Page 121 - Dilmun 23

THE HERO AS PROPHET MAHOMET AND ISLAM

and journalism. They were also years of intense spiritual
struggle as he sought a belief systen. His sympathetic
appraisal of Islam was I think based on his admiration for its
absolute certitude and the strong, heroic figure of the prophet:
throughout his life he admired the strong nen of history.

In 1826 Carlyle married Jane Welsh, daughter of a doctor, and
in 1834 moved to London and lived in Cheyne walk Chelsea.
Here he published his autobiographical-philosophical work
Sartor Resartus which achieved great popular success. He
carried on a fruitful corresponedce with Goethe and translated
his Wilheln Meister.

His major works included the French Revolution (1837), his
Histoyr of Frederick the Great (1858), On Heroes, Hero­
Worship, and the Heroic in Histoyr (1841). It is this latter
work that concerns this evening as it includes his essay on
Mahomet and Islam. In this work he claims that it is great men
that have moved universal histoyr. He gives examples of the
Hero as Divinity, the Hero as Poet, the Hero as ing or
Conqueror and the Hero as Prophet. In many ways Carlyle
was a tortured soul, full of doubts, yet seeikng absolute
certainty on spiritual questions ? and like many readers were
thrilled by the drama of his narratives, they were puzzled by
his mixture of radicalism and consevratism. In old age he was
revered by the literayr establishment as The Sage of Chelsea.

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