Ethiopian nurse, and committed to the care of his grandfather Abd-ul-Muttalib.[1]
It is recorded of the old man that he became greatly attached to his grandchild, and permitted him to take liberties that aroused the jealousy of his sons, who would attempt to drive the child away. "Let my little son alone", the old man would say, making room for him on the rug on which he sat. Mohammed soon began to feel and appreciate the bereavement he had suffered in the loss of both his parents and became, it is recorded, a pensive and meditative child. It is obvious that the tenderness shewn to him by his grandfather, as well as the nobility of the patriarch to whom such great deference was always paid, must have greatly impressed the imagination of the child, more particularly when he began to weave what Freud terms his "Family Romance",[2] wherein the replacement of the father by a more agreeable substitute is the most prominent phantasy.
In the case of Mohammed there must have been a departure from the line which this phantasy-formation usually follows, since as we have already observed, Mohammed was the posthumous child of this father and, in addition, he did not live for more than a few months in contact with his mother, during the whole course of his life. Hence that feeling of hostility usually reserved for the father, was in the case of Mohammed reserved for his grandfather, who came to play in every respect the rôle of father. Furthermore, the peculiar circumstances of Mohammed's life must
have given rise to the idea that for him his father and mother had never existed, an illusion which must have received considerable support by his constant association with his young step-grandmother, who was of the same generation as his own mother, being her first cousin, as well as with his young uncle Hamza, who was also his foster-brother. At least one result of this con-
- ↑ In a footnote to his sketch of the life history of Amenhotep, Abraham calls attention to the important rôle the wet-nuro may play in the life of the child and how with the neurotic "genießt schr häufig die Amme einen besonderen Vorzug". In this respect also both Amenhotep and Mohammed displayed similar tendencies, It is recorded that the wet-nursc of Amenhotep was permitted by him to take up a prominent place at his court, while Mohammed never omitted to pay affectionate compliments to Halima, and for the devoted Omm Ayman he found a husband in no less a person than his own beloved adopted son, Zeid bin Haritha.
- ↑ See Rank: Der Mythus von der Geburt des Helden.
