A Mohammedan writer, Syed Ahmed Khan Bahador, has lately published, in English, a series of Essays on the life of Mohammed, Arabia, the Arabs, Mohammedan traditions, and kindred topics, written from the stand-point of a believer in Islam.[388] He is dissatisfied with all the recent works on Mohammed, including those of Dr. Sprenger and Mr. Muir.  He believes that the Arabic sources from which these biographies are derived are not the most authentic.  The special objections, however, which this able Mohammedan urges against these European biographies by Sprenger and Muir do not affect any of the important points in the history, but only details of small moment.  Notwithstanding his criticisms, therefore, we may safely assume that we are in a condition to understand the actual life and character of Mohammed.  All that the Syed says concerning the duty of an impartial and friendly judgment of Islam and its author is, of course, true.  We shall endeavor in our treatment of Mohammed to follow this exhortation.

Something, however, is always gained by hearing what the believers in a system have to say in its behalf, and these essays of the Mohammedan scholar may help us in this way.  One of the most curious parts of the volume is that in which he treats of the prophecies concerning Mohammed in the Old and New Testament.  Most of our readers will be surprised at learning that any such prophecies exist; and yet some of them are quite as striking as many of those commonly adduced by writers on prophecy as referring to Jesus Christ.  For example (Deut. xviii. 15, 18), when Moses predicts that the Lord will raise up a prophet for the Jews, from among their brethren; by emphasizing this latter clause, and arguing that the Jews had no brethren except the Ishmaelites, from whom Mohammed was born, an argument is derived that the latter was referred to.  This is strengthened by the declaration of Moses, that this prophet should be “like unto me,” since Deuteronomy xxxiv. 10 declares that “there arose no prophet in Israel like unto Moses.”

Habakkuk iii. 3 says:  “The Holy One came from Mount Paran.”  But Mount Paran, argues our friend, is the mountain of Mecca.

The Hebrew word translated “desire” in Haggai ii. 7, “The desire of all nations shall come,” is said by Bahador to be the same word as the name Mohammed.  He is therefore predicted by his name in this passage.

When Isaiah says (xxi. 7), according to the Septuagint translation, that he “saw two riders, one on an ass and one on a camel,” Bahador argues that the rider on the ass is Jesus, who so entered Jerusalem, and that the rider on the camel is Mohammed.

When John the Baptist was asked if he were the Christ, or Elijah, or “that prophet,” Mohammedans say that “that prophet,” so anticipated, was their own.

Sec. 2.  The Arabs and Arabia.