ter of--such, namely, as have been taken in war, or have been
acquired by gift or purchase. These he may receive into his harem
instead of wives, or in addition to them; and without any limit of
number or restraint whatever he is at liberty to cohabit with them.

[Sidenote: Polygamy, concubinage, and divorce. Practice at the rise of
Islam.]
A few instances taken at random will enable the reader to judge how the
indulgences thus allowed by the religion were taken advantage of in the
early days of Islam. In the great plague which devastated Syria seven
years after the prophet's death Khalid, the Sword of God, lost _forty_
sons. Abdal Rahman, one of the "companions" of Mohammed, had issue by
sixteen wives, not counting slave-girls.[62] Moghira ibn Shoba, another
"companion," and governor of Kufa and Bussorah, had in his harem eighty
consorts, free and servile. Coming closer to the Prophet's household, we
find that Mohammed himself at one period had in his harem no fewer than
nine wives and two slave-girls. Of his grandson Hasan we read that his
vagrant passion gained for him the unenviable sobriquet of _The
Divorcer_; for it was only by continually divorcing his consorts that he
could harmonize his craving for fresh nuptials with the requirements of
the divine law, which limited the number of his free wives to four. We
are told that, as a matter of simple caprice, he exercised the power of
divorce seventy (according to other traditions ninety) times. When the
leading men complained to Aly of the licentious practice of his son his
only reply was that the remedy lay in their own hands, of refusing Hasan
their daughters altogether.[63] Such are the material inducements, the
"works of the flesh," which Islam makes lawful to its votaries, and
which promoted thus its early spread.

[Sidenote: Practice in modern times.
The Malays of Penang.
Lane's testimony concerning Egypt.
The princess of Bhopal's account of Mecca.]
Descending now to modern times, we still find that this sexual license
is taken advantage of more or less in different countries and conditions
of society. The following examples are simply meant as showing to what
excess it is possible for the believer to carry these indulgences,
_under the sanction of his religion_. Of the Malays in Penang it was
written not very long ago: "Young men of thirty to thirty-five years of
age may be met with who have had from fifteen to twenty wives, and
children by several of them.