to the agony of his dissolution: his head was
reclined on the lap of Ayesha, the best beloved of all his wives; he
fainted with the violence of pain; recovering his spirits, he raised his
eyes towards the roof of the house, and, with a steady look, though a
faltering voice, uttered the last broken, though articulate, words:
"O God!..... pardon my sins....... Yes, ...... I come,...... among my
fellow-citizens on high;" and thus peaceably expired on a carpet spread
upon the floor. An expedition for the conquest of Syria was stopped by
this mournful event; the army halted at the gates of Medina; the chiefs
were assembled round their dying master. The city, more especially
the house, of the prophet, was a scene of clamorous sorrow of silent
despair: fanaticism alone could suggest a ray of hope and consolation.
"How can he be dead, our witness, our intercessor, our mediator, with
God? By God he is not dead: like Moses and Jesus, he is wrapped in a
holy trance, and speedily will he return to his faithful people." The
evidence of sense was disregarded; and Omar, unsheathing his cimeter,
threatened to strike off the heads of the infidels, who should dare
to affirm that the prophet was no more. The tumult was appeased by the
weight and moderation of Abubeker. "Is it Mahomet," said he to Omar and
the multitude, "or the God of Mahomet, whom you worship? The God of
Mahomet liveth forever; but the apostle was a mortal like ourselves, and
according to his own prediction, he has experienced the common fate of
mortality." He was piously interred by the hands of his nearest kinsman,
on the same spot on which he expired: [151] Medina has been sanctified
by the death and burial of Mahomet; and the innumerable pilgrims of
Mecca often turn aside from the way, to bow, in voluntary devotion,
[152] before the simple tomb of the prophet. [153]

[Footnote 149: The epilepsy, or falling-sickness, of Mahomet is asserted
by Theophanes, Zonaras, and the rest of the Greeks; and is greedily
swallowed by the gross bigotry of Hottinger, (Hist. Orient. p. 10, 11,)
Prideaux, (Life of Mahomet, p. 12,) and Maracci, (tom. ii. Alcoran, p.
762, 763.) The titles (the wrapped-up, the covered) of two chapters of
the Koran, (73, 74) can hardly be strained to such an interpretation:
the silence, the ignorance of the Mahometan commentators, is more
conclusive than the most peremptory denial; and the charitable side is
espoused by Ockley, (Hist. of the Saracens, tom. i