The Mussulmauns have permission from their Lawgiver to be pluralists in wives, as well as the Israelites of old.[1] Mahumud’s motive for restricting the number of wives each man might lawfully marry, was, say his biographers, for the purpose of reforming the then existing state of society, and correcting abuses of long standing amongst the Arabians.

My authority tells me, that at the period of Mahumud’s commencing his mission, the Arabians were a most abandoned and dissolute people, guilty of every excess that can debase the character of man:  drunkards, profligate, and overbearing barbarians, both in principle and action.  Mahumud is said unvariedly to have manifested kindly feelings towards the weaker sex, who, he considered, were intended to be the companion and solace of man, and not the slave of his ungovernable sensuality or caprice; he set the best possible example in his own domestic circle, and instituted such laws as were then needed to restrain vice and promote the happiness of those Arabians who had received him as a Prophet.  He forbade all kinds of fermented liquors, which were then in common use; and to the frequent intoxication of the men, were attributed their vicious habits, base pursuits, and unmanly cruelty to the poor females.  Mahumud’s code of laws relating to marriage restricted them to a limited number of wives; for at that period they all possessed crowded harems, many of the inhabitants of which were the victims of their reckless persecution; young females torn from the bosom of their families and immured in the vilest state of bondage, to be cast out upon the wide world to starvation and misery, whenever the base master of the house or tent desired to make room for a fresh supply, often the spoils of his predatory excursions.

By the laws of Mahumud his followers are restrained from concubinage; they are equally restricted from forced marriages.  The number of their wives must be regulated by their means of supporting them, the law strictly forbidding neglect, or unkind treatment of any one of the number his followers may deem it convenient to marry.

At the period when Mahumud issued these necessary laws for the security of female comfort and the moral habits of the males, there existed a practice with the Arabs of forcing young women to marry against their inclination, adding, year by year, to the many wretched creatures doomed, for a time, to all the miseries of a crowded hut; and at last, when tired of their persons or unable to provide them with sustenance, turning them adrift without a home, a friend, or a meal.  To the present day the law against forced marriages is revered, and no marriage contract can be deemed lawful without the necessary form of inquiry by the Maulvee, who, in the presence of witnesses, demands of the young lady, ’whether the contract is by her own free will and consent?’ This, however, I am disposed to think, in the present age, is little else than a mere form of ‘fulfilling