhorruit.

Vocem audivit veluti cœlo demissam, hæc verba articulatè

proferentem : « Ave, Robinson. »

Robinson perterritus exsilit, toto corpore contremiscens, et planè

inops consilii. Ac iisdem iterum auditis, oculos in eum locum timidè
convertit, unde vox profecta erat. Tum vidit, quod sanè ignavo
cuique in promptu esset, si rem, priusquam animus perturbaretur,
paulò attentiùs consideraret ; vidit se vano metu territum fuisse :
quippe vox illa profecta erat, non de cœlo, sed de ramo in quo
carissimus sibi insidebat psittacus. Tum verò [124]metus in lætitiam
vertitur quod causam rei invenisset. Manum porrigit psittaco. Ille
devolat ; dumque mutuis alter alterum blanditiis excipit, psittacus
pergit proferre dictatam salutationem.

Hic autem totam ferè noctem insomnem traduxit, tum cibi, tum
quietis immemor, fremitum quemque auribus captans. Feri homines
semper occurrebant oculis ; frustrà verò animum à fœdâ cogitatione
abducere tentavit. Tum ut se tutiorem in futurum præstaret, cœpit
plurima animo consilia agitare, eaque stultissima : ex quibus unum,
quod incredibile videbitur, hoc erat, ut die oborto omnia adæquaret
solo quæ tantâ diligentiâ, tanto labore exstruxerat, ne vel minimum
quidem humanæ industriæ vestigium deprehendi posset.
[125]
 Caput decimum quintum.

Epulæ atroces. — Prælium. — Fortitudo Robinsonis. —

Vendredi servatus.

V ix alma diei lux umbras noctis dispulerat, cùm Robinson res

vidit in alio lumine collocatas. Quod heri prudentia, quod
necessitas suadebat, tunc stultum atque inutile judicavit. Consilia
demum minùs considerata quæ timor ipsi suggesserat, nunc
reprobat, et ad meliora rationique magis consentanea animum
convertit. Nunc enim, nocte interpositâ, intelligit timorem hesternum
fuisse nimium. « Dudum, ait ille secum, hic ego commoratus sum,
nec ullus unquam homo ferus in vicinitatem habitaculi mei venit : ex
quo satis patet suum eos in hâc insulâ domicilium non habere.
Verisimile est, [126]aliam eos incolere regionem, unde nonnulli hùc
veniunt, ut victorias atrocibus epulis concelebrent, eosque ad eam
insulæ partem quæ vergit ad meridiem, appellere, atque inde
discedere, cæteris insulae partibus neglectis. Singulari igitur ac
divino munere, ego in hanc steriliorem insulæ partem compulsus fui,
hoc ipso tutior. » Tum animo et viribus confirmatus, domum se
contulit, ut nova, quæ inierat, consilia persequeretur.

Placuit inter cætera plantare non procul ab arboreo quo

habitaculum munierat septo nemus ita densum, ut sedes à longinquo
conspici non posset. Hâc mente duo circiter millia ejus generis
salicum plantavit quas jam facilè radices agere atque brevì crescere
animadverterat. Sed maximè cavendum judicavit ne eas ordine
aliquo disponeret, ut silvula naturâ potiùs quàm arte consita
videretur. Tum statuit viam subterraneam per cuniculum agere, ab
imâ speluncâ ad alterum montis [127]latus, ut, urgente necessitate,
haberet effugium, Quodquidem opus fuit magni et diuturni laboris,
adeo ut à cymbæ fabricatione ad tempus omninò desisteret.

Sic ille quidem satis tutus sibi videbatur ab impetu repentino.

Quid verò ? si hostis instet, obsidioneque cinctum teneat ? Neque
hoc vanum prorsus erat aut futile ; quippe quod aliquandò fieri
posset. Itaque necesse esse judicavit ut se adversus hunc casum
muniret, ne fame aut periret, aut ad deditionem compelleretur.
Quamobrem statuit unam certè lamam quæ lacte abundaret in atrio
domicilii servare, atque ad hanc alendam fœni acervum sepositum
habere, ex quo nihil, nisi necessitate coactus, detraheret. Decretum
est quoque casei, pomorum et ostrearum copiam parare, quam de
die in diem renovaret.

Quibus ita dispositis, Robinson aliquot annos vitam vixit adeo

tranquillam, ut nihil memoratu dignum ei acciderit. Igitur ad [128]rem
illam propero, quæ ad commutandam ejus conditionem plus valuit
quàm quidquid huc usque ei contigerat.

Cùm Robinson mane quodam sereno in cymbâ fabricandâ esset

occupatus, magnum è longinquo fumum adscendentem subitò
conspexit. Primo quidem adspectu obstupuit, mox autem ad montem
speluncæ imminentem quàm celerrimè cucurrit, causam rei inde
speculaturus. Ubi primum montem conscendit, majori etiam cum
terrore conspexit quinque scaphulas in littore religatas, triginta autem
barbaros ingentem apud focum, truci gestu, atque incondito clamore
chorum agentes. Saltabant unico tantùm pede ; nam alterum
erectum et in aere libratum habebant.

Etsi ad spectaculum hujusmodi videndum Robinson non

imparatus erat, parum tamen abfuit quin rursùs terrore exanimaretur.
Verumtamen fortitudinem et fiduciam celeriter in animum
revoca [129]vit : tum è colle properè descendit, omnia dispositurus
quibus se tueretur ; cunctisque armis instructus, et auxilium precatus
à Deo, constituit vitam suam, quoad posset, defendere. Tunc iterum
ad summum collem conscendit, hostes exploraturus.

Mox verò cohorruit atque indignatus est, cùm satis distinctè vidit
duos homines è scaphis trahi ad ignem. Ac primò suspicatus est eos
neci addictos, brevique comperit se non errâsse. Aliquot enim ex
barbaris alterum captivum prosternunt, prostratumque duo alii adorti
corpus laniant, ad epulas atroces instruendas. Interim stabat alter
captivus, donec ipse quoque mactaretur. Dum verò intentos quisque
oculos in cruciatum et lacerationem tenet, ille, tempore arrepto, fugit
atque citatissimo cursu in eam regionis partem contendit quam
Robinson incolebat.

Tunc noster erectus suspensusque tum [130]spe et lætitiâ, tum

timore atque horrore vicissim perstringitur. Hinc exsultat, cùm videt
captivum aliquo spatio persequentes superantem ; inde toto corpore
contremiscit, cùm animadvertit cunctos ad habitaculum suum, anteà
ignotum, cursum dirigere. Erat autem sinus mediocris profugo
trajiciendus, ne in manus hostium caderet. In quem statim prosiliit,
eâdemque quam huc usque adhibuerat celeritate tranavit ad littus
oppositum. Dum ii qui propiùs urgebant in aquam se quoque
projiciunt, cæteri ad convivium horribile revertuntur. Quanto autem
gaudio Robinson animadvertit, hos illi natando pares non esse !
Miser enim jam ex aquâ emerserat, cùm cæteri nondùm emensi
erant dimidiam sinûs partem.

Tunc Robinson insolitâ fortitudine atque audaciâ animatum se

sensit ; hastâ correptâ è monte decurrit. Et continuò egressus silvâ,
terribili voce exclamat : « Siste gradum ! » At ille, adspectu
Robin [131]sonis pellibus horridi, obstupuit ; ratus esse aliquem supra
humanam conditionem, incertusque utrum se ad pedes ejus
projiceret, an verò fugam persequeretur. Robinson ei manu significat
adesse se defensorem, et subitò conversus it obviam hostibus.
Priorem, cùm jam propius esset, hastâ percussum vi magnâ dejicit.
Alter, qui centum circiter passus aberat, attonitus stupet ; tum arcum
sagittâ instruit, quam in Robinsonem jam proximè accedentem
intorquet. Illa pectus ejus ferit ; sed adeò leviter pellem, quâ indutus
erat, strinxit, ut corpus ferro esset intactum. Tum Robinson priori
victoriâ ferox, vehementi impetu elatus, barbarum prostravit. Deinde
hominem respicit, cujus vitam servaverat : hic autem timorem inter et
spem dubius eodem in loco hærebat, incertus utrum hæc omnia suæ
salutis causâ agerentur, an sibi ignotâ victoris manu foret quoque
pereundum. Ille autem [132]barbarum ad se vocat, significatque ut
propiùs accedat. Hic paruit, mox autem præ metu constitit ; et nunc
pedem profert, nunc retrahit ; demùmque lentè progreditur, non sine
magnâ significatione terroris, supplicisque habitu.

Cùm Robinson amicitiam suam omni modo demonstrâsset,

tandem ille formam ignotam adire ausus est ; sed decimo quoque
passu supplex in genua procidit, quasi gratias ageret simul et
honorem præstaret.

Tum Robinson sublatâ larvâ vultum humanum et benignum

ostendit. Quo viso, barbarus confidentiùs servatorem suum adit,
totoque corpore se projiciens terram osculatur. Noster autem, qui
amicum habere mallet quàm servum, blandè hominem manu
allevans, ei quâcumque potuit ratione persuadere studet se velle
cum ipso amicitiam jungere. Multa verò facienda supererant.

Barbarus qui prior fuerat prostratus, [133]vulnus lethale non

acceperat : itaque cùm animum sensim recepisset, herbis evulsis ad
sedandum sanguinem vulnus obturare cœpit. Robinson barbaro suo
hoc demonstrat. Tum Indus nunc securim lapideam Robinsoni
ostendit, nunc se ipsum, significans se illius ope vitam hosti
erepturum. Robinson autem, qui ab humano sanguine effundendo
abhorrebat, tunc necesse ratus ut hostis de medio tolleretur, securim
porrigit, avertens oculos. Indus in hostem vulneratum irruit, illum uno
ictu obtruncat : tum ovans revertitur ; et securim, cæsique hominis
cruentum caput, victoriæ pignora, ad pedes Robinsonis deponit.

Tum Robinson ei signis quibusdam dedit intelligendum, ut,

collectis cæsorum arcubus et sagittis, se prosequeretur ; barbarus
autem innuit Robinsoni, priùs quam recederent, corpora defunctorum
esse humi condenda, ne socii ulla aliquando eorum vestigia
reperirent.
[134]

Cùm Robinson indicâsset se hoc probare, Indus solis manibus

magnâ cum celeritate brevì utrumque cadaver arenâ obruit. Tum
ambo ad habitaculum Robinsonis se conferunt.
[135]
 Caput decimum sextum.

Robinson paratus ad obsidionem ferendam. — Vendredi

describitur. — Quare sic appellatus.

I ncerta adhuc ancepsque erat fortuna Robinsonis. Nonne

verisimile erat barbaros, epulis inhumanis satiatos, vestigia
sociorum secuturos esse, ut eos, et captivum qui evaserat,
quærerent. Tunc verò dubium non erat quin illi, detecto semel
Robinsonis habitaculo, expugnatoque, eum simul et novum comitem
occiderent. Quæ cogitatio Robinsonis animum agitabat, dum è
summo colle post arborem latens fœdam epulationem chorosque
barbarorum intuetur. Tunc deliberat, quid sibi in hoc rerum articulo
faciendum sit, utrum fugiat, an in arce suâ inclusum [136]se teneat.
Cùm verò mentem suam ad potentissimum illud numen innocentiæ
præsidium erexisset, sese adeò confirmatum animo sensit, ut
posterius facere constituerit. Itaque inter dumeta usque ad
domicilium prorepit, socio significans ut idem agat ; sicque ambo ad
speluncam perveniunt.

Tunc barbarus, domicilium liberatoris commodè dispositum

intuens, obstupuit ; quippe qui nihil unquam vidisset sic ordinatum.

Robinson barbaro significat, quid sit ab hostium multitudine

metuendum ; se autem paratum esse ad vitam strenuè
defendendam. Quo quidem ille intellecto truci vultu securim vibrat,
gestuque terribili versùs eum locum se convertit, ubi hostes erant,
quasi illos provocaret, patronoque declararet se ad acerrimam
defensionem paratissimum. Robinson, hâc ejus fortitudine probatâ,
hastam, arcum et sagittas ei tradit, eumque ad foramen
[137]munimenti arborei velut in excubiis collocat, unde prospiceret,
quid in spatio inter parietem et nemus à se consitum interjecto
ageretur. Sic cum forti socio usque ad vesperam armatus stetit. Cùm
verò post aliquot horas nihil usquàm hostile cernerent,
existimaverunt barbaros, postquam frustra investigaverant, in
scaphis domum reversos esse. Igitur armis depositis, Robinson
cœnam instruit.

Cùm autem hæc dies in vitâ Robinsonis maximè memoranda,

dies esset Veneris, gallicè Vendredi, memoriam ejus consecrare
voluit ; itaque barbarum, quem servaverat, eo nomine appellavit.

Nondum huc usque Robinsoni vacaverat eum attentiùs

considerare. Juvenis erat egregiæ formæ, viginti circiter annorum ;
colore fusco, cute nitidâ ; crinibus nigris, non autem laneis, sicut
Æthiopum, sed rectis ; naso brevi, nec eo depresso ; labiis parvis ;
dentibus ita albis, ut ebur æquarent. Aures ejus variis conchis et
pennis [138]ornatæ erant, quibus ille non mediocriter superbire
videbatur : nudus cæterùm à capite ad pedes.

Itaque Robinson amiculo consutis è pellibus confecto socium

induit. Tùm ei significavit, ut lateri assideret ad cœnandum.

Vendredi magnâ cum reverentiæ atque grati animi significatione

ad Robinsonem accessit ; tum in genua se prostravit, capite in
terram demisso.
 Robinson, autem socio atque amico diù exoptato mirificè
lætatus, blanditiis potiùs illum sibi devincire cupiebat ; nimirum
existimabat duplicem non esse generis humani originem, nec fictos
meliore luto hos qui vocantur albi, cùm eodem patre atque nigri
homines nati sint. Attamen, cùm putaret prudentius esse hospitem
nondum satis sibi cognitum intra obsequii et venerationis fines
continere, honoremque ab eo velut sibi debitum accipere, aliquandiù
regis personam erga hominem gerere constituit.
[139]
 Caput decimum septimum.

Origo regiæ potestatis. — Robinson abundat opibus. — Habet

subditos. — Vendredi novo vivendi genere delectatur.

I taque Robinson signis gestuque socio intelligendum dedit, se

illum quidem in tutelam suam recepisse, eâ tamen lege ut
summam ipsi obedientiam præstaret, atque omnibus sedulo vacaret
quæcumque dominus et rex novus jussisset. Ideò cacicum se ipse
appellavit, quoniam eo nomine barbarorum in Americâ principes ab
istis vocari meminerat. Quâ voce, meliùs quàm signis adhibitis,
Vendredi id intellexit quod suus ei domibus declarabat ; et ut pateret
se domino in servitutem semetipsum dicare, iterum iterumque
nomen illud clarâ [140]voce pronuntiavit, Robinsonem manu
demonstrans, pedibusque ejus advolutus est. Quin, ut significaret se
satis intelligere quanta esset vis regiæ potestatis, hastam arreptam
domino porrexit, cuspide ad pectus suum directâ, atque hoc ipso
declaravit Robinsonem vitæ necisque habere potestatem. Tum
Robinson, assurgens in regiam majestatem, dextram subdito
porrexit, jussitque secum cœnare. Vendredi dicto audiens fuit, ita
tamen ut ipse ad pedes Robinsonis humi, ille verò in suggestu
graminis sederet.

Haud absimili ratione primi reges apud mortales exstitêre. Viri

nempe fuerunt sapientiâ, fortitudine atque corporis robore cæteris
præstantiores. Itaque infirmiores, ut se ab impetu ferarum, quibus
initio terræ plurimùm infestabantur, aut ab injuriâ vique hominum se
defenderent, confugêre ad potentioris auxilium. Pro quo præsidio, se
ea quæ imperâsset facturos polliciti sunt, daturosque quotannis
certam de fructibus [141]agrorum partem, ut patroni, quibus non
esset quærendum unde ipsi victitarent, toti essent in salute
subditorum propugnandâ. Quæquidem donaria regi à subditis
quotannis tribuenda, tributa vocata sunt. Hinc regum potestas, et
opes ; hinc obsequia debitaque subditorum.

Jam verè Robinson rex fuit. Quippe insula erat pro regno, lamæ
fructusque pro ærario, Vendredi pro subdito, unico quidem, sed
carissimo, psittacusque pro aulico, sed ferè inutili. Placuit sæpè regi
ad subditum usque descendere, quantùm regia dignitas pateretur.

Cœnâ confectâ, rex novus de cubiculis ritè disponendis

mandata dedit. Parùm sanè Robinson consideratè egisset, si socio,
qui tam brevì tempore tot munera adeptus erat (quippe qui esset
subditus idem et minister, legatus et miles, præfectus copiarum et
ædium), si, inquam, homini novo, nec satis probato, secum in eâdem
speluncâ recubandi licentiam dedisset. Ete [142]nim non satis tutum
habuit vitam suam cæcumque subterraneæ viæ exitum credere
externo et alienigenæ, de cujus fidelitate nondum adhuc spectatâ
non satis constabat. Itaque jubetur Vendredi ut idoneam fœni
copiam in caveam transportet, sibique inde paret cubile : novus
intereà rex, ut securitati suæ consulat, arma omnia in cubiculum
suum confert.

Tum Robinsonem non puduit in conspectu totius populi humili

ac prorsùs agresti ministerio fungi. Qui universæ, quaquà patebat,
insulæ imperitabat, qui in suos omnes subditos vitæ necisque jus
habebat, ille non erubuit, servilem in modum, regiis manibus lamas
ipse mulgere, ut ritè doceret ministrum, cui hanc provinciam posteà
mandare in animo habebat. Hic verò, quamvis rem attentè
consideraret, quò tamen spectaret minimè intellexit. Quippe nec ille,
nec ejus populares, ut hebeti prorsùs erant ingenio, unquam
suspicati fuerant lac animalium [143]salubre æquè ac nutriendo
corpori esse accommodatissimum : nunquàm hoc genus alimenti
labris attigerat. Itaque singularem cepit voluptatem, cum paululùm
lactis â Robinsone oblatum hausit.

Variis autem hujus diei molestiis periculisque fessi ambo somni

quietisque erant appetentissimi. Robinson igitur subdito mandavit, ut
ad lectum se conferret ; tum ipse quoque eò se contulit. Priùs tamen
quàm cubitum iret, noster non oblitus est gratias Deo agere, quòd
uno eodemque die tantis periculis defunctus fuisset, sibique similem
suî, socium et, ut sperabat, amicum ille misisset.
[144]
 Caput decimum octavum.

Suspicio in lætitiam et admirationem versa. — Casus qui risum

legenti movebit. — Rebus secundis adversæ levantur.

P ostero die Robinson cum socio statim ad eum locum se

contulit, ubi hesterno barbaros atrocibus epulis accumbentes
viderat. Inter eundum eò devenerunt, ubi ambo barbari à Robinsone
interfecti arenâ obruti jacebant. Vendredi, locum domino
demonstrans, apertè significavit quantùm gestiret cadavera ista
eruere, ut improbam carnis aviditatem expleret. Quem Robinson
intuens torvo vultu, ei declarat quantùm à tali facinore ipse
abhorreat, hastâque elatâ, infesto gestu, mortem ei denuntiat, ei
unquam ille ejusmodi cibum [145]attingeret. Quo quidem intellecto,
Vendredi statim domino paruit, incertus tamen quam ob causam sibi
epulis interdiceretur, quas à teneris non mediocriter appetierat.

Tunc ad locum convivii devenerunt. Heu ! qualis adspectus !

terra cruore tincta ! disjecta passim ossa ! Robinson oculos avertit,
sociumque jubet terram statim fodere, tristesque barbarorum
helluonum reliquias condere.

Dum ille mandata exsequitur, Robinson cineres sopitos attentè

suscitabat, sperans se aliquam ignis particulam inventurum. Sed
frustra. Erat ignis omnino exstinctus ; quoquidem Robinson
magnoperè doluit. Ex quo enim divino munere socium sibi
adjunxerat, nihil ipsi ferè optandum supererat præter ignem. Dum
autem ille, capite inclinato, mœstoque vultu exstinctos cineres
adspicit, ecce Vendredi, cùm dominum cogitatione defixum
animadvertisset, nonnulla signa dedit, quæ Robinson non
[146]intellexit ; tum subitò arreptâ securi, citatissimo cursu silvam petit
intimam, Robinsonemque relinquit obstupescentem.

« Quid hoc sibi vult ? ait secum Robinson, dum euntem anxiis
prosequitur oculis. Mene homo deserat, et ablatâ securi aufugiat ?
an ille sit tam perfidus, ut meum habitaculum occupet, ut me ipsum
vi inde arceat, et popularibus suis inhumanis prodat. Proh scelus ! »
Statimque inflammatus irâ hastam corripit, ut proditorem
persequatur, nefariaque consilia et puniat et prævertat. Dum sic de
fide barbari timet, videt hominem citatissimo cursu redeuntem.
Robinson sistit gradum, miraturque eum, quem proditionem
machinari suspicatus fuerat, sublatum graminis aridi manipulum
tenere unde fumus oriebatur. Jam in flammam erumpit ; et Vendredi,
manipulo in terram projecto, addit diligenter majorem graminis aridi
atque sarmentorum copiam, clarumque et ardentem ignem
succendit : quod [147]quidem non minorem Robinsoni lætitiam quam
admirationem movit.

Tum compertâ causâ propter quam Vendredi subitò excurrerat,

cùm ipse tantam lætitiam capere non posset, hic illum amplexus
osculatusque tacitè rogat præconceptæ suspicionis veniam.

Scilicet Vendredi diligenter silvam petierat, ut è trunco arido duo

ligni fragmenta excideret. Qua ille scitè alterum altero colliserat tantâ
celeritate, ut ignem conciperent. Tum citiùs lignis arido gramine
involutis, cum isto manipulo procurrerat, quâ motûs velocitate
exarserat fœnum.

Tantoperè agitatione flammarum Robinson delectatus est, ut

illarum adspectu satiari non posset. Tandem arreptâ tædâ, comite
Vendredi, in habitaculum properat.

Tum igne accenso, nonnullisque solanorum tuberibus circa

focum positis, ad gregem festinat ; lamæ pullum eligit, mac [148]tat,
dissecat, quartamque ejus partem veru affigit, quod socio
versandum mandat.

Intereà dum ille hoc munere fungitur, Robinson segmentum

pectoris amputat ; tum nonnulla tubera probè lavat, manipulumque
zeæ duobus saxis adhibitis molit ; hæc omnia ollæ committit, in quâ,
addito sale, idoneam aquæ partem infundit, ac demùm olla igni
apponitur.

Vendredi istum omnem apparatum cernebat, nec intelligebat

quò res spectaret. Noverat quidem usum assandi, sed nunquàm de
arte coquendi audiverat. Quin etiam ignorabat, quænam esset vis
ignis in aquam ollæ infusam. Quæquidem fervere cœpit, cùm
Robinson paululum in speluncam secessisset. Vendredi obstupuit,
miratus quid esset quod sic aquam moveret.

Cùm verò eam vidit exæstuantem et undequàque exundantem,

stultè putavit animal in ollâ esse, quod istum derepente æstum
excitaret : ut autem impediret, ne omnis ab ollâ aqua effunderetur,
manum [149]celeriter immersit, ut animal noxium caperet. Tum verò
clamorem et ululatum edidit, quo tota personuit spelunca. Hoc audito
Robinson valdè exterritus est, existimans à barbaris
supervenientibus socium opprimi. Itaque timor et insitus in animis
propriæ salutis amor suadebant, ut per subterraneum cuniculum
effugeret. Mox autem consilium abjecit, turpe ratus subditum, aut
potiùs amicum, in ancipiti periculo deserere. Sine morâ igitur è
speluncâ prorupit armis instructus, paratusque vitam ipse suam
profundere, ut comitem è manibus barbarorum iterum eriperet.

Ut verò obstupuit, cùm hominem solum, amentis instar,

ululantem gestuque insolito circum trepidantem vidit ! Diù quoque
Robinson dubius anxiusque hæsit. Re demum explanatâ, intellexit
omne malum ex eo esse, quòd manum sibi Vendredi leviter usserit.
Nunquàm ille neque audiendo, neque experiendo cognoverat aquæ
fervorem addi posse ; nunquàm manu tetigerat [150]aquam fervidam :
itaque non potuit intelligere, quæ causa esset doloris ejus quem
manu in aquam immersâ sensit. Sic igitur magicâ quâdam arte hoc
fieri, dominumque magum esse existimavit, Robinson ægrè animum
socii sedare, eique persuadere potuit, ut denuò carni veru versandæ
assideret. Ille mandato tandem obsecutus, ollam non sine horroris
quodam sensu, dominum verò, quem humanâ conditione majorem
nunc putavit, timidâ cum reverentiâ contemplatus est. Quamquidem
opinionem albus color promissaque barba etiam confirmabant : hæc
enim efficiebant, ut Robinson specie oris longè differret à socio
ejusque popularibus, fuscum colorem et imberbem vultum
præferentibus.

Jam verò prandium paratum erat. Quantoperè Robinson calidis

et pinguibus cibis delectatus sit, facile est intelligere. Nunc quoque
calamitatum præteritarum oblitus sibi in animo fingit jam non desertâ
in insulâ, sed in regione frequentissimâ se [151]versari. Sic animi
vulnera insperato quodam gaudio sanari solent, etsi illa plerumque
insanabilia putamus.
 Prandio confecto, Robinson secessit, ut de prosperâ rerum
suarum commutatione secum ipse meditaretur. Nunc omnia ei
arridere visa sunt. Quippe qui jam non esset homo solitarius,
socioque gauderet quîcum nondum quidem colloqui, sed ex cujus
consuetudine multum solatii opisque licebat exspectare.

Et verò cogitanti venit quidem in mentem vitam mollem atque

otiosam agere, dum intereà Vendredi, juvenis robustusque, de quo
prætereà tam benè meritus fuerat, ut eum sibi famulum jure quodam
vindicaret, necessariis muneribus laboribusque perfungeretur. Sed
cùm intùs reputâsset fieri posse ut aliquandò tam felici ipse
conditione excideret ; tunc verò, si otio atque inertiâ corrumpi se
pateretur, molestum sibi fore ad duritiem paupertatemque prioris
vitæ redire ; statuit in labore [152]æquè gnaviter ac strenuè
perseverare : atque, hoc decreto, è strato exsilit, citatoque gressu in
vestibulo domicilii obambulat. Intereà Vendredi ciborum reliquiis in
cellâ sepositis, Robinsonis jussu, ad lamas mulgendas abit.
[153]