238    EARLY  DEVELOPMENT  OF  MOHAMMEDANISM

With  regard  to  the  life  of  the  Prophet,  the  fictions
wherewith  it  was  embelhshed  were  rarely  such  as  to
impair  the  historical  narrative.  The  order  of  events
almost  from  the  commencement  of  the  mission  was
of  such  grave  importance  for  a  variety  of  reasons
that  serious  alteration  was  not  easily  possible ;  the
chronology  of  that  career  had  come  to  be  bound  up
with  a  variety  of  vested  interests,  whence  it  was  not
possible  to  disturb  it.  The  hands  and  arms  whereon
the  Prophet  had  relied  were  so  well  known,  the
exploits  of  the  champions  of  Islam  so  celebrated,
that  they  had  to  be  admitted.  In  a  letter  which  is
some  ten  years  earlier  in  date  than  the  first  biography
of  the  Prophet,  the  Caliph  Mansur  assumes  that  the
main  facts  of  it  are  known :  the  genuineness  of  the
letter  is  evinced  by  the  fact  that  its  author  carelessly
misquotes  the  Koran.  The  attempts  that  are  made
to  whitewash  the  hei^os  eponymus  of  the  Abbasids,
the  Prophet's  uncle  *Abbas,  by  making  him  out  a
secret  adherent  of  the  Prophet,  are  either  clumsy
or  unconvincing.  History  was  not  seriously  affected
by  mild  fictions,  showing  how  the  Prophet  had
decided  various  cases  that  had  come  up  for  decision,
or  attributing  to  him  stores  of  wisdom  on  all  subjects,
not  excepting  medicine  and  cookery.  The  canon
which  we  have  seen  to  be  assumed  or  formulated,
that  the  Prophet's  practices  should  be  preferred  to
the  product  of  the  reasoning  faculty,  was  a  safeguard
against  serious  misrepresentation  of  his  career  ;  for
since  a  thing  was  right  because  he  had  said  or  done
it,  his  character  would  not  suffer  from  anything  that


THE   HISTORICAL   SUPPLEMENT  239

might  be  recorded  about  him.  Still,  it  could  not  be
expected  that  his  followers  would  wish  otherwise
than  that  his  character  should  be  regarded  as
admirable  by  any  standard ;  and  in  treatises  of
metaphysical  theology  the  unapproachable  perfection
of  the  Prophet's  character  is  urged  as  a  proof  of  his
mission.
