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PREFACE
As stated in the Note on Sources, this book is essentially an abridgement of the account of Muhammad in my volumes Muhammad at Mecca and Muhammad at Medina. Apart from the omission of a mass of detail, the chief difference is that chronological order is more closely followed. I hope this change will enable readers to gain a clearer picture of the man and his achievement.
The system of transliteration is one of the usual ones except that, to avoid unsightly ligatures, an apostrophe is placed between two consonants in certain cases to indicate that they are to be pronounced separately, e.g. Is’haq. Where there is no apostrophe, the pairs dh, gh, kh, sh, th each represent a single sound. Between two vowels or between a vowel and a consonant the apostrophe still represents the glottal stop reckoned a consonant in Arabic.
I am indebted to Miss Shona Reid for the compilation of the index.
W. Montgomery Watt
The University, Edinburgh,
August, 1960
The Gifted Orphan
Under the blazing sun of a summer day in Syria towards the year 600 a caravan of Arab merchants with loaded camels was moving slowly southwards. They had come from Mecca, some forty days’ march to the south, with Arabian frankincense, Indian spices and silks, and other luxury goods. They had sold or bartered these in the markets of Syria, presumably in Damascus ; and now, laden with other wares, they were setting out for home.
Near Bostra on the flank of the Jebel-ed-Druze they passed the cell of a Christian hermit, the monk Bahira. Most of the men in the caravan had frequently passed the cell, but the monk had paid no attention to them. This day, however, he invited them to a feast. They left the youngest member of the party to keep an eye on the camels and the loads, and went to be the monk’s guests. The monk was not content, however. He wanted the whole party without exception. There was in his cell a book of ancient lore, handed down to him by previous hermits who had lived there. Aided by the knowledgc^hejiad gained-from-this book he hSdTbecomesupernaturally aware that there was a personage bF^eafTmpoftance in this caravan. He had seen a cloud and aTtree~protecting him from the glaring sun ; and he wanted to know whether this person had also the other signs mentioned in his book which would mark him out as a great prophet.
'At the monk’s insistence the Arabs agreed that the boy left with the camels should also come to the feast. The monk wanted to know all about him. He questioned the uncle in whose charge the boy was, and then he had a long talk with 1 the boy himself. He looked at the boy’s back and saw a I mark between his shoulders which he recognized as the seal … | 
