Movatterモバイル変換

Midway between Asia and Africa lies the giant peninsulaof Arabia—the vast, immutable, resplendently mysteriouscountry that bridges the Orient and the Occident.Shaped somewhat like a triangle and somewhatlike an oblong, she appears to the vulgar eye more likea boot with its toe lopped off. Three bodies of water—theRed Sea, the Arabian Sea, and the PersianGulf—roll their guardian waves against her rocky,mountainous coasts, while her northern domain isstaunchly defended by the impassable Syrian Desert.

Perhaps no other country, not even Switzerland, hasbeen so well protected by nature against the assaults—military,economic or religious—of the outside world.Before the seventh century, the fury of the Romanlegions and the enthusiasm of martial Christians hadbeen expended in prodigious but wholly futile effortsto subjugate her: the one because its soldiers died ofheat and thirst in her almost uninhabitable interior, andthe other because its votaries too often restricted theirreligious zeal to a general consumption of alcohol and[p. 10]to an individual union with more than one wife or concubine.But in any case, inasmuch as the Arabs werefierce and warlike by nature, and were acquainted withsuch refinements of wine and concupiscence as even themost aspiring Christians had not achieved, the attacksof Pagan Rome and Christian Palestine would probablyhave come to naught. Even to this day, indeed, Arabiahas been left almost entirely alone by the outside world.Timeless, changeless and unromantic save to the capriciousimagination of poets and travelers, her interminable,ocean-like billows of arid sand have savedher from all conquests. As she was in the dim and remotebeginnings of history, so she largely remains; andthe modern wanderer who penetrates her obscure interiorcannot be certain whether he will be greeted withaffluent hospitality or a frowning hostility that mayprove inimical to life itself.

A land of contrasts! Three-fourths surrounded bywater, her extensive interior is a scorched and stony desert;her verdant southern coasts are soon lost in a lifelessand almost level plateau; her abundantly fertileprovince of Yemen, known to romance as Araby theBlest, fades northward into the ominous wastes ofNejd, or Arabia Deserta, and northwestward into theprecipitous wilds of Hejaz, or Arabia Petræa. Shortrivers hurl their jagged torrents down her sloping sides,[p. 11]while prolific oases, always placid and unruffled, dother deserts. The fragrant breezes that come from theIndian Ocean are quickly assimilated into the stagnant,oppressive atmosphere of her centre; her palmy springsmay teem with sweet and pure waters, or with saline,sulphurous scum. The broiling rays of the midday sungive way nightly to bitter and frosty dews; her long-slumberingsands are at times whirled violently aloft bysharp, sudden, blinding storms that often overwhelmcaravans and tents, to subside as suddenly, leaving hersurface forever different—and yet forever the same. Aland untouched by time, where time’s oppression is yetmost powerfully felt; a land that never alters, thoughperpetually subject to alteration; a land where the newis eternally old, and the old is eternally new.

Nor does the paradox confine itself to her terrain;her inhabitants and their social institutions, particularlyduring the seventh century, exhibited correspondingdiscrepancies. Although all Arabs were ruled by nearlyidentical codes of honor, morals and manners, spoke ageneric tongue, and were passionately patriotic, theywere yet divided into tribes that bowed before countlessfetishes, conversed in individual dialects, and wereever ready to fight to the death for the supremacy oftheir particular clan. At times of national danger, itis true, they fervently abandoned all local prejudices in[p. 12]a tumultuous display of chauvinism; but such contingencieswere rare and, since the vague, immemorial inceptionof her history, Arabian tribes, on the slightestpretext or on no pretext at all, had frequently plungedwith limitless enthusiasm into the gratifying job ofslitting fraternal throats. All these various tribes,moreover, were grouped into two fairly distinct divisions:the city-dwellers and the Bedouins.

From her earliest days, Arabia had depended oncaravan trade for her subsistence. In the times ofAbraham, Moses and Solomon, her traders had carriedthe fragrant spices and other products of Palestine andArabia—cassia, cinnamon, frankincense, myrrh, gums,leather and coffee—into Egypt; and, conversely, the“Kings of Arabia” had also freighted into Judea andtheir own beloved land the priceless rarities of the Orient:ivory, ebony and precious gems. For the dangersof ocean commerce made a land route absolutely essentialfor the exchange of merchandise between the Eastand the West, and Arabia alone supplied the necessarybridge for this extensive barter. Caravans from everynation, therefore, had for centuries passed each otheron her sere surface; her oases had thus become cynosureswhere rest and refreshment could be had; and so by degreesthese centres of repose became the sites wheremarts, temples and sanctuaries sprang indiscriminately[p. 13]up. These nuclei of elementary civilizations led, littleby little, to the development of an urban populationwhere those Arabs who chanced to be disposed towardpeace and business could lead a moderately serene life.But the instinct of nomadism was incalculably strongin most of Arabia’s sons, and myriads of men, yieldingto the powerful atavistic impulse, gladly relinquishedthe relatively soft environment of urbanism in order toundergo, with fatalistic indifference, the hazards of aroaming, marauding, desert life.

These Bedouins, “dwellers in the open land” or “peopleof the tent,” were at once independent and servile,patriotic and anarchistic, friendly and hostile, thievishand chivalric. A contemptuous impatience of restraintsand bonds of any kind made each one of themlook upon himself as a king; at the same time each onewillingly bowed the knee to the precepts of the mostpowerful ruler, or sheik, who, through the prestige of inherentor acquired power, automatically guided theshifting destinies of each clan. Their strongest institutionwas the blood-feud—quickly abandoned, to be sure,when a common enemy appeared on the horizon—andtribal warfare or personal strife was an every-day affair;nevertheless, the centralizing power arising fromperpetual traditions of a mutual fraternalism of interestsheld these roving hordes in an elastic coalescence.[p. 14]The stranger who sought the hospitality of their tentsmight be greeted by a flashing scimitar or a handclaspand a hearty dinner—he could never tell which fatewould be his, except by experiment. If he were successful,he was naturally pleased; whereas, if he failed,his opinion and his life were soon of no moment to anyonesave the Bedouins who took his booty. Equallysensitive to insults or compliments, they guarded aboveall else the honor of their beards and their women: toshake the one was to invite immediate death, and to castthe smallest aspersion on the other was to embrace acorresponding doom. And still, despite the obeisancepaid to women, the birth of a daughter was looked uponas a horrible misfortune. The burial alive of femaleinfants was a common custom, and the natural deathof one brought hearty congratulations to the fortunateparents; while such girls as managed to remain alive untiltheir seventh or eighth year were summarily disposedof at that tender age to the first suitor who appeared.Women, in brief, were mere chattel: the eldest son commonlyinherited his father’s wives as a logical and desirableportion of the parental estate.

Their livelihood was won principally by the robbingof caravans. The plundering of them, in fact, wasjustly held by the Bedouins to be merely a righteousmethod of exacting the customs that were levied everywhere;[p. 15]for the land, they maintained, was exclusivelytheirs by right of domain, and trespassers thereon mustpay an appropriate penalty. Mounted upon their swiftand spirited horses, sprung from the purest pedigreethrough many generations of careful selection andtrained to respond instantly to the slightest touch ofthe rein, the Bedouins rarely failed to overtake theirfleeing prey. Since the loot of caravans supplied themwith all the necessities of life, they naturally worshipedtheir horses and camels—in particular the ones theyhad stolen—with a superstitious reverence. Theirdromedaries, indeed, offered an escape from every contingency:they furnished transportation, food (bothtender flesh and milk), long hair for tent-building, and,in case of a pinch, the water in their capacious reservoirscould be used for drink and their dung for fuel.The supreme height of generosity for a Bedouin was attainedon those very rare occasions when he slaughteredhis own cherished camel to feed and warm the strangerof a night.

In some respects the most striking and potent socialinstitution among the Arabs, urbanites and nomadsalike, was the annual fair. Every year, during certainmonths that were supposed to be inviolably sacred—sosacred, in fact, that even personal and tribal broils weretaboo—a series of pageants was held throughout the[p. 16]whole country; but the most populous and successful ofthem all was celebrated at Ukaz, near Mecca. To thatplace came Arabia’s best and fairest: opulent merchants,actors garbed in masks or veils, poets of the desert, sheiksnotorious for their proficiency in war and love, dancinggirls, and maidens whose alluring sensuousness wassubtly dissembled in languorous modesty, met on a commonfooting. Specimens of trade and primitive artabounded in many booths; the violent contortions of thecorybantes, as they whirled dizzily from tent to tent,excited the reckless Bedouins to such a pitch thatdrunken orgies occasionally followed, during which thesacred season was momentarily forgotten and resolutionsof peace and chastity conveniently overlooked.The pious devotions of pilgrims, the piteous moans ofbeggars for alms, and the quiet exchange of talk betweentraders, sightseers and friends, was often disturbedby hilarious shrieks of applause for the bacchantes,by the clang of the cymbal, and the clash of thescimitar. If shrines for prayer were open all day, gamblinghouses did a flourishing business at night; and ifpoetic and histrionic contests delighted the onlookers,unfortunate results frequently followed. For thepoets, chanting a rudely rhythmical verse, incontinentlyboasted their individual excellence in the manufactureof stanzas; and not seldom did they caustically satirize[p. 17]the members of some other clan, meanwhile boundlesslyextolling the bravery of their own warriors and thesurpassing beauty and chastity of their women. Allthis bloated braggadocio paved the way to feuds betweendifferent tribes, and thus the fairs, which were supposedto allay hatreds and inculcate friendships, often led toresults that were precisely opposite. Thus, for weeksand even months, the glittering, gorgeously coloredspectacle went on—a dazzling drama that, in its violentcontrasts of mystical adoration and wanton lechery, ofhumility and gross egotism, of entrancing beauty andfetid squalor, furnishes perhaps the best clue to the complexand divergent character of Arabia’s children.

Her religion was an all-pervading form of indigenousand manifold idolatry, tinctured with faint traces ofJudaism and Christianity. The worship of the stars,that furnished a nightly quota of detached beauty and—whatwas more important—utility as a never-failingcompass, is easily understandable; but just why sheshould have reverenced the blazing tropical sun and thetons upon tons of stones that were sprinkled over herparched surface, tempts to a metaphysical speculationwhich—as certain learned dissertations prove—is morefascinating than illuminating. Perhaps the most originaland poetic element in this idol-worship was a vaguebelief in the Jinn: those vast, inchoate, awe-inspiring[p. 18]creatures, now friendly and now inimical, that—so everydevout Arab believed—brooded like gigantic birds inthe illimitable heavens that canopied Arabia. Judaismhad made some effort to proselytize the Arabs, but hadwisely given up the attempt after it realized what fascinatingopportunities existed for the profits of trade.Christian Abyssinia, too, had manifested a laudable desireto turn her Pagan neighbor to the right way; butproud and impetuous Arabs were not particularly susceptibleto the pleas of negroes, even though theychanced to be Christian negroes; and besides, the dialecticalhair-splittings which so enthralled the followersof Arius and Athanasius could hardly be expected tooffer much interest to minds that unfortunately hadnever been given an opportunity to become enrapturedby the intricate charms of theology. But, in commonwith the devotees of Moses and Christ, the Arabs exaltedancestor-worship, and they even claimed, with afaith as touching as it was irrelevant, that Abrahamhimself was one of their most distinguished forefathers.

Here, then, was a land of marvelous opportunity forthe right man. Ruled by rigid taboos and certain patriarchsof exceptional prowess, yet actually without aruler; devoutly religious as religion goes, yet without aunifying religion; containing an enormous amount ofmilitary valor, yet wasting her strength in inter-tribal[p. 19]battles—Arabia, in the seventh century, stood in diredearth of some commanding personality. The consecutivedominions of Egypt, Assyria, Persia andGreece—nations that had once been supreme in regalsplendor—had disintegrated in rapid succession; andRome, the mightiest of them all, was now nearing hereclipse. Neither Syria nor Persia was of much accountany longer, Africa was weak, the Christians hadforgotten Christ in their absorption in the more thrillingpursuit of schismatic squabbling, and the Jews toooften bartered their sacred phylacteries for the productsof Pagan ingenuity. Meanwhile, during the kaleidoscopicevolution and disruption of world-conqueringempires, Arabia had dragged out only a ghostly existence;she was a nation that had either been carelesslyforgotten or contemptuously disregarded; shehad won no place in the sun. The general decadenceof nations and faiths at this time offered an unparallelledchance to the mythical Arab who, by evolving areligious and political system based upon the commonelements that formed the solid foundation of everyArabian tribe, should fuse the emotional and economicstrength of the land into an indivisible unity, and—whoknew?—perhaps carry on the torch recently droppedby the expiring Roman Empire. Now, as careful studentsof history are well aware, great men, whether[p. 20]warriors, statesmen or prophets, have a way of bobbingup at the precise moment when they are most needed.So it happened that, in the city of Mecca, probably inAugust in the year 570, Mohammed, the Prophet ofAllah, was born.

For centuries before the birth of the Prophet, Meccahad been the most populous and influential city inArabia. She owed this eminence to two very differentthings: to her geographical situation, and to somepretty legends that sought to explain her divine origin.

In the first place, she occupied a convenient andhighly strategic position on a great caravan route.She reposed in a natural amphitheatre, partially encompassedby precipitous hills of quartz and granite;touching her southern border lay the pleasant plainsof Yemen, while her northern edge was overhung bythe lowering rocks of Hejaz. The never-failing well,Zemzem, that gushed from her centre furnished an apparentlyinexhaustible supply of water for the passingtrains of merchandise; it became a refreshing stoppingplace, and thus by degrees grew to be a focusfor commerce. Crowds of traders, coming principallyfrom Yemen, eventually located there and establishedthe beginnings of a mercantile business: they collected[p. 21]the frontier customs, the hire for hauling produce, thedues arising from protection, and, in addition, theystarted various types of traffic among themselves.

Orthodox Arabs, however, prefer to explain hersuperiority by giving more credit to her miraculous inceptionthan to dry economic matters. According tothem, when Hagar was expelled into the wildernessshe chanced in her wanderings to come into the valeof Mecca. Both she and little Ishmael were almostovercome with thirst, when the child accidentally kickedthe ground in a paroxysm of passion, and lo! a streamof pure water bubbled forth from the spot struck byhis dainty toes. When Abraham heard of this miraclehe visited the place, and, aided by his dutiful sonIshmael, now grown to manhood, built a sacred templeand instituted definite rites of pilgrimage. Inasmuchas the Arabs had mingled with the Hebrew race formany generations on matters of business, it was perhapsnatural enough that they should have relied onthe Jews for a superior facility in poetical imaginationas well as a superior business credit.

Whichever explanation is more plausible, there isno doubt that, even before the beginning of theChristian era, Mecca was a well-established mercantilecity that included a sacred temple, the Kaba, which wasalready a national centre of adoration. At some early[p. 22]date there was instituted a carefully systematized, twofoldform of worship based upon well-tried Hebrewmodels: the Lesser and Greater Pilgrimages. Devoteeswho were able to satisfy their consciences by performingthe ritual of the Lesser Pilgrimage only, wentabout it thus: they came to Mecca, generally duringthe sacred month of Rejeb, feverishly kissed the blessedBlack Stone—the most divinely hallowed rock in acountry that reverenced every one of her millions ofstones—imbedded in the eastern corner of the Kaba,sedately walked seven times around the saintly edifice,and then marched in a more hasty manner seven timesto and fro between two spots near by, over a routewhich Hagar was supposed to have trod. But theGreater Pilgrimage demanded a more strenuous faith.Those who elected to perform its stricter stipulationscould do so only during the month of Dhul-Hijja,which was even more holy than Rejeb; and, besides accomplishingthe requirements already specified, theywere obliged to travel on foot to Arafat, a small hillsome twelve miles east of Mecca, and to struggle manfullyup its steep sides. Before entering the hallowedterritory of Mecca, the votaries of both pilgrimagesdonned a special raiment, and, when all the religiousactivities were completed, they shaved their heads andpared their nails.

Favored thus by nature and superstition, Mecca hadgrown apace. For centuries different clans vied witheach other in an effort to gain control of her destiny—acontrol that was eminently desirable, for by the fifthcentury Mecca wasMecca, in the most modern senseof the word. The dialect spoken by her citizens hadcome to be regarded as the standard of purity by whichall other tribes were judged; and pilgrims from everyextraneous Arabian clan, except the untamable Bedouins,came yearly to pay their vows and drink fromthe sacred fount of Zemzem—whose waters were abit brackish, to be sure, but still satisfactorily sacred.During that century a sect called the Koreish finallywon a foothold that gave every evidence of beingpermanent. Despite occasional bickerings amongthemselves as to matters of patronage and patriarchalsuccession, they always agreed when an outside enemyappeared; and successive victories over those who vainlysought to supplant them led to their exaltation throughoutall Arabia.

Elated with the pride of successful conquest, theKoreish were not slow to reap the fruits of power. Althoughthe sanctity of the holy city induced a generalatmosphere of peace, forays and brawls occasionallytook place, and the Koreish merchants therefore conceivedthe scheme of wearing badges that kept them[p. 24]moderately safe from assault. But measures of defencesoon gave way to offence: “Let us release ourselvesfrom some of the observances imposed upon themultitude,” they said. So they solaced themselves byundergoing the rites of the Lesser Pilgrimage only;they refused to be restricted to the use of the plainbutter and cheese that formed the staple pilgrim diet;they adopted the luxury of leathern tents instead ofthose made from camel-hair. Finally, they formulatedstringent rules to be observed by all pilgrims exceptthemselves—rules that smack more of economicpressure than unalloyed faith. All outsiders were forbiddento bring food within the walls of Mecca, andwere forced to circumnavigate the Kaba entirely nakedor dressed in clothes that could be obtained only fromthe Meccan merchants. In view of these facts, therecan be but little doubt that a prophet who would inventand promulgate a more pure and magnanimousfaith was very desirable.

Among the numberless misty matters that befog thecareer of Mohammed is the moot question of his parentage.The voice of Allah, speaking through the lipsof his Prophet in the Koran, proclaims that his bestbeloved son was an orphan, poor and astray; but, whilea proper modesty may well make one hesitate to questionthe smallest decree of such a transcendent authority,one can still scarcely refrain from noting that mostboys who attain a position of unrivaled eminence inlater life are prone to give a suspicious amount of emphasisto the hardships of their youth. Practicallyeverything that concerns the life of the Prophet isflecked with more or less obscurity—an obscurity thathas been intensified by both his friends and his foes.Almost all the Christian commentators have dwelt lovinglyupon the worst elements in the life and teachingsof Mohammed, and the numerous cliques of Arabs whowhined or rebelled against his imperial sway swelledthe chorus of malignant defamation; his followers, onthe contrary, have been guilty of the most fanatical[p. 26]panegyrics. Buffeted and disfigured between thesetwo intensely antagonistic forces of opinion, the massivefigure of Mohammed must forever remain largely ambiguousand enigmatical. His Boswells were too Boswellian,and his Froudes were too Froudish. And yet,by steering a zigzag course between the Scylla ofrhapsodical praise and the Charybdis of envious detraction,it may be possible to arrive at a relativelydetached and peaceful haven where the immeasurableArab looms a little less vaguely through the remotenessof thirteen centuries.

There seems to be little doubt that he was descendedfrom those lofty Koreish whose opposition, which atfirst nearly succeeded in holding his name in perpetualoblivion, eventually caused him to emerge into the lightof deathless fame. For a century and a half, his forefathershad been rulers among the Koreish. In themiddle of the fifth century, Kosai, his ancestor at thefifth remove, had won the distinction of being the firstman to advance the Koreish to a position of supremacyover Mecca. At his death his three sons fought for thehonor of succeeding him; but Abd Menaf won out,and was followed in turn by Hashim—rich, amorous,charitable, glorious Hashim!—and his son Abd Al-Muttalib,the estimable grandfather of the Prophet.

When Abd Al-Muttalib came into power early in[p. 27]the sixth century, he fell at first upon evil days. Certainof the Koreish were unfriendly, the caravan businesshad been in a bad way for some time, and theholy water of Zemzem, no longer used as of yore,had choked up and was almost forgotten. Abd Al-Muttalib,who well knew the traditions of its ancientglory, and who found it difficult to get enough waterfrom lesser Meccan wells for visiting pilgrims, instituteda laborious search for the venerable stoneworkwhich was known to have surrounded it. Finally hisvirtuous efforts were rewarded, and, aided by his sonAl-Harith, he began to scoop out the debris with whichit was clogged. As he neared the bottom, he came uponthe two golden gazelles, and the swords and suits ofarmor, that had been buried there by a Jurhumite kingthree centuries before as a suitable hiding place againstthe despoliations of his enemies. The Koreish, hearingof Abd Al-Muttalib’s lucky find, immediately demandeda share of the booty. It was finally agreedthat the dispute should be settled by the casting of lots:one for Abd Al-Muttalib, one for the Koreish, and—inasmuchas all parties concerned in the row were religiouslyminded—one for the Kaba. Abd Al-Muttalibgot the swords and armor, the Kaba got the gazelles,and the Koreish got nothing. That very day, indeed,dated their gradual defection from the faith of[p. 28]their fathers; but Abd Al-Muttalib, in an excessof grateful devotion, beat the gazelles into plates ofgold with which he decorated the interior door of theKaba, and, in a similar excess of caution, added agolden lock and key to the door. His faith was properlyrewarded, for from that day the waters of Zemzemagain flowed without interruption; and so Abd Al-Muttalibgrew in social, financial and religious strength,and became the father of many pious and powerfulsons. And yet—such a wayward and capricious dameis Clio!—there are those who aver that Mohammed’sgrandfather was not the leading Meccan of his time,and that most of the stories connected with his nameare fabulous inventions of the Prophet’s hero-worshipingsatellites.

Fortunately, all parties seem agreed that Abdallah,the youngest and most favored son of Abd Al-Muttalib,was the unambiguous sire of Mohammed. The waysof Allah are not less perplexing than the ways of God,and it appears probable that, had it not been for thedirect intervention of the whimsical Arabian Deity,Abdallah would have perished before he had begottenhis extraordinary son. During the early years of AbdAl-Muttalib, when he had but one son to aid him inhis struggles against his political opponents, he hadvowed that, should he ever be favored with ten sons,[p. 29]he would sacrifice one of them to the Deity. This vow—rashenough for any young man, and rashest of all,perhaps, for an Arab—was in the course of time providentiallyfulfilled; and when lots were cast by theobedient Abd Al-Muttalib, the fatal die fell uponAbdallah, his pet boy. The hitherto invincible faithof Abd Al-Muttalib was tremendously shaken; hisweeping daughters—for Allah had been more than generous—alsobesought him to cast lots between Abdallahand ten camels: the conventional substitute for humanbloodshed. For nine successive times the arrow pointedtoward Abdallah—could it be that Allah was inexorable?At each throw ten additional camels had beenadded to the previous number until, on the tenth throw,they amounted to an even hundred. Then at last Allah,who was presumably far more interested in the birthof Mohammed than in a wilderness of camels, relentedand released his faithful servant from his oath. Thusa hundred camels perished beneath the sacrificial knife,Abd Al-Muttalib’s piety was recompensed, Abdallahwas saved, and the miraculous birth of the Prophetwas assured.

It came about thus. Toward the end of 569, AbdAl-Muttalib had betrothed Abdallah to a Meccanmaiden named Amina; and at the same time, eventhough he was over seventy and Allah had abundantly[p. 30]granted his youthful plea for potency, he himself hadmarried a radiantly youthful cousin of Amina’s. Somemonths later Mecca was invaded by an army underAbraha, a Christian warrior from Abyssinia, whobrought an elephant in his train—a prodigy that soastounded the simple Arabs that the year of the invasionwas ever after called “the Elephant.” He hadcome, he said, merely to destroy the impious Kaba, andhe had no desire to shed any man’s blood; but inasmuchas the Meccans knew that Christian Abraha’sfervor had already manifested itself in the plunder ofhundreds of camels, they were rightly sceptical of anypromise whatever on his part. Overtures of peace wereunsuccessful, for on no account would the wealthyKoreish agree to permit the demolition of their mostremunerative mercantile house, and preparations wereaccordingly made to offer some feeble resistance to theinvader. Then Abd Al-Muttalib bethought himself ofa possible means to thwart the impending peril. Leaningon the door of the Kaba, he prayed aloud thus:“Defend, O Lord, thine own house, and suffer not theCross to triumph over the Kaba!” He then madehaste to join the other refugees, who had betaken themselvesto the neighboring crags to watch whatever mightbetide. Sharp-eared Allah, aloof in his own particularHeaven, heard the prayer and promptly answered it[p. 31]by inflicting a pestilential disease upon the raidingChristian hosts. Overwhelmed by the disaster, theybegan a confused retreat: hundreds of them died bythe wayside, and Abraha himself, covered with a massof poisonous and putrid ulcers, soon expired in terribleagony. Thus was the Kaba gloriously saved and theCross ignominiously overthrown—an event so propheticalof coming centuries that its portentous symbolismdemanded an incarnate manifestation. The routedChristian warriors had barely left the shores of Arabiawhen Amina gave birth to a son.

His advent, we are told, was decorously surroundedby all manner of signs and omens. The travail ofAmina was entirely painless; earthquakes loosed thebowels of mountains and caused great bodies of water,whose names were unfortunately not specified, towither away or overflow; the sacred fire of Zoroasterwhich, under the jealous care of the Magi, had spoutedceaseless flames for nearly a thousand years, was summarilyextinguished; indeed, all the idols in the world—except,presumably, the Kaba,—unceremoniouslytumbled from their exalted places. Immediately afterthe babe was born an ethereal light dazzled the surrounding[p. 32]territory, and, on the very moment when hiseyes were first opened, he lifted them to Heaven andexclaimed: “God is great! There is no God butAllah and I am His Prophet!” All these poetic fancieshave been appropriately denounced by Christianscribes, who have claimed that nature would never havedignified the birth of a Pagan like Mohammed withsuch marvelous prodigies as indubitably attended theadvent and crucifixion of Christ.

In the meantime a tragedy of much moment had occurred.High-spirited Abdallah—the lovely youthwhose charms were so compelling that two hundredlanguishing virgins are said to have perished from jealousdisappointment on his wedding night—was alreadyno more. After remaining with his bride for the customaryperiod of three days, he had departed on a businessengagement to Gaza; but, on the return trip, hehad sickened and died at Medina. The period ofmourning for him was barely over when his posthumousson was born. Grief-stricken Abd Al-Muttalib, whowas still bewailing his dead son in the repose of theKaba, was so comforted when Amina’s messengerbrought him the glad tidings that he at once headeda procession of relatives to visit his latest grandchild.With the tender babe in his arms, he immediately returnedto the Kaba, and, standing beside its holy altar,[p. 33]he gave thanks to Allah for his mercies and benefits.One week later Abd Al-Muttalib gave a feast in honorof the child; and during the course of the festivities theaged ruler presaged an unspeakably glorious destinyfor his grandson as the dawning leader of his race,and concluded his remarks by christening him Mohammed,“the Praised.”

Since the suckling of their own children was not consideredto be a proper vocation for high-born Arabwomen, Amina, as a descendant of the lordly Koreish,rightly refused to nurse her child. For the first fewdays of his precarious existence he was nourished byThuweiba, a slave of his own uncle, Abu Lahab; yet,in spite of the brevity of this experience, it is confidentlyclaimed that Mohammed never forgot it, andthat so long as he lived he regularly sent her clothesand other gifts. A new nurse then had to be found.According to some fairly authentic traditions, he spenthis first five years among the Bedouins under the careof a foster-mother named Halima. At the age of twohe was weaned and taken back to his mother; but shewas so pleased with her lusty-looking baby that shesaid: “Take him with thee back again to the desert;for I fear the unhealthy air of Mecca.” After twomore years the robust but high-strung boy, who, likemost embryo prophets, had an acutely sensitive nervous[p. 34]system, showed signs of what was probably an epilepticattack. His foster-parents were so disturbed that theyat once took him home; and only by the greatest effortswas Amina able to assuage their fears—were not mostchildren normally subject to worms or the croup?—andpersuade them to take him back to the desert. Sogreat was their love for the youngster that they did so;but a year later they were again frightened by recurrentsymptoms, and the five-year-old boy was thendefinitely restored to his mother, with whom he remainedfor nearly another year. Amina then took himto Medina, where his father’s maternal relatives dwelt;for she felt all a mother’s delight in showing off thepretty and playful tricks of her little son. But anothermomentous tragedy now impended. About amonth later she died; and thus Mohammed, at the ageof six, was left an orphan.

Had the lad’s parents, or even one of them, liveduntil his maturity! In either case, incalculable resultsmight have followed: there might have been no Prophet,no Koran, no Islam—one is tempted to say thatthere might have been no Allah. But they died; andfor the next two years the bereaved boy was cared forby Abd Al-Muttalib, who loved him with all the partialityof age. Sometimes, as the old patriarch sat atease on a rug shaded from the sun, Mohammed would[p. 35]peremptorily usurp his seat. Then the old man’s sonswould try to push the little rascal off, but Abd Al-Muttalibwould say, “Let my little son alone!” and,baked by the burning sun, would pet Mohammed andfeast his ears on the childish shouts and gurgles of thevictor.

Two years later Abd Al-Muttalib went to join Abdallahand Amina, and Mohammed, weeping bitterly atthe loss of his kind-hearted protector, was consigned tothe care of his uncle Abu Talib, the second of Abd Al-Muttalib’sfive surviving sons. Az-Zubeir, the eldest,inherited the official duties of his deceased father; buthe soon passed that honor on to the fourth son, Al-Abbas,a money-lender, owner of Zemzem, rich, butunfortunately weak in character. Abu Lahab, thethird son, was destined to be a life-long foe of theProphet; but the youngest, Hamza the hunter, wasfrom the beginning one of his staunchest supporters.Abu Talib, a dealer in cloths and perfumes, was a poorman, yet he faithfully cared for his nephew, whom healmost never let out of his sight. When Mohammedwas twelve, he accompanied Abu Talib on a mercantilejourney to Syria; and various writers have mused atlength on the probable effects of this strange, wild expeditionon his highly susceptible mind. It may be, assome believe, that the seeds of his heavenly mission were[p. 36]sown in his mind during this experience. Whateverelse he was, however, Mohammed was not a youthfulprodigy, and perhaps, as most lads of his age wouldhave done, he merely had a good time.

III

While Mohammed’s life glided from youth into manhoodwithout many remarkable changes, certain eventsoccurred that indelibly fixed the channels of his future.The death of Abd Al-Muttalib had left the ancienthouse of Hashim without a strong leader, and so it happenedthat another branch of the Koreish came intopower—a circumstance that marked the beginning ofthe deadly struggle between the Prophet and many ofhis kin that attended his whole career. For some years,it is true, this hostility was latent. During a decade—fromMohammed’s tenth to his twentieth year—all theKoreish were banded together against the hostile tribeof the Beni Hawazin in the Sacrilegious War: a strugglethat grew out of a violation of the taboo on fightingduring the sacred months. When Mohammed wasnearly twenty, he accompanied his uncles during oneof the many frays that marked this civil strife; but hisactivities seem to have been confined to picking up thearrows of the enemy and turning them over for the use[p. 37]of his uncles. Many years later he remarked: “I rememberbeing present with my uncles in the SacrilegiousWar; I discharged arrows at the enemy, andI do not regret it.” But the Prophet of divinity wasalways very human, and it seems almost certain that theenormous prestige of his station induced him occasionallyto indulge in a verbal license pardonable in prophetsif not in lesser men. With a wisdom that has characterizedcertain other heroes of divinity, Mohammedwisely confined his originality and his daring strictlyto his mental activities, and fought only when self-preservationnecessitated it.

The war finally ended in an unsatisfactory truce:neither side had won, and no dominant personality hadyet emerged from the Koreish. Factionalism soongrew to be so rife that the descendants of Hashim, andfamilies of germane origin, formed a confederacy topunish wrongdoing and secure justice among the differentbranches of the Koreish. Mohammed himselfwas an interested spectator of the initial ceremonies ofthis brotherhood. “I would not exchange for thechoicest camel in all Arabia,” he exclaimed on a laterday, “the remembrance of being present at the oathwhich we took in the house of Abdallah when the BeniHashim, Zuhra ibn Kilab, and Teim ibn Murra sworethat they would stand by the oppressed.” Thus, by[p. 38]slow degrees, the breach widened between Mohammedand the majority of the Koreish.

His early manhood was spent in caring for flocks,in attending caravan expeditions, and in certain avocationswhich, all things considered, indicated that hewas more estimable than the common run of youthfulArabs. As a shepherd of sheep and goats on the hillsaround Mecca, he both conferred benefit upon his penuriousuncle, Abu Talib, and engaged in an occupationthat, as he was careful to point out on a future occasion,was particularly appropriate for his rank. Aftercommenting on the similarity between himself andMoses, David, Jesus, and other seers, he concludedthus: “Verily there hath been no prophet raised up,who performed not the work of a shepherd.” He oftenaccompanied caravans, traveling possibly as far asEgypt and the Dead Sea. In addition to the moneythus earned, he picked up a mass of miscellaneous informationthat he used both to his advantage and disadvantagein the Koran; for its pages reek with foreignphrases, now beautiful and now outrageouslygrotesque, which even his most intimate friends failedto comprehend. All writers, including strangelyenough those of the Christian faith, coincide in statingthat his early manhood was marked by an excess ofmodesty and a minimum of vice rare, not merely in[p. 39]young Arabs, but in the young men of any nation.It has been maintained, with a cogency no less admirablethan indemonstrable, that his virtue was miraculouslykept immaculate. Mohammed himself, withforgivable modesty, appears to have believed this. “Iwas engaged one night feeding the flocks in companywith a lad of Koreish,” he once narrated, “and I saidto him, ‘If thou wilt look after my flock, I will go intoMecca and divert myself there, even as youths are wontby night to divert themselves.’” But the sequel,though divinely ordained, was rather tame. As heneared the outskirts of the city, a marriage feast attractedso much of his time that he fell safely asleep.Another evening, as he approached the city bent upona similar enterprise, strains of celestially somnolent musicmade him fall into a second scatheless slumber.“After this I sought no more after vice,” he affirmed;but he thought it wise to add the cryptic phrase, “evenuntil I had attained unto the prophetic office.”

By the time Mohammed was twenty-five, Abu Talib,whose waxing family was constantly restricting his alreadylimited means, decided that it was high time forhis dependent nephew to shift for himself. “I am, asthou knowest, a man of small substance,” he remarkedone day to Mohammed, “and truly the times deal hardlywith me. Now here is a caravan of thine own tribe[p. 40]about to start for Syria, and Khadija, daughter ofKhuweilid, needeth men of our tribe to send forth withher merchandise. If thou wert to offer thyself, shewould readily accept thy services.” The double-edgednature of the conclusion presumably escaped both men;but the complaisant Mohammed acceded and was soonoff on the journey, accompanied by Meisara, the servantof Khadija. Mohammed had thus far had littlebusiness experience, but he always showed a many-sidedtalent for barter and compromise, and he thereforereturned with a credit that did him high honor.As the caravan approached Mecca, Meisara inducedhim to carry the good news to Khadija in person.That lady, a wealthy widow of about forty andthe mother of three children, was highly elated at Mohammed’sstory; and, as she listened to the proof ofhis business ability and fondly scanned his large, noblyformed head, his curling, coal-black hair, hisdark, piercing eyes, and his comely form, it naturallyoccurred to her that this vigorous and handsomeyoung fellow would make an excellent successor to herdeceased husband. She had turned down the proposalsof many vehement Koreishite suitors; but here wasone for whom, if necessary, she herself was preparedto do the wooing—for Arab ladies rarely entertainedany foolish feminine scruples about such matters.

It was necessary; but she moved with discretion.She sent an envoy, probably Meisara, to find out whyMohammed was so timid about matrimony; for mostArabs married at about eighteen and lived in povertyever after. “What is it, O Mohammed, that hindereththee from marriage?” queried the messenger. “I havenothing in my hands wherewithal I might marry,” hereplied; for he still retained painful memories of a proposalrefused by one of his cousins, on the sensiblegrounds that he had not the proper means to supporther. “But if haply that difficulty were removed,” hewas asked, “and thou wert invited to espouse a beautifuland wealthy lady of noble birth, who would placethee in affluence, wouldst thou not desire to have her?”“But who might it be?” he quickly inquired. “It isKhadija.” “But how can I attain unto her?” “Letthat be my care,” he was told, and he immediately responded,“I am ready.”

Khadija was overjoyed at this news; but, accordingto custom, she still had to win the consent of her fatherdespite her age and her manifold attainments. So sheprepared a feast and made him drunk; she then commandedthat a cow should be killed, and, drenching herintoxicated parent in perfumes, she clothed him in therequisite matrimonial robes. Under such circumstancesthe old man unconsciously performed the ceremony,[p. 42]but when he recovered he looked with amazementon all the numerous signs of a wedding, and stupidlyinquired what it all meant. Upon learning thefacts, and upon being misinformed to the effect that“the nuptial dress was put upon thee by Mohammed,thy son-in-law,” he staggered up in high wrath andswore that his daughter, whose hand had been soughtby the most eminent Koreishites, should never be thebride of such a shiftless ne’er-do-well as Mohammed.Even after the story had been corrected he still refusedto relent, and a tribal war might have followed had henot shortly calmed down and decided to make the bestof a bad job. During the next fifteen years Mohammedled a tranquil life. His future was provided for;he had plenty of leisure to occupy himself as he chose,for Khadija insisted upon running her own businessaffairs; and, notwithstanding her seasoned maturity,there seems to be little reasonable doubt that he becamethe father of four daughters and an indeterminatenumber of sons.

Not wishing to remain entirely idle, however, he acquireda partner and established a general barter andtrade business in Mecca—a fact that doubtless explainsthe frequent depiction of Allah as a divine bookkeeperin the Koran: “God is good at accounts,” and so on.Years later, in the heyday of his fame at Medina, he[p. 43]still bought goods wholesale and retailed them at anexcellent profit, and he also employed his stentorianvoice as an auctioneer. All his children turned out tobe sickly. His son, or sons, died in infancy, and hisoldest daughter lived less than forty years; hence historianswho possess a flair for matters pertaining tomedicine have made the deduction that perhaps, afterall, his youthful zest was not guarded by Heaven, butwas expended in most deplorable channels. Duringthese years Mohammed and his wife continued to beconventional idolators who performed nightly rites inhonor of various gods and goddesses—among whomAllah and his female consoler Al-Lat ranked fairlyhigh—and who gave Pagan names to their children.And so, by the year 610, Mohammed at forty was nothingmore than a respectable but unknown tradesmanwho had experienced no extraordinary crisis, whose fewextant sayings were flat and insipid, and whose lifeseemed destined to remain as insignificant and unsungas that of any other Arab.

The steps by which Mohammed emerged from obscurityinto the full glow of his messianic mission can neverbe traced with any certainty. Explanations and interpretationsin plenty—economic, rationalistic, psychological,mediumistic, and so on—have too often beenadvanced with placid and perfect assurance; but unfortunatelythey have not overcome the main difficulty:Mohammed himself. The enigma of his character—afusion of the furthest limits of charlatanism, demagoguery,bombastic egotism, and general intellectualincompetency, with the opposite extremes of willingmartyrdom, unaffected simplicity and sincerity, andlightning flashes of divine poetry—still remains essentiallyunchallenged and intact. He used tricks commonto fakirs—was he therefore a complete and unabashedfakir? He began as a humble religious leader, andhe ended as an adroit politician and powerful general—washe therefore dishonest from the start? He hidhimself during battles—was he therefore always a coward?He often broke faith with friend and foe alike—washe therefore utterly unscrupulous? And yet....[p. 45]He quite certainly believed in the divinity of hismission—was he therefore wholly sincere? He wrotesome passages almost incomparable in their emotionalbeauty—was he therefore inspired? He kept Allah inthe foreground while he himself remained in the background—why,then, did the influence of Allah wane asthe prestige of Mohammed waxed? In short, was hea vicious paranoiac who developed into a maniacal monster,or an unrivaled genius who was all that his worshipersclaimed—or both?

Such interrogations face the tracker of Mohammed’scareer at every turn of the journey, and, in avoidingthe pitfalls on one side, he is very likely to stumble intothe abysses on the other. For the facts of his life areat once too abundant and too few; and he who pondersthem is ever apt to discover that, just at the momentwhen he confidently believes he is on the right path, heknows both too much and too little. The rainbow’s endis forever at hand and yet forever distant; and similarlythe intangible, chameleon-like personality of Mohammedconstantly eludes and mocks one at the precisetime when one is most confident of touching and corneringthe flitting phantom. Under the circumstances, arapid recapitulation of such concrete events as havebeen handed down with a minimum of bias is perhapsleast likely to lead one too far astray.

When Mohammed was about thirty-five, the holyKaba, beaten and broken by a violent flood, was in sadneed of repair. A Grecian ship, that had been providentiallywrecked on the coast of the Red Sea near by,furnished the materials necessary for its reconstruction.So great was the reverence emanating from the sacredwalls, however, that the Koreish feared the impositionof heavenly wrath on those who made bold to tear thebuilding down; but one fellow, braver than the rest,raised an apologetic prayer to Allah and simultaneouslystruck a heavy blow with a pickaxe. All those present,including the assaulter, then fled and lingered timorouslyuntil morning, when the incredible fact was notedthat Allah had not spoken one way or the other, andso the structure was rapidly demolished. All went wellwith the building operations until the time came to replacethe Black Stone in the eastern corner—an honorso great that each branch of the Koreish contended forit, until bloodshed was imminent. Finally the eldestpatriarch in the city arose and advanced this ingenioussolution: “O Koreish, hearken unto me! My adviceis that the man who chanceth first to enter the court ofthe Kaba by yonder gate, he shall be chosen either todecide the difference amongst you, or himself to place[p. 47]the stone.” Universal applause followed and everyonewaited to learn who should be the lucky man. Justat this moment the unostentatious yet dignified formof Mohammed was seen to approach, and all the peopleshouted in unison: “Here comes the faithful arbiter;we are content to abide by his decision.” Mohammed,ever cool and composed in public, calmly accepted theappointment and immediately devised a supremelyclever diplomatic scheme that would certainly be satisfactoryto all. He removed his cloak and laid it onthe ground; then, putting the awful stone on it, hesaid: “Now let one from each of your four divisionscome forward, and raise a corner of this mantle.” Thiswas done and, when the rock was level with the cavity,he himself thrust it in position. Thus the unpretentioustradesman rose in the twinkling of an eye to higheminence in the esteem of his townsmen. Since Mohammed’smind always took to omens and auguries asa duck takes to water, it is possible that this occurrencemarked the vague inception of his mission.

At all events, about five years later his neighborsbecame much mystified by his behavior. He would retire,for days at a stretch, to a cave in the foothills ofMount Hira, a conical hill several miles north of Mecca,whither Khadija too sometimes went with him. Meanwhilehis business languished, and various conjectures[p. 48]were advanced to account for his odd conduct—wasthe fellow crazy, or afflicted with some loathsome disease,or was he perchance engaged in some such nefariousoccupation as counterfeiting? As the monthspassed, he still continued to act in the same incomprehensiblemanner, and it was noticed that, little by little,certain members of his immediate family attended himto his refuge, or gathered with him in some one of theirown houses. This sort of thing went on for severalyears, until it was noised abroad that the quondam merchantand camel-driver was confidently claiming thehonor of having made the epochal discovery which hephrased thus: “La ilaha illa Allah, Mohammed rasulAllah”—which, freely interpreted, means: “There isno god but Allah, and Mohammed is His Prophet.”

This brief, twofold credo demands considerable attention.The first postulate was not entirely new, forAllah had hitherto been a well-behaved deity Who washighly regarded by many Arabs; yet, after all, He hadbeen but one of many idols. By what process ofthought had Mohammed come to exalt Allah notmerely above all Arabian gods, but above the gods ofall time? and furthermore, why was he so certain of hisown intimate association with Allah?

Various explanations were offered by his simple-mindedfollowers. According to one account, as Mohammed[p. 49]was wandering near the cave, “an angel fromthe sky cried to him, ‘O Mohammed, I am Gabriel!’He was terrified, for as often as he raised his head,there was the apparition of the angel. He hurriedhome to tell his wife. ‘O Khadija,’ he said, ‘I havenever abhorred anything as I do these idols and soothsayers;and now verily I fear lest I should become asoothsayer myself.’ ‘Never,’ replied his faithful wife,‘the Lord will never suffer it thus to be.’” So she madehaste to get the opinion of her own relative, the agedvisionary Waraka, who, after listening attentively toher tale, cried aloud: “By the Lord he speaketh truth!Doubtless it is the beginning of prophecy, and thereshall come upon him theGreat Namus, like as it cameupon Moses.” According to another story that is evenmore edifying, Khadija discreetly tested the genuinenessof the angelic guest by making Mohammed sitfirst on her right knee, and then on her left; and thespirit did not object to either procedure. But whenshe took Mohammed in her lap and started to removesome of her garments, the virtuous apparition departedin great haste, and the crafty Khadija thenexultantly cried: “Rejoice ... for by the Lord! itis an angel, and no devil.”

These enlightening tales, however, deserve to be supplementedby certain other considerations. Outside of[p. 50]Arabia, Paganism was in general disrepute. The dissoluteand declining Romans were cracking lewd jokesin the very faces of their gods; the myriad followersof Confucius, Buddha and Zoroaster were either tooremote or too helpless to matter one way or another;Talmudic Judaism and Oriental Christianity despisedidolatry and worshiped the same Jehovah, even thoughthey disputed with each other, and indeed among themselves,concerning the various attributes, amorous pursuits,and lineal descendants of the Godhead. Now,to one who chose to regard himself as a prophet, monotheismhad distinct advantages over polytheism. Forone thing, it was rather confusing to attempt to obeythe behests of conflicting deities; and for another, thedifferent prophets of Jehovah in Judaism and Christendomhad, so far as Mohammed knew, been uniformlysuccessful—for he was familiar with the glorious historyof Abraham, Moses and David, and he always heldto the perverse belief that Jesus was not crucified.However deep in the dumps prophets may have beenon occasion, they have invariably believed one thing:victory for their particular cause will inevitably come.Neither an unbroken series of worldly failures nor thechastisements of his God have ever shaken the faithof a first-class prophet in himself—or, as he woulddoubtless prefer to say, in his Divinity. Arabia—broken,[p. 51]unorganized, inglorious, idolistic Arabia—obviouslylacked one Supreme Being whose prerogativewas greater than all other Supreme Beings; and thatBeing, in turn, needed a messenger to exploit Hissupremacy. The messengers who had served Jehovahhad certainly prospered well; but Jehovah Himselfappeared to be on the decline—His Unity was steadilydisintegrating into a paradoxical Trinity. Why, therefore,not give Allah, perhaps the leading icon in Arabia,an opportunity? Such considerations quite probablynever entered the head of Mohammed with any definiteness;yet his behavior for the rest of his days seems toindicate that these, or similar conceptions, were subconsciouslyegging him on.

Of certain facts, moreover, he was definitely aware.He may have had little or no formal education, but hismemory was retentive and capacious, and his caravanjourneys, together with the scores of conversations hehad held at the yearly fairs, as well as at Mecca, withmany cultivated strangers, had packed his mind with amass of highly valuable if heterogeneous matter. Inthese ways he had learnt both the strength and the weaknessof the Jews and Christians: their fanatical enthusiasmsand despairs; their spasmodic attempts toproselytize as well as the widespread defections fromtheir faiths; the loftiness of their moral and political[p. 52]codes—a loftiness that remained fruitless from theirlack of cohesion and effectual leadership. Since hisconception of religion was largely personal—for helooked upon Moses, Jesus and the rest merely as capablemen who had founded and promulgated religions—andsince Arabia had no preëminent ruler, why shouldhe not seize the reins of power and carry on the greattradition of prophethood? What a magnificent opportunitybeckoned, and how fortunate that he hadbeen the first to recognize the call! By keeping onlywhat was best in the Arabic faith—the Kaba and theBlack Stone—and by a judicious selection of the mostfeasible ideas that lay imbedded in Jewish and Christianprecepts, he might establish a code that wouldsupersede all others, and might then dictate to all Arabsalike. What prophets had done, he would also do—anddo better. Furthermore, he knew something else:he had a wealthy wife and four intimates who werealready prepared to fight for him to the death.

Khadija rated first. From the beginning she hadstood faithfully by his side, and whenever he was low-spiritedand his heavenly visitations were temporarilysuspended, she would tenderly comfort him—for thesad memories of her first marriage had made her determinedthat her second husband should succeed in whateverbusiness he undertook. Her cousin, the learned[p. 53]mystic Waraka, readily abandoned his firm convictionthat Christ was the only true prophet in favor of hiscousin-in-law’s exclusive claim to the same honor; andit is probable that he, more than any other person, enlightenedMohammed’s many-sided ignorance of religioushistory. Mohammed had early adopted hisyouthful cousin Ali, son of Abu Talib, and the attachmentbetween them had come to be mutually strong.He had also assumed control of Zeid, a Christian slave,who became so devoted to his master that, when he wasoffered his freedom, he replied: “I will not leave thee;thou art in the place to me of father and of mother.”This pleased Mohammed so much that he immediatelyescorted Zeid to the Black Stone and said: “Beartestimony, all ye that are present. Zeid is my son; Iwill be his heir, and he shall be mine.” In his thirty-ninthyear Mohammed had become acquainted withAbu Bekr—commonly called either “the Sighing” or“the True”—a rich cloth merchant who was middle-agedand short, and who had deep-set eyes. Shrewdand penetrating in business concerns, mentally stable,and untroubled by too many disturbing ideas and emotions,he was just the sort of person Mohammed mostneeded: a devoted adherent who would serve as businessagent for the new faith.

But in the beginning these were all. Some of his[p. 54]immediate relatives did not take him very seriously:Abu Lahab grimaced in his face, and even the charitableAbu Talib smiled rather derisively at his curious actions.We are told that Abu Talib, chancing to apprehendhis son Ali and Mohammed contorting themselvesaccording to the precepts of Islam, thereuponremarked that he would not care to twist himself so thathis middle portion would be higher than his head—aflippancy that Ali cherished and chuckled over yearsafter his father’s death. Meanwhile the great bulk ofthe Koreish were too contemptuously indifferent to payany heed to Mohammed’s strange yarnings, though occasionally,as he passed cliques of them on the streets,they would lazily point him out as a harmless and butmildly amusing dunce.

III

Without applauding or deprecating this Koreishitebehavior, we may at any rate impartially consider itsorigin. The hitherto mentally and emotionally normaltrader, husband and father had found himself suddenlyswept off his feet and carried irresistibly away on amighty tide: the perverse, inexplicable desire to writepoetry—a fantasy that could not fail to make him thelaughing-stock of all right-minded Meccans. How[p. 55]curious, how odd, that he, a well-to-do merchant whohad looked forward to nothing more exciting than apeaceful and prosperous future, should be summarilywrenched from his moorings and cast adrift upon sucha strange, tempest-tossed sea! Surely, surely, therewas some marvelous meaning in the business—if hecould but find it. And so, stabbed by agonizing doubtsor transported with rapturous ecstasies, he plungedblindly on, seeking relief from his vague imaginings inintermittent bursts of formless, rhapsodical verse. Hisperturbed spirit now soared to the heights of Heavenand now plunged into the chasms of Hell; moments ofethereal bliss would be followed by periods of the profoundestmelancholy. In short, he was passing throughthe throes of an experience closely akin to religious conversion—anexperience that can end in but one of threeways: in a relapse into sin, in suicide, or in a more or lessenduring catharsis of the spirit. Though Mohammedwas too strong a man to return to the fleshpots ofArabia—if, indeed, he had ever tasted them—it isalmost certain, as the earliest fragments of the Koranhint, that he meditated self-destruction for a time; butAllah, the All-Compelling, the Mighty One, had otherplans.

It is related that the angel Gabriel, who thus far hadlabored only in the field of Christian employment, was[p. 56]chosen by Allah as bearer of the divine revelation toMohammed. One day, while the trader-poet waswrestling with his doubts among the foothills of MountHira, he saw a wondrous apparition floating downwardon celestial wing. Coming within a distance oftwo bowshots—for the Arabs are very accurate aboutsuch things—the divine envoy exposed a tablet coveredwith heavenly hieroglyphs before Mohammed’s astonishedeyes and exclaimed, “Read!” “I cannot read,”replied Mohammed; but again the unearthly voice utteredthe word, “Read!” And then, impelled by an irresistiblepower, Mohammed fixed his entranced eyesupon the document and began to chant thus:

and so on, until the end. “Thou art God’s Prophet,and I am Gabriel,” announced the awe-inspiring guestbefore he departed to receive the blessing of Allah forhaving so successfully executed the heavenly command.Gabriel, in truth, was a very valuable ambassador, for,through the to and fro journeyings of this indefatigablemessenger, Allah was able to remain at ease in Heaven,thus keeping up that appearance of intangible, majesticremoteness so necessary for dignified gods.

And thus Mohammed came into his own. From thatmoment he looked upon himself as Allah’s vicegerent,through whom Allah’s incontestable decrees were to begiven to man—although Gabriel, or the Holy Ghost(for Mohammed’s slipshod knowledge of Christiantheogony led him into the regrettable error of perpetuallyconfusing those two eminent divinities), continuedin his capacity as interpreter of the intermittentlyrevealed series of tablets. And so careful wasAllah to eliminate the possibility of merely human inventionthat He prefaced every Sura, or individualrevelation, with the express or implied injunction “SAY”or “SPEAK”—the irrefutable proof of divine authorship.Mohammed’s every doubt had now vanished, his soulwas completely at ease; and from his lips there burstthe wildly exultant chant: “La ilaha illa Allah, Mohammedrasul Allah!”

Such, we may believe if we so desire, was the originof the Koran, of Mohammed the Prophet, and of Islamitself—those three interacting and inseparable forces (asort of Pagan Trinity, in fact) which, emerging whenRome was dying and Christianity was barely out ofits cradle, convulsed the civilized and uncivilized worldfor centuries to come. Inasmuch, however, as Mohammedhimself, not to mention his commentators, has addedcertain clarifying details that were touched with an[p. 58]earthiness foreign to the pretty picture, it may notbe wholly presumptuous or irreverent to glance brieflyat the other side of the canvas.

The conception of a flexible revelation—of one thatcould be indefinitely extended, amended, expurgated,or even abrogated in part—was excellent in many ways.Christianity and Mormonism, to cite only two countercases, have both suffered somewhat, perhaps, from theinexorable nature of their scriptures. Woe unto himwho alters a jot or tittle of their contents! At the sametime, the precise meaning of the Christian creed, inparticular, is very indefinite; it permits a latitude ofinterpretation, even in fundamental matters, that hasbrought about those lamentable schisms into major,minor and microscopic sects with which everyone isfamiliar. But, however much civil strife Islam mayhave endured from political factionalism or antagonismover inconsequential tenets in the Koran, it has remainedindissolubly firm in its adherence to its supereminentdivinities: Allah and Mohammed. And the credit forthis, it is to be suspected, is due principally to the onewhom all orthodox Moslems believe—or profess theybelieve—to be the lesser.

Poetry and oratory—the only forms of literatureknown to the Arabs—were both oracular and rudelyrhythmical; and Mohammed, who from his childhood[p. 59]had been familiar with the yearly contests of poets andorators at the fairs, naturally adopted a cognate mediumof expression. His thoughts, whether conceived in awhite heat of frenzy or with deliberate coolness and slycalculation for the main chance, were probably not writtendown in any definite way during his life. It is notcertain, in fact, that he could either read or write. Hedelighted in the appellation “the illiterate Prophet,”possibly on account of his humility, and possibly becausehe knew that inspired ignorance had been theindisputable prerogative of all successful prophets inthe past. Indeed, the very fact that he was unlearnedwas rightly supposed to increase the miraculous natureof his revelations. As he tossed the divine emanationsfrom his lips, they were sometimes recorded by hiredor willing scribes upon palm leaves, leather, stones, theshoulder-blades or ribs of camels and goats, or wereeven tattooed upon the breasts of men. But often theywere not immediately written down at all; the Prophetwould go around spouting them forth to his followerswho, trained from infancy to memorize verses and songsof every sort with infallible precision, would piouslycommit them to memory. As a result of this divinelyhaphazard procedure, the time of composition of thedifferent Suras has never been definitely fixed. Twofacts, however, are well established: the revelations, at[p. 60]first very short, steadily increased in length; and, doubtlessfor that reason, the interminable later Suras do noteven contain ashes—for ashes prove that flame was oncepresent—whereas the earlier songs are occasionallytouched with fire.

Occasionally ... but only so. The indefeasibleprivilege of all Holy Writ to be dull—a privilege onlytoo generously exercised—is abused in the Koran withan enthusiasm matched only by the third part of thePentateuch. The spasmodic structure of the Koran—itsabsence of cohesion between chapters and even betweensentences, its dithyrambic convulsions, its hodge-podgeof inchoate and irrelevant ideas, its pervasivelack of charm—may be due, it has been hazarded, toMohammed’s neurotic idiosyncrasy; yet epileptic menof genius in many branches of mental activity have beenby no means uncommon, and it seems simpler to assumethat he was not born to be a poet. In any case, it is certainthat his predilection for non-didactic poetry showeditself only at rare intervals: perhaps because, as theKoran puts it, “We have not taught him poetry, nor isit meet for him,” perhaps because he had had nogenuine love-affair in his youth, and perhaps because hebelieved that his commission was too serious to allowany protracted indulgence in such a frivolous thing asverse. Like the Hebrew prophets, he was at his best[p. 61]when raining heavenly maledictions on his enemies;like them, too, he was at his worst when he used repetitionas a substitute for ideas. But they at least hadgood stories, taken from a long and rich racial history,to redecorate as they saw fit, whereas Arabia had almostno history worth the telling; and so Mohammed wascompelled to fall back on Hebrew literature to help himout. He did fall back—again and again, and yetagain. Even if he could not read, it was easy to getthe necessary material from friendly Jews in Mecca;but an unfortunate, though apparently disregarded,difficulty attended this procedure: different Jewswould tell the same story in different ways. So it cameabout that, when the Prophet was hard pressed formaterial, he would use one version; again, when hisclock of inspiration had run down or been left unwound,he would use another garbled rendition of thesame narrative. While the story of Joseph was hisfavorite, his collection of trophies pillaged from Biblicalfolklore included the activities of Noah, Abraham,Moses, David and less important notables; at the sametime, he was quite innocent of the common Christiancomplaint that he had plagiarized the Bible, inasmuchas he had never read it. Carlyle was certainly not atepid admirer of Mohammed, but, when he read theKoran, even his Berserker rage for great men suffered[p. 62]a serious shock—a shock that might justly be criticizedfor the very thing it criticizes. “I must say,” he confessed,“it is as toilsome reading as I ever undertook.A wearisome, confused jumble, crude, incondite; endlessiterations, long-windedness, entanglement; mostcrude, incondite;—insupportable stupidity, in short!Nothing but a sense of duty would carry any Europeanthrough the Koran.” And indeed, so far as that volumeis concerned, the European sense of duty has beenvery small.

But with Mohammed’s acolytes the case has beenwholly different. For from the beginning they believedin the Koran with an appallingly artless simplicity,at once noble and absurd. Through its instrumentality,Allah the Wise, the Only Wise, revealed hisimmutable decrees: to the good, the rewards of aParadise that utterly beggared the Christian Heaven,and to the bad the punishments of a Hell that containedan infinity of such refined tortures of heat, and even ofcold, as neither the most imaginatively gifted Jew norChristian had yet conceived—for Dante was undreamedof. Mohammed of course properly approved of Allah’sdecisions and judgments, as an employee shouldrightly behave toward his employer; and he was especiallyfond of his superior’s delight in describing Hell—“I[p. 63]swear,” he gravely announced one day, “that it isone of the most serious things.”

The earlier part of the Koran, or “Recitation,” ismostly concerned with these elemental and primitivethings; only at a later day did Allah—or Mohammed?—dealseparately with the many matters touching thegrowth of a definite code of religious, social and governmentalprecepts. When scoffers poked ridicule at therather sloppy grammar and metre of the Koran, Mohammeddid two things: in the first place, after brandishingthe doom of an eternity of roaring flames overtheir heads, he challenged them to produce better versesthan his—or Allah’s?—own; and, in the second place,he incautiously prepared a loophole of escape by revealing,in Sura 69, the fact that the Koran was “notthe word of a poet,” but “a revelation from the Lordof the Worlds.” This lofty gesture temporarilysquelched his defamers, who promptly dug off withtheir tails between their legs; but its effect did not lastlong when they reflected how damaging an admissionhe had made. It may of course be readily grantedthat precepts concerned with daily washing, food, taxes,and so on, were not especially well adapted to rhythmicalprose; but, after all, that was Allah’s and Mohammed’slookout. Perhaps, indeed, the confession of non-poetical[p. 64]power was scarcely necessary; for the inexplicableman who, in the pristine freshness of poeticglow, could indite this terse stanza, instinct with broodingdoom:

and who conceived the charming fantasy that thelengthened shadows of morning and evening are elongatedin obeisance to Allah, was also capable many yearslater of concocting an effusion designed expressly tomake his wives behave themselves.

Islam, the doctrine of “resignation to God,” was nowstarted on its way; but mystery hovers over every stageof the journey. The various explanations that havebeen devised to account for its marvelously rapid developmenthave commonly just enough plausibility tomake them romantically misleading; for the charm ofa half-truth lies in its Lethean amalgamation of realismand fancy: it displays neither the dulness of unadornedfact nor the superficiality of exotic fabrication. Inrecent times Mohammed and his era have inevitablybeen subjected to treatment according to principlesderived from the “scientific method.” Now, while it isunquestionably true that a large amount of invaluableinformation has been accumulated thus, it is also truethat the excessive use of this method has given rise tosome definite dangers—dangers that are all the morealluring and deceptive because they bear the stamp ofcontemporary approval. For one thing, its adherentsoften lack the ability to apply the principle to their ownmental processes: they sometimes manifest a bias as[p. 66]essentially unscientific as the fervent prayer of the mostbenighted Moslem. For another thing, its devoteesfrequently dispute among themselves over the validityof its countless ramifications with an enthusiasm unexcelledby political fanatics; and, for still another thing,the method itself is as much a product of conditionspeculiar to the so-called Modern World as Islamismwas a logical excrescence of the deplorable Dark Ages.

Although Mohammed’s parents died so early as todeprive the Freudians of the opportunity to dissect himin a manner compatible with the most cherished articlesof their faith, other not wholly dissimilar schools ofthought have not failed to wield their scalpels—oftentimeswith very considerable effect. For example,those who look upon him as a largely self-consciousmedium who was extraordinarily skillful and successfulin employing the cabalistic devices used by mediumsas a class, have much to warrant their belief. The evidenceextant in support of this view, in fact, meritsrespect if not complete acceptance. For the wholebusiness of Allah, and Gabriel, and the magical tablets—whoseprecious contents none but Mohammed mightgaze upon, and he only at infrequent intervals—is, tosay the least, very intriguing. The problem that frontsall mediums is this: how to produce their messages withoutarousing the suspicion that they themselves are the[p. 67]authors; and innumerable devices are used to attain thisend. It has been suggested that the Prophet himselfmay have solved the problem by a subtly clever device—hisknown susceptibility to epileptic fits. Beforegiving vent to one of Allah’s inditements, he wouldsnore, cover himself with a blanket, and remain thusuntil, drenched with sweat, he emerged and gave hismessage. One traditional account runs thus: “He fellto the ground like an inebriate, or one overcome bysleep; and in the coldest day his forehead would be bedewedwith large drops of perspiration. Even his she-camel,if he chanced to become inspired while mountedon her, would be affected by a wild excitement, sittingdown and rising up, now planting her legs rigidly, thenthrowing them about as if they would be parted fromher.” In the earlier Koran, he is characterized as the“man in the blanket,” or the “man who is wrapped up.”For he fully appreciated the necessity of keeping hisfollowers in a state of protracted mystification, and tothat end he made use of many theatrical tricks. Hewould drum up a crowd with his ludicrous snortings andpuffings until the resounding cry, “Inspiration hathdescended on the Prophet!” assured him that he had asufficiently large audience to warrant the ebullition ofa new Sura. While in a room that was obviouslyempty, he declared that all the seats were occupied by[p. 68]angels; he cultivated a suave and benign expression; heflattered and astounded his adherents by telling themintimately personal facts about themselves which hehad presumably acquired through private information;he took the most painstaking care of his person—paintedhis eyes and perfumed his entire body everyday, wore his hair long and probably dyed it when itbecame gray, and there is reason to believe that healways wore a veil. Eventually, he so perfected histechnique that he could throw a cataleptic fit and producea message without any previous preparation. Inthe midst of a meal he would contort himself, disgorgea new injunction, and then calmly finish his dinner.

Nor does the case for the prosecution end here. Themanner in which his early disciples were won and organizedsuggests that like principles were employed.In the beginning, Islam was a profoundly secret society,whose leader frowned upon publicity but encouragedfurtive proselytizing on a great scale—a policy ofaction that turned out to be perfectly suited to the situation.For this privacy doubtless saved the cause fromearly obliteration, while at the same time it offered theromantic attraction of a Jekyll-and-Hyde existence tothose who accepted Islam—a circumstance decidedlyfavorable to the growth of any surreptitious conclave;and, in addition, it gave Mohammed time to pick and[p. 69]choose his lieutenants with care, as well as to school himselfin the lessons needed for ruling heterogeneousmasses of men. While all this was going on, he himselfremained aloof in august, inaccessible grandeur, fornone could see him who was not already rabid with desireto prostrate himself at the Prophet’s feet. Thus,in those clandestine gatherings held in the house of theconvert Al-Arkam—a house afterward appropriatelyimmortalized by the title “The House of Islam”—andin the febrile activity of Mohammed’s plastic pupils,headed by the efficient Abu Bekr, is to be found thegerm whence all Islam sprang.

This reasoning sounds very plausible until one reflects:after all, could it have been as simple as this?And then an inscrutable image looms in the mind—thegrotesque, grand, preposterous and prodigious figureof Mohammed.

The secret séances in the House of Al-Arkam continued;a variety of converts began to pour in; and bythe fourth year of his mission Mohammed dared tocome boldly out into the open and proclaim that he wasthe anointed representative of Allah. His proselytesat first were mostly humble folk: slaves, women unable[p. 70]to achieve matrimony, unsuccessful business men, andothers who, discontented with their lot, were eitherlooking for excitement or willing to take any chancehowever desperate. Yet it is a curious fact that everydevotee, except Abu Bekr, showed some aversion beforewhole-heartedly accepting the new faith: “I neverinvited any one to the faith who displayed not hesitationand perplexity, excepting only Abu Bekr,” the Prophethimself admitted. The explanation may lie in the factthat each proselyte was expected to remain true throughthick and thin; indeed, his life was forfeit if he apostatized—astipulation that, even today, makes the conversionof a Moslem a very difficult task. Anotherpossible explanation is this: the converts soon discoveredthat Islam was not merely a gospel of salvation throughfaith—an outstanding tenet of all great religions, becauseit makes a peculiar appeal to the intellectuallyslothful—but a gospel that demanded a vast amount ofhard work. Mohammed, in fact, had much more incommon with James than with Paul. For if he was afanatic in emotional matters, his grosser intellectualendowments were characterized by an admirable coolnessand a logical precision that often confounded hisfriends and his enemies alike—though it is recorded thatan early convert, who was commissioned to take downone of the Prophet’s divine ravings, decided to renounce[p. 71]Islam when he observed that he was permitted to penwhatever he chose.

Each newcomer recognized his brothers by the greeting“Peace unto you,” a password of which Mohammedwas especially fond; and if it was dangerous for a timeto speak the words openly, recognition was made sureby the adoption of a peculiar style of turban. Thenew sect was called Moslems, or “traitors”—an appellationthat provoked much merriment among Mohammed’sless serious-minded opponents. He showeda typical lack of humor in accepting the sobriquet, theyremarked, but he was to be praised for making it anhonorable term; for, while it usually meant one who surrenderedhis friends to their foes, it now signified onewho yielded himself to God. The Koran, however, settledthe matter by affirming that the title had been inventedby no less an authority than Abraham himself.

While converts of every type were welcomed, preferencewas naturally shown for those who had either physicalor social strength. For a time most of them camefrom the descendants or adherents of the house of Hashim,and so Mohammed, doubtless with the idea ofstrengthening the faith by breaking the strong familyand tribal ties, set up brotherhoods between those whocame from different sects. The largeness of his natureis shown by his readiness to make amends for any wrong[p. 72]he had committed. A blind man once interrupted him,while he was earnestly conversing with a prospectiveconvert, with the request that the Koran should be readaloud; and the Prophet, incensed at the ill-timed interruption,snapped out a harsh refusal. But his heartsoon smote him, and he made atonement for his errorby pointing out in the Koran how unforgivable it wasfor him to welcome the rich and powerful while neglectingthe poor and despised. The most valuable of theslave converts was the negro Bilal, “small in body, butweighty in faith,” whom Mohammed himself extolled as“the first fruits of Abyssinia.” Almost all of the firstscore of converts remained staunch, though one of them,Obeidallah, eventually weakened under the strokes ofpersecution, became a Christian, and died in that faith;but Mohammed avenged himself by marrying hiswidow.

By far the most important of the Meccan neophytes,except Khadija and Abu Bekr, were the Prophet’suncle Hamza—a mighty man in hunting, wine and war,whose valorous conduct won him the title “The Lion ofGod”—and Omar, a veritable Hercules. He had beena clever trader who once outwitted the assessor of customsby making his own camel swallow the gold it carried—andhe then recovered the money by killing thecamel. His most cherished avocations had been wine,[p. 73]wife-beating, coarse interference in delicate femininematters, and bitter hatred of Islam. Informed one day—sothe most plausible tradition of his conversion runs—thathis own sister and brother-in-law had yielded toits seductions, he hastened to their house and greetedthem with the brotherly salutation, “I hear that ye arerenegades!” When they tried to argue with him, heviolently kicked the man and wounded his sister in theface. These activities so completely restored his goodhumor that he asked to see the roll they had been reading.Having perused a part of one Sura, he exclaimed,“How excellent is this discourse, and gracious!” addingthat he would like to meet Mohammed. So hewent immediately to Al-Arkam’s house, where the inmates,including even the redoubtable Hamza, drew backin alarm; but the Prophet boldly seized his skirt andsword-belt and asked, “How long, O Omar, wilt thounot refrain from persecuting, even until the Lord sendsome calamity upon thee?” The penitent Omar replied,“Verily, I testify that thou art the Prophet ofGod!” whereupon Mohammed raised the joyous shout:“Allahu Akbar! Great is the Lord!” So widespreadwas the Koreishite fear of Omar that from this momentthe Moslems prayed openly in the city; and thehappy Prophet continued to exult over his prize acquisitionin this fashion: “If Satan were to meet Omar, he[p. 74]would get out of Omar’s way,” while one of his petsayings was, “I, Abu Bekr, and Omar.”

It seems probable that Mohammed at first offered hisdisciples no promise of earthly rewards, but seducedthem by painting gorgeously graphic pictures of theireventual felicity in Paradise, as well as the utter discomfitureof their foes in Hell. The Koran of thisperiod abounds with eloquent descriptions of bothplaces. Paradise is represented as a haven bulgingwith sensuous delights of the most naïve and ephemeralsort. In fact, so much emphasis was put upon foodand drink that a jolly Jew objected on the ground thatsuch continual feasting must of necessity be followedby purgation; the Prophet, however, swore that it wouldnot even be necessary to blow the nose in Paradise, sinceall bodily impurities would be carried off by a perspiration“as odiferous as musk.” Furthermore, he soonadded particular attractions that were far more captivatingthan mere gluttony, even though they stilllacked the subtlety of philosophic appeal.

He continued to dilate on this theme, rhyming theheavenly benefactions in pairs; but when he tried to includethe angelic young ladies in the divine catalogue,their number utterly ruined his rigid metrical scheme,and he was therefore compelled to expatiate on theircharms in prose: “lovely large-eyed girls resemblingpearls hidden in their shells, a reward for that which thefaithful have wrought.... We have made themvirgins, fascinating, of an equal age.” While thus innocentlyoccupied, the faithful were to be further entertainedby peering over the celestial battlements and observingthe tortures of the unbelievers, who would bevainly trying to quench their thirst by drinking boilingwater. “This shall be your entertainment on the Dayof reckoning!” promises the Koran.

Spiritual inducements of this sort, not to mention themundane rewards soon to be offered to the pious andthe swift earthly doom promised for backsliders, did notfail in their effect. And still, despite the accessions toIslam, the Prophet as late as 615 was subject to public[p. 76]insult. The rigorous ban on bloodshed within tribessaved him from serious personal danger, but he neverthelessendured some very scurrilous abuse; his enemieswould throw offensive objects at his person, or on hishearth while he was cooking his simple meals. One daythey tossed in the entrails of a goat, and Mohammed,putting the refuse on a stick, carried it to the door andshouted: “Ye children of Abd Menaf! What sort ofgood neighborhood is this?” While at his devotionsnear the window, he was at times forced to crouch beneatha projecting stone to escape the missiles of hisfoes. But the prestige of his old protector, Abu Talib,was still very strong and, despite his regrettable adherenceto the ancient faith, he staunchly protected hisincomprehensible nephew from the Koreish. Once, itis true, Abu Talib’s patience was shaken, and he askedMohammed not to cast upon him “a burden heavier thanI can bear.” The Prophet, perturbed by his uncle’sapparent desertion and by the prospect of his own consequentloss of protection, burst out crying and startedto leave the room. Then the aged ruler was so movedthat he cried: “Son of my brother, come back! Andnow depart in peace! and say whatsoever thou wilt.For, by the Lord of the Kaba, I will not, in any wise,give thee up for ever.”

III

Notwithstanding the ubiquitous respect for AbuTalib and the equally widespread fear of Omar andHamza, the Koreishite hatred of Mohammed becamesteadily more menacing. The lowborn fakir-Prophetmight be a person of despicable origin who mouthed aprodigious amount of insane drivel, but he had certainlysucceeded in kicking up a highly exasperating rumpus.The devil of it was that the pernicious fellow so skillfullyblended his own revelations with Arabic and Jewishtraditions, whose validity nobody impugned, that theKoreish could not denounce the one without laying themselvesopen to the charge of reviling the other. He appearedto be wholly impervious, not to say sublimely indifferent,to the appeal of common sense; for when theKoreish charged that his Suras were either fabricated byhimself or dictated by abler assistants, he would employthe most underhanded means to disprove the accusation.When they suggested that, inasmuch as heidentified himself with the prophets of old, he ought totrot out a few miracles, he unwisely obliged them bydeclaring that the sky would fall upon their impenitentheads. He realized his mistake, however, when theypromptly demanded that he should fix a date for the[p. 78]catastrophe; and he then cleverly extricated himselffrom his predicament by maintaining that his presencein the holy city had averted the disaster. But Mohammedhad learnt his lesson, and thereafter he never tamperedwith miracles—a fact that, perhaps more than anyother, indicates his superiority over preceding prophets.

The Koreish, however, had not yet finished with him,and, as they redoubled their assaults, he met them invarious ways. When one of them affirmed that theProphet was a crazy man—“One taught by others, aMadman!”—under the influence of the dreadful Jinn,he retaliated by accusing his accuser of being a bastardwho could not write, who was head over heels in debt,and who furthermore deserved a thump on the nose.When they worsted him in debate, he first lost his temperand then announced that he had been divinely commandednot to argue with unbelievers—for often, asMohammed preached to his followers or fulminatedagainst his antagonists, his cheeks would blaze and hisvoice would become shrill, and on one occasion he issaid to have thrown dust on the heads of his opponents.When another Koreishite accepted the Prophet’s rashchallenge to a poetic duel to test the excellence of theKoran, Mohammed could do nothing but squirm in discomfiture;but he amply avenged himself, after thebattle of Bedr, by ordering the summary execution of[p. 79]the despicable poet. When they pointed out the manyerrors of fact that appeared in the Koran, and sneeredat his assertion that the revelation was “in pure Arabic,”Mohammed at first replied that Allah must know best—“Hehath revealed it who knoweth that which is hiddenin heaven and in earth: He is forgiving and merciful”—but,when he was informed that his answer,though doubtless inspired, was hardly to the point, heattempted to dazzle everybody by producing a newSura that nobody, not even himself, could comprehend.For Mohammed invariably trusted in Suras rather thansyllogisms, and wisely quoted no authority save Allah.

If, however, he was safe from direct assault, the morehumble of his auxiliaries—the slaves, strangers andlower classes—who lacked the protection of family ties,were not so fortunate. They were apprehended, beatenand jailed, or exposed to the terrific heat of the sun.Under torments of this sort, some of them naturallyrecanted—a contingency that necessitated swift measureson the part of Allah. Mohammed, sincerelymoved by their sufferings, announced that, even thoughthey dissembled to escape torture, Allah was neverthelessAll-Merciful and Forgiving if their hearts wereright; and a Sura forthwith appeared that poureddivine wrath on every backslider, “excepting him whois forcibly compelled thereto, his heart remaining steadfast[p. 80]in the faith.” One day the Prophet met an adherentwho was weeping from the anguish of hiswounds, and asked what the trouble was. “Evil, OProphet! They would not let me go until I had abusedthee, and spoken well of their gods.” “But how dostthou find thine own heart?” “Secure and steadfastin the faith.” “Then if they repeat their cruelty, repeatthou also thy words,” advised Mohammed. Yet,in spite of this heavenly leniency, incessant persecutioncontinued to diminish his little band, and he thereforecounselled those who were defenseless to take refuge inAbyssinia. Some of them did so, but still the odiousoppression continued.

The Prophet, in this desperate strait, seems to haveresolved upon a desperate remedy. It is at all eventstrue that, scarcely three months after the departure ofthe little company of refugees, he tried to effect a compromisewith his implacable foes. Approaching agroup of the Koreish in Mecca one day, he reeled off aSura which contained the flattering information thatsome of their gods, and particularly their goddesses,were not so bad after all. Having enumerated severalof them, he intoned this passage:

At the end of this strange encounter, Mohammed andhis hearers promptly prostrated themselves and worshipedtheir individually pampered deities in a spiritof beautiful brotherhood.

This event probably marks the decadence of themystic and the inception of the statesmanlike elementsin Mohammed’s character; but it was destined to bearbitter fruit. Had his co-workers possessed his aptitudefor mental prestidigitation, all might have gone well;but, like others of his profession, Mohammed hadstirred up a bigger hornets’ nest than he realized. Itappears that many Moslems, including even those whohad been bribed into accepting Islam, actually believedthat the Prophet had meant what he said about Allah,and himself, and Islam in general. Whatever it wasthat had inspired his retrograde action, Mohammedturned right-about-face in double-quick time; for anotherSura followed posthaste, which declared that theProphet, being very human, was sometimes deceived bythe poisonous whisperings of the devil. It was furthermorestated that Allah, the Omnipotent, naturally possessedthe power to erase or substitute sections of theKoran as he desired: “And when We change oneverse in place of another (and God best knoweth thatwhich He revealeth) they say, ‘Verily thou plainly arta fabricator.’ Nay! but the most of them understand[p. 82]not. Say, the Holy Spirit hath brought it down fromthy Lord in truth, to stablish them that believe.” Nevertheless,the clever device came to naught, for theProphet’s overplay of his hand led to two unfortunateresults: the Koreish, more assured than ever that hewas a slippery liar, redoubled their assaults on his devotees;and Mohammed himself was regarded with suspiciousdoubt by some of his most whole-hearted adherents.

Events followed thick and fast. The Prophet, disturbedand alarmed, advised another emigration toAbyssinia—a recommendation that swelled the risingfury of his enemies. For the Abyssinians, in yearspast, had invaded Arabia under Abraha, and what wasmore likely than that Mohammed was sending envoysto negotiate arapprochement with their chiefs—a contingencythat might foretell a second invasion to assistthe Prophet and overthrow the Koreish? Impelled bysuch vague fears, they instituted a device far more effectivethan direct attack. Mohammed’s biographersare not agreed upon the precise time when these eventstook place; but it seems probable that, shortly after thesecond emigration to Abyssinia (615–616), the Koreishissued a decree of excommunication against the familyof Hashim—which meant practically all of Islam. Itsdescendants were banned from intermarriage or other[p. 83]business engagements with the Meccans; in brief, thePagan bull specified that “dealings of every kind shouldcease.” The effect was swift and inevitable—the relativelyweak Hashimites were compelled to withdrawtheir forces from Mecca and retire to a secluded defileeast of the city. And here for an indeterminate periodrunning from several months to several years, the outlaws—probablyabout one hundred in number—lived asbest they could by buying scanty provisions at fabulousprices from passing caravans. Mohammed’s highlypraiseworthy behavior under these desperate conditionsrestored, and indeed strengthened, the faith of the sufferingHashimites; it is even possible that, without thissavage persecution, Islam might soon have died out andbeen forgotten in its infancy. For some of the better-classMoslems had heretofore been showing dangeroustendencies: they refused longer to kiss the Black Stone;they showed flagrant disrespect toward their unconvertedrelatives; they used obscene language; they evenprayed to Allah while they were drunk; and—encouraged,alas! by the Prophet himself—they coveted thewives and possessions of the unbelievers. But thisfrightful ordeal cleansed their hearts of such wickednesses.The “blood of the martyrs” was, in all probability,the seed of Islam’s glorious harvest.

And Mohammed himself was stirred to make even[p. 84]greater efforts than ever. With the cries of starvingchildren ringing in his ears, he would go forth, duringthe holy months when amnesty prevailed, to exhort thetribes that came to the fairs held at Ukaz and otherplaces. “Ye people!” he would shout, “Say, there is noGod but the Lord. Ye will be benefited thereby. Yewill gain the rule of Arabia and of foreign lands, andwhen ye die ye will reign as kings in Paradise.” Whilehe was thus engaged, his uncle, Abu Lahab (who hadprobably avoided the ban by forswearing his kinship tothe tribe of Hashim), would tag after him, crying out,“Believe him not, he is a lying renegade!” On anotheroccasion Abu Lahab yelled: “Blast the fellow! Isthat all that he hath called us for together?” Mohammedwas moved to such fury by this remark that he devotedone of the many imprecations of the Koran to hisfoul-mouthed, profligate uncle and his equally impenitentspouse.

But Abu Lahab, who by fits and starts relied on thegoddess Al-Uzza for protection, did not cease his mud-slinging;[p. 85]and he was ably assisted by Pagans fromforeign tribes who would taunt Mohammed thus:“Thine own kindred and people should know thee best;wherefore is it that they have cast thee off?” Then theProphet would turn his face despairingly toward heavenand say, “O Lord, if Thou willedst, it would not bethus!” But Allah—Who, logically, should be as muchof a nomad as his creatures—seems to have been enjoyinga vacation just then.

In 619 the hostile edict was withdrawn; but the reasonsfor its abrogation are obscure. Some believe thatthe Koreish lifted it when (it must be repeated that thedates of these events are vague) Mohammed agreed toa compromise with the Pagan deities of Mecca; othersthink that the better nature of the Koreish at last causedthem to pity the famishing exiles. Whatever the factsmay be, it was discovered that the parchment on whichthe edict was written had been mostly devoured by someants that, however, had taken devout care to leavetheinscribed name of God intact. The Koreish wereso confounded by this direct manifestation of Allah’sdispleasure that, when five of their leaders declaredthey were opposed to the continued banishment of theHashimites, opposition collapsed and the weary outcastsreturned to their homes.

Mohammed, overjoyed at this unexpected good fortune[p. 86]and completely oblivious to the major part playedby the insects, rightly gave thanks to Allah. But new,and even more sinister, events impended. Within afew months death deprived him of the loyal protectionof Abu Talib and the tender ministrations of Khadija.He comforted his wife’s dying hours with the assurancethat she, together with three other well-known women—theVirgin Mary, Potiphar’s wife, and “Kulthum,Moses’ sister”—would occupy his chamber in Paradise;but all he could conscientiously promise his expiringuncle was that he would inhabit the coolest, or at anyrate the least hot, regions in Hell. The contingentdeaths of these two made the Prophet’s position veryprecarious: Khadija had constantly nerved him to facethe severest trials, and Abu Talib had just as constantlykept the number of those trials down. AbuTalib, in fact, was barely in his grave when the populaceof Mecca cast dust on Mohammed’s head; and he thereforebetook himself to At-Taif, a city some seventymiles east of Mecca, to test its possibilities as a refuge.Arriving there early in 620, he was much disconcertedto learn that none of its inhabitants had even so much asheard of his ten-year-old mission; and when he attemptedto enlighten them, the sheiks and their groundlingsmerely sneered in open contempt. He then besoughtthem not to divulge his religious views—an[p. 87]exhibition of invaliant diplomacy that caused the peopleto hoot and hurl stones at him, until he fled from thecity with blood flowing down his legs. Utterly castdown in spirit, he spent the next two months in seclusionat Mecca. During the pilgrimage month of Dhul-Hijja,while he was addressing the crowds of visitorsin his usual way, a coincidence of measureless significanceoccurred. Mohammed chanced to notice a littlegroup of men whom he recognized as inhabitants ofMedina.

Ancient Yathrib, commonly called Medina, was familiarto the Arabs as “the pleasing” city, for it layin a fertile plain teeming with “green fields, runningwater, every blessing the Eastern mind can desire.”For ages it had been inhabited by expatriated Jews; butearly in the fourth century two Arab tribes, the Ausand the Khazraj, settled there. But the Hebrew residentswere much superior to the newcomers in generalculture, in agriculture and wealth, and, it was darklyrumored, in the black art of magic; for the Paganusurpers held to the primitive belief that the perfectman was one who could write Arabic, swim and shoot—andnot many of them could write Arabic. Jealousyof the more competent Jews, therefore, impelled theYathribites to make war against them, and the sons ofAbraham were decidedly disinclined to battle and bloodshed.Accordingly, having fought the Jews with veryfair success, the two victorious clans had speedily decidedto fight each other, with the result that Medina,for some generations, had been continually rent by[p. 89]tribal and civil wars. At present all parties were sotired of this everlasting strife that they had chosen oneof the chief men among the Khazraj, Abdallah ibnObei, to direct their fortunes; for the battle of Boath(616) had completely exhausted all the factions involved.Nevertheless, everybody was still dissatisfied,since it was feared that the truce was only temporary.

Now, for many centuries, despite one or two notabledisappointments, the Jews had expectantly awaited thecoming of a genuine prophet—a longing that had beencommunicated, probably through racial miscegenation,even to the Aus and the Khazraj—and lo! the news ofMohammed’s ministry was already common knowledgeat Medina. When the little troop of Medinesechanced to meet Mohammed at the sacred fair, therefore,they spoke thus with each other: “Know surelythat this is the prophet with whom the Jews are everthreatening us; wherefore let us make haste and be thefirst to join him.” For it was clear that languishingMedina, long disrupted by internecine struggles,needed above all else a leader capable of harmonizingall discordant elements and balancing the scales of justiceimpartially for all—except, it might be, the Jews—aleader, too, who would introduce no dangerous foreignideas, but whose vital beliefs were grafted on acommon Arabian stock. Perhaps there was some truth[p. 90]in the saying of Mohammed’s child-wife, Ayesha, thatthe battle of Boath had been engineered by Allah forthe benefit of the Moslems.

So, when the Prophet thus addressed the visitors,“Sit ye down for a little, and I will speak with you,”they gladly obeyed. After he had explained the creedof Islam, with due emphasis upon his own part in it,he proceeded to narrate the dangers of his position atMecca and next inquired what his prospects might beat Medina. They complimented him for his exaltedrank, but expressed doubt as to his reception in theirown embattled city. “If thou comest to us thus, wemay be unable to rally round thee. Let us, we praythee, return unto our people, if haply the Lord willcreate peace amongst us; and we will come back againto thee at this set time next year.” So the men returnedto Medina and quickly scattered the news oftheir marvelous encounter: would it not, they argued,be good business to claim the services of this very self-confidentMessiah before he was appropriated by thewaiting Jews, whose money-lending power held themass of Yathribites in abject poverty?

This counsel appeared excellent to both the Aus andthe Khazraj. After a year of troubled waiting on thepart of Mohammed, his heart was gladdened at the sightof twelve men who arrived on the appointed day to[p. 91]welcome him as the anticipated saviour of Medina.This oath was then sworn to by all: “We will not worshipany but the one God; we will not steal, neitherwill we commit adultery, nor kill our children; we willnot slander in anywise; nor will we disobey the Prophetin anything that is right.” Mohammed was so sweptaway by the general tone of obedience in this statementthat he apparently failed to notice the joker in the concludingclause; and thus the First Pledge, or Pledge ofWomen—so called because its lack of martial ardormade it the only vow required of female Moslems—wasmade. The twelve apostles at once returned andthe propagation of the new religion was soon in fullswing. At the request of the Medinese, the Prophetsent one Musab—once a connoisseur of gaudy clothesand delicate perfumes, but now a ragged, rampant Moslem—toinstruct them in the more intricate matters ofIslam. So tremendous was the zeal for proselytizingthat the most strenuous efforts were made to secure converts:the newly saved souls covenanted that they wouldnot speak to anyone who did not acknowledge theProphet, and all idols, as well as idol-worshipers, weretreated with the utmost severity. The salvation of oneold fellow, who habitually bowed before a horrid imagein his house, was particularly affecting. Young devoteescast the idol into a noisome well every night; but[p. 92]every morning he just as regularly hauled up, cleansedit, and again went through his genuflections. Oneday, however, they hitched the vile thing to a dead dogbefore tossing it in the well, “whereupon he abandonedhis image and believed.” Before long new convertscame in from every side with very little persuasion; forthe Medinese were very human and, inasmuch as Islamwas now all the rage, they wanted to be in the neweststyle.

While Medina was buzzing with these devout activities,Mohammed was otherwise occupied. Hemmed inby ever present dangers, and hearing only vague reportsof the conflagration that was sweeping Medina,he was constantly on tiptoe with hopeful yet fearfulexpectation. If his body was still held at Mecca, hisunbridled imagination was free to range toward thebeloved north, where both Medina and Jerusalem lay;and one morning he astounded his townsmen by declaringthat, during the preceding night, he had performedhis devotions in the Temple of Solomon atJerusalem. The obliging Gabriel, he said, had bornehim on a winged steed over Medina to the Temple; theArabian Pegasus, however, did not pause long there,but continued his celestial journey until he had carriedhis passengers completely out of this world, to those[p. 93]ethereal realms of bliss where the Seven Heavens lie.Up and still up they flew, while the Prophet carefullynoted the order of precedence of those prophets whosemodel he had proclaimed himself to be: Jesus and Johnwere in the second or third—he was notquite sure which—Moseswas in the sixth, while Abraham alone had thesupreme distinction of residing in the seventh. There,at the apex of indescribable glory, Mohammed had enteredthe awful presence of his Maker, Who, after somerather pointless chit-chat, charged him to see that allMoslems should hereafter prostrate themselves in prayertoward the Temple of Solomon five times every day.When Mohammed concluded, the Koreish laughed himto scorn, and even a few of the faithful were somewhatflabbergasted; but Abu Bekr saved the situation by declaringthat he did not doubt the truth of this tale, inasmuchas he had already swallowed far more improbableyarns related by the Prophet. Yet the veracity ofhis amply substantiated narrative rests upon two solidfacts: from that day to this, all devout Moslems havecontinued to bow themselves five times daily in prayer;and sceptics may still see, upon the rock where standsthe Mosque of Omar in Jerusalem, the identical printof the Prophet’s foot where he leaped upon the heavenlycharger.

The year 621 glided peacefully away. Mohammed,occupied with thoughts of a glorious future at Medina,had lost interest in spreading the faith in Mecca; andthe Koreish, deceived by his apparent inactivity, hadlargely ceased to trouble him. Musab eventually returnedwith a glowing account of the progress madeat Medina; but the Prophet, whose caution was certainlyno less pronounced than his courage, carefullyguarded his enthusiasm until more definite proofs wereat hand. They soon came. In March, 622, the datefixed for the second conclave, seventy-three Medinesecame in obedience to the promise made in the precedingyear.

This occasion was so profoundly important that Mohammedtook an infinitude of pains to conceal it—evenhis trusted intimates did not know about it beforehand.The Prophet, accompanied only by his wealthy andtrustworthy uncle Al-Abbas, met the delegates at deadof night in a secluded glen. Al-Abbas diplomaticallybroke the ice by stating that, while his wonderfulnephew was happy, safe and contented in Mecca, henevertheless preferred to establish himself at Medina—incase ample security for his safety were assured. Tothis harangue Al-Bara, leader of the visitors, replied:[p. 95]“We have listened to thy words. Our resolution is unshaken.Our lives are at the Prophet’s service. It isnow forhim to speak.” Then Mohammed, beginningloftily as he always did by chanting long passages ofthe Koran, finally descended to the earth and informedthem that he would be gracious enough to confer theboon of his presence upon Medina if its inhabitantswould make an irrevocable vow to defend him, even asthey would protect their nearest and dearest. A confusedjargon of voices arose, eagerly assuring him thathis person would be guarded at any cost. Al-Abbas,frightened almost out of his skin, breathed: “Hush!There may be spies abroad,” and in low tones requestedthem to plight their faith. The chief replied, “Stretchout thy hand, O Mohammed!” He did so; and Al-Bara,followed by all the rest, struck his hand upon theProphet’s in token of fealty. This was called theSecond Pledge, since it included an oath to fight forthe Prophet, and the touching of his holy hand—anhonor never given to the generality of women. The assemblythen silently broke up.

Such a large body of men could not gather so closeto Mecca, however, without rumors leaking out. Nextmorning the mistrustful chiefs of the Koreish calledupon the visitors and informed them that their presencewarranted the suspicion that they were interfering in[p. 96]the politics of Mecca—an act that virtually amountedto a declaration of war. The Medinese did the onlypossible thing: they replied that the Koreish werewholly mistaken, and the slow-witted Meccans were ingenuousenough to believe them. But the clever Yathribiteshad barely departed in high glee when theKoreish learnt the facts, and set out upon a vain pursuit.Thus foiled, the enraged Koreish at once ventedtheir spleen upon the believers, to whom the Prophetaccordingly gave this command: “Depart unto Medina;for the Lord hath verily given unto you brethrenin that city, and a home in which ye may find refuge.”Early in April the migration commenced, in parties oftwos and threes, while the baffled Koreish looked on instupefied amazement; for the number of clans that wereinvolved in the movement prevented any concerted hostilities,since no one had the right to interfere in privatefamily matters. By force or guile, however, they succeededin corrupting some of Mohammed’s coadjutorswho were weakest in faith or family ties; but the greatbody of Islam—now numbering probably close to twohundred souls—got safely away. A royal welcomeawaited them, for the Medinese converts, flushed withtheir novel fanaticism, bestowed every imaginable honorupon the refugees—one zealot even went so far as to[p. 97]offer his guest one-half of his property, and also addeda special bounty in the shape of one of his wives.

But Mohammed, together with his family and thehousehold of Abu Bekr, still lingered. He informedAbu that “his time was not yet come; the Lord hadnot as yet given him the command to emigrate.”Whether or no the Prophet’s decision to tarry was determinedon account of a genuine desire not to leavethe burning ship before all the passengers were safe, orbecause he cannily awaited further proofs from the Medinesebefore trusting his skin to them, must forever remaina matter for indulgent speculation. But in themiddle of June he received the fearful intelligence thatthe Koreish intended to visit him. Their purpose isuncertain. It has been surmised that they had decidedto assassinate him—for if, like Cæsar, he were to bepierced with swords driven home by representatives ofevery tribe, his weak clan would have to be satisfiedwith blood-money instead of blood-vengeance—to imprisonhim, to ostracize him, or to do no man knowswhat. That Mohammed himself was not privy to theirintentions is indicated by this passage from the Koran:“And call to mind when the Unbelievers plotted againstthee, that they might detain thee, or slay thee, or expelthee. Yea, they plotted, but God plotted likewise.[p. 98]And God is the best of plotters.” Tradition states thatGabriel informed the Prophet of the malignant design;he at once told Ali to lie upon his bed, then went forth,and simultaneously greeted the evil-comers with a handfulof dust and this excerpt from the Koran, “And Wehave covered them so that they shall not see.” For,indeed, the best of plotters had wrapped Mohammed ina cloak of invisibility; he therefore escaped undetectedwhile the murderous men lay in wait, thinking thatthe silent figure on the bed was the Prophet until themorning light apprised them of their sad error. Itseems more likely, however, that Mohammed merelythrew his deceptive red mantle over the recumbent Ali,and then slipped out of the back window to join thetrembling Abu Bekr, who wept joyous tears now thathis superior had at last decided to leave Mecca.

For the next three days, the two men lay in concealmentin a neighboring cave, while the distracted Koreishfeverishly sought everywhere for them. The house ofAbu Bekr was searched, but when his daughter Asmawas asked, “Where is thy father?” she innocently replied,“Truly, I know not where he is”—whereuponAbu Jahl, a ferocious and impudent fellow, “slappedher on the face with such force that one of her earringsdropped.” Meanwhile the two outcasts lurkedin the secrecy of the cave, across whose entrance, we[p. 99]are informed, a divinely commissioned spider wove aprotecting web; yet legends are often more industriousthan spiders. Abu Bekr would shake with fear andbreathe the low whisper, “What if one were to lookthrough the chink, and see us underneath his very feet?”to which the Prophet would boldly reply: “Think notthus, Abu Bekr! We are two, but God is in the midsta third.” Yet Mohammed loved Abu “more than allthe world; he held no one equal unto him,” sang thepoet Hassan; and the generally taciturn and moroseProphet, listening to the song, was pleased and laughedso heartily that he held his sides and his back teeth becamevisible. “Thou hast spoken truly, O Hassan!”he remarked after he had recovered his breath, “it isjust as thou hast said.”

After three days had passed without their detection,it seemed safe to speed toward Medina. The carefulAbu Bekr had fetched a purse, bulging with thousandsof gold pieces, as well as two of his best camels; and,probably on the night of June 20, they mounted thebeasts—Mohammed taking care to choose the swifterone, Al-Kaswa—and started on the perilous journey.The two-hundred-odd miles that they must traverseextended over a parched, barren, inexpressibly desolateand mournful waste, where only such rugged trees asthe tamarind and acacia could exist, where phantom mirages[p. 100]mocked the eye, and all nature was but a ribbedand menacing skeleton. They traveled chiefly at night,resting during the sweltering heat of the day and buyingprovisions from such scattered Bedouins as theychanced to encounter. Abu Bekr, who was well knownto most of these desert dwellers, was frequently askedwho his friend was, and he regularly made the answer,“A guide to lead me,” while the diplomatic Prophetkept a strict silence.

At length, after eight days of doubt and deprivation,they came in sight of Medina; but the wary Mohammedhad no intention of trusting himself to the city beforehe knew exactly how things lay. “Lead us,” he said tothe guide, “straight to the Beni Amr at Koba, anddraw not yet nigh unto Medina.” This overscrupulousvigilance turned out to be unnecessary, forrumors of his approach had set the city agog with delight;and every morning a band of converts and refugeeshad posted themselves on a hill to watch his arrival.On this morning one of them, catching sight ofthe travelers as they trudged toward Koba, raised therapturous shout: “Ho! he has come! he whom we havebeen looking for has come!” The marvelous news flewfrom tongue to tongue, and everybody rushed forth toKoba to greet the majestic guest. Even the childrencried out: “Here is the Prophet! He is come! He[p. 101]is come!” while a great crowd surged around him andmade profound obeisance. Then Mohammed knew atlast that he was safe among friends. He had escapedfrom Mecca, where the Koreishite swords might havealtered the course of events for all time; but the otherwisedull and sluggish Middle Ages were fated to beinfinitely enriched by the romantic contest between theCrescent and the Cross. “Ye people!” he courteouslyproclaimed, “show your joy by giving your neighborsthe salutation of peace; send portions to the poor; bindclose the ties of kinsmanship; and offer up your prayerswhilst others sleep. Thus ye shall enter Paradise inpeace.”

III

To make the assurance of a safe entrance to Medinadoubly sure, however, Mohammed lingered four daysat Koba. Even then he took no dangerous chances,for he requested the Medinese descendants of his reveredgreat-grandmother, the spouse of Hashim, to attendhim into the city; and in the meantime he had sleptonly when some of his most trusted underlings keptwatch. These super-precautions proved to be needless,for tribe after tribe came flocking forth to seewhich could outdo the other in paying reverence to him.On every hand rose the earnest request: “Alight[p. 102]here, O Prophet! We have abundance with us, meansof defense and weapons and room. Abide with us!”—andmany suppliants emphasized their requests byseizing the halter of Al-Kaswa. On this occasion Mohammed’ssuperb political ability was again evidenced.He would show no favoritism, but, by means of a cameland an omen—both inexpressibly dear to every Arab’sheart—he would choose his abode by supernaturalmeans. To all these fervent ejaculations he replied:“The decision rests with the camel; make way for her;let her go free.” So Al-Kaswa, unguided by rein,moved forward until she entered the eastern section ofthe city, where, seeing a few date-trees in an open courtyard,she quite naturally ambled toward their gratefulshade and awkwardly sat down. And in this waywas the site for the Mosque chosen—the famous Mosquewhere, for the remainder of his days, the Prophet dwelt,married, prayed, preached, emitted new revelations,planned his schemes of conquest, greeted his friends,and uttered maledictions against his foes; where, also,he sickened, died and was buried. Yet certain abominablesceptics have intimated that Mohammed knewbeforehand that this particular spot was already hallowedas a place of prayer, and that the rein of Al-Kaswa’shalter was not so very slack after all.

The Prophet at once negotiated to buy the sacred[p. 103]site. Its owners wished to make him a present of it,but he would not stoop to accept it as a gift; accordingly,it was purchased with ten gold pieces from AbuBekr’s wallet. For seven months Mohammed lived inthe lower story of an adjacent house, owned by AbuEiyub, while the construction of the Mosque, with itsadjoining apartments for himself, went on. His bodilywants were provided for by the citizens, who contendedwith each other for the honor of sending him thechoicest viands they could procure. As might be expected,Abu Eiyub was exceedingly solicitous for thecomfort and safety of his distinguished roomer. Once,when a water-pot was accidentally broken in the upperstory, Abu and his wife quickly sopped up the waterwith their clothes, and then rushed down to Mohammed’sapartment in great fear lest a drop or two mighthave defiled his garments. Meanwhile the building ofthe Mosque was pushed at full speed. The Prophethimself joined heartily in the work, thus stimulating allhis helpers to increase their efforts, and united withthem in their labor-lightening song:

All this led to a spirit of fellowship between these twoclasses, and, in order that the union might be made[p. 104]more firm, Mohammed, after first setting the example,paired off individuals in each. “Become brethrenevery two and two of you,” he gently commanded, andit was done.

One danger, unforeseen even by the perspicaciousProphet, soon threatened the refugees. The climateof Mecca, while excessively hot, was dry and salubrious;but, though Medina’s altitude was unusually great, herdrainage paradoxically enough was very poor, and thenoxious exhalations from her stagnant water, abettedby intense heat at day and intense cold at night, soonprostrated large numbers of the refugees with fever.This misfortune so dampened the enthusiasm of manythat, in their frenzied delirium, they would moan outtheir desire to go home. When Mohammed heard ofthis, he looked upward and raised this prayer: “OLord! make Medina dear unto us, even as Mecca, oreven dearer. Bless its produce, and banish far fromit the pestilence!” But, for some inscrutable reason,Allah, the Hearer and the Answerer of Prayer, remaineddeaf for a time; and at one period Mohammedwas one of the very few persons who were able to standduring prayers. When, however, he informed the recumbentinvalids that “the prayer of one who sits isworth only half the prayer of him that stands,” they allmade desperate efforts to rise.

Nevertheless, the first few months at Medina wereon the whole happy and auspicious. The elements ofdisaffection that lurked among the Jews and the unbelieversbided their day; the refugees and the citizen converts,or allies, gladly rushed to fulfill the smallestdesire of the Prophet, whose fascinating personalitycompletely charmed his friends and even intrigued hisenemies—for a time. Who could resist the appeal ofa man who gracefully bestowed names of good omenupon converts previously burdened with inauspiciousPagan titles, and who dignified those of his subordinateswho were enslaved in the ignoble calling of“hucksters” by altering the forbidding word to “Merchants”?In an excess of praiseworthy devotion, theyquaffed the sacred water in which the Prophet hadbathed, and piously treasured his hairs and nail-paringsas charms and forget-me-nots. And Mohammed, everextraordinarily swift to take hints, soon formed thehabit of wrapping up these personal relics and bestowingthem upon new converts as a peculiar evidence ofhis esteem.

While his worshipers thus fawned and his foes maintainedan ominously quiet peace, the Prophet calmlyassumed the attributes of a sovereign and sacerdotaloffice. As self-appointed ruler of the city, he exercisedthe right of deposing and selecting whatever chiefs he[p. 106]desired; as priestly dictator of all Islam, he establishedthose multitudinous rules and ordinances that still defythe assaults of time. Motivated probably by a statesmanlike,if rather cautious, wish to win or at least placatethe Jews, he inaugurated a complicated system ofdevotion based principally upon the famous preceptsthat had been given to Moses. The detractors of Islamhave so exaggerated its largely fictitious sensuality thatits rigorous rites have too often been forgotten: its lustrations,its fastings, its prodigality of genuflections.The business of lustration, for example, was very complicated.Before prayer the Moslem must wash hisface from the top of the forehead to the chin and sidewaysas far as both ears, bathe his arms and hands asfar as the elbows, and cleanse his feet as far as theankles; and all this must be done in the strictest silence,broken only by such prayers as the votary might thinkappropriate. While scrubbing his teeth, he might sayif he chose: “Vouchsafe, O Lord, as I clean my teeth,to purify me from my faults, and accept my homage,O Lord! May the purity of my teeth be for me apledge of the whiteness of my face at the Day of Judgment.”If, through a momentary lapse into sin, thehapless believer had defiled his body, he thus washedaway his iniquity: three successive times he poured waterupon his right and left shoulders, and a like number[p. 107]of times on the top of his head; and should onehair on the entire body be left untouched, the act ofpurification was wholly vain.

The Prophet also instituted various fasts which, withcertain alterations, have also endured. These fastswere, if possible, even more laboriously meticulous thanlustration. While abstaining from food and drink, theMoslems must take the most scrupulous precaution tosee that absolutely nothing entered the body. If theysmelled perfumes, bathed, or carelessly swallowed theirspittle, the fast was broken; the most ardent discipleswould not even open their mouths to converse, for fearof inhaling too much air; and, if a thoughtless fasterallowed a particle of food, no matter how small, to becomewedged between his teeth, he was deemed to be abackslider from the faith.

December was for a time annually sanctified by fasting,and several rather diverting details followed. Inthe first place, most of the Moslems took the responsibilitywith such complete and abject seriousness thatthey unintentionally disturbed the Prophet’s slumbers.Very late one evening they came to the Mosque for theservice of prayer; and, observing that Mohammed wasnot on hand, they approached his house and coughedloudly before the door. The Prophet, now thoroughlyaroused, came forth and addressed them thus: “I have[p. 108]observed for some days your coming for the nightlyprayer at the Mosque, until I feared that it would growby custom into a binding ordinance.... Wherefore,pray ye at eventide in your houses.” He then returnedto resume his interrupted repose; but a further troubleawaited him. His humble supporters, it appeared,were obsessed with the monkish idea that they shouldabstain from every conceivable pleasure during thewhole month; but Mohammed was too wise to permitsuch immoderate asceticism. Allah, it was soon revealed,“willeth not for you that which is difficult....It is lawful unto you, during the nights of the Fast,to consort with your wives. Now, therefore, sleep withthem, and earnestly desire that which God hath ordainedfor you; and eat and drink until ye can distinguisha white thread from a black thread, by the daybreak.Then keep the fast again until night....Thus God declareth His signs unto mankind, that theymay follow Piety.” The consequent popularity of thefast, indeed, brought new adherents to Islam in greatabundance, until an unforeseen contingency arose.Abstinence from food and drink during the short daysof December caused little difficulty; but the Prophet,trusting in that quaint omniscience which universallyattends the assumption of prophetic robes, introducedan intercalary system based upon the lunar months.[p. 109]The sacred month, therefore, gradually shifted fromwinter to summer, when the sixteen-hour days madewhat had previously been a pleasure a great burden;nevertheless, Mohammed persevered in his oddity, forto have done otherwise would have impugned his infallibility.So his faithful zealots groaned and weretroubled, and longingly anticipated the new moon,when the fast was joyously broken by the bestowal ofalms upon the poor and the resumption of normalbodily activities.

Five times a day the believers, no matter how pleasantlyoccupied, must turn to prayer: at dawn, at midday,in the afternoon, at sunset, and at the coming ofcomplete darkness. On six days these devotions couldbe performed anywhere, though preferably in congregationat the Mosque; but every Friday the Moslems,unless detained by extraordinary causes, were commandedto worship in a body at the Mosque. The everefficient Gabriel informed Mohammed of Allah’s desirethat the time for each prayer should be announced bya crier, who must shout: “Great is the Lord!Great is the Lord! I bear witness that there is noGod but the Lord: I bear witness that Mohammed isthe Prophet of God. Come unto prayer: come untosalvation. God is great! God is great! There is noGod but the Lord!” So Mohammed instructed his[p. 110]negro servant, Bilal, to be the public crier; and earlyevery morning Bilal would clamber upon a high houseand rouse the slumbering Moslems with these words,adding this salutary invention of his own: “Prayer isbetter than sleep! Prayer is better than sleep!”Then, climbing down from his lofty perch, he wouldapproach Mohammed’s door and shout: “To prayer,O Apostle of God! to salvation!”

At the special Friday service, the Prophet ascendedthe pulpit, gave a stereotyped salutation of peace, andthen seated himself while Bilal shouted the stentoriansummons to prayer. Descending from the pulpit, Mohammedthen led the prayers; reascending, he deliveredone or two exhortations. The assembly, fixing theirrapt glances on his earnest gesticulations, would swallowevery word and at the end join in a loud “Amen!”or something like it. When all was over, his mantle ofstriped material from Yemen, and his girdle of splendidOman cloth, were carefully folded up and laid awayuntil the next service. The pulpit itself was soon endowedwith an awful sanctity. Disputes were settledat its base; and should anyone take a false oath in itspresence, “even if the subject were as insignificant as atoothpick”—and toothpicks were not wholly unknownin Islam—he thereby doomed himself to eternal damnation.Before it had been built, Mohammed had supported[p. 111]himself during his sermons by leaning on a post—anobject of which he grew so fond that, after it wasno longer needed, he commanded it should be interredbeneath the pulpit. The post itself reciprocated histouching sentiment; for, when it was abandoned, itmoaned loudly and would not stop until the Prophetplaced his hand upon it, whereupon its grief was assuaged.

Though Mohammed was now actually the spiritualand nominally the temporal ruler of Medina, his positionnevertheless was very precarious. The Jews, whilecompletely deficient in martial valor, were openly contemptuousof his prophetical jurisdiction, and the Khazrajiteleader, Abdallah ibn Obei, showed overt defianceagainst his assumption of civil power. Presumably becausehe feared and respected Abdallah’s influence, theProphet took pains to treat him with every courtesy;but the compliment was not returned. One day, whenMohammed chanced to observe his rival seated at easein the cool shade of his house, he alighted from his steed,graciously saluted the sitter, recited some of the mostaffecting passages in the Koran, and finally invitedhim to adopt the faith. Abdallah listened composedlyuntil the long harangue was ended; then he spoke.“Nothing could be better than this discourse of thine,if it were true. Now, therefore, do thou sit at home inthine own house, and whosoever cometh to thee preachthus unto him, and he that cometh not unto thee refrain[p. 113]from troubling him with that which he dislikes.” Healso casually mentioned the fact that he objected to thesmell of the beast that Mohammed bestrode; so theProphet went on his way, sorely stricken in spirit.

In other ways, too, he was equally unfortunate. Hisfabulous rise from the lowly state of an insignificanttrader to the pinnacle of fame appears to have inducedhim to overestimate his powers; at any rate, soon afterhis arrival at Medina, he betrayed his ignorance of thesimplest facts of Arabian agriculture by forbidding theartificial fecundation of palm trees, with the result thatthey became almost barren. But when his egregiouserror was pointed out, he manifested a wisdom rare inprophets by candidly admitting that he was in thewrong. “I am only mortal,” he confessed. “If I giveyou an order in the domain of your religion then receiveit; but if I give you an order from my own opinionthen am I but mortal.” In the near famine that hadresulted from his bungling interference, there was poeticjustice in the fact that he, as well as the rest, couldeat only one date per day; yet he gladly shared in thestringent privations that all were forced to endure.While his own face was pinched with hunger, he dividedwith the most needy Moslems the gifts of foodwhich various people had sent him; on one occasion hewas glad to accept a Jew’s offer to partake of a meal[p. 114]of rancid fat and barley bread; and for months, duringthe dead of winter, he went without any fire on hishearth.

It was obvious that such a state of affairs could notbe permitted to continue. No matter how strong thealready sorely tried faith of his partisans was, it wouldnot forever withstand the shocks of rampant famine andnaked, shivering misery; then too, and even more vital,was the consideration that new converts could never bewon over to such a ragged and unkempt faith—Islamwould not grow. And other even more subtle ideaswere fermenting in Mohammed’s ever restive mind.He, the one and only Prophet of the Most High Allah,was a starving outcast because of the pernicious activitiesof the overbearing, wealthy and rather cowardlyKoreish, whose teeming caravans pursued their unmolestedway northward from Mecca, between Medinaand the Red Sea, to Syria. But the destitute refugeeswere pledged to advance the banners of Islam notmerely in defensive, but, if Allah so willed, in offensivewar; and should any of them see fit to remind him that,in earlier days, he had instructed them not to retaliateagainst their enemies, he could—and did—allay theirsqueamishness with a revelation. Furthermore, hishenchmen had already been subjected, by chance or design,to a strenuous discipline that had inured them to[p. 115]endure such hardships as a career of pillage and guerrillawarfare would entail. Rigid religious fasts hadaccustomed them to withstand hunger and thirst; atthe daily publicsalat, or prayer, they had been drilledto stand in rows, to perform what amounted to toughgymnastic exercises, and to expect celestial condemnationunless they scrupulously obeyed the minutest requirementsof these incessant manœuvers. The successfulplundering of opulent Koreishite caravans—which,under the circumstances, might reasonably be expected—wouldaccomplish four excellent results: itwould put a summary end to the ubiquitous suffering atMedina; it would provide a more than adequate outletfor the explosive zeal of his backers; it would conclusivelydemonstrate the prowess of Islam, therebywinning new members to the fold; and it would enableMohammed to exult over the salutary discomfiture ofhis despicable foes.

How clearly defined these or other considerations mayhave been in the mind of the outstanding Oriental ofthe seventh century, it would be presumptuous for atwentieth century Occidental to say; the fact remains,however, that such were the results attained. Brahminism,Buddhism and Confucianism waxed slowlygreat through renunciation, inertia and mystical contemplation;but Jehovah and Allah were made of[p. 116]sterner stuff. It seems probable that, despite the peacefulcreed and practice of its founder, Christianity wouldnever have become a serious rival of other world-faithshad it not been for the implacable swords of Constantineand Charlemagne; but Islam was fortunate fromthe beginning in that its inventor entertained no sillyscruples about blood-letting. The Crusades, theFrench Revolution, and Cromwellian Puritanism wereattended by an amount of sadism that may well makeone pause before too severely condemning the blood-maniaand sex-obsession that mark every stage ofIslam’s triumphant progress.

Thus it happened that, from December, 622, untilOctober, 623, the Prophet sent six separate expeditionsagainst the Meccan caravans. The first three were entirelyunsuccessful, notwithstanding the fact that Mohammedpresented the leader of each one with a whitebanner mounted on a staff; but the fourth, led by theProphet himself, was marked by a momentous incident.Though he failed to capture his prey, he made somesort of offensive and defensive alliance with the idolatroustribe of Banu Damrah; and, apparently lest hemight be rightly criticized for making friends with unbelievers,he justified his action in the only acceptableway—by a revelation. “It may be that Allah willbring about friendship between you and those whom[p. 117]you hold to be your enemies.... Allah does not forbidyou respecting those who have not made war againstyou on account of (your) religion, and have not drivenyou forth from your homes.... Allah only forbidsyou respecting those who made war against you onaccount of (your) religion, and drove you forth fromyour homes....” It may be surmised that theProphet, himself an ex-camel-driver familiar with Bedouinways, was moved to speak thus by two considerations:desert tribes that subsisted principally by plunderwould be quick to appreciate the desirability of linkingthemselves with a faith that sanctified theft here andpromised Paradise hereafter; besides, a successful assaulton Koreish merchandise could hardly be madewithout the acquiescence or assistance of the tribesthrough whose territory that merchandise passed.

The fifth expedition was fruitless, but the sixthbrought about alliances with several seashore clans; anda seventh one led not only to the first actual bloodshed,but to an even more striking innovation. Two daysbefore the end of the sacred month of Rejeb, Mohammedsent eight men forth and gave their leader sealedorders which were not to be opened until after a twodays’ march. By a mere coincidence or by a sly designof the Prophet, the document was thus read, accordingto instructions, on the last day of Rejeb. After commanding[p. 118]the leader not to force “any of thy followersagainst his inclination,” it ordered him to lie in waitfor a Meccan caravan. Faced by the dilemma of fightingwhen strife was taboo, or of delaying until it wouldbe too late to overtake the Koreish travelers, the Moslemssummarily solved the problem by shooting an arrowthrough one of the Meccans and returning toMedina with the booty. Then, to their utter dismay,Mohammed rose up, “his face red with anger,” and declared,“I never commanded thee to fight in the Sacredmonth.” Yet it is curiously interesting to note thatthis heavenly message soon appeared: “They will askthee concerning the Sacred months, whether they maywar therein. Say: Warring therein is grievous; butto obstruct the way of God and to deny Him, to hindermen from the Holy temple, and to expel His peoplethence, that is more grievous with God.”

Thus, through blind caprice or far-seeing, statesmanlikeduplicity, the way was opened for bloodshed on agrand and wholly unrestricted scale. Nine centuriesbefore Machiavelli, and eleven before Napoleon, theProphet of Islam formulated this dictum: “War afterall is but a game of deception.” Deception of severalkinds, that is to say: one’s foes should be openly cursedand belittled while privately they were respected andeven feared; one’s followers should be assured that martial[p. 119]ardor was the best of all possible virtues and thatdeath on the field of honor was a matchless boon. “Thesword,” Mohammed declared, “is the key of Heavenand Hell; a drop of blood shed in the cause of God, anight spent in arms, is of more avail than two monthsof fasting or prayer; whosoever falls in battle, hissins are forgiven; at the day of judgment his woundsshall be resplendent as vermilion, and odiferous asmusk; and the loss of his limbs shall be supplied by thewings of angels and cherubim.” The Koran of thisperiod teems with frightful maledictions against theKoreish, and transcendent pictures of the Paradise thatawaited the Moslem elect. Those warriors who couldrepeat the greatest number of its verses were, we aretold, rewarded with the pick of the spoil after a victoriouscontest, and those who fell martyrs to Islam wereburied with the most honorable rites. It was only tooeasy, one suspects, for devout Moslem warriors to memorizesuch passages as these: “War is ordained foryou, even if it be irksome unto you. Perchance ye maydislike that which is good for you, and love that which isevil for you. But God knoweth, and ye know not....God loveth not the Transgressors. Kill them wheresoeverye find them; and expel them from whence theyhave expelled you.... Those of you that contributebefore the victory, and fight, shall not be placed on[p. 120]the same level, but shall have a rank superior over thosewho contribute after it and fight. Who is he that lendethunto the Lord a goodly loan? He shall double thesame, and he shall have honorable recompense....Those that have gone into exile for the cause of God,and then have been slain, or have died, We shall certainlynourish them with an excellent provision, for Godis the best Provider.... He shall lead them into theParadise whereof He hath told them.... For evertherein—a fair abode and resting place!”

So it came to pass that the Prophet, who had managedto survive at Mecca only because of the Koreishiterespect for ties of blood, was himself responsible forstarting a blood-feud against the Koreish. He appears,however, to have been far less disturbed by thisconsideration than by the fact that he had not yet succeededin winning any considerable amount of lootfrom them; but his desire was soon to be amply gratified.

In the autumn of 623, Abu Sufyan, a leading Meccanmerchant, had conducted the most important caravanof the year to Syria, and in January, 624, he wason his way home with fifty thousand pieces of gold.[p. 121]Mohammed had meanwhile determined that this richcargo should be his; but, being yet somewhat inexperiencedin the niceties of brigandage and slaughter, hecarelessly allowed rumors of his intention to reach theears of Abu, who at once sent a runner to Mecca with anurgent request for a rescuing force. The Prophet, inthe meanwhile, rallied his supporters for the assaultafter this fashion: “See! here cometh a caravan ofKoreish in which they have embarked much wealth.Come! let us go forth; peradventure the Lord will enrichus with the same.” Scores of refugees and citizensgladly leaped forth to obey, but he would allow nonesave the righteous to join him. Chancing to spy twoheathens among the volunteers, he sternly addressedthem thus, “None shall go forth with me but he who isof our Faith.” To their plea that they were redoubtablefighters who would ask nothing but their share ofthe plunder, he replied: “Ye shall not go thus.Believeand fight!” Immediately they asserted their profoundconviction that he was indeed the Prophet of Allah,whereupon their ears were gladdened with the remark,“Now go forth and fight!” And these two becamesuch famous despoilers that another heathen, afternoting how greatly their conversion had benefited them,sadly exclaimed: “Would that I had gone forth withthe Prophet! Then I had surely secured large booty!”

After dispatching two scouts to watch the movementsof the caravan, Mohammed and his army of three hundredand five men at once set out toward Bedr (a spotnear the coast to the southwest of Medina), hoping toapprehend the caravan at that place. While on theway, he deliberately avoided passing through certainlocalities whose names were unpleasing to him; for thissingular man, who commonly appeared morose, taciturnand phlegmatic, had a nervous temperament thatwas extraordinarily susceptible to an astonishing varietyof idiosyncratic fancies and whims. He would notsit down at night in a dark room; he believed that oddnumbers had greater virtue than even ones; he changedcolor and walked nervously around during heavystorms; and he had a charmingly ingenuous faith inportents. Abu Sufyan, too, believed in signs—whenthey meant something definite. When he came to awell at Bedr, his eagle eyes spied two ominous date-stonesthat the careless scouts had dropped near itsbrink. “Camels from Yathrib!” cried Abu; “these bethe scouts of Mohammed!” and he immediately guidedhis caravan at full speed to the right.

His runner meanwhile had reached Mecca where, approachingthe Kaba, he forced his camel to kneel; then,cutting off its nose and ears and tearing his shirt-tailsto signify that a dreadful calamity impended, the Arabian[p. 123]Paul Revere screamed: “Koreish! Koreish! yourcaravan is pursued by Mohammed. Help! oh help!”The Meccans, already enraged at the murder of theirtribesman at the hands of Moslems during Rejeb, weremore than eager for vengeance, and an army of aboutnine hundred and fifty men at once started for Bedr.But, when they neared that place, a messenger reachedthem with the news that the caravan had fled on andwas already out of danger. A heated discussion aroseas to what should be done: since their merchandise wassafe, should they return; or, should they take up thepresumptuous challenge of the renegade Prophet?While both points of view were being violently argued,another scout came rushing up with the appalling informationthat the Moslem “numbers are small, butdeath is astride upon the camels of Yathrib.” Followingthis alarming prophecy, a retreat had almost beenordered when Abu Jahl, the nasty girl-slapper, tauntedhis compatriots by calling them cowards, and bade oneAmir, a brother of the murdered Meccan, to think ofhis brother-blood; Amir immediately tore off his garments,covered himself with dust and began to shriekhis brother’s name aloud. Thus their fury was revived,and, though a few craven-hearted ones returnedto Mecca, the rest marched posthaste toward the oncomingfoe.

During this time the news of the enemy’s advance hadreached the army of Mohammed; but, instead of causingdebate, it had roused the Moslem enthusiasm to agreater pitch. The citizens, too, even though they hadnot pledged themselves to assist in offensive warfare,were equally affected. “Prophet of the Lord!” shoutedtheir leader, “march whither thou listest; encamp wheresoeverthou mayest choose; make war or conclude peacewith whom thou wilt. For I swear by Him who hathsent thee the Truth, that if thou wert to march till ourcamels fell down dead, we should go forward with theeto the world’s end.” Then Mohammed, deeply affectedby this proof of devotion, responded: “Go forwardwith the blessing of God! For, verily, He hathpromised one of the two—the army or the caravan—thatHe will deliver it into our hands. By the Lord!methinks I even now see the battlefield strewn withdead.” Here were no timid bickerings, no half-heartedcounsels, no unmanly scruples about spilling fraternalblood: whatwas there to fear when Paradise, revengefor ostracism, and fifty thousand shining pieces of goldbeckoned them on? And the Prophet, who never didthings by halves, fanned the rising fires of fanaticismby giving turbulent utterance to a series of commingledimprecatory and suppliant prayers. “O Lord! let not[p. 125]Abu Jahl escape, the Pharaoh of his people! Lord!let not Zaama escape; rather let the eyes of his fatherrun sore for him with weeping, and become blind!...O Lord! I beseech thee, forget not Thy promise of assistanceand of victory. O Lord! if this little band bevanquished, Idolatry will prevail, and the pure worshipof Thee cease from off the earth!”

When night fell, both armies had nearly reachedBedr. Mohammed and Abu Bekr sought repose in ahut of palm branches guarded by a soldier with hissword drawn; and the Prophet’s slumbers were comfortedby dreams in which the enemy appeared as a pitifullyweak force. Morning had barely dawned whenfoe swiftly advanced to meet foe. A providential rainhad softened the ground over which the Koreish mustneeds pass, and, at the same time, it had paradoxicallyhardened the soil beneath the Moslem feet; the fortunatefact that small sandy ridges concealed the majorityof the Meccans induced the Medinese to advancewith extra courage; and the Koreish suffered the furtherdisadvantage of facing the troublesome rays ofthe rising sun. In addition, the Prophet’s superiorforesight, abetted by the suggestion of a counselor, hadprompted him to take possession of a never-failingspring, as well as to destroy all the other available water-sources;[p. 126]for he always backed up his incessant prayersby using every device of military tactics that he happenedto know, or acquire.

According to the Arabian custom, the fray openedwith a series of individual combats. Three Meccanwarriors stepped vaingloriously forth, daring the threebest men among the Moslems to face them; and valorousHamza, impetuous Ali, and Obeida the septuagenarianrushed forward to accept the challenge. Theswords of Hamza and Ali soon dripped with the lifebloodof two Koreishites; when Obeida fell severelywounded, they sprang to his aid and simultaneously deliveredtwo lusty strokes that killed the third. Then,raising the cry, “Ye conquerors, strike!” the serriedMoslem ranks hurled themselves against the enemy;but the Prophet himself, while the deadly yet indecisivestruggle was being waged, played an ambiguous part.Friendly traditions state that he bounded about with asword in his hand. Those of another sort relate that,upon observing the first shedding of blood, he retired tohis hut and swooned; that, upon being revived, hepoured forth the most energetic prayers; and that, evenbefore the battle commenced, he had taken pains to havea swift camel tied to his tent as a last resource againstthe possible calamity of defeat. Still other narrativesassert that he occupied himself principally in reminding[p. 127]his accomplices that Paradise awaited those who perishedfor Islam—a promise whose validity he himselfseems to have been indisposed to test. For Mohammed,no less than many other religiously-minded emperorsand tsars, appears to have conducted himself in battleaccording to the wise principle that a head without ahalo is infinitely more desirable than a halo without ahead.

While the disorderly Meccan forces were being steadilypressed back by the close-joined Moslem ranks, afurious storm of wind arose. Until this time, Mohammedseems to have been rather sceptical concerning theissue of his prayers; but, now that the foe was beginningto waver, he doubted no longer. “That,” he exclaimedwhile the tempest raged, “is Gabriel with athousand angels charging down upon the foe.” Then,stooping and grabbing up a handful of small stones,he rose and hurled them at the Koreish, accompanyinghis action with the shout, “Confusion seize their faces!”This double assault, timed at the psychological moment,could not fail to have effect. The broken and shakenMeccan ranks—thoroughly discomfited by a lack ofdiscipline, by a merely lukewarm interest in fightingtheir quondam neighbors and friends, and, as theirown satirists abundantly pointed out later, by actualcowardice—cracked apart and fled in complete dismay,[p. 128]to be harassed and killed or captured by the pursuingMoslems. Mohammed lost but fourteen men in theencounter, whereas more than a hundred Koreish wereslain or taken prisoners.

Curious scenes followed. A Moslem named Moadhhad succeeded in cutting off Abu Jahl’s leg. Just thenMoadh, attacked by Abu’s son, had found himself withone of his own arms almost severed; and, realizing thatthis member was now a useless impediment, Moadh bentover, placed his foot on the injured arm, wrenched itoff, and continued to fight. At this moment one Abdallahcame running up to assist Moadh, and, overjoyedat his good fortune in stumbling over such a notoriousenemy, cut off Abu Jahl’s head and carried itto Mohammed. The Prophet, who was just beginningto celebrate his victory, raised the exultant shout:“The head of the enemy of God! God! there is noneother God!” “There is none other!” agreed Abdallah,dropping his gory prize before Mohammed’s feet; andAbdallah almost fainted from bliss when the Prophetcontinued, “It is more acceptable to me than the choicestcamel in all Arabia.” It happened, also, that Alihad overheard Mohammed praying for the death ofNaufal ibn Khuweilid, who had been taken prisoner;so Ali ran up, coolly slaughtered him, and promptlyhastened with the good news to the Prophet, who joyously[p. 129]commented that this was doubtless a direct answerto his supplication. The spoil was soon gathered, anda pit was dug into which the Koreishite bodies weretossed; and Mohammed, who stood by watching the proceedings,greeted each corpse by name, adding this question,“Have ye now found true that which your Lorddid promise you? What my Lord promised me, thatverily I have found to be true.” “O Prophet!” inquiredan amazed observer, “dost thou speak unto the dead?”“Yea, verily,” was the reply, “for now they well knowthat the promise of their Lord hath fully come to pass.”

Next morning, when the prisoners were led beforehim, he turned a malignant gaze upon Al-Nadr, whohad been captured by Mikdad. “There is death in thatglance,” the frightened Al-Nadr whispered to a bystander,and he was right; his trembling plea for mercywas rewarded with the response, “Islam hath rent allbonds asunder,” from a prominent Moslem, and withthe command, “Strike off his head!” from Mohammed,who also felt moved to add, “And, O Lord, do Thou ofThy bounty grant unto Mikdad a better prey thanthis!” Another prisoner, Okba—a man well versed inGrecian, Persian and Arabian lore, who is said to havearoused the Prophet’s ire by the observation that, if afund of good stories entitled a man to call himself aprophet, he was fully as good a candidate as Mohammed[p. 130]himself—was likewise ordered to face his doom. Mohammed,however, first satisfied Okba’s curiosity as towhy he had been singled out for destruction with thewords, “Because of thine enmity to God and hisProphet.” “And my little girl,” continued Okba, “whowill take care of her?” “Hell-fire!” was the swift reply,as Okba was chopped to the ground. The Prophet,surveying the remains, rejoiced after this fashion: “Igive thanks unto the Lord that hath slain thee, and comfortedmine eyes thereby.” Yet it should be stated thatthe defenders of Islam asseverate that Mohammed’s remarksto the Koreishite corpses were intended to expresspity rather than hatred, and that the ejaculation “Hell-fire!”was a reference to the fact that Okba’s childrenwere nicknamed “children of fire”—in other words, heimplied that Okba’s descendants would be cared for byhis relatives.

Whatever the facts may be, it is certain that Mohammedtreated the rest of the captives with a kindnessrarely matched in the martial history of Arabia. Whilethe implacable Omar made a violent plea for their summarydeath, and while the easy-going Abu Bekr urgedclemency, Gabriel winged his way from Allah’s presencewith the gratifying information that Mohammed mightdo as he wished; but he added the portentous remarkthat, if the Koreish were spared, a like number of Moslems[p. 131]would perish in battle within the year. Mohammedeventually pleased everyone, except Omar, by announcingthat the prisoners would not be slain, butthat they could be freed only by ransom, and that thoseMoslems who might fall as Gabriel had foretold would“inherit Paradise and thecrown of martyrdom.” Hisdecision was probably reached on account of severalconsiderations: the ransom for some seventy prisonersmight benefit Islam even more than their blood; therewas the further chance that some of them might becomedisciples; and, finally, he may conceivably have beenmore mercifully minded than his traducers admit.

Joy and thanksgiving were unbounded when the newsof the overwhelming victory reached Medina; even thetoddling children chased around the streets crying out,“Abu Jahl, the sinner, is slain!” The prisoners were sokindly treated that some of them actually became converts,while the stubborn remainder were ransomed forreasonable sums—except those whose wealth Mohammed’sabnormally retentive memory still kept in mind.Thus, when the case of the opulent Naufal, Mohammed’sown cousin, came up, the Prophet amazed himwith a demand for the thousand spears that he possessed;Naufal was so completely upset by this evidenceof what appeared to be supernatural assistance that heis said to have accepted Islam on the spot. Among the[p. 132]prisoners, also, was the Prophet’s rich uncle Al-Abbas,who declined to pay on the ground that he was alreadya Moslem and that he had been obliged to fight againsthis conscience. “God knows best about that,” repliedhis nephew; “externally you were against us, so ransomyourself.” When Al-Abbas demurred, saying that hewas now penniless, he was met with the pitiless query,“Then where is the money which, when you left Mecca,you secretly deposited with your wife?” Al-Abbaspaid his ransom. Meanwhile a spirited discussion aroseas to the way in which the booty—which included aboutone hundred and fifty camels and horses, together withvast quantities of vestments and armor—should be divided;the matter, indeed, was so important that it couldbe settled only by a heavenly decree, which stipulatedthat one-fifth should be placed at the disposal of “Godand the Prophet” and the remainder equally dispersedamong the army.

But these were mere mercenary considerations. Theoutstanding, overshadowing fact was that a small bodyof Moslems had utterly routed a force three times theirown number. Mohammed might well claim that he hadat last performed a veritable miracle, and his subordinatesmight well have become a little vainglorious too;but the Koran soon placed the credit for the “Day ofDeliverance” where it properly belonged. “As for victory,[p. 133]it is from none other than from God; for God isglorious and wise.... And ye slew them not, but Godslew them. Neither was it thou, O Prophet, that didstcast the gravel; but God did cast it.” And yet the humanside of the encounter was not neglected. Theglorious Three Hundred who had fought and conqueredsuch superior odds thenceforth became the peerage ofMedina. Until the end of his life, Mohammed waswilling to forgive almost any sort of offence committedby any one of them, for, as he wisely declared, he couldnot be sure that Allah Himself had not given them freeleave to do as they chose.

At Mecca, however, very different scenes were witnessed.The bitter pangs of shame and despair thateveryone felt upon learning of the stunning defeat soongave way to a fiery thirst for vengeance. For a monththis frenzy reigned; then human nature intervened anda universal lament for the dead ascended, for almostevery home in Mecca had been bereaved. A harrowingyet beautiful story illustrates how the grim self-restraintof the Koreish was finally broken. One night an agedfather, who had lost two sons, heard the sound of weepingand thus commanded his servant: “Go see! Itmay be that Koreish have begun to wail for their dead;perchance I too may wail, for grief consumeth mewithin.” Informed that it was only a woman who was[p. 134]mourning for her strayed camel, he poured forth animpassioned threnody. “Doth she weep for her camel,and for it banish sleep from her eyes? Nay, if we willweep, let us weep over Bedr—weep for Okeil, and forAl-Harith the lion of lions!” Perhaps the Koreish nowrealized the irreparable and fatal error they had madein deciding to take Mohammed seriously. Had theypersisted in their original intention—mocked at him asan idle dreamer and a crack-brained idiot—he mighthave lived and died harmlessly in Mecca. But persecutionhad proved to be his best friend: forced to defendhimself and to become the head of a little protectingarmy, he had revealed an unsuspected military acumenthat had reduced his hostile kinsmen to this desperatecondition. One Spartan couple in Mecca, however,refused to join in the common woe. “Weep not foryour slain, mourn not their loss, neither let the bardbewail their fate,” was the stern advice of Abu Sufyan.“If ye lament with elegies, it will ease your wrath anddiminish your enmity toward Mohammed and his fellows.And, should that reach their ears, and they laughat us, will not their scorn be worse than all? Haplythe turn may come, and ye may yet obtain your revenge.As for me, I will touch no oil, neither approachmy wife, until I shall have gone forth again to fightwith Mohammed.” And when Abu’s wife, Hind, was[p. 135]chided for refusing to wail for her father, brother anduncle, she fiercely responded: “Nay, I will not weepuntil ye again wage war with Mohammed and his fellows.If tears could wipe the grief from off my heart,I too would weep as ye; but it is not thus with Hind.”Not to be outdone by her husband, she too declaredthat she would neither use oil nor approach her maritalcouch until an avenging Meccan army was on the march.

III

Elated at his astounding success, the Prophet occupiedthe following year in consolidating his gains andextending his influence. Meanwhile he continued topay an exorbitant amount of homage to Allah, theGiver of all good; but, in starting a universal espionagesystem in Medina and in assuming an ever more menacingattitude toward unbelievers and Jews, he appearsto have acted solely on his own responsibility. Norwere the Koreish idle during this year. As time slowlymitigated their poignant suffering, their business instinctsrevived and new trade routes were mapped out;the profits that accrued therefrom were stored upagainst the eagerly awaited day when a fearful retributionshould be inflicted upon their murderous kinsmen.Abu Sufyan, who was chafing under the irksome restrictions[p. 136]of his vow, actually succeeded in destroyingsome enemy property and in slaying two Moslems; butwhen he joyfully hastened back to Mecca, under theimpression that he had earned the dissolution of hisoath, he discovered much to his chagrin that Hind didnot agree with him. The Moslems, irritated becausethe Koreish had gained even such a slight success, retaliatedby capturing a caravan that yielded one hundredthousand pieces of silver; yet, when the news of thisadded indignity reached the Meccans, it only steeledtheir already inflexible determination—the moment fora swift and terrible vengeance had come.

Plans for a crushing campaign against the Moslemswere drawn up; and all the Koreishites strained everynerve to expedite the martial plans and keep themsecret—all of them, that is, except Al-Abbas, who, forsome inexplicable reason, still retained a sneaking affectionfor the hard-hearted nephew who had forced himto pay such a stiff ransom. So it happened that, whileMohammed was communing with Allah in the Mosqueduring January, 625, a sealed letter, conveying thedreadful news that three thousand Koreish, includingseven hundred warriors in armor and two hundred cavalry,were ready to march upon Medina, was handedto him. Despite the strongest efforts of the Prophetto keep this information secret, it leaked out and caused[p. 137]tremendous excitement and confusion. On this occasion,Mohammed’s perpetually-recurring dreams portendeda defeat—he imagined that his sword was broken.A public meeting was called to discuss the ominoussituation; and, according to some authorities, the Prophetrelated his dream, which he interpreted thus:“The fracture in my sword portendeth an injury to myself,”adding that it would be wisest to remain within thefortified walls of Medina. The elder Moslems agreedwith their leader, but the young Hotspurs arose inviolent opposition: they asserted that they would not“sit quietly here, a laughing-stock to all Arabia,” butwould “go forth and smite our foes, even as we did atBedr.” The headstrong impetuosity of youth prevailed,and Mohammed at length acceded. Afterpreaching a strong discourse, in which he assured them,“If ye be steadfast, the Lord will grant you victory,”he retired to his house, whence he shortly emergeddressed in helmet and mail, with a sword hanging fromhis girdle. This sight deeply distressed the Moslems,for it appeared that their commander was at last goingto risk his life on the battlefield; they therefore beggedthat he would follow his first counsel and remain withinMedina’s walls. But he sternly replied: “I invitedyou to this and ye would not. It becometh not aprophet, when once he hath girded himself to the battle,[p. 138]to lay his armor down again until the Lord hath decidedbetwixt him and his enemies. Wait, therefore, on theLord. Only be steadfast, and He will send youvictory.”

The talismanic effect of these words was immediate,and the Moslem army at once took to the field. It isnot clear whether Abdallah ibn Obei, at the head ofthree hundred unbelievers, actually joined this armyand then deserted when it was on the march; for somethink that he never joined it at all. Mohammed isrepresented as having forbidden the unbelievers to assisthim, saying that he did not desire “the aid of Unbelieversto fight against the unbelieving”; though otheraccounts maintain that Abdallah and his followers salliedforth with the faithful, but deserted at first sight ofthe enemy. Again, it is possible that Abdallah nevermanifested any desire to fight at all—that the tales bothof his reprimand and desertion were invented by theMoslems in order to emphasize the smallness of theirforce. It was small enough, at all events, for barelyseven hundred Moslems went forth to face a foe morethan four times their own number. The Koreish hadmeanwhile circled the city, until they drew up for battlenear the hill of Uhud, three miles to the north; and therethe army of Allah met them.

There can be little doubt that, had the plan devised[p. 139]by Mohammed been followed, a victory, or at least adraw, would have been his. Realizing that successagainst such overwhelming odds could be gained only byfar superior tactics and stratagems, he issued three imperativecommands. He instructed fifty sharpshootersto remain, at all costs, on a little hill nearby, and preventany effort of the Koreishite cavalry to attack fromthe rear—“stir not from this spot; if ye see us pursuingand plundering the enemy, join not with us; if we bepursued and even worsted, do not venture to our aid”—heenjoined upon his prayer-trained troops the imperiousnecessity of keeping their serried lines intact;and he forbade them to advance until he gave the order,for he rightly believed that, so long as his force cohered,it would be impregnable. But the Prophet was destinedto learn that, once a body of men has tasted thesweets of pillage and rapine, it is very likely not onlyto forget its religious professions but to disobey its owncommander. When these admirable arrangements hadbeen made, he cautiously donned a second coat of armorand sedately awaited for the foe to make the first move.

It was not long in coming. All at once the wholeKoreishite force began to advance, while a group ofwomen, headed by the bloodthirsty Hind and beatingtimbrels and drums, preceded the men and accompaniedtheir rude music with stirring songs that promised[p. 140]special favors for the brave and threatened unbearablecalamities for the timid.

Then the Meccan champions, ardently desiring to winfavor in the eyes of their martial females, rushed forthand dared individual Moslems to engage them in thecustomary single combat—an invitation that was rightgladly accepted. And now the history of Bedr wastemporarily repeated, for a succession of Koreishitesfell before the superior efficiency of Allah’s favorites.At first dismayed, and then angered, by the swift fate oftheir leading standard-bearers, the Meccan force hurleditself at the Moslem array; but its inflexible front withstoodthe desperate assault, while the unerring archers,stationed on the little hill, prevented the Koreishitecavalry from disrupting the Moslem left wing. TheMeccans wavered, cracked apart, turned irresolutely,and fled in ignominious haste, while the jubilantMedinese, headed by their two heroes, Ali and Hamza,bounded hotly after the pusillanimous fugitives.

But, just at this moment, the validity of Gabriel’s[p. 141]warning after Bedr became manifest. Certain of theirsuccess, the Moslem ranks broke up and began to despoilthe enemy camp; and this gratifying spectacle, whichwas seen by the archers, was too compelling to be resisted.Uttering anticipatory shouts of glee, they desertedtheir post and came running to join in the generalfun. And then the situation speedily changed.No longer held at bay by a withering discharge of arrows,the Meccan cavalry whirled suddenly around andcame smashing through the Moslem rear. Amongothers the great Hamza fell, mortally wounded by ajavelin from the hand of a hired assassin. Hind, whosefather had been slain by Hamza at Bedr, had bribed herEthiopian slave, Wahshi, with the promise of freedomshould he lay Hamza low; and his body had hardlyceased to quiver before Hind pounced savagely upon it,ripped out his liver, which she tore to pieces with herteeth, and collected his nails and fragments of skin tomake bracelets for her arms and legs. The Medinese,taken completely by surprise and terror-stricken at thedeath of their greatest warrior, incontinently abandonedtheir arms and stolen property and began to run evenfaster than the Koreish had done a few moments earlier.

When Mohammed observed this calamitous reversal,he tried to rally his fleeing forces by expostulation.“Whither away?” he shouted; “Come back! I am the[p. 142]Apostle of God! Return!” But the Moslems weremuch more interested just then in saving their skins thanin any number of prophets or gods; so Mohammed, forthe first time in his career, was forced to fight for hislife. We learn that he discharged arrows until his bowbroke, whereupon he madly hurled stones about, andmay possibly have killed one Meccan; yet, even in hisdire extremity, he did not forget to make vehementpromises of an incomparable reward in Paradise to anyMoslem who would keep the foe off his own person.But his under lip was wounded, one of his front teethwas broken, and a furious stroke drove his helmet-ringsinto his cheek. Then, either because he was reallystunned or exceptionally clever, he fell to the groundapparently dead, while among the Koreish the gladcry “Mohammed is slain!” resounded far and wide.Complete confusion seized the Moslems when theyheard this appalling shout, and in their consternationthey shrieked aloud, “Where now is the promise of hisLord?” Yet this very circumstance probably savedthem from an utter rout, for the Koreish, certain of theProphet’s decease, believed that their main object wasattained and accordingly failed to take advantage of thevictory that lay so easily within their grasp.

For Mohammed, in fact, was still very much alive.When this unbelievably good news spread, his confederates[p. 143]could not refrain from shouting it aloud; but,aware that he was yet in great danger, the Prophetperemptorily checked them. He was borne to a cavenear by, where an attempt was made to care for hiswounds; the helmet-rings had penetrated so deeply intohis face that one poor fellow broke two teeth in a praiseworthyattempt to pull them out. Mohammed’s couragehad now come back to such an extent that he essayedto apostrophize his enemies thus: “How shall a peopleprosper that treat thus their Prophet who calleth themunto the Lord! Let the wrath of God burn againstthe men that have besprinkled the face of His Apostlewith his own blood! Let not the year pass over themalive!” At the same time, however, he deemed it advisableto change armor with another Moslem, in casethe Koreish might come to search for him; then, rejoininghis followers outside the cave, he glared at the Meccansretreating in the distance.

Just at this moment Abu Sufyan, who, puffed withpride, had remained to taunt his discomfited foes, calledout, “Mohammed! Abu Bekr! Omar!” and, hearingno response, shouted, “Then all are slain, and ye are ridof them!” This was too much for Omar to endure withequanimity; and so, disobeying the Prophet, he bellowed:“Thou liest! They are all alive, thou enemyof God, and will requite thee yet.” Hearing this, Abu[p. 144]Sufyan twitted Omar with these words: “Then thisday shall be a return for Bedr. Fortune alternates asthe bucket. Hearken! ye will find mutilated ones uponthe field; this was not my desire, but neither am I displeasedthereat. Glory to Al-Ozza! Glory to Hubal!Al-Ozza is ours, not yours!” It was now Mohammed’sturn to be vexed, though he wisely entrusted his retortto Omar who, properly primed by his chief, exclaimed:“The Lord is ours; He is not yours!” Abu Sufyan, whothought that the argument was becoming rather childish,merely answered, “We shall meet after a year atBedr.” “Be it so!” growled Omar; and then Abu, togetherwith Hind his spouse, made haste to return homeso that they might mutually dissolve their twelve-months’oath.

Only twenty Koreish had been slain, whereas thestark bodies of seventy-four Moslems were stiffening onthe battlefield. Thither Mohammed now betook himself,and, upon seeing Hamza’s defiled corpse, he tuggedangrily at his beard and swore that he would treatthirty Koreishite bodies in a similar way; but later herepented of this remark, and indeed issued stern ordersforbidding his troops ever to mutilate a fallen enemy.The crumpled Moslem army then set out for Medina,for it was feared that the Koreish might decide to attackthe defenseless city; but a scout soon came hastening[p. 145]up, shouting aloud the cheering news that the Koreishwere hurrying southward toward Mecca. “Gently,”Mohammed mildly chided him, “let us not appear beforethe people to rejoice at the departure of theenemy!” For the Prophet was already profoundly absorbedin meditating schemes that would enable himsatisfactorily to explain his defeat. But just now thesense of loss excluded every other emotion from theminds of the refugees and allies—the explanations couldwait. Mingled with the ubiquitous sorrow was a feelingof helpless insecurity: the Koreish might yet changetheir minds and retrace their steps; so a watch was stationedat the Prophet’s door, behind which he went tosleep so soundly that he failed to obey Bilal’s indefatigablecall to evening prayers. The Meccans, however,who at this time had another easy opportunity to alterthe map of the world, had decided that they had evenedmatters up with their kinsmen—and besides, they weremuch more interested in starting their remunerativecaravans on the march again than in making or unmakinghistory.

Faced for the first time by an apparently irretrievabledisaster, Mohammed well realized that not merelywere his assumptions of sacerdotal preëminence, AllahHimself, and indeed all Islam, in imminent danger, butthat his very existence would be at stake unless he[p. 146]proved able to satisfy the querulous clamors of hispeople and explain just how it was that he had failed.Never did his greatness reveal itself more splendidlythan in this emergency; his every action was plannedwith the utmost care. His public demonstration ofgrief for Hamza, and his decision to visit the field ofUhud once a year to bless its Moslem martyrs—where,on each occasion, he regularly repeated the safe formula,“Peace be on you for that which ye endured, and ablessed futurity above!”—may have been genuineenough; at all events, such actions would be calculatedto impress his underlings with his sincerity. Butmutinous murmurs were now rampant: if Allah’s armhad brought victory at Bedr, what was He doing on theday of Uhud? and in any case what was to be thought ofthe Prophet’s multitudinous promises? Yet these apparentlyunanswerable complaints were no match forMohammed’s wily brain. The masterful orator keptsilence until the time came when, as was customary onFriday, he made known the latest dispatches fromAllah in the Mosque.

And there he held the complainers in the hollow of hishand. The time and the place itself, with its rude butimpressive grandeur, its venerable associations, itsatmosphere of religious awe, had been chosen with surpassingcare; and, before a word had been uttered, the[p. 147]audience was unconsciously in a passive, hypnotic state.Then the Prophet, loosing every ounce of his tremendousnervous energy, poured forth a harangue in whichsubtle explanations, reproof, denunciation, self-justification,and finally mild praise and encouragement wereblended with superb artistry. If Allah had conferredvictory at Bedr, through the instrumentality of “thehavoc-making angels,” He had permitted a defeat atUhud in order to separate the true believers from thehypocrites; then, too, Allahhad been with them untilthey disobeyed the Prophet—“When you ran off precipitately,and did not wait for any one, and the Apostlewas calling you from your rear.” The cowardice ofthose who had stayed at home, as well as lust for loot,had also played a large part in the defeat; but theProphet himself was blameless, for he had accepted thedecision of a majority of Moslems as to where and howthe battle should be fought. Nor had the Koreishgained by winning: “We grant them respite only thatthey may add to their sins; and they shall have a disgracefulchastisement.” Furthermore, was it possiblethat the Moslems had forgotten that the dead wereinfinitely better off in Paradise?—where “No terrorafflicteth them, neither are they grieved.” And even ifMohammed, being only mortal like other men and“other Apostles that have gone before him,” had been[p. 148]killed, Islam must still continue: “What! if he wereto die or be killed, must ye needs turn back upon yourheels?” And finally: “Be not cast down, neither beye grieved. Ye shall yet be victorious if ye are trueBelievers.”

When it was over, every shamefaced person presentwas thoroughly convinced that the Prophet, aloneamong the Moslems, was wholly guiltless, that Allahwas more adorable than ever, and that the defeat atUhud was an excellent example of a remarkably successfulstrategic retreat.

Another year sped by, until the appointed time camefor the Koreish and the Moslems to clash again at Bedr.A prolonged drought, however, had impaired the Meccanfinances to such an extent that Abu Sufyan decidedit would be advisable to postpone the engagement;so, summoning strategy to his aid, he caused a rumor tobe diffused through Medina to the effect that the Koreishhad equipped a vast army for the impending conflict.The Moslems, whose spirits had not yet recoveredfrom the shock of Uhud, were so perturbed at this reportthat they were unwilling to venture forth; but Mohammed,whose espionage system had now penetratedeven as far as the confines of Mecca and who, therefore,was probably aware of Abu Sufyan’s ruse, swore agreat oath that he would march to Bedr even thoughhe marched alone. Shamed by their leader’s heroism,the Medinese recovered their courage; and the Prophet,at the head of fifteen hundred men, set out for Bedrin the spring of 626. The Koreish also finally scrapedup enough tepid enthusiasm to venture forth with an[p. 150]army of over two thousand men; but they soon turnedback, so they later declared, because of the lack of provisions.Though the Moslems were by no means sorryto hear of this, they publicly boasted their contemptfor the “water-gruel” force from Mecca; then, since itwas the time of the annual fairs, they remained eightdays at Bedr profiting greatly from the sale of theabundant wares they had carried in their train.

If, as it now appeared to Mohammed, the Koreishwere disposed to keep the peace, the extended lull inhostilities would furnish an admirable opportunity toflaunt the banners of Islam over an ever widening extentof Arabia; for the defeat of Uhud, no less thanthe success at Bedr, had profoundly convinced him thatthe ultimate victory of Islam depended upon the sword.The Koran of this period breathes defiance against theenemies of Islam on almost every page; its profusemaledictions, once confined to the evildoers of Mecca,now include all unbelievers everywhere. All otherthings, even the hitherto unescapable performance ofdaily prayers, take second place to the relentless promulgationof the faith by military means. “When yemarch abroad in the earth, it shall be no crime unto youthat ye shorten your prayers, if ye fear that the Unbelieversmay attack you.” Such an inducement wasremarkably well calculated to win over to the army those[p. 151]numerous believers who had discovered that five highlycomplicated daily contortions were a little irksome, andthe Moslem force therefore grew by leaps and bounds.As a result, during the summer of 626 Mohammed wasable to conduct a successful campaign as far north asthe border of Syria—an event of incalculable import.For the first time the tentacles of Islam had stretchedbeyond the bounds of Arabia: the curtain had risen onthe first scene of a world-wide drama that still awaitsits last act.

It seems probable that these sweeping expeditions atlength aroused the Arabians to the danger that threatenedthem all. At all events, in the early months of627 it happened that a confederacy of Koreishite,Bedouin and Jewish tribes put an army numbering approximatelyten thousand men in the field againstMedina. The Prophet well knew that the memories ofUhud, still rankling in the minds of his compatriots,made it highly inexpedient to desert the city and meetthe oncoming foe in the open field. Yet Medina mustbe defended at all costs—everyone, even the most feeble-kneed,was agreed upon that—and feverish counselswere held to devise a plan whereby the city might bemade impregnable against assault. At this crucialjuncture, a Persian ex-slave suggested that the city beentrenched in the same way as, in his travels, he had[p. 152]observed that the Mesopotamian cities were protected.Acting immediately upon his inspired advice, the Moslemsfilled in the gaps between their outer line of stonehouses with a stone wall; and, at the southeastern quarter,which was entirely defenseless, a deep and wide ditchwas dug. After six days of prodigious and incessantlabor, the trench was completed. The Prophet threwhimself heartily into the work, and, dirty and weary ashe was, joined his stentorian voice in unison with theother toilers as they once again intoned the words:

The result was that, when Abu Sufyan came marchingup at the head of his conglomerate force, all that hecould do was to permit his troops to shoot some harmlessshowers of arrows, pitch his tents, sit down, andwait for the Moslems to come forth. Entrenchmentsas a military device were entirely unknown in Arabia;so the invaders logically concluded that Mohammed wasnot a good sport—as on other occasions, he had violatedthe Arabic code of chivalry by proving that he hadbrains. “Truly this ditch is the artifice of strangers,”they yelled, “a shift to which no Arab yet has everstooped!” But the Moslems did not take the hint, andso next day the besiegers made a gallantly unsuccessful[p. 153]attempt to rush the barricade by sheer weight of numbers.Nevertheless, the assault accomplished one veryirritating thing: for a whole day the devoutest of theMoslems had been prevented from saying their prayers.Gratifying amends for this forced neglect of Allah,however, were made when night fell; at that time anindividual service was held for each omitted supplication,and Mohammed contributed a special comminatoryrequest: “They have kept us from our daily prayers;God fill their bellies and their graves with fire!” Indeed,while the siege lasted, the Prophet spent most ofthe hours in protracted prayer, though he managed tofind time enough to guard himself against the threateningactivities of the Jews and other disaffected Medinese.Nor did his devices stop here. He even triedto buy off the Bedouins by promising them a third ofthe fruit from Medina’s date-trees; but his leading allies,the Aus and the Khazraj, opposed his trickiness andadmonished him to “give nothing unto them but thesword.” Mohammed then played his trump card: ifwar was but a game of deception, why should he notskillfully divide the enemy against themselves? He instructeda trusty go-between to spread dissension amongthe foe by persuading the Bedouins and Jews in turnthat their interests were mutually opposed. Thescheme worked without a hitch, for the attacking forces,[p. 154]already discouraged by the cold, the difficulty of obtainingfood, and the protracted delay, were ready to leaveon any excuse. As a result, when a chilling storm ofwind and rain incommoded them on the fifteenth day,they folded their tents and silently stole away. “Breakup the camp and march,” commanded Abu Sufyan.“As for myself I am gone”—and he suited his action tohis words by clambering hastily upon his camel and tryingto urge it away while its fore leg was still hitched.

Scarcely had the last camel disappeared when theProphet, after thanking Allah for his timely assistancein sending the storm, was visited by Gabriel. “What!”chided the tireless angel, “hast thou laid aside thinearmor, while as yet the angels have not laid theirs aside!Arise! go up against the Beni Koreiza.” This Jewishtribe, which inhabited a fortress several miles southeastof Medina, had been the last to succumb to the blandishmentsof Abu Sufyan, but had finally yielded and takenpart in the assault on Medina; so Mohammed madehaste to obey the celestial behest, even though he hadpreviously borrowed from the Beni Koreiza the picksand shovels with which the trench had been excavated.Heading three thousand soldiers, he immediatelymarched to the Jewish stronghold where, inasmuch as itwas marvelously protected by nature rather than its inhabitants,he found it necessary to keep guard for several[p. 155]weeks. In the end the Jews agreed to surrenderon condition that the Aus, their supposed allies, shoulddecide their fate. To this Mohammed agreed, and theAus, almost with one voice, demanded that the BeniKoreiza should be treated gently; yet they signifiedtheir willingness to abide by the decision of their chief,a huge, corpulent fellow named Sa’d.

Now it chanced that Sa’d, suffering from an arrow-woundinflicted during the late siege, was not in apleasant frame of mind; and it has been surmised thatMohammed may have craftily reckoned on this veryfact. “Proceed with thy judgment!” he commandedSa’d. “Will ye, then,” inquired Sa’d of his tribesmen,“bind yourselves by the covenant of God that whatsoeverI shall decide, ye will accept?” After they hadmurmured their assent, he spoke. “My judgment isthat the men shall be put to death, the women and childrensold into slavery, and the spoil divided amongstthe army.” A torrent of objections was about to bepoured forth, when the Prophet savagely commandedsilence. “Truly the judgment of Sa’d is the judgmentof God,” he declared, “pronounced on high from beyondthe Seventh Heaven.” Trenches were dug thatnight, and next morning some seven or eight hundredmen were marched out, forced to seat themselves inrows along the top of the trenches, were forthwith beheaded,[p. 156]and then tumbled into the long, gaping grave;the Prophet meanwhile looked on until, tiring of themonotonous spectacle, he departed to amuse himselfwith a Jewess whose husband had just perished. Butpoor Sa’d did not live long to enjoy his revenge; barelyhad he reached home when his wounds re-opened andhe soon breathed his last. As he lay dying, the Prophetheld him in his arms and prayed thus: “O Lord!Verily Sa’d hath labored in thy service. He hath believedin thy Prophet, and hath fulfilled his covenant.Wherefore do thou, O Lord, receive his spirit with thebest reception wherewith thou receivest a departingsoul!” Mohammed also helped to carry the coffinwhich, the bearers noted, was remarkably light for soheavy a man; but the Prophet explained the matter tothe satisfaction of all. “The angels are carrying thebier, therefore it is light in your hands. Verily thethrone on high doth vibrate for Sa’d, and the portals ofheaven are opened, and he is attended by seventy thousandangels that never trod the earth before.”

Busily occupied though he had been for several yearswith the gradual subjugation of the Koreish, Mohammedhad yet found time to compel a motley group of[p. 157]less important enemies to bow meekly beneath the yokeof Islam. The extinction of the Beni Koreiza had beenbut one link in the long chain of his conquests. HisMeccan kinsmen had naturally been the first to be imperiouslybrushed aside; but other temporary impedimentshad occasionally blocked his way.

Among them the few Christians who were scatteredhere and there throughout Arabia were of least moment.Split asunder as they were into various warringsects—the Monothelites, Jacobites, Melchites and Nestorians—theyworried the Prophet but little; he seemsto have regarded them with a tolerant and mildlyamused eye. Having had scanty intercourse with them,he was probably quite ignorant of their disputatiouscreeds; therefore, while the Koran always speaks respectfullyof the Saviour, Who is invariably designated“Jesus, Son of Mary,” it makes many deplorable errorswhen it discusses the tenets and theogony of Christianity.It expressly denies that Jesus is the Son of Godand completely repudiates the established doctrine ofthe Holy Trinity: “Wherefore believe in God, andin the Apostles; and say not,There are Three. Refrain:it will be better for you. Verily the Lord is oneGod. Glory be to Him! far be it from Him, that thereshould be to Him a Son.” And Mohammed seems tohave made the even more egregious error of supposing[p. 158]that the Trinity which he condemned was composed ofthe Father, Jesus and Mary; for the Koran utterlyfails to recognize the incontrovertible existence of theHoly Ghost. Thus, while it has been reasonably urgedthat the Prophet both comprehended and hated RomanCatholicism, it may just as plausibly be argued that theconception of the Holy Spirit as a separate and distinctentity was too subtle for his eminently practical mindto grasp.

With Judaism, however, the case was very different.Though the Koran might place Christ on par withAbraham, Moses, David and other Hebrew prophets,it was to the customs and rites of the Jews that Mohammedpaid obeisance rather than to those that hadclustered around Christianity. Scarcely had he takenup his residence in Medina when he deliberately humbledhimself in an effort to placate and win over theJews; for, knowing their numbers and their power, hestrongly desired to enter into a lasting union withthem. To that end, he bound himself and his adherentsto the Jews in a contract whose obligations were relativelymutual: “The Jews will profess their religion,the Moslems theirs.... No one shall go forth to warexcepting with the permission of Mohammed; but thisshall not hinder any from seeking lawful revenge....If attacked, each shall come to the assistance of the[p. 159]other.... War and Peace shall be made in common.”There is also every reason to suppose that the commandpromulgated by Allah, when the Prophet visited Him inthe Seventh Heaven, to the effect that all loyal Moslemsmust henceforth direct their prayers five times dailytoward Jerusalem, was given because Mohammed expectedthat the Jews, seeing the Moslems thus busilyengaged, would be insidiously flattered and insensiblyled to look favorably upon Islam. Nor did his effortsstop here. The period of fasting which he had decreedfor the Moslems coincided with that time during whichthe Hebrews also abstained from food; when Jewishfuneral processions passed, the Prophet and his brethrenhonored them by standing until they had disappeared;and the rite of circumcision—commonly practisedby all Arabs out of deference to Abraham, thesupposed founder of their holy city, Mecca—was alsosubmitted to by the Moslems to the further pleasure ofthe Jews, who, however, remained in mystified ignoranceas to whether Mohammed himself had undergone thatceremony. It is furthermore likely that the Hebraichorror of Christianity made the Jews look favorablyupon this newcomer who, while he might not correspondexactly with the prophet who had been so long and sounsuccessfully anticipated by them, at least appearedto approximate their ideal. What else could be thought[p. 160]of a man who formulated the amazing doctrine that aJew might synchronously be a devout follower of Abrahamand Allah, and might therefore attend both theservices of the Mosque and the Synagogue with equalimpunity? Indeed, there is much evidence to supportthe view that, had the Jews saluted Mohammed astheprophet who had at last arrived among them, Islamwould have been rapidly absorbed by Hebraism.

But Allah had other plans. A year’s commingledresidence in Medina taught the members of both sectsmany, many things. Inasmuch as the Jews literallyowned the city, the needy Moslems were compelled toturn to them for positions, provisions and for money toborrow; and they soon learnt that their creditors wereas merciless as they were devout. Abu Bekr, havingapproached a certain Pinchas with the quaint request,“Who will lend God a good loan?” was rebuffed withthe quick retort, “If God wants a loan, He must be indistressed circumstances”; whereupon Abu, who hadabsolutely no flair for repartee, won some slight consolationby knocking Pinchas down. The Prophethimself—who, even after he began to extirpate the Hebrews,invariably turned to them when his financialcredit was bad—had experiences similar to Abu’s; andit is a matter of interest that he now for the first timebegan to notice that the odors arising from the Jewish[p. 161]habitations were decidedly offensive to his ever-fastidiousnose. Another thing that fanned the risingfires of disaffection was the fact that, for more than ayear after the Hegira, no Moslem woman gave birthto a child; and the Jews openly bragged that their secretsorceries and enchantments had produced this barrenness.The Moslems, completely upset over this unheard-ofcatastrophe, exhausted themselves in the attemptto discover an adequate remedy; and the Prophetwas so much concerned that he probably composed twoSuras especially designed to frustrate the Jewish spells.Yet, in spite of the Hebraic incantations, a Moslemchild was born fourteen months after the flight toMedina, and never again was there any doubt as tothe fertility of the Moslem women.

The Jews, too, had experienced a mental revolution.A prophet who, as they had discovered, could not speakHebrew, and who, when put to the test, betrayed anabysmal ignorance concerning the wealth of intricateinformation stored in the Pentateuch, did not whollycorrespond to their idealized conception of their Messiah.They might blandly admit that his dissertationswere satisfactory, but when he pressed his propheticclaims upon them they courteously retorted thattheirparticular prophet must be able to trace his lineagestraight back to David. They objected, also, when[p. 162]they noted how great a proportion of his time Mohammedspent in his harem, whereas the Jews, of all people,might well have regarded that harmless idiosyncrasy asa clinching proof that his mission was divine. Again,when the Prophet vainly tried to save the life of one ofhis earliest converts by cauterizing his sore throat, theJews poked fun at him. “If this man were a prophet,could he not have warded off sickness from his friend?”they mockingly asked. And all that Mohammed couldthink of to say was this: “I have no power from myLord over even mine own life, or over that of any of myfollowers. The Lord destroy the Jews that speakthus!” From this time on, instead of sitting up nightafter night, as he had once done, telling affecting talesabout the Children of Israel, he began to belabor theirdescendants in the pages of the Koran. Where it hadonce iterated and reiterated the manifold virtues of theancient Hebrews, it now discussed their manifold vices—theiridolatries, backslidings, and betrayals—at evengreater length; and an almost Christian fervor breathesfrom those pages where the Prophet asseverates that thewilful stupidity of the Jews caused them to reject himeven as they had previously spurned Jesus.

Some faint-hearted Hebrews, who perhaps suspectedwhat was coming, were diplomatic enough to swallowthe new faith entire, thereby winning from Mohammed[p. 163]the appellation of “Witnesses.” Abdallah, son ofSalam, was a shining example. Having slyly inducedhis brethren to give him a character testimonial beforethey knew that he was about to become a renegade, hepresented it to the Prophet who was so pleased that heassured Abdallah he was already in Paradise—evenSa’d, chief of the Aus, had not received a comparablecongratulation. But Abdallahs among the Jews wererare. Most of them continued to snicker at the hilariousignorance and bombast revealed in Mohammed’shomiletical discourses, to disregard Allah’s grim warningthat they should repent and turn to Islam “beforeWe deface your countenances, turning the face backwards,”and to wax fat on the miseries of the Moslems.On the other hand, the Moslems themselves no longermade any effort to conceal their desire to hold theirnoses when they were compelled to approach the Jewson business matters; and the Prophet himself shortlydecided to put a summary end to all attempts atreconciliation and brotherhood.

Perhaps the success that attended his decision tofight during the sacred months suggested the idea thathe was now strong enough to break definitely with theJews. One day, not long afterward, while he stood atprayer in the Mosque with his face turned as usualtoward the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, he received[p. 164]a lightning revelation to turn “toward the holyTemple of Mecca. Wheresoever ye be, when ye pray,turn toward the same.” The divine injunction camejust after he had prostrated himself twice towardJerusalem; quick as a flash he reversed himself—an actioninstinctively followed by all the automatons in theaudience—and faced toward the south until the servicewas ended. This symbolic event signalized his determinationhenceforth to separate himself wholly fromthe Jews, as well as to gratify the atavistic longings ofhis zealots who had never quite succeeded in relinquishingtheir love for the Black Stone and the Kaba; thentoo, Mohammed had grown very tired of listening to afavorite Hebraic taunt: “This Prophet of yours knewnot where to find his Kibla [house of worship] till wepointed it out to him.” The Jews, who fully understoodthe sinister significance of Mohammed’s suddenright-about-face, were much perturbed; and they hadreason to be, for he lost no time in sundering every tiethat connected the worship of Allah with Hebraicceremonies. He commanded the Moslems to keep theirfast before or after the Jewish Day of Atonement; heonce more followed the Arabic custom of combing hishair instead of letting it drift loose, as the Jews did;he altered the Moslem funeral rites so that they againcorresponded to the immemorial Pagan ritual; and he[p. 165]changed the regulations pertaining to the lunar indispositionof females to a system thatMoses assuredlywould not have approved. For it must be demonstratedthat Allah was more powerful than Jehovah; that Mohammed,as the last of a long line of prophets, had anultimate claim upon the sacerdotal office; and that thesuperior wisdom which the Jews boasted concerningcelestial matters over which he had hitherto asserted hissole jurisdiction would be of no use whatever to them—afterthey were dead.

III

The triumph of Bedr encouraged Mohammed to expeditehis plans of revenge against his internal foes;directly or indirectly, he stimulated his accomplices toassassinate them. Peculiarly sensitive as he was to theslurring satires and puns which the Jews had aimedagainst some of his most cherished speeches, and beingwholly incapable of retorting in kind, he was onlytoo pleased when the Moslems showed a demoniacalreadiness to avenge his wounded honor with sharper-pointedweapons than epigrams. Asma, a poetessstrongly on the side of the Jews, composed some versesthat castigated the disaffected Medinese for bowing beforean interloper whom she represented as hoping that[p. 166]the city would “be done brown” so that he might enjoya toothsome banquet; shortly afterward, one of theProphet’s men stole into her room at midnight and,after taking the trouble to remove her nursing baby,thrust his sword through her breast. Next morningMohammed paused in his prayers at the Mosque longenough to inquire of the murderer, “Hast thou slainthe daughter of Merwan?” “Yes,” was the reply, “buttell me now, is there cause of apprehension?” “None,”the Prophet assured him, “a couple of goats will hardlyknock their heads together for it.” Then, turning towardthe congregation, he shouted: “If ye desireto see a man that hath assisted the Lord and His Prophet,look ye here!” A second satirist, old Abu Afak,a Jewish convert, foolishly attempted to carry on thework begun by Asma. “Who will rid me of this pestilentfellow?” inquired Mohammed; and within a fewhours Abu Afak, while carelessly sleeping in a courtyard,was also transfixed with a sword. Both of thesedeeds were committed within a week after Bedr.

About six months later one Ka’b, another Jewishversifier who, like most satirists of his time, signalizedhis craft by anointing his hair on one side, allowing hisclothes to become disordered, and wearing but one shoe,decided to amuse himself by making public a series ofpoems that were intimately concerned with the amatory[p. 167]charms of some of the most generous Moslemwomen. Of a beauty named Um al-Fadl he wrote:

Ka’b was also believed to be engaged in double dealingswith the Koreish, and so the Prophet offered this publicprayer: “O Lord, deliver me from the son of Al-Ashraf,in whatever way it seemeth good unto Thee,because of his open sedition and his verses.” And lestthere might be doubt as to how he wished his supplicationto be fulfilled, he asked his servants this pointedquestion: “Who will ease me of the son of Al-Ashraf?for he troubleth me.” Maslama’s son Mohammed, awell-known Moslem libertine, responded, “Here am I—Iwill slay him.” “Go!” exclaimed the happyProphet, “the blessing of God be with you, and assistancefrom on High!” Aided by four conspirators,[p. 168]this Mohammed succeeded in luring Ka’b away fromhis bride on a moonlight night. Suddenly seizing hislong hair, they pulled him to the ground with the shout:“Slay him! Slay the enemy of God!” and immediatelystabbed him to death. “Welcome!” said Mohammedon their return, “for your countenances beam of victory.”“And thine also, O Prophet!” they replied,as the victim’s head was tossed down before his feet.

On the following day Mohammed, having decidedthat the only good Jews were dead or exiled ones, gavethe Moslems free leave to kill them upon sight. Muheisa,a converted Khazrajite, at once availed himself ofthis long-desired privilege by slaughtering the first Hebrewhe chanced to meet; and when his brother Huweisachided him for his excessive zealotry, he growled:“By the Lord! if he that commanded me to kill him hadcommanded to kill thee also, I would have done it.”“What!” screamed Huweisa, “wouldst thou have slainthine own brother at Mohammed’s bidding?” “Evenso,” was the cool answer. “Strange indeed!” said theaghast Huweisa, “hath the new religion reached to this?Verily, it is a wonderful faith!” And he immediatelyproclaimed his own conversion to Islam.

Many of the Jews would doubtless have liked tofollow his example, but their day of grace was past;no longer could they qualify as “Witnesses” for Mohammed.[p. 169]For indeed his heart was set upon their extermination,or—what was even better—the robbery oftheir goods; and to that end, like a good general, heproceeded first against those who dwelt in Medina.About a month after Bedr, he went to the wealthy tribeof Beni Kainuka, who practised the goldsmiths’ tradein Medina, and peremptorily announced his errandthus: “By the Lord! ye know full well that I am theApostle of God. Believe, therefore, before that happento you which has befallen Koreish!” But theyhurled defiance at him, so he decided to wait until hecould find a convenient excuse to attack them. Hesoon found it. As a Moslem girl was trading in agoldsmith’s shop one day, a frivolous-minded Jewsought entertainment by creeping up behind her andpinning the bottom of her skirt to her shoulder; howlsof merriment followed and the poor maiden almost diedof shame. A Moslem who soon avenged the insult byslaying the sprightly Jew was killed in turn by otherJews; and thus the Prophet was conscientiously ableto proceed against the Beni Kainuka—for had they notbroken the solemn treaty hitherto contracted betweenthe Moslems and the Hebrews? A fortnight’s siegeended in their abject surrender; their hands were thentied and they were led out to be executed. At this momentAbdallah ibn Obei, who still retained some remnants[p. 170]of power in Medina, approached the Prophetwith a plea for mercy. But the only reply was anaverted face, so Abdallah seized Mohammed’s arm andrepeated his request. “Let me go!” the Prophet angrilyscreamed; then, since Abdallah still clung to him,he again shouted, “Wretch, let me go!” But Abdallahcontinued to hang on, begging that pity be shown;and Mohammed, who still feared Abdallah’s might,grudgingly commanded, “Let them go!” though hecould not refrain from adding, “The Lord curse them,and him too!” So their lives were spared, but theirrich possessions were confiscated and they were at oncesent into banishment; and Mohammed solaced himselffor his Pyrrhic victory by selecting the choicest of theirweapons for himself. When Abdallah bitterly reprovedone of the Prophet’s leading confederates, hewas met by the curt response: “Hearts have changed.Islam hath blotted all treaties out.”

Such, indeed, was the fact. Within a year the murdererof Ka’b was dispatched to the Jewish tribe of Benian-Nadir—which was suspected of being in secretleague with the Koreish—with this commission: “Thussaith the Prophet of the Lord. Ye shall go forth fromout of my land within the space of ten days; whosoeverafter that remaineth behind shall be put to death.”When they protested on the ground that such treatment[p. 171]would be rather severe on a people who had neverinjured Islam, Mohammed’s envoy merely remarked,“Hearts are changed now,” and abruptly left them.After prolonged and anxious consultation, they decidedto hold fast to their fortress—a proceeding so unusualfor their race that, when the Prophet heard of it, heshouted in delight: “Allah Akbar! The Jews are goingto fight! Great is the Lord!” His enthusiasmwas somewhat dampened, however, when he discoveredthat a lengthy siege failed to dislodge them; accordingly,he determined to hasten matters by destroyingthe pick of their palm-trees with fire and axe. Theyprotested that this act was both barbarous and contraryto Mosaic law; and, while Mohammed was nolonger much interested in Moses, he well knew thathis deed was opposed to the unwritten laws of Arabianwarfare. The Koran, therefore, was soon adorned withthis exculpatory passage: “That which thou didst cutdown of the Date-trees, or left of them standing upontheir roots, it was by the command of God, that Hemight abase the evil-doers.” The Beni an-Nadir, infact, were so completely abased by the relentless siegethat they were glad to surrender their lands and go intoexile on the generous condition that their lives shouldbe spared.

These episodes relating to the Beni Kainuka and the[p. 172]Beni an-Nadir are only two of many like illustrations,that might be discussed at wearisome length, whichdemonstrated two significant facts: Mohammed hadsucceeded in ridding Medina of its indwelling foes,and he had decided to destroy the Jewish settlementsthroughout all Arabia. The massacre of the BeniKoreiza followed as a matter of course; and in 628 thelast Hebraic stronghold of much account was also dismantled.In the summer of that year Mohammed,heading sixteen hundred men, pounced upon the opulentcity of Kheibar, which lay about one hundred milesto the north of Medina—a distance that shows how widethe sweep of the Prophet’s victorious arm had reached.The motive which inspired him to assault this peopleappears to have sprung from the consideration thatthey had failed to avenge the murder of one of theirown tribesmen by a Moslem; for the Prophet may wellhave believed that such an aggressively peace-lovingclan merited the severest punishment. In any case,they were not true believers; and, at this stage of Islam,that fact in itself constituted a more than ample pretextfor the opening of hostilities. Kheibar’s forts fellin rapid succession before the impetuous rush of thenow veteran Moslem army. As Mohammed gailycharged from one conquered stronghold to another, hecontinually raised the rapturous shout: “Allah Akbar![p. 173]Great is the Lord! Truly when I light upon thecoasts of any People, woe unto them in that day!”After the conquest was complete, Kinana, chieftain ofKheibar, was tortured in the hope that he would revealhis hidden treasure. Fires were burnt upon his breastuntil he was so nearly dead that he could not have confessedeven had he so desired; and Mohammed, whorealized that he had carried the thing too far, orderedhis head to be chopped off.

Kinana’s notoriously beautiful wife, the seventeen-year-oldSafiya, and her companion were then fetchedup to the Prophet; the companion, seeing the headlesstrunk, beat her face and howled aloud. “Take thatshe-devil hence!” snapped Mohammed; but he tenderlyfolded his mantle around Safiya’s head to screenher from the sight, for he had determined to marry her.His approaching nuptials, however, were nearly ruinedby Zeinab, a Jewess who had lost all her male relativesand her husband on that fateful day. She poisoned akid, tastily garnished it, and then placed it before him,smiling and coaxing him to eat. Having distributedthe least desirable parts among his fellows, he bit offa choice mouthful from the shoulder; but barely hadhis teeth closed on it when he cried, “Hold! surely thisshoulder hath been poisoned,” and indecorously spat itout. One man who had partaken of the meat died, and[p. 174]Mohammed himself is reputed to have been afflictedwith such violent pains that he was repeatedly cuppedbetween the shoulders; yet within a short time he wasobserved to disappear with the fickle-hearted and coylyreluctant Safiya behind the bridal tent.

Thus the former Meccan merchant and exile passedfrom conquest to conquest. He was now not only aprophet—plenty of contemporary men professed a similarlyexclusive claim to that commonplace title—butthe recognized dictator over Medina and an extensiverange of contingent territory; furthermore, the terrorinspired by the mere mention of his name had penetratedto the most distant stretches of Arabia, and wasbeginning to arouse sinister forebodings in adjacent nations.Had his relatively unbroken succession of victoriesmade him an inexorably ruthless tyrant whoseactions were wholly prompted by an insatiable ambition,or had they but reaffirmed his ceaselessly reiteratedclaim that he was only plastic clay in Allah’s hand?Did he delight to glut himself in wanton bloodshed, or,in the inmost regions of his spirit, did he believe thatthe punishments meted out upon his enemies had actuallybeen self-inflicted inasmuch as they had refused toaccept the one true God? “And He hath caused todescend from their strongholds the Jews.... AndHe struck terror into their hearts. A part ye slaughtered,[p. 175]and a part ye took into captivity. And He hathmade you to inherit their land, and their habitations,and their wealth, and a land which ye had not troddenupon; and God is over all things powerful.... I amthe strongest, therefore Allah is with me.” Did thoseexultant words emanate from a profligate, coldly calculatingand atrociously barbarous hypocrite, or froma humble and grateful penitent whose sole wish wasto be a channel through which Allah’s divine purposesmight be made manifest? The answer forever bides.

Incessant wars and rumors of wars by no means occupiedall of Mohammed’s attention. He might beprophet, statesman, general and practically king, buthe was also something more: he was a family man ona large scale. Aloof and reserved on public occasions,he was excessively affectionate toward his friends, andindeed some of his wives. Since he no longer had anysmall children, he was particularly fond of little tots;while standing at prayer he sometimes held a child inhis arms, and at Medina he often allowed a little girlto lead him around by the hand. From the plumblessdepths of his character a vast and intricate collection ofodd mannerisms, which occasionally corresponded withthe surpassing dignity of his office, came to the surface;and all the manifold resources of psychology, philosophyand related branches of erudition have been exhaustedin the attempt to analyze or synthesize his personalityfrom thesedisjecta membra. But the drybones still remain scattered and unfleshed; all the prodigalresources of modern scholarship have excavated[p. 177]fewer vital facts about the Prophet than one of hismost favored wives or friends might have related inless than a day. When, therefore, they speak withvoices whose authenticity is generally granted, theyshould be allowed to hold the stage.

Ayesha, certainly, was one of them. Questionedonce about her illustrious consort, she tartly replied:“He was a man just such as yourselves; he laughedoften and smiled much.” “But how would he occupyhimself at home?” the insistent voice continued. “Evenas any of you occupy yourselves,” came the abrupt response.“He would mend his clothes, and cobble hisshoes. He used to help me in my household duties; butwhat he did oftenest was to sew. If he had the choicebetween two matters, he would always choose the easier,so as that no sin accrued therefrom.” Ayesha obviouslyhad few illusions about Mohammed; but that is one ofthe peculiar privileges of great men’s wives, and besideshe was her senior by more than forty years—afact that probably accounts very largely for her continualunderestimation of his several abilities. Her highlypartial record, accordingly, should be corrected andsupplemented with equally pertinent particulars.

For indeed, despite his felicity in cobbling, sewing,milking his goats and tarring his camels, there weremany things that he did not like at all. He detested[p. 178]lying on the part of others, and separated himself fromthose of his adherents who cultivated a natural taste formendacity, until they repented; he held the custom ofusury in special abhorrence: “One dirhem of usurywhich a man eats, knowing it to be so, is more grievousthan thirty-six fornications,” he declared. He alsoloathed dogs and pictures—“Angels will not enter ahouse containing a dog or pictures,” and “Every painterwill be in hell,” he oracularly announced, but the reasonfor this outburst is obscure. Perhaps it was becauseArabian art was notoriously bad—and then again,perhaps he was jealous of anything that, no matter howrude and primitive, was entirely beyond his comprehension.Once, during public prayers, he chanced tonotice that his mantle was richly figured, and when hehad ended he said: “Take away that mantle, for verilyit hath distracted me in my prayers, and bring mea common one”; and on another similar occasion hethrew off a silken robe in disgust, saying, “Such stuffit doth not become the pious to wear.” He wore agolden ring until he noticed that all the people werebeginning to follow his example, whereupon he wentinto the pulpit, pulled the ring off with the words, “Bythe Lord I will not wear this ring ever again,” and thenprohibited the use of such adornments. A friend who[p. 179]had sent him a present in the form of a steaming dinnerwas much chagrined when it was returned uneaten andeven untouched by his fingers—for he “used to eat withhis thumb and his two forefingers,” and, “after he hadfinished eating, he licked his blessed fingers: first themiddle one, then the prayer-finger, and last the thumb”—buthe was pacified when the Prophet explained thathe had not tasted it because onions had been cookedwith the food; for Gabriel, he went on to say, strenuouslyobjected to the odor of both onions and garlic.Furthermore, he abstained from tasting lizards, for hefeared that they were descended, by some inexplicablemetempsychosis, from a certain tribe of Israel. Hecommonly reclined during his meals, though sometimes“he would sit on his left leg, posting up the right; andif he was very hungry, he would sit down altogether andpost up both legs.”

Yet the catalogue of his likes was far more extensivethan the list of his aversions. He was so devoted toeverlasting prayers that his legs often became swollenfrom long standing; and when anyone remonstratedwith him, he would reply: “What! Shall I not behaveas a thankful servant should?” He was very carefulnot to yawn during his devotions, and if perforcehe sneezed, “he made a moderate noise, covering his[p. 180]blessed face with his robe-sleeve and putting his blessedhand before his nostrils,” after which he would ejaculate,“Praise be to Allah!” Before commencing hisorisons, he always sniffed up several handfuls of waterfrom his right hand and then blew the liquid out with hisleft hand. Ordinarily, he prayed with his shoes on,though he once took them off while engaged in publicsupplication—a deed immediately aped by the entireaudience; but the Prophet at once informed them thattheir action was unnecessary, “for he had merely takenoff his own because Gabriel had apprised him that therewas some dirty substance attaching to them.” Hisprayers were so earnest and vehement that “it mightbe known from a distance that he was speaking by themotion of his beard”—which he had let grow until itreached to the middle of his broad chest; but he regularlyclipped his moustache. When it was once suggestedto him that his appearance would be vastly improvedif he reversed the process, the counselor wasproperly rebuked. “Nay,” said Mohammed, “for myLord hath commanded me to clip the moustaches andallow the beard to grow.”

In more mundane matters, too, his tastes were equallypronounced. He affected white clothes chiefly, butwas also partial toward red, yellow and green garments,[p. 181]and he sometimes wore woolens. Scrupulously neat inhis personal habits, and ever ready to condemn untidiness(yellow teeth, in particular) in his companions, heyet wore a turban, wrapped many times around hishead, whose lower edge looked “like the soiled clothesof an oil-dealer.” But such carelessness was uncommon,for his clothes, though mostly inexpensive, werehabitually clean and neat. When he donned freshlylaundered clothes, he was accustomed to remark:“Praise be to the Lord, who hath clothed me with thatwhich shall hide my nakedness and adorn me while Ilive.” He had a perfect mania for toothpicks: at nighthe invariably kept one handy to use before performinghis ablutions; while traveling he always carried a generoussupply; indeed, he used them so frequently betweenhis wide-spaced teeth, “white as hailstones,” thathe gradually wore his gums away; and one personchanced to observe him, toothpick in mouth, making agurgling, “a-ccha” noise as if he were going to disgorgehis food.

The narrowness of his means at Medina limited hisgluttonous desires for a time, but his rapid successessoon enabled him to feast upon delectable dainties. Hewas very fond of sweetmeats, honey, cucumbers andripe dates (“When he ate fresh dates he would keep[p. 182]such as were bad in his hand”) and he eyed the pumpkinwith particular favor. One of his servants, gazingabstractedly at some pumpkins one day, after Mohammed’sdeath, was overheard saying “Dear little plant,how the Prophet loved thee!” Like a true Arab, hepreferred mutton to all other flesh. “I once slew akid and dressed it,” narrated a Medinan. “TheProphet asked me for the forequarter and I gave it tohim. ‘Give me another,’ he said; and I gave him thesecond. Then he asked for a third. ‘O Prophet!’ Ireplied, ‘there are but two forequarters to a kid.’” Themeal that he relished with most gusto, however, was “amess of bread cooked with meat, and a dish of datesdressed with butter and milk.” He had a predilectionfor several wells around Medina whose waters, he said,were both “cold and sweet,” and, after he drank, hesometimes bathed in them or invoked a blessing on theircontents by spitting into them. Close-fisted and frugalmost of the time, he readily loosed his purse-stringswhen he saw something whose appeal was irresistible.He once paid about twenty camels for a single dress,and also gave eight golden pieces for a mantle. Atbedtime he regularly put antimony on his eyelids, “sayingthat it made the sight more piercing, and caused thehair to grow”; he had a crystal goblet with silver trimmings,a copper vase for his baths, and an ivory comb;[p. 183]but perhaps his chief fancy inclined toward perfumes.“We always used to know when Mohammed had issuedforth from his chamber by the sweet perfume that filledthe air,” one of his servants testified. He indulged withoutstint in musk and ambergris, and he burned camphoron odiferous wood so that he might enjoy the smell.With her customary acumen, Ayesha put the gist of thematter into one pithy sentence when she said: “TheProphet loved three things—women, scents, and food;he had his heart’s desire of the first two, but not of thelast.” In fact, Mohammed himself argued that thesetwo innocuous diversions intensified the ecstasy of hisprayers.

Mohammed’s adoration of particular women wasnevertheless tempered with penetrating discretiontoward the sex in general. It is true that he abrogatedthe usage which permitted, and even encouraged, sonsto inherit their fathers’ wives, and that the code of Islamallowed single ladies to be mistresses of their own actions;but it is also true that married women continuedto be treated merely as sports and playthings for theconvenience of their husbands. “Men stand abovewomen,” says the Koran, “because of the superiority[p. 184]which God hath conferred on one of them over theother.... Wherefore let the good Women be obedient....But such as ye may fear disobedience or provocationfrom, rebuke them, and put them away inseparate apartments, and chastise them. But, if theybe obedient unto you, seek not against them an excusefor severity; verily God is lofty and great.” WhileMoslem husbands might easily obtain an absolute divorceif they chose, the idea that women might occasionallydesire the same privilege seems never to haveentered the Prophet’s head. Women might win Paradise,to be sure, yet no provision was made whereby theycould anticipate such captivating entertainments aswere promised to faithful men. Mohammed, in fact,was sagacious enough to entice males to Islam by implyingthat there would be no occasion for them tolament the loss of their wives in Paradise: “Whenevera woman vexes her husband in this world, his wifeamong the Houris of Paradise says: ‘Do not vex him(May God slay thee!) for he is only a guest with thee.He will soon leave thee and come to us’”—and indeed,the most subtly cruel punishment that the Prophet everinflicted upon erring males was to separate them for aperiod from their wives. If, however, some wives remainedrefractory in the face of this warning, Mohammedhad still another card up his sleeve: “If a man[p. 185]summon his wife to his bed and she refuse to come, sothat he spends the night in anger, the angels curse hertill morning.”

That the Prophet, as was only natural, allowed himselfa wider latitude of encounters than was granted tohis adherents—who might espouse only four women,but might also form liaisons “without antecedent ceremonyor any guarantee of continuance” with any numberof female slaves—was made clear by Ayesha. “Iwas jealous of the women who gave themselves to theapostle of God,” she admitted, “and said, ‘Does awoman give herself?’ Then when God revealed:‘Thou mayst decline for the present whom thou wilt ofthem, and thou mayst take to thy bed her whom thouwilt, and whomsoever thou shalt long for of those thoushalt have before neglected; and this shall not be a crimein thee.’ I said, ‘I see your Lord does nothing buthasten to fulfil your desire!’” Yet due allowanceshould be made for Ayesha’s jealousy; for, while Mohammedmarried approximately twelve women, she wasthe only virgin among them—the others were widowsor divorcees who commonly brought him wealth or desirablepolitical connections. For indeed, though heonce playfully chided a Moslem who had married amature woman instead of a “young damsel, who wouldhave sported with thee, and thou with her,” he was too[p. 186]canny to follow his own counsel. At the same time, hepreferred women of spirit; in fact, he definitely rejectedone girl because “she never cried or complained”—acriticism that certainly could not be aimed againstmost of his brides.

Khadija was barely under ground when the Prophetprepared to embark boldly upon matrimonial seas.About two months later he married Sauda, a tall, corpulent,mature widow whose brother celebrated the eventby sprinkling ashes on his head; he synchronously engagedhimself to Abu Bekr’s daughter Ayesha, whomhe eventually espoused at the age of ten; but it has beensuggested that “there may have been something morethan ordinarily precocious about the child.” She herselfattributed her hold on Mohammed’s affections notonly to her childish beauty, but to her plumpness.“When I was betrothed to the Prophet,” she related,“my mother endeavored to make me fat; and she foundthat with me nothing succeeded so well as gourds andfresh dates. Eating well of them I became round”;yet, as she grew up, she lost her flesh and became thinand willowy. In 624 Omar found himself with Hafsa,a widowed daughter of twenty, upon his hands. Irritatedand scandalized by her exhaustive but fruitlessendeavors to win a second husband, he offered her inturn to Othman and Abu Bekr, who, knowing that she[p. 187]inherited her father’s cranky temper, refused to acceptthe honor. Omar was so insulted by this double rebuffthat he at once flew angrily to Mohammed to make acomplaint. The Prophet, at his wit’s end because ofthe social uproar that had been started, saved the situationby marrying Hafsa himself, and thus abundantlygratified his wish to have a wife who cried and complainedall the time. Zeinab, widow of one of the heroesof Bedr, became his fifth wife in 626; her gentle andcharitable disposition perhaps accounts for the fact thatshe was the only one of his wives who preceded him toParadise. His sixth bride was won in a peculiar way.As Abu Selama lay expiring of a wound received atUhud, Mohammed entered and quieted the wailingwomen with this prayer: “O Lord! give unto himwidth and comfort in his grave; lighten his darkness;pardon his sins; and raise up faithful followers from hisseed.” Just four months later (626), the Prophetpressed his ardent suit upon Abu’s widow Um, who,against her better judgment, finally yielded to his importunity.

Meanwhile the much-married man had discoveredthat his domestic arrangements were getting more andmore complicated. Founding a precedent that hassince been followed by many Christian churches, he occupieda part of the Mosque. His domestic quarters[p. 188]were established along its eastern wall; they seem tohave been constructed from a series of adjacent hutsowned by one Haritha, who retired more or less willinglyfrom each of them whenever Mohammed neededa new shelter for a bride; and as the years passed, poorHaritha would barely fix up a new abode before he wasshoved out of it. An entrance for the Prophet’s exclusiveuse led from each dwelling into the Mosque;having no separate apartment for himself, he rotateddaily from one hut to the other according to a fixedschedule: “the day of Hafsa, the day of Um,”ad finem.Before long, however, he deliberately infringed uponthe rights of all his other wives by breaking the routinein favor of Ayesha—the now lithe and lissom beautywho still toyed with her playthings and frolicked withMohammed in nursery games—until the deserted wivesraised such a squabble that he was forced to emit thefamous revelation, so cuttingly commented on byAyesha, which gave him license to consort with herwho pleased him most at the moment.

Conflicting reports have been handed down concerningthe acquisition of the Prophet’s seventh bride. Goingone day to visit his adopted son Zeid, who wasabsent, he was invited in by Zeid’s wife Zeinab, who... but here the tales diverge. Some say that Mohammed[p. 189]merely saw her unveiled face, while others assertthat her carelessly disarranged dress gave himfurther glimpses; some say that the Prophet, moved bya purely artistic admiration of her beauty, uttered thewords, “Praise be to God, the ruler of hearts!” butothers insist that his approbation was of a lower sort,and translate his ejaculation thus: “Gracious Lord!Good Heavens! how Thou dost turn the hearts of men!”It is agreed, however, that Zeinab was so elated at theimpression she had made on the Prophet’s facile susceptibilityto feminine wiles that she took special painsto repeat his compliment over and over to Zeid, who, inaddition to being short, pug-nosed and generally ugly,was a mere freedman, and, therefore, had never appealedtoo strongly to his high-born wife. Hot with jealousy,Zeid went to Mohammed and declared that he wishedto divorce Zeinab. “Why,” he was asked, “hast thoufound any fault in her?” “No,” groaned Zeid, “but Icannot live with her.” “Go and guard thy wife,” hewas told, “treat her well and fear God.” But Zeid,who presumably saw how matters lay, soon divorced her“in spite of the command of the Prophet,” remarksan admirer, who goes on to explain that Mohammed“was grieved at the conduct of Zeid, more especially asit was he who had arranged the marriage of these two[p. 190]uncongenial spirits.” Obviously, the trouble could bemended in but one way. One day, as Mohammed satby Ayesha’s side, a prophetic spasm gripped him; afterit had passed, he smiled and gently inquired, “Whowill go and congratulate Zeinab, and say that the Lordhath joined her unto me in marriage?” The weddingsoon took place; yet, since many Moslems thought itrather odd that the Prophet, after forbidding sons towed their bereaved stepmothers, should himself marrythe wife of an adopted son, it seemed highly advisablefor him to have recourse to Allah. Thus runs theKoran: “And when Zeid had fulfilled her [Zeinab’s]divorce, We joined thee with her in marriage, that theremight hereafter be no offence to Believers in marryingthe Wives of their adopted sons, when they have fulfilledtheir divorce; and the command of God is to befulfilled.” Criticism immediately collapsed. Zeinabproudly boasted that “God had given her in marriageto His Prophet, whereas his other wives were given tohim by their relatives”; but Ayesha retorted with thecaustic observation that there was no longer the leastdoubt that Mohammed rendered Allah’s messages verbatim,inasmuch as this last revelation showed theProphet up most unmercifully. Ayesha, however, wasone woman in a thousand.

III

By this time Mohammed had come to be regarded asa highly desirable catch by every widow in Medina,while attractive women came from all the corners ofArabia to offer themselves to the impressionable man.His inordinate masculinity prompted the other Moslemsto justify his excess of brides on the judiciousground that his “Excellency had the power of thirtystrong men given him”—a consideration that wasesteemed by certain discriminating traditionalists to bea proof of what has been characterized as the Prophet’s“divinely conferred preëminence.” In short, he wasevery inch a man. His spare, well-moulded figure wastall and commanding; he walked so fast that his gaithas been compared to that of a man ascending a hill,or of one “wrenching his foot from a stone,” and thisrapid locomotion made him unconsciously bend his backuntil in his last years he became round-shouldered.“That blessed prince’s head was large,” we are told,“and yet he was not big-headed.” His face was leanand rosy, his skin was clear and “soft as woman’s,” hisslightly Roman nose was thin and shapely—somepeople “might regard his nasal bone as exceedinglylong, though in reality it was not so”—his neck, on the[p. 192]unimpeachable authority of Ali, was “like that of asilver urn,” and “his blessed mouth was open, but exceedinglygraceful.” The quality and abundance ofhis ebon hair has been explained in great detail. Thickand curly masses of it—“not very frizzled or verydangling but just right”—hung about his ears; his vastexpanse of beard presumably concealed from vulgareyes an otherwise conspicuous peculiarity: “from hischest down to the navel there was drawn a thin line ofhair, while the other parts of the chest and stomachwere hairless, although there was hair on his blessedarms and shoulders and the upper part of his chest.”Even in his slumbers he retained his appearance of easeand grace, for he “lay on his right side, putting thepalm of his right hand under his right cheek.” Anadmirer summed up his manly comeliness in this poeticoutburst: “I saw him at full moon, and he was brighterand more beautiful than she,” and another charmingtradition affirms that no fly ever alighted on his body.Yet the handsome man was not flawless. The penetratingeyes, fringed with long and lustrous lashes, werered-lidded and bloodshot; ugly gaps disfigured hisdazzling white teeth; and on his back was a birthmarkwhich, though held to be the divine “seal of prophecy”that distinguished him as the last of the authenticprophets, was probably a large mole.

Encompassed by six wives and two slave concubines,Mohammed soon discovered that the most energetic effortswere required to provide for their wishes. Theynot only made a heavy drain on his purse and his larder,but upon his patience; for, while he was rapidly ageing,several of them were just nearing the height of feminineattractiveness, and many youthful Moslems, envious ofthe conjugal liberties which Mohammed so prodigallyclaimed, were in the habit of calling at one or anotherof his houses on matters that had little to do with religion.The favorite, Ayesha, soon got into a scrapethat turned his suspicions into open jealousy. She hadaccompanied him on one of his martial expeditions—acustom of which his other brides frequently availedthemselves by the casting of lots, Ayesha being thefortunate winner on this occasion—in a vehicle drawn bya camel and punctiliously veiled from view; and, afterhe had victoriously returned to Medina and the cart wasopened, he discovered to his great horror that she wasnot inside. When she came up a little later, escortedby young Safwan, she explained that she had lost hernecklace, had gone to search for it, and upon her returnhad found that her guides, thinking that she was inside,had guided the camel and its supposed burdenback to Medina. Shortly afterward, she continued,Safwan had chanced to meet her, “expressed surprise[p. 194]at finding one of the Prophet’s wives in this predicament,”and, upon receiving no reply from the virtuousmaiden, had asked her to mount his camel; as she shylycomplied, he had averted his face so that he did not seeher ascend the beast, and not a word had passed betweenthem on the return journey. No one knows what Mohammedmight have done had not scandalous tonguesstarted to wag; but wag they did, and the poor girl,noticing her husband’s cold demeanor, promptly fellill and went to visit her father. The Prophet meanwhilewas much disturbed, for the business was verycomplicated. Should he punish the daughter of AbuBekr, his most valued and intimate friend, troublewould almost certainly follow; on the other hand, suchfellows as Abdallah ibn Obei and the poet Hassan couldnot be permitted to go around making lewd jokes at hisexpense. So, visiting Ayesha in the presence of herfather and mother, he said: “Ayesha! thou hearestwhat men have spoken of thee. Fear God. If indeedthou art guilty, then repent toward God, for the Lordaccepteth the repentance of His servants.” The grief-strickengirl burst out weeping and replied: “By theLord! I say that I will never repent towards God ofthat which ye speak of. I am helpless. If I confess,God knoweth that I am not guilty. If I deny, no onebelieveth me.” In this dire predicament, the Prophet[p. 195]fortunately fell into a profound trance; upon his recovery,he wiped great beads of sweat from his browand exclaimed: “Ayesha! rejoice! Verily, the Lordhath declared thine innocence.” “Embrace thine husband!”cried Abu’s wife, but Ayesha contented herselfwith the ejaculation, “Praise be to the Lord”—inWhom she apparently recognized a capacity for chivalrythat was foreign to her husband. And one night notlong afterward, hoping perhaps to turn the tables onhim, she secretly followed him when he slipped quietlyout of the house on what seemed to be an amorous expedition;but she was grievously disappointed upon discoveringthat he was bent upon no more exciting errandthan going to a graveyard to offer up prayers forthe dead.

Thus the affair ended. Mohammed, however, immediatelyimprovised a law that imposed a severescourging upon scandal-mongers who failed to producefour witnesses to substantiate any charge of whoredom—apenalty that was at once inflicted upon Hassan, anotherman named Mistah, and even one of the Prophet’ssisters-in-law; but he dared not treat Abdallah ibn Obeithus. Hassan, moreover, had already been badlywounded by the indignant Safwan; and so Mohammed,who really loved the incorrigibly mischievous versifier,salved his double hurts by presenting him a costly piece[p. 196]of property and a concubine. The grateful fellow immediatelymanufactured new stanzas in praise ofAyesha’s purity, her pert humor, and her supple figure—aseries of compliments to which she had the bad graceto retort that the poet himself was disgustingly fat.

Nor did Mohammed stop here; he quickly proceededto bring about other equally desirable reforms. Theinstitution of the Veil for women—a custom, alreadynot unknown, whose origin was probably due to thecommon superstitious fear of the horrific “evil eye”—wasnow imposed upon his harem; and the Koran alsomade it clear that the day of Moslem peeping Tomswas over. “O ye believers! Enter not the apartmentsof the Prophet, except ye be called to sup with him,without waiting his convenient time.... And stay notfor familiar converse; for verily that giveth uneasinessto the Prophet. It shameth him to say this unto you;but verily God is not ashamed of the Truth. And whenye ask anything of the Prophet’s wives, ask it of themfrom behind a curtain; this will be more pure for yourhearts and for their hearts. It is not fitting that yeshould give uneasiness to the Apostle of God, nor thatye should marry his Wives after him for ever. Verilythat would be a grievous thing in the sight of God....The Prophet is nearer unto the Believers than their ownsouls, and his Wives are their Mothers.” All Moslem[p. 197]women, furthermore, were commanded to veil themselves,at home or while walking abroad, from the pryingeyes of everyone except a rich variety of relatives.“And say to the believing women that they cast downtheir looks and guard their private parts and displaynot their ornaments except what appears thereof, andlet them wear their head-coverings over their bosoms,and not display their ornaments except to their husbandsor their fathers, or the fathers of their husbands,or their sons, or the sons of their husbands, or theirbrothers, or their brothers’ sons, or their sisters’ sons,or their women, or those whom their right handspossess, or the male servants not having need (ofwomen), or the children who have not attained knowledgeof what is hidden of women ... and turn to Allah,O Believers! so that you may be successful.”

Yet somehow or other, despite all his efforts to doAllah’s will, the Prophet’s wives still continued to berebellious and even fractious. Sadly unmindful of herrecent misadventure, Ayesha in particular continued tobe as saucy and impudent as ever. When in her distressshe had gone to her parents, Ali, who next to AbuBekr was Mohammed’s bosom friend, had consoled him[p. 198]in this way: “O Prophet! there is no lack of women,and thou canst without difficulty supply her place.”Upon hearing of this, Ayesha took a temporary revengeby shouting in Mohammed’s very face that he liked Alibetter than her own father, and a permanent one bytreating Ali like a dog for the rest of his life. Itchanced, however, that Abu Bekr overheard his vixenishdaughter thus berating her husband; utterly unmovedby the fact that she had been standing up forhim, Abu at once rushed in and roared, “I will not hearthee lift thy voice against the apostle of God!” Butwhen he seized her and lifted his hand to slap her face,Mohammed interfered; so Abu went away in a foamingrage, while the Prophet heaped coals of fire onAyesha’s head with the comment, “You see how I deliveredyou from the man.” Abu continued to growland grumble for several days, but eventually returnedto find the pair completely reconciled. “Include mein your peace as you included me in your quarrel!” hebegged; and Mohammed joyfully answered, “We do,we do!” But perhaps Ayesha provoked the Prophetmost of all by failing to treat his religious views withproper decorum; when she was particularly miffedabout something, she showed her disrespect by refusingto address him as the “Apostle of God.” Once heunwisely told her that, on the day of judgment, all mankind[p. 199]would be raised in the same condition as they hadbeen born—naked, barefooted and uncircumcised. Sheimmediately interrupted his disquisition with the remarkthat, if this were so, immodest thoughts would prevail,and all that he could think of to say in reply to heruntimely jest was that “the business of the day wouldbe too weighty and serious to allow them the makinguse of that liberty.” With an even more lamentablelack of judgment, he once commented on his great lovefor Khadija—an indiscretion that brought the swift retort:“Was she not old? Has not God given you abetter in her place?” “No, by God!” exclaimed thehomesick man, “there can never be a better! She believedin me, when men despised me; she relieved mywants, when I was poor and persecuted by the world.”

Besides Ayesha’s shrewishness, too, he was forcedto endure mean tricks used by some of his other pesteringwives, who, knowing his strong aversion to suchsmells as onion and garlic, sometimes took pains toeat malodorous foods. In his perplexity he devisedvarious avenues of escape; but even the horse-racesand the performances of singing-girls, which he notinfrequently included in his list of pleasures, affordedhim little lasting relief. There was some solace, however,in the fact that many of his famous followers werealso stung by domestic broils. Abu Bekr and Omar,[p. 200]coming one day to visit the Prophet, found him gloomyand glum in the midst of his family. After Omar hadmade the aside remark, “I must say something to makethe Prophet laugh,” he began thus: “O Apostle ofGod, if I see Bint Kharija [his wife] asking me formoney I get up and throttle her!” Mohammed, immenselytickled in spite of himself, replied, “Thesewomen about me, as you see, are asking for money.”Abu Bekr immediately bounded up and started to chokeAyesha; Omar also seized his daughter Hafsa by thethroat and savagely demanded, “Will you ask theApostle of God for what he does not possess?”—uponwhich both women simultaneously gasped, “By God,we will never ask him for anything he does not possess!”This incident seems to have taught Mohammedhow to manage his women better. Having first absentedhimself from their ministrations for about amonth, he appeared with a new string of commandments.“O Prophet, say unto thy Wives—If ye seekafter this present Life and the fashion thereof, come, Iwill make provision for you and dismiss you with a fairdismission. But if ye seek after God and His Apostle,and the Life to come, then verily God hath prepared forthe excellent amongst you a great reward. O ye Wivesof the Prophet! if any amongst you should be guilty ofincontinence, the punishment shall be doubled unto her[p. 201]twofold; and that were easy with God.... Ye are notas other women.... And abide within your houses;and array not yourselves as ye used to do in the bygonedays of ignorance. And observe the times of Prayer;and give Alms; and obey God and His Apostle.”

After this the air cleared somewhat, so that Mohammedenjoyed a temporary peace; yet it was not long beforehe incontinently got himself into another scrape.His harem had not particularly objected when he tookfour other brides in fairly rapid succession—Juweiriyaand Safiya, both captives taken in war; Um Habiba, thedaughter,mirabile dictu, of Abu Sufyan; and the beauteousMeimuna, the sister-in-law of his uncle Al-Abbas,—butwhen his wives discovered that one of his latestconcubines, Mary the Coptic maid, was about to becomea mother, confusion was worse confounded. For theyknew that, above all else, Mohammed desired a son: hehad no living boy, he was naturally affectionate, and hesuffered agonies from his enemies who applied to himthe sobriquet “al-abtar,” which means one withoutdescendants, or, translated literally, “one whose tail hasbeen cut off.” When in the course of time Mary gavebirth to a son, who was named Ibrahim, she was raisedfrom the status of a slave to a position almost on parwith her “Sisters”; and Mohammed, overjoyed at hislong frustrated good fortune, immediately shaved his[p. 202]head—which had been shorn about a month before—weighedthe snippings, and distributed among the poora corresponding weight of silver. He was also foolishenough to carry his little son to Ayesha and to burstout, in the fulness of parental pride, “Look, what a likenessit is to me!” “I do not see it,” snapped Ayesha.“What!” he cried, “canst thou not see the likeness, andhow fair and fat he is?” “Yes, and so would be anyother child that drank as much milk as he,” was theanswer.

Not long afterward he was even more imprudent.Hafsa, chancing one day to find the Prophet and Maryin her own particular apartment, lashed out her everready tongue at him, and promised that she would tellall his other wives without delay. Mohammed, frightenedeven more than he had ever been on a battlefield,humbly prayed her to keep quiet and agreed to leaveMary for good; but Hafsa, utterly unable to keep sucha flagrant breach of domestic etiquette to herself, atonce told Ayesha who of course promptly informed allthe other “Sisters.” The Prophet, discovering thathome life was now absolutely unendurable, once morewent into retirement for about a month. He was comfortedin his seclusion by both Mary and Allah, one ofwhom suggested that this passage should be added tothe Koran: “Maybe, his Lord, if he divorce you, will[p. 203]give him in your place wives better than you, submissive,faithful, obedient, penitent, adorers, fasters, virgins.”But this threat of wholesale divorce does notappear to have worried the enraged women so much asit did their relatives; Abu Bekr and Omar, for instance,were much upset upon learning that their chief shouldhave deserted their daughters in favor of an ex-slaveconcubine. At this juncture Gabriel luckily appearedon the scene; he informed Mohammed that Hafsa, afterall, was a fairly good woman and advised him to takeher back. Thus, in fact, the breach was healed; but impartialitynecessitates the inclusion of a statement byMohammed’s most adequate modern defender, whoswears that the whole episode was an “absolutely falseand malicious” invention of the Prophet’s enemies.He goes on to say that the passage in the Koran whichdeals with the affair actually refers to Mohammed’sfondness for honey: Hafsa and Ayesha persuaded himto forego it; but then “came the thought that he wasmaking something unlawful in which there was nothingunlawful, simply to please his wives.” Thus theProphet, it is to be inferred, thought that honey wasmore precious than ten legal brides.

In any case, harmony was restored. Mohammed,worn and haggard from his domestic tribulations, wassoon restored to health and amused himself by watching[p. 204]the antics of his growing boy. But when Ibrahimwas yet hardly able to toddle around, he began to pineaway. Just before his decease, the Prophet claspedhim in his arms and sobbed bitterly; when the otherwatchers endeavored to console him by recalling his ownstrong objection to the outward expression of grief, hereplied in a broken voice: “Nay, it is not this that Iforbade, but wailing and fulsome laudation of the dead....We grieve for the child: the eye runneth downwith tears, and the heart swelleth inwardly; yet we saynot aught that would offend our Lord. Ibrahim! OIbrahim!” For the child had died while his father wastalking, and, after making the observation, “The remainderof the days of his nursing shall be fulfilled inParadise,” Mohammed tenderly comforted Mary.Speechless and heavy-eyed, he kept a steadfast guardwhile the body was washed and laid out; then he prayedover it and finally followed the procession to the littlegrave. After it had been filled with earth, he sprinkledfresh water upon the mound and spoke these words:“When ye do this thing, do it carefully, for it givethease to the afflicted heart. It cannot injure the dead,neither can it profit him; but it giveth comfort to theliving.”

Six long years, with their burden of foreign anddomestic struggles, had elapsed since the Hegira; yetthe recollections of Mecca, the Kaba, the Black Stone—inshort, the memories ofhome—had remained ineradicablyfixed in the minds of the Prophet and his flock.About half of Arabia, and approximately three-fourthsof his wives, might now be pretty well under hisdominion; but his heart often troubled him when he recalledhis sins of omission in failing to fulfil the Lesserand Greater Pilgrimages—and, incidentally, the hatefultruth that the intransigent Koreish still ruled thebeloved city. Why, therefore, should he not undertakea pilgrimage during one of the sacred months? forsurely, the mere fact that he himself had previouslyviolated their sanctity could not rightly be held againsthim if he returned as a humble penitent. The Koreish,bound by adamant Arabian custom, would almostcertainly allow him and his followers to make theirsacrifices to the national religion; and, even in case hisancient foes should molest the journeying Moslems,[p. 206]perhaps—perhaps—he would be able to deal with them.

In a dream he imagined himself and his worshipingband going through the stiff ritual of pilgrimage: encirclingthe Kaba, slaughtering the sacrificial victims,and completing the other well-remembered ceremonies.The Moslems, after listening to his fervid narrationof this vision, pulsated with desire to accompany him;and so, having taken a bath and donned the two-piecepilgrim garb, in February, 628, he set out, mountedon Al-Kaswa, at the head of some fifteen hundredvotaries each of whom was armed with a sword, a bowand a quiver of arrows. At one stage of the journeythey halted and, uttering the plaintive cry “Labbeik!Labbeik! (Here am I, O Lord! Here am I!),”placed their curious ornaments around the necks ofseventy votive camels. In the busy midst of these piousengagements, however, the Prophet did not neglect todispatch a spy to report on the behavior of the Koreish;the envoy finally returned with the news that theMeccans were obviously distrustful of Mohammed’speacefully religious intentions, and that, in very truth,a large body of armed Koreish was guarding the roadthat led to Mecca. “Their wives and little ones arewith them,” said the spy, “and they have sworn to dierather than let thee pass,” adding the further detail thatthey were clothed in panthers’ skins—a symbol of their[p. 207]determination to fight like beasts in an effort to bar anyadvance. Mohammed and his people therefore decidedto continue toward Mecca by a sinuous route that wouldlead them to the edge of the sacred city. At thisjuncture Al-Kaswa stopped short and refused to budgeanother inch. “She is weary,” the Moslems insisted;but the Prophet replied: “Nay, Al-Kaswa is notweary; but the same hand restraineth her as aforetimeheld back the elephant”—for, as became a loyal Arab,he had not forgotten how Arabia had been saved fromthe invader Abraha. He further declared that hewould not march upon the city, for fear that the fewMoslems who were still living there might chance to beharmed in the struggle that might take place; but it isalso possible that he checked his advance because he hadlearnt that the Koreish, hearing of his own manœuver,had also deviated in such a way that they still blockedhis path.

Very soon afterward, a Koreishite deputation approachedto interview Mohammed. “I have no otherdesign but to perform the pilgrimage of the HolyHouse,” he insisted, “and whosoever hindereth us therefrom,we shall fight against them.” This sally was metby the retort that the desperate Meccans “will not sufferthis rabble of thine to approach the city.” A long,wrangling dispute followed in which blows came near[p. 208]being struck; and the only concession that the Prophetcould obtain was the information that “this year he mustgo back; but in the year following he may come, andhaving entered Mecca then perform the pilgrimage.”Mohammed, who realized that his acquiescence to theseinstructions would irreparably harm his prestige, decidedto send a counter delegation to Mecca. Omarwas the first man requested to act in this capacity; butthat fearless fighter begged off on the plea that he hadno powerful relatives in the city to protect him againstthe Koreish, and, pointing to Othman—whose slightto Hafsa had not been forgotten—suggested thathebe the Moslem representative. Othman had excusedhimself from fighting at Bedr on the grounds that hiswife, the Prophet’s own daughter, was ill; but, realizingthat the influence of his family connections wouldprotect him on this occasion, he readily consented todepart. His return was so long delayed that Mohammedfeared he might have been treacherously slain, anda tensely dramatic scene took place. The Prophet,standing beneath an acacia tree and encircled by the entirenumber of his votaries, requested a solemn pledgethat they would not turn their backs, but, if necessary,would fight till the last man dropped; the covenantwas individually sealed as each man clasped Mohammed’soutstretched hand—when Othman suddenly appeared,[p. 209]entirely unharmed. Nevertheless, the Prophetwas immensely pleased; indeed, he never ceased to referto this auspicious event, which had symbolized thestrength of the union of religious ecstasy and martialenthusiasm that dominated his willing slaves.

A treaty of peace was eventually drawn up. Forten years the Koreish caravans were to be unmolested,and during this same period extraneous clans could beconverted either to Islam or to the faith—such as it was—ofMecca; in the following year, also, the Moslemswere to be allowed to complete their pilgrimage, but thisyear they must return unedified and still burdened withtheir sins. Perhaps Mohammed swallowed this bittermedicine the more readily because previous experiencehad taught him that treaties were mere scraps of paper;yet he found it excessively irritating to endure the high-handedmethods of the noted orator Suheil, ambassadorfor the Koreish. The Prophet, assuming as a matterof course that he himself should phrase the language ofthe covenant, began to dictate to Ali, who willinglyserved as a scribe, in this high-flown manner: “In thename of God, most gracious and merciful”—“Stop!”Suheil abruptly interrupted, “as for God, we knowHim; but this new name, we know it not. Say, as wehave always said,In thy name, O God!” “In thyname, O God,” Mohammed repeated, “These are the[p. 210]conditions of peace between Mohammed the Prophet ofGod and”—“Stop again!” commanded the imperturbablespokesman. “If thou wert what thou sayest, I hadnot taken up arms against thee. Write, as the customis, thine own name and thy father’s name.” “Write,then,” said the amazed but ever tactful Prophet, “betweenMohammed son of Abdallah, and Suheil son ofAmr....” and so on until the end. The documentwas then duly witnessed by members of both factions;and Mohammed, firmly resolved to perform at least amodicum of his vows, shaved his head (or cut his hair;historians have not determined the facts about the matter),and, while all the Moslems treated their heads ina similar manner, he directed that the doomed camelsshould be sacrificed.

The unexpected outcome of this journey left manyMoslems unsatisfied. Some of them—both the “Shavers”and the “Cutters”—had refused to part with theirhair until the Prophet ordered them to do so; Omar,in particular, had so completely recovered the strengthof his trembling knees that he threatened to head arenegade movement. Obviously, therefore, it washigh time to produce a new message from on high.Even before the return journey was begun, the words“Inspiration hath descended on him” were eagerly repeatedthroughout the encampment, and a great crowd[p. 211]collected around the Prophet, who, standing upright onAl-Kaswa’s broad back, began to intone thus: “Verily,We have given unto thee an evident Victory,” adding,at the end of a tediously prolix mass of jubilantlyphrased but wholly unintelligible rhetoric: “Now hathGod verified unto His Apostle the Vision in truth; yeshall surely enter the Holy Temple, if it please God, insecurity, having your heads shaven and your hair cut.Fear ye not; for He knoweth that which ye know not.”As he concluded, one of the onlookers exclaimed,“What! isthis the Victory?” “Yes,” came the calmreply, “by Him in whose hand is my breath, it is aVictory.” And in fact, despite the Prophet’s muddy-mindednesson this occasion, there was much to justifyhis statement. Perhaps he realized that the peacefuloutcome of his pompous expedition, which was certainto be noised over a large part of Arabia, would win himmore converts than force had ever done—for had henot convinced the Koreish of his pacific intentions, andhadthey not treated him with high honor? Thus, indeed,it turned out; various tribes, hoodwinked byhighly colored accounts of the pilgrimage, at oncesought to make alliances with Mohammed; and theresult was that, during the next year, Islam grew as ithad never grown before.

Two interesting incidents took place soon after Mohammed[p. 212]had returned to Medina. Abu Basir, a youthfulacolyte of Islam who still lived in Mecca, becameso restless under the domination of the Koreish that,after a series of bold assaults and hairbreadth escapes,he managed to reach Medina in safety; the Prophet wasso much stirred by the lad’s tale of rash but admirablebravery that he commented, as if speaking to himself:“What a kindler of war, if he had but with him a bodyof adherents!” Abu Basir, encouraged by these words,at once organized a band of seventy similarly inclinedyoung braves who, for the next few months, assaultedKoreishite caravans and killed the captives with somuch gusto that Mohammed, at the humble request ofthe Meccans, finally felt constrained to command therobbers to cease from kindling war. The second eventwas of an entirely different sort. Some of the MedineseJews, who had openly and loudly proclaimed theiradherence to Islam, surreptitiously obtained several ofthe Prophet’s blessed hairs, and, after tying them intoeleven knots around the branch of a palm-tree, loweredthe evil invention into a well. Their sly and malignantdesign was soon rewarded: Mohammed grew feeble, hismind became afflicted with stranger hallucinations thanever before, he neglected his devotions, and he evenshowed indifference toward his wives. But Gabrielshortly revealed the cause of his malady; the well was[p. 213]examined, the necromantic knots were loosed, and theProphet, thus freed from the voodooistic spell, experienceda lively recrudescence of his manifold talents.

The time finally drew near when, according to theterms of the treaty, the Koreish were to evacuateMecca for three days so that the Moslems might performtheir pilgrimage in peace. On this occasion abouttwo thousand zealots accompanied Mohammed, and,although each one was restricted by treaty to carry onlya sword, a large amount of armor was taken along,while the travelers were also preceded by a considerableforce of cavalry. As the procession approachedthe holy city, the Koreish obediently withdrew and, stationedon the surrounding hills, kept a wary eye on thecurious scenes that followed. The eager devotees,upon viewing the deeply revered Kaba again for thefirst time in seven years, raised the now almost joyousululation, “Labbeik! Labbeik!” Mohammed, astrideAl-Kaswa as usual, neared the Kaba, gently touchedthe Black Stone with his staff, and—apparently stillmounted on Al-Kaswa—went seven times around thesacred temple. His absorption in these reverent pursuits,however, did not cause him to forget more importantconcerns: at his special bidding, the Moslemsfootraced around the Kaba three times at top speed, todemonstrate to the observant Koreish that they were[p. 214]in excellent physical condition; then, at a somewhatslower pace, they circled the building four times more.

Three days were occupied in fulfilling the remainingrites; yet the Prophet, who, through the aid of Al-Kaswa,had kept himself fresher than his foot-sore compatriots,and who had meanwhile taken the opportunityto engage himself to Meimuna, continued to tarry inapparent forgetfulness of his sworn promise to leavethe city on the third day. He was brought rudely tohis senses on the morning of the fourth day, when twoleaders of the Koreish came abruptly up and said:“The period allowed thee hath elapsed; depart nowtherefore from amongst us.” “And what harm if ye allowedme to stay a little longer,” Mohammed graciouslyinquired, “celebrate my nuptials in your midst, andmake for the guests a feast at which ye too mightall sit down?” “Nay,” was the harsh answer, “ofany food of thine we have no need. Withdraw fromhence!” To disobey was to invite an immediate war;and inasmuch as the Prophet was not yet ready for thestruggle that, in his heart of hearts, he had long anticipated,he directed that an immediate departure bemade—a stipulation that compelled him to content himselfwith the consummation of his nuptials at a spotabout ten miles from Mecca.

But, despite its somewhat inglorious conclusion, the[p. 215]grandiose adventure accomplished several things ofmuch importance. In a general way, Mohammedbenefited from the fact that the Koreish had not failedto be impressed by the dignified yet ominous Moslemitedisplay of religious and warlike ardor. With theirown eyes, they had seen what an exalted rank the renegadeProphet had attained among his servile henchmen;they had noted, too, the instantaneous and unquestioningobedience with which his least desire had been met.He profited, also, in that the deepest instincts of hisconfederates had been aroused at the renewed visitationof the familiar and unforgettable scenes of those happy,bygone days when they had dwelt in peace andmoderate prosperity at Mecca, until the implacable requirementsof Islam had wrenched them from theircherished moorings. Once again they had been irresistiblycompelled to realize that they were but outcastsand wanderers, to whom Medina had never grownreally congenial, and who now poignantly reflected thatMecca, and Mecca alone, was home. In particular,the Prophet gained two notable converts to Islam:Khalid, who had commanded the cavalry that broughtabout the Moslem defeat at Uhud, and Amr—who wasequally versatile in poetry, diplomacy, and militarystrategy—were so impressed by Mohammed’s magnificentgesture in conducting the Moslems to Mecca that[p. 216]they decided to desert the vacillating Koreish and casttheir fortunes with the progressive cause of Islam.Under the Caliphs who succeeded the Prophet, the intrepidKhalid—divinely protected by some of Mohammed’shair which he wore in his cap as a charm againstmisfortune—won such imperial victories that he acquiredthe title “The Sword of Allah”; and thesagacious counsels of Amr also won him a high placein the annals of Islam. Furthermore, the accession ofthese two was not without its immediate effect. Theywere straws that showed how the wind was veering:the Koreish had not only failed to recover the prestigethey had dropped at Bedr, and to benefit by the Moslemdebacle at Uhud, but they had lost the confidenceof some of their outstanding men of action. The timewas swiftly approaching when the rankling stigma ofUhud would be blotted out, when the Prophet wouldtake a final and complete revenge on his life-longenemies, and when the Meccans would treat Allah withan even more touching reverence than they alreadybestowed upon Al-Ozza, Hubal, the Kaba and theBlack Stone.

A serious reverse suffered by the army of Islam postponedthe inevitable surrender of Mecca for a year.[p. 217]One of Mohammed’s emissaries, sent with a messageurging a certain Syrian leader to join Islam, had beenmurdered by another Syrian chieftain; and the Prophet,presumably ignorant that an attack on Syria was equivalentto a declaration of war against the Roman Empireitself, immediately sent a force of three thousand Moslemsto avenge the crime. As the soldiers departed,he invoked this blessing on their errand: “The Lordshield you from every evil, and bring you back in peace,laden with spoil!” He then privately gave Zeid thepermission to make treaties in his own name, instead ofin the name of Mohammed himself, in order that thecovenants might the more readily be broken.

But once again Allah proved to be either absent-mindedor very inconsiderate. As the Moslem soldiersneared the Dead Sea, they were amazed to learn thatan enormous army, skilled in Roman methods of battle,was waiting to crush them. Conflicting counselswere offered; many wished to instruct the Prophet ofthis ill news and await his subsequent advice; but Abdallahibn Rawaha roused the wilting courage of hisfellows with these ringing words: “What have wemarched thus far but for this? Is it in our numbers,or in the help of the Lord, that we put our trust?Victory or the martyr’s crown, one or other, is secure.Then forward!” His maniacal frenzy was imparted to[p. 218]his companions, who, meeting the powerful Romanphalanx at Muta close to the Red Sea, madly threwthemselves upon the foe. Mohammed’s life-longfriend Zeid, who had most unwillingly relinquishedZeinab in favor of the Prophet, bravely bore the whiteMoslem banner until he willingly relinquished his lifefor Islam. Jafar, another Moslem hero, then seizedthe inspiring piece of cloth and, shouting out: “Paradise!O Paradise! how fair a resting-place! Cold isthe water there, and sweet the shade,” was shortly ableto test the truth of his pæan. Abdallah ibn Rawahathen fell in turn, bearing the flag to the ground withhim; at this moment Khalid demonstrated the genuinenessof his recent conversion by rallying the terrorizedMoslems and immediately speeding toward Medinawith the fragments of the army.

The Medinese, deeply dismayed at the rout, foundsome relief by hurling dust and jeering taunts at thetruants; but Mohammed put a stop to their meannessin this fashion: “Nay, these are not runaways; theyare men who will yet again return to battle, if the Lordwill.” Struck to the heart by the loss of so many triedcompanions, he first went to Jafar’s house, where, claspingthe dead man’s children in his arms, he sobbed bitterly;departing thence to the home of Zeid, he brokedown completely when Zeid’s little daughter threw herself[p. 219]tearfully into his arms. “Why thus, O Prophet?”asked one person, who inconveniently recalled Mohammed’smany injunctions that Moslems should not displaytheir sorrow at the times of death. “This is notforbidden grief,” was the response, “it is but the fondyearning in the heart of friend for friend.” Yet nextmorning, as he worshiped in the Mosque, he smiled andremarked: “That which ye saw in me yesterday wasbecause of sorrow for the slaughter of my Companions,until I saw them in Paradise, seated as brethren, oppositeone another, upon couches. And in some I perceivedmarks, as it were wounds of the sword. And Isaw Jafar as an angel with two wings, covered withblood—his limbs stained therewith.”

Though smiles wreathed his face, a mordant desirefor vengeance gnawed at his heart. What a tragedythat the Syrian tribes, who of late had been deeply impressedby the conquest of Kheibar, should have learntthat Islam, after all, was not invulnerable! Amr, therecent Meccan turncoat, was accordingly placed in commandof a Moslem expedition to Syria, where his strongright arm succeeded in restoring the Prophet’s weakenedprestige; yet the setback at Muta still rankled inthe minds of the Medinese, and Mohammed was probablykeen enough to realize that the situation could beremedied only by the achievement of some extraordinary,[p. 220]astounding, unparalleled coup. No longerwould he insist that defeats were moral victories; nolonger would he indite Suras that placed the burden ofdefeat squarely upon Allah’s broad shoulders; nolonger would he seek advice from Abu Bekr or his otherintimate counselors in martial concerns. Mecca,Mecca!There lay the answer to all the questions thatvexed his dreams. All that was needed to justify thetaking the holy city was some specious pretext. So, atany rate, certain historians argue and they may well beright; yet Mohammed was driven by such intricate andinexplorable motives that one does well to hesitate beforeplacing his finger on this or that spot in his journeyand saying, “Such and such an idea impelled him to actthus at this particular point.” It is conceivable, forexample, that, by a mental process not wholly unfamiliarto moderns, he may have been influenced in hissubsequent action by the belief—natural enough, surely,for an Arab!—that Mecca was Allah’s own country.

In any event, a reason for attacking Mecca was soonfound. The Khozaa, a tribe in the neighborhood ofthe sacred city, had chosen under the provisions of thetreaty between Islam and Mecca to join the Moslemcause; another adjacent clan, the Beni Bekr, that contrariwisehad gone over to the Koreish, had proceeded,with the assistance of some disguised Koreishites, to[p. 221]attack the Khozaa who of course hurried to Mohammedfor redress. Here, at last, was the long deferred opportunity.The spokesmen of Khozaa had barely finishedthe tale of their wrongs when the happy Prophet,who was only half clothed, bounded to his feet and madethis fervent promise: “If I help you not in like wiseas if the wrong were mine own, then let me never morebe helped by the Lord! See ye not yonder cloud? Asthe rain now poureth from it, even so shall help descendupon you speedily from above.” When the Koreishheard of this affair, their perturbation was so great thatthey dispatched Abu Sufyan to see if it were possibleto obtain a renewal and extension of the treaty; butAbu, the diplomat, turned out to be no more successfulthan Abu, the general. Upon arriving at Medina, hewent straight to his daughter, Um Habiba, wife of theProphet; but, as he started to seat himself on her carpet,she drew it away from him. “My daughter!” heremonstrated, “whether is it that thou thinkest the carpetis too good for me, or that I am too good for thecarpet?” “Nay, but it is the carpet of the Prophet,and I choose not that thou, an impure idolator, shouldstsit upon the Prophet’s carpet,” she coldly answered.“Truly, my daughter, thou art changed for the worsesince thou leftest me,” Abu sighed; then, stepping outof doors in front of the Mosque, he loudly cried:[p. 222]“Hearken unto me, ye people! Peace and protectionI guarantee for all.” Mohammed, who was standingnear by, thereupon interrupted to remark, “It is thouthat sayest this, not we, O Abu Sufyan!” At this pointAbu decided that it was time for him to return home.

Mohammed rapidly and secretly laid his plans. Herequested many allied tribes to join with him, meanwhilewithholding his ulterior intentions from them;and not until the very moment of the departure did heenlighten the Medinese—at which time he also warnedthem, by this prayer, to keep the secret from the Koreish:“O Lord! Let not any spy carry tidings toKoreish; blind their eyes and take their sight awayuntil I come suddenly upon them and seize them unawares!”On January 1, 630, the largest Moslem armyever collected thus far—with the additions of the desertallies, it numbered close to ten thousand—set out forMecca. Al-Abbas, the shifty time-server, who hadassisted his nephew-Prophet in his escape from Meccaten years earlier only to be compelled to pay a largeransom for himself after Bedr, now decided once andfor all that it would be highly advisable to espouse theMoslem cause; so he slipped out of Mecca on the slyand, approaching the Prophet, was much gratified uponbeing welcomed with outstretched arms.

Mecca, however, was destined to be saved from violent[p. 223]assault, though the precise reason for this happyconclusion is not known. Concerning the event thatfollows, it is not clear whether Abu Sufyan acted forhimself alone, or at the bidding of his Koreishite companions.One night, as ten thousand Moslem campfiresilluminated the heavens from the hills that encircledMecca, Abu Sufyan came gliding toward thetent of Mohammed, where he was commanded to remainaway until morning. Returning at that time, hewas thus accosted by the Prophet: “Out upon thee,Abu Sufyan! hast thou not yet discovered that thereis no God but the Lord alone?” “Noble and generousSire! Had there been any God beside, verily he hadbeen of some avail to me,” whined Abu. “And dostthou not acknowledge that I am the Prophet of theLord?” catechized Mohammed. “Noble Sire! As tothis thing, there is yet in my heart some hesitancy,” repliedthe trembling but truthful fellow, who probablyfound it difficult to look upon his own son-in-law as thedirect agent of God. At this moment Al-Abbas boldlyintruded with these well-chosen words: “Woe is thee!it is no time for hesitancy, this. Believe and testifyforthwith the creed of Islam, or else thy neck shall bein danger!” Then Abu diplomatically capitulated,and vehemently proclaimed that he did indeed believethere was no God but the Lord alone and that Mohammed[p. 224]was His Prophet; and Mohammed, who had scoredwhat was probably the greatest individual triumph ofhis career, joyfully exclaimed: “Haste thee to Mecca!haste thee to the city; no one that taketh refuge in thehouse of Abu Sufyan shall be harmed this day. Andhearken! speak unto the people, that whosoever closeththe door of his house, the inmates thereof shall be insafety.” Then, closely escorted by Al-Abbas, Abuwent forth, pausing a moment, as his amazed eyes sweptthe innumerable warriors around him, to remark,“Truly this kingdom of thy nephew’s is a mighty kingdom.”“Nay, Abu Sufyan!” chided Al-Abbas, “he ismore than a king—he is a mighty Prophet!” “Yes,thou sayest truly; now let me go,” replied Abu as heedged away. Arriving home, he promptly repeated theProphet’s message; and never before, in all her long anddistinguished history, had Mecca witnessed such ascurrying of feet and banging—or draping—of doorsas followed.

When the Moslem and allied hosts came victoriouslyparading through the deserted streets, only one conflictoccurred. The impetuous Khalid, whose force wasgreeted by a flight of arrows from a small band ofbitter-enders, was so delighted at his unexpected goodfortune that he followed up the assault until twenty-eightof the foolhardy fugitives had been slain. The[p. 225]Prophet, standing on an eminence, was surveying withsparkling eyes the fair scene stretched out before himwhen he chanced to see this sporadic fray. “What!did I not strictly command that there should be nofighting?” he shouted in his anger; but when Khalid’sjust grievance was made clear, he calmed down andcommented, “That which the Lord decreeth is the best.”Then, descending into the city on Al-Kaswa’s back, heonce more touched the Black Stone politely with hisstaff and urged the patient camel seven times aroundthe Kaba. Pointing at the idols which surrounded itswalls, he ordered that they should at once be overthrown—indeed,tradition affirms that, as he aimed hisstaff at each image, it immediately tumbled down onits face—and shouted out one passage that he happenedto remember from the Koran: “Truth hathcome, and falsehood gone; for falsehood verily vanishethaway.” He next entered the holy edifice, devoutlyprostrated himself, and then stood watching with delightedeyes the labors of Omar, who, by means of acloth wetted in Zemzem, rubbed out the pictures of suchidols as had been painted on the walls. Then Mohammedgave back the key of the temple to its hereditaryguardian, and, turning to Al-Abbas, thus addressedhim: “And thou Al-Abbas, I confirm thee in the givingdrink from out of the well Zemzem to the pilgrims;[p. 226]it is no mean office this that I give now unto thee”; andnevermore did the already opulent double-dealer entertainthe least doubt as to the justice of his nephew’scause. Bilal, commanded by the Prophet, immediatelyascended the Kaba and sounded the call to prayer;the subservient multitude knelt and worshiped, thougha few among them could not refrain from expressing,in very subdued tones, their disgust at being obliged toobey a negro slave. The Prophet next issued thisproclamation: “Whoever believeth in God, and in theday of Judgment, let him not leave in his house anyimage whatever that he doth not break in pieces.”Now, since the Arabians in general cherished the beliefthat a capable god should be able to defend himself,the easy demolition of the deities in the Kaba hadconvinced the Meccans that their gods—even Al-Ozzaand Hubal—were as useless as so many dolls. And so,while the destruction of the helpless icons was enthusiasticallycarried out in every Meccan home—while AbuSufyan’s wife, Hind, smashed her favorite god as energeticallyas she had once ripped Hamza’s vitals out,and further insulted the deity by the charge that ithad vilely cheated her all her life—Mohammed, fatiguedand dusty, retired to a corner of his tent and,as his daughter, Fatima, shielded him with a screen,gave himself a thorough bath.

It is more than probable that the Koreish were immenselyrelieved and pleased with the quiet and almostbloodless subjugation of their city. In truth, althoughsome of them became sycophants who cringedand fawned in order to win Mohammed’s good will,the majority doubtless took pride in the fact that theirprodigal son, whose magnetic name was beginning tocause apprehension even beyond the borders of Arabia,had returned to demand his fatted calf. Their slumbersneed never more be broken by nightmares of hisprecipitate assault upon them; further, the tiresomeburden of ruling, or trying to rule, for the welfare ofMecca was now transferred to his gracious and omnipotenthand. As a religious but non-political capital,moreover, Mecca would be secure from whatever mightbetide in the shifting destinies of time. And they wereright. Mohammed had won so easily, he had reachedsuch an unapproachable eminence, that he could afford—itmatters little whether from scrupulous policyor wholly unselfish generosity—to be magnanimous.If he directed the death of four ingrate Meccans, heproclaimed a general amnesty for all the rest; if hecast out idolatry, he substituted a religious ritualismwhich coalesced the leading dogmas of the various Meccansects; and if he temporarily ruined Meccan commerceby his famously unscientific monkeying with the[p. 228]calculation of time—inasmuch as the pilgrimage monthsno longer always coincided with the period when caravantrade flourished—he bountifully blessed her witha permanent revenue that, after thirteen hundred years,still continues to pour into her coffers. For, as Islamhas continued to prosper, all devout Moslems have atone time or another journeyed from every quarter ofthe globe to visit that “Navel of the Islamic faith”which seems to them to be the earthly replica of thatindescribably glorious Paradise which awaits the faithful;and myriads of curious, and even irreverent, sightseershave perennially flocked thither to enjoy the endlessdiversion afforded by one of the greatest religiousentertainments on the globe.

The time rapidly approached when the Prophet wasto renounce the multitudinous burdens and joys of hisearthly existence, and depart to that supernal havenwhich he had so frequently and so eloquently depicted.For Allah, who had not gazed upon his faithful servantsince the episode of the midnight journey, yearned toclasp him forever to his breast; and Mohammed believedthat Khadija, the Virgin Mary, Potiphar’s wife,and Kulthum, sister of Moses, longingly anticipated hisarrival; so too, though for very different reasons, didGabriel, who desired a respite from his enervating tripsbetween Paradise and Medina. But a few months morewere yet to be granted Mohammed—months that wereto exemplify the same indomitable energy, the sameassiduous zealotry, that he had manifested for the lasttwenty years.

Mecca was now irrevocably sealed to Islam; but thatvery fact caused fearful apprehension among those Bedouinpeoples who were yet idolistic and untamed. Thepowerful Hawazin and Beni Thakif tribes, who occupied[p. 230]an extensive territory southeast of Mecca, decidedthat they had a fair chance to crush the arrogantdominion of this would-be conqueror of all Arabia whilehe was yet rejoicing in his easy conquest of the holycity; and to that end they assembled about six thousandmen. Mohammed, on learning of their plans, determinedto nip this insurrection in the bud, and quicklydeparted at the head of twelve thousand seasonedtroops; so imposingly spectacular was this great forcethat Abu Bekr could not restrain his admiration. “Weshall not this day be worsted by reason of the smallnessof our numbers!” he gleefully shouted, and the Prophetsmiled in agreement. Then, seated on a white mule,he followed in the rear of the soldiers.

As the Moslem troops were defiling through a narrowpass in the valley of Honein, the ambushed foe suddenlycharged upon them with such impetuosity thatthey first hesitated, then recoiled and fled in utter panic.“Whither away?” shouted Mohammed, while the brokencolumns sped by him. “The Prophet of the Lord ishere! Return! return!” But his lungs were unequalto the emergency, so he bade Al-Abbas try the strengthof his voice; and his uncle used his stentorian oratoryto such good effect that it rose above the clamorous turmoilof retreat. A number of the penitent fighterscame shamefacedly back, and, shouting out, “Ya Labbeik![p. 231]Here we are, ready at thy call!” stopped theflight of the rest and turned to face the pursuing Bedouins.Mohammed, gazing at the bloody spectaclefrom the safety of an adjacent hill, was so overpoweredwith warlike ardor that he screamed: “Now is thefurnace heated; I am the Prophet that lieth not; theseed of Abd al-Muttalib!” Then, hurling a fistful ofgravel at the foe, he continued: “Ruin seize them!I swear they are discomfited. By the Lord of theKaba, they yield! God hath cast fear into their hearts.”The hard-won victory was indeed so complete that thousandsof prisoners, forty thousand sheep and goats, andfour thousand ounces of silver were seized as spoil.And the Prophet, repenting of his self-confidence beforethe battle, indited a Sura which stated that thepreliminary defeat had been caused by over-confidencein numbers, and that success had come only becauseGod “sent down Hosts which ye saw not, and therebypunished the Unbelievers.”

Yet he realized that, in order to clinch the victory, itwould be imperative to capture the Bedouin strongholdat At-Taif. In assaulting that place he trusted,in addition to the heavenly hosts, to the most modernByzantine inventions of warfare—the testudo and thecatapult. But they both proved to be ineffective, forthe simple reason that the besieged garrison destroyed[p. 232]the wooden testudo by hurling molten metal upon it,thus making it impossible to use the catapult at all.As the weary weeks dragged on, Mohammed endeavoredto expedite the surrender of the fort by destroyingthe vineyards around At-Taif and offering freedom toany slaves who would desert the stronghold; but eventhese traditional devices proved to be useless, and,warned by a dream that the heavenly will was not infavor of continuing the siege, he decided to accept thecounsels of his assistants, who were also getting verytired of the business. The Prophet then withdrew tothe place where the booty won at Honein had beenstored.

Now it happened that the worldly wise members ofthe Hawazin, having had plenty of time to reflect uponthe matter, had decided that by embracing Islam theymight get off with a lesser punishment than would otherwisebe the case. Mohammed, of course, was muchpleased to welcome them to the faith; but when theysuggested that, inasmuch as they were now loyal Moslems,both their property and their prisoners should bereturned to them, he was wholly unable to concur. Instead,he gave them this choice: “Whether of the two,your families or your property, is the dearer to you?”Impaled on the horns of this dilemma, they were forcedto admit that their relatives were more precious, and[p. 233]the prisoners were accordingly set free. The Prophetwas so much pleased by the possibilities of this barterand trade in the name of Islam that he offered onehundred camels to Malik, chief of the Hawazin, if hetoo would embrace the Moslem cause; and Malik, beinga wise and prudent man, speedily accepted theterms. But some of the other people, fearing thatthey were to lose the loot as well as the prisoners, rushedup to Mohammed and, shouting aloud, “Distribute tous the spoil, the camels and the flocks!” treated himso roughly that his mantle was ripped from him, whereuponhe sought to save himself by backing against atree. “Return to me my mantle, O Man!” he cried,“return the mantle; for I swear by the Lord that if thesheep and the camels were as many as the trees of theforest in number, I would divide them all amongstyou.” Since they still continued to press him, he heldup a hair and exclaimed: “Even to a hair like this,I would keep back nought but the fifth; and even that,”he hastily decided to add, “I will divide amongst you.”

Thus the mob was quieted and the Prophet soon madegood his word; in fact, so generous was he in dealingpresents out among his new auxiliaries that he sometimesgave a double gift to those who insisted that theydeserved it. Spectacles such as these could not failto anger many of his veteran associates who had received[p. 234]nothing at all; never before had they met withsuch cavalier treatment as this. When one of themmade the direct charge that Mohammed was unfair,he was met with the irate reply: “Out upon thee! Ifjustice and equity be not with me, where will ye findthem?” The Prophet furthermore stated that, so faras the elder Moslems were concerned, faith was its ownreward—a saying which the Medinese, who had waxedfat and rich on the plunder of so many conquests, foundvery hard to swallow. They continued to show theirdispleasure so long that Mohammed finally called themtogether and spoke honeyed words. “Ye men of Medina,it hath been reported to me that ye are disconcerted,because I have given unto these Chiefs largesses,and have given nothing unto you. Now speak untome. Did I not come unto you whilst ye were wandering,and the Lord gave you the right direction? needy,and He enriched you; at enmity among yourselves,and He hath filled your hearts with love and unity?”As murmurs of assent began to rise, he continued:“Why are ye disturbed in mind because of the thingsof this life wherewith I have sought to incline these menunto the faith in which ye are already stablished? Areye not satisfied that others should have the flocks andherds, while ye carry back with you the Prophet of theLord? Nay, I will never leave you. If all mankind[p. 235]went one way, and the men of Medina another way,verily I would go the way of the men of Medina. TheLord be favorable unto them, and bless them, and theirsons and their sons’ sons for ever!” Then, weepinguntil the tears streamed down their manly beards, hisconfederates shouted in unison, “Yea, we are well satisfied,O Prophet, with our lot!” However, lest anydoubt might remain in the minds of any, Allah Himselfspeedily revealed that alms—for both taxes andwar-plunder were thus ingenuously disguised—wereintended, among other persons, “for them whose heartsare to be gained over.... It is an ordinance fromGod; and God is knowing and wise.” Thus, by timelyrevelations, the faith of Islam was steadily increased;the most devout Moslems, indeed, regarded the inexorableduty of paying onerous financial tributes to Allahas an inestimable privilege; though it is true that a fewhard-hearted wretches publicly proclaimed that eachsuccessive addition to the Koran furnished them newcause for amusement.

Honein was the last of a series of victories that laidthe Koreishite ghost forever; the Prophet was now virtuallythe ruler of the entire Arabian peninsula; and,[p. 236]having made a triumphant entrance into Medina, heproceeded to execute a project that had long been dearto his heart. As early as the year 627, he had sent outfeelers to a branch of the empire of Byzantium on thesubject of conversion to Islam; his envoy on that occasion,though courteously welcomed and given a specialdress of honor, had accomplished little. But now, whileembassies from numerous Arabian tribes made hasteto present themselves to him, hoping to make a goodbargain by trading their recreant idols for the all-conqueringAllah, Mohammed’s apparently chimericalfancy to extend Islam in, and even beyond, the boundsof the Roman Empire was again aroused. The lonelyvisionary of Mount Hira, the Meccan outcast, risento the imperial position of temporal and spiritual dictatorof all Arabia, vibrated with the insatiable desireto make Islam dominant over the world.He mightnot live to see that glorious fulfilment; yet perhaps hisnotorious gift of prophecy enabled him to pierce theveil that shadowed the future: the advance of Islamunder successive Caliphates until its haughty realm extendedfrom India to the western limits of Spain—thestemming of the onrushing Saracen tide by CharlesMartel at Tours—the wayfaring Crusaders bentupon rescuing the Holy Land from Mohammedan dominion—therevival of interest in classic lore which was[p. 237]the direct result of the Crusades—the concomitant Renaissanceof learning and of Christianity until Christianwarriors, with a Bible in one hand and a sword in theother, supplanted the imperial Crescent with the evenmore imperial Cross—the Cross that has itself becomeassociated with imperialism. Thus, by a grotesquechain of closely linked events, Mohammed might—hadhis prophetic eye been gifted with sufficient range—haveenvisaged himself in the odd position of being thechief instrument in the world-wide promulgation ofclassicism and of Christianity. For, had the MiddleAge Crusaders not been inspired with unremitting zealto wrest the Holy Grail from Islam, there might wellhave been no Renaissance, no stimulation of mental andspiritual activities, and, consequently, no such Christianimperialism as now holds so much of the world underits righteous sway.

Had Mohammed foreseen all this, however, he mightpossibly have had less interest in those embassies to andfrom his house in the Mosque, where, sprawling on hismat and cooling his face with a palm-leaf fan, he issuedhis endless commands and listened to endless requestsfrom suppliants. Indeed, his office work had becomeso voluminous that he now made use of an amanuensis,Zeid the son of Thabit, who was specially skilled in theHebrew and Syriac languages. Though quick-witted[p. 238]and agile of tongue, Zeid was inclined to be so forgetfuland generally scatter-brained that the Prophet wasobliged to tell him to thrust his pen behind his ear, “forthis will bring to remembrance that which the distractedmind is seeking after.”

If tradition may be trusted, Mohammed was not alwaysover-successful in his dealings with prospectiveconverts. The Christian tribe of Nejran, in centralArabia, came to him after an ostentatious exhibition ofprayer in the Mosque, and loudly declared that theywere Moslems; but the Prophet, observing that theywore silk-lined clothes—which he particularly detested,though it is true that he ordered such hapless Moslemsas became afflicted with the itch or “louse-disease” towear silken shirts—rightly doubted their sincerity andmerely turned up his nose at them; they therefore departedand shortly returned in monastic garb. Theirleader, doubtless inspired with the hope that a displayof knowledge on his part would gain them better terms,offered to debate with Mohammed concerning the mysticalnature of Christ, but he wisely declined to complyand stated that he would prefer to engage in a cursingcontest; and in fact, while one of his most uncriticaladmirers affirmed that the worst oath he ever usedwas “May his forehead be darkened with mud!” theKoran, among other authentic documents, furnishes[p. 239]considerable evidence to the contrary. Realizing thatthey would be no match for him in such an ordeal, theNejranites capitulated to the extent of agreeing to paytribute, though they refused to acknowledge his divinemission; the Prophet acceded to this compromise, butsoothed his ruffled dignity by declaring that they wereone of the two worst tribes in all Arabia, and by announcingthat Christians, as well as Jews, were to actas substitutes for Moslems in Hell-fire. Moreover, believingthat Christianity and Judaism were both on theirlast legs, he devised the humane stipulation that, providedChristians and Hebrews submitted to the earthlyrule of Islam and paid “tribute with their hands,” theywould be permitted to profess whatever faith they chose.Yet he would presumably have been better pleased hadall Arabians manifested the delicate concern shown bya fellow named Al-Jarud. “O Prophet,” said he, “Ihave hitherto followed the Christian faith, and I amnow called on to change it. Wilt thou beSurety forme in the matter of my religion?” “Yea, I am thysurety that God hath guided thee to a better faith thanit,” Mohammed gladly answered.

Two dispatches were probably sent to Heraclius,Emperor of Byzantium, who had just completed a victoriousstruggle with Persia. The first one, which requestedhim to cease the idolatrous worship of Jesus[p. 240]and His Mother, to reverence the one true God, and torecognize the mission of Mohammed, was apparentlydisregarded; a second message, couched in like terms,prompted a vassal of Heraclius to request permission topunish the insolent pretender who sent it, but Heracliusforbade any needless expedition against the contemptibleperson who had audaciously signed himself “Mohammedthe Apostle of God.” The King of Persia,on receiving a similar note, merely tore it up; and theProphet, on hearing of this outrage, prayed aloud:“Even thus, O Lord! rend thou his kingdom fromhim!” It may be presumed that neither Heraclius northe Persian King even suspected that, within a decadeor two, their mighty empires would be paying tributeto Islam. A letter that Mohammed sent to Ruayyah,of Suhaim, was treated more respectfully than the onethat had been dispatched to the Persian monarch; forRuayyah used it to mend a hole in his water-skin. Anotherpowerful chief, having listened to Mohammed’sdelegate, instructed him to carry back this message:“How excellent is that Revelation to which thou invitestme, and how beautiful! Know that I am thePoet of my tribe, and an Orator. The Arabs reveremy dignity. Grant unto me, therefore, a share in therule, and I will follow thee.” The Prophet, on beinginformed of this, snarled: “Had this man asked of me[p. 241]but an unripe date, as his share in the land, I wouldnot have given it. Let him perish, and his vainglorywith him!”—and it is confidently stated that the presumptuoussnob did, in fact, die within a year. TheRoman Governor of Egypt, too, refused to endorse Mohammed’sclaims—“I am aware,” he said, “that aprophet is yet to arise; but I am of opinion that he willappear in Syria”—yet he atoned for his stubbornnessof heart by sending Mohammed a double present in theform of a white mule and a black concubine.

Mohammed, meanwhile, was showing his interest inhis recent converts by altering their Pagan names totitles that better suited his almost feminine fondness fordaintily euphemistic words. For example, “Zeid of theStud” right gladly abandoned his plebeian appellationwhen he was rechristened “Zeid of the Good”; “theWolf, son of the Cub,” was similarly glorified by becoming“Allah’s Servant”; and an “Oppressor” suffereda welcome sea-change into a “Well-doer.” Butwhen a tribe called the “Sons of Bastardy” were politelyaccosted as the “Sons of Chastity,” they announcedtheir steadfast desire to remain true to their ancient heritage.

Nor did Mohammed’s reforms stop here. The Koranhad already prohibited the use of wine; for, yearsearlier, the Prophet, while attempting to chide his[p. 242]uncle, Hamza, who was riotously drunk, had receivedthe tipsy response, “Are you not my father’s slave?”Liquor, therefore, had been proscribed as a foe to Islamand the dignity of the prophetic office; this rule was sorigorously enforced, in truth, that even a hero of Bedrhad been beaten again and again for perennial intoxication,and on one occasion Mohammed himself hurledclods of dirt at another offender. Gambling, too—thecasting of lots and the “arrow-game,” in which camelswere the prizes—had been divinely banned as abominations“from amongst the works of Satan.” Mohammed’sacutely sensitive nature now led him to proscribeanything that savored of torture inflicted on animals:living birds might not be used as targets in shootingcontests; camels were not to be tied up and left to dieon their owners’ graves; cattle were not to be blindedto avert the evil eye; droughts were not to be broken bythe common process of affixing flaming torches to thetails of cattle; horses were not to lose their manes andtails, and asses were no longer to be branded or hit in theface. So scrupulously fastidious was the Prophet thathe once ordered some Moslems to stop burning an ant-hill,and he also strongly disapproved the ubiquitouspractice of cursing camels and cocks.

His humanity and foresight were also manifested inmore important matters. Blood-feuds—the time-honored[p. 243]and almost ineradicable system of tribal revengefor homicide—he endeavored, with partial success,to wipe out by emphasizing the brotherhood ofIslam, and by advocating the acceptance of money as apartial compensation: ethical and legislative essays thatgradually led to a saner and more peaceful system ofgovernment. Whatever may be thought of his generalattitude toward women, he certainly benefited themincalculably by setting up laws that enabled themto inherit and hold property; and the luridly overemphasizedharem system, Pagan though it may be,has some virtues that are perhaps absent from theOccidental system of prostitution. His advocacy ofthe custom by which the wives of captives automaticallybecame the concubines of Moslem conquerors has especiallyirritated certain modern moralists, who apparentlyhave not reflected very deeply on certain canons of contemporaryconduct, in which wealth and social distinctionplay the rôle of the victorious Islamites. He acceptedslavery as a matter of course—and, indeed, Islamhas never indulged in any foolish civil strife overthe question of bondage—but he insisted that slavesmust be treated with the utmost kindness. Men whobeat their slaves were placed by him among the lowestof the low; he stated that manumission was a piousact, and he sometimes let offenders off from any punishment[p. 244]when they agreed to free their serfs—in short,the present industrial system has little to boast of incomparison with Mohammed’s attitude toward serfdom.One other inhuman custom—the ancient practice of femaleinfanticide—was summarily abolished by him; anda tale survives that well illustrates the horror he feltconcerning such deeds. Two men, about to yield themselvesto the claims of Islam, chanced to question theProphet about his views on child-murder. “Our motherMuleika was full of good deeds and charity; but sheburied a little daughter alive. What is her conditionnow?” they inquired. “The burier and the buried bothin hell,” replied Mohammed, upon which his guests becamevery angry and started to leave. “Come back,”he requested, “mine own mother, too, is there withyours.” But even this inducement failed to convincethem, and so they returned into the outer darkness.

III

Old age, meanwhile, crept gently though inexorablyupon the Prophet; but its stealthy approach seemedonly to quicken the strength of his arm and the matchlessfertility of his intellect. His groveling acolytes,completely bewitched by the magical power of his colossalpersonality, had exalted him to such a dazzling[p. 245]deification that, had Allah Himself chosen to appear inthe streets of Medina, He might easily have passedunnoticed amid the encomiums that were daily showeredupon His Apostle—or, rather, Allah might carelesslyhave been classified with the famous Three Pretenderswho, by their conjuring tricks and fake miracles,excited the wrathful amusement of the Prophet inthe last year of his earthly life. In fact, it has beenpointed out as a matter for deep regret that, while theKoran allows Allah only ninety-nine separate and distinctappellations, His Prophet, at the zenith of hiscareer, was addressed by no fewer than two hundredand one individual titles, including a round score ofthose that had been applied to Allah Himself.

In the autumn of the year 630, Mohammed conductedhis final military expedition. Setting out at the headof a Moslem army that seems to have totaled nearlythirty thousand men, he planned to chastise a Byzantineforce that was reputed to have gathered on theSyrian border near Tebuk; but when that place wasreached, it was found that there was no Byzantine orany other force to be conquered. Mohammed, thusfinding himself in much the same position as the FrenchKing in the doggerel ballad, proceeded to march homeagain after exacting pledges of conversion and immensebooty from contingent tribes. His followers,[p. 246]who stated their belief that the “wars for religion noware ended,” foolishly began to sell their weapons; butthe far-sighted Prophet sternly stopped them and utteredthe fateful remark: “There shall not cease fromthe midst of my people a party engaged in fighting forthe truth, until Antichrist appear.” Scarcely had hereturned to Medina when his heart was gladdened bytwo events: the death of his only important rival, Abdallahibn Obei—to whom the Prophet deemed it safeand expedient to pay tribute by following his bierand praying at his grave—and the surrender of At-Taif,the single stronghold that had ever successfully defiedhis might. He was so exhilarated by the downfall ofthis fort, indeed, that he let its defenders off from thenecessity of breaking their own idols, and, in their stead,elected two Moslems to perform the peculiarly pleasanttask.

But perhaps Mohammed most enjoyed the multitudinousactivities inherent in his position as a kind andfatherly counselor of his people. The matters whichhe was besought to adjudicate were extraordinary intheir range. One day his prayers would be requestedby some prospective bridegroom, who hoped, by the aidof such divine sorcery, to win a wife of unusual goodnessand humility; next day he would be begged to specifythe precise hour when the world was destined to[p. 247]end; another day would find him busily laying downoracles governing the proper boiling of meat. Onlytwo types of interrogation were taboo: matters thatwere wholly rational or wholly metaphysical; and Mohammedprobably barred these topics on the sensiblegrounds that preceding prophets who had tamperedwith either of them had almost uniformly come to grief.Thus it came about that countless apothegms, whoseabsolute authenticity can never be nicely determined,were confidently claimed to be the children of his brain.Yet, despite the fact that most of these sayings betraya hard-headed and close-fisted sagacity, he was in debtwhen he died; and perhaps, therefore, the stories concerninghis senile delight in the children of his bodydeserve more credence. Sonless though he was, hecould partially console himself by playing with hisgrandsons, Al-Hasan and Al-Hosein, the progeny ofAli and Fatima, and by reflecting on the transcendentheritage that awaited them as male descendants of himself.In fact, legends sprang up that made a Moslemholy family out of Mohammed, the two boys, and theirmother, Fatima, who was further honored by being entitled“The Lady of Paradise”; but, unfortunately forhis beatific visions concerning Al-Hasan and Al-Hosein—whofrequently entertained themselves by clamberingupon their grandfather’s broad back while he was[p. 248]bowed in prayer—they turned out to be scurvy fellowswho excelled only in incompetence and cowardice.

It may be that Mohammed had a premonition of hisimminent death. He decided, at all events, to make a“Farewell Pilgrimage” to Mecca in March, 632, sothat he might for the last time feast his eyes on thatsacred citadel and undergo the solemn rites of theGreater Pilgrimage—a thing he had not done since theHegira. He first took a careful bath, then mountedAl-Kaswa, and, accompanied by his entire harem andone hundred votive camels, set forth on the long journey.Having meticulously and painfully performedthe prescribed gyrations and genuflections, he cast somesmall stones at the “Devil’s corner”—a spot near Meccawhere Abraham was reputed to have met and conqueredSatan—and concluded his toilsome duties by deliveringa notable speech. After making many additions to,and revisions upon, the already numberless regulationswhich he had been formulating for more than twentyyears, he concluded with these words: “Verily, I havefulfilled my mission. I have left that amongst you—aplain command, the Book of God, and manifest Ordinances—which,if ye hold fast, ye shall never go astray.”Then, turning his eyes heavenward, he exclaimed: “OLord! I have delivered my message and dischargedmy Ministry.” “Yea,” came the deep-throated voice[p. 249]of the throng that hemmed him in, “yea, verily thouhast.” “O Lord!” he continued, unmindful of thepious interruption, “I beseech Thee bear Thou witnessunto it.” Returning straightway to Mecca, he encircledthe Kaba seven times; thence he went to Zemzemand, having drunk part of the contents of a pitcherfilled with its holy water, he rinsed his mouth and askedthat the water still remaining in the vessel should bepoured back into the well. After abiding three moredays at Mecca, he departed from it forever and ambledby easy stages back to Medina.

By this time the sinister tokens of physical decay, unavoidablybetrayed by the Prophet, filled everyone withdeepest concern. Abu Bekr observed him one day,stroking his beard and looking intently at it; then Abu,his eyes filling with sudden tears, broke out: “Ah, thou,for whom I would sacrifice father and mother, whitehairs are hastening upon thee!” “Yes,” came the slowresponse, “it is the travail of inspiration that hath donethis. The Suras Hud, and the Inevitable, and theStriking, with their fellows, these have made white myhair.” Yet when he actually became ill with pleurisy,or some sort of fever, he named a definite source for[p. 250]the malady: the poisoned mutton which Zeinab, theJewess, had fed him. “This, verily, is the effect ofthat which I ate at Kheibar,” he declared. “The arteryin my back feeleth as though it would just now burstasunder.” If his theory was correct, he doubtless died—ashis worshipers fervently claimed—the honorabledeath of a martyr; but it seems probable that his illnesshad some more tangible origin. Believing that watercould not be contaminated, he sometimes carelesslydrank from a cistern that was used for slops; as a medicineman who had often attempted to cure his peopleby charms, cauterization and cupping, he had submittedhimself to these practices so frequently that his systemmust have been gradually weakened; furthermore,Ayesha stated that his health had been poor for years,and that she had constantly dosed him with a profusionof odd concoctions which she herself compounded frominnumerable prescriptions recommended by sympathizingfriends.

It is not strange, therefore, that, shortly after he hadpresented a banner to a Moslem army which he commandedto march toward Syria on May 27, 632, for thepurpose of avenging the defeat at Muta, he found himselfcuriously listless and weak. Late one subsequentnight, accompanied only by a servant, he stole out tothe cemetery on the edge of Medina. After a long[p. 251]and melancholy period of meditation, he thus apostrophizedthe souls of the dead: “Verily, both ye and Ihave received fulfilment of that which our Lord didpromise us. Blessed are ye! for your lot is better thanthe lot of those that are left behind. Temptation andtrial approach like portions of a dark night that followone upon another, each darker than that preceding it.O Lord! have mercy upon them that lie buried here!”Next morning, as he passed Ayesha’s chamber, he heardher calling out, “My head!—O, my head!” Entering,he gently reproved her thus: “Nay, Ayesha, it israther I that have need to cryMy head, my head! Butwouldst thou not,” he continued, in a feeble attempt tobe humorous, “desire to be taken whilst I am yet alive;so that I might pray over thee, and wrapping thee,Ayesha, in thy winding-sheet, myself commit thee tothe grave?” Then, in spite of her pain, she railed athim. “Ah, that, I see, is what thou wishest for!Truly, I can behold thee, when all was over, returningstraightway hither, and sporting with a new beauty inmy chamber here!” But, perceiving that he was reallyailing, she forgot her own headache and tenderly caredfor him.

Multitudes of conflicting stories have been handeddown concerning the happenings of the week that precededhis dissolution; but, inasmuch as they emanated[p. 252]from three distinct political groups, each of whomwished to be recognized as the sole source of truth, theprecise occurrences of that fateful period will neverbe accurately known. At the beginning of his illnessit appears certain that, on account of his predilectionfor baths, he commanded his wives to drench him in coldwater on the intriguing theory that, since fever wascaused by sparks of Hell-fire, it could be summarilysquelched by water; but in this case the douche seems tohave had the unfortunate result of sending him intoconvulsions. It is claimed that, during an interval oftemporary relief, he went forth and addressed his devoteesin the Mosque—a proceeding which, if it was true,was presumably the reason for his consequent relapse.By Saturday, June 6, his temperature is said to havebeen so high that Omar, having placed his hand on thetormented man’s forehead, quickly withdrew it withthe consoling exclamation, “O Prophet, how fierce is thefever upon thee!” “Yea, verily,” Mohammed gasped,“but I have been during the night season repeating inpraise of the Lord seventy Suras, and among them theseven long ones”; and a moment later he added, “Justas this affliction prevaileth now against me, even so shallmy reward hereafter be.” On Sunday he was deliriousmuch of the time and suffered such excruciating painthat, following a consultation among his wives, it was[p. 253]decided to administer physic; so they forced the drugdown his throat, but, notwithstanding his agony, hereadily recognized the too familiar noxious taste andbitterly reproached them. When they admitted theirguilt, he cried: “Out upon you! this is a remedy forpleurisy ... an evil disease is it which the Lord willnot let attack me. Now shall ye all of you within thischamber partake of the same. Let not one remainwithout being physiked, even as ye have physiked me,excepting only my uncle, Al-Abbas.” The repentantwomen immediately arose, and each obediently gave thedrug to the other until all had swallowed some of it;and this strange scene around the Prophet’s deathbedis one of the small number that are best authenticated.

Certain other tales may be accepted without too muchover-scrupulous demur. As he lay alternately drawingthe bed-clothes over his face and then tossing them off,he would shriek out unconnected sentences: “TheLord destroy the Jews and Christians!... O Lord,let not my tomb be ever an object of worship!...Verily the chiefest among you all for love and devotionto me is Abu Bekr. If I were to choose a bosomfriend it would be he; but Islam hath made a closerbrotherhood amongst us.... O my soul! Why seekestthou refuge elsewhere than in God alone?...Fetch me hither pen and ink, that I may make for you[p. 254]a writing which shall hinder you from going astray forever.” On Monday he seemed a little better, but itwas only the final flicker of the dying candle. Towardmidday, as Ayesha sat holding his head tenderly onher bosom “between her lungs and her neck,” she noticedthat his wandering eye had fixed upon a greentoothpick; and, after chewing it so that it might bemore pliable, she offered it to the dying man who usedit for a moment with all his old vigor. But he soonbegan to sink rapidly, and, as though realizing the imminenceof death, he called aloud: “O Lord, I beseechthee assist me in the agonies of death!” Then, whilehe spasmodically blew breath over his burning body,he thrice repeated, “Gabriel, come close unto me!” Itis a regrettable fact that the interesting question of hisfinal utterance must forever remain undecided. Oneauthority declares that he expressed a wish to haveconcubines treated with consideration; but it is perhapsmore appropriate to accept the story that, as consciousnessslowly departed, he gently breathed: “Lord,grant me pardon; and join me to the blessed companionshipon high. Eternity in Paradise!... Pardon!...The blessed companionship on high!...”—hishead fell lower, a cold drop of moisture trickled downupon Ayesha’s breast, and all was over.

Yet no one, not even Ayesha, could believe it for a[p. 255]time. Thinking that he had only fainted, she calledaloud for help; and Omar, who immediately came in,looked lovingly upon the familiar and still lifelike featuresand exclaimed: “The Prophet is not dead; hehath but swooned away.” But Abu Bekr, who waswelcomed into the sacred adytum with the feminine salutation,“Come, for this day no permission needeth to beasked,” at once realized the awful truth, which he cautiouslymade known by stooping and kissing his master’sface, and saying: “Sweet wast thou in life, andsweet thou art in death. Yes, thouart dead! Alas,my friend, my chosen one!” After kissing the face asecond time, he covered it with a striped cloth andgently withdrew from the room, while Mohammed’swives beat their faces, uttered loud and plaintive ululations,“and there arose a wailing of celestial voices.”The corpse was washed and laid out, and, in additionto the garment which he wore at the time of his death,two sheets of costly white linen were wrapped aroundit. After some discussion, it was decided on the adviceof Islam’s new leader, Abu Bekr—“I have heard itfrom the lips of Mohammed himself,” he announced,“that in whatsoever spot a prophet dieth, there alsoshould he be buried”—that a deep grave should be excavatedbeneath the apartment of Ayesha. During thenight the ominous thud of pickaxes disturbed the troubled[p. 256]dreams of the Prophet’s widows—“I did not believethat Mohammed was really dead,” confessed UmSelama, “till I heard the sound of the pickaxes at thedigging of the grave, from the next room”—and nextday a constant stream of weeping Moslems filed by tolook for the last time upon the beloved face that nowresembled a sheet of withered parchment. That eveningthe body was lowered into the grave, whose bottomhad been covered with the Prophet’s precious redmantle; the gaping hole was built over with unbakedbricks, plain earth was then shoveled upon the tomb,and there, in the august simplicity of his domestic abode,Mohammed’s form has ever since remained.

Meanwhile—since all things are possible with Allah—itmay surely be conjectured that Gabriel had abundantlygranted the Prophet’s dying request, and hadborne him, along the familiar route previously traversedin the midnight journey from Jerusalem, for the secondand last time into the presence of his Maker. Andthere—may not one hope?—at the zenith of the SeventhHeaven, in that ravishing Paradise which so closelyresembles an infinitely idealized Arabian oasis, he abideseven unto this day and will continue to dwell “For evertherein—a fair abode and resting place!”—enjoyingthe ineffable entertainments that have been preparedfor the Moslem saints and martyrs who, triumphant[p. 257]over sin and suffering, have been welcomed to the indepictablefelicities of the divine beatitudes; quaffingdeep draughts from those inexhaustible “rivers of wine”which the Koran promises to those who have manfullyabstained from all earthly elixirs; continually cherishedby seventy dark-eyed, deep-bosomed Houris who, asbefits inhabitants of the “Garden of Delight,” individuallyreside within the modest seclusion of enormoushollow pearls; ever and anon chanting, through hisblack-bearded lips, the ninety-nine beautiful names ofAllah, and concluding with the inevitable refrain, “Lailaha illa Allah, Mohammed rasul Allah!”

*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOHAMMED ***

Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions willbe renamed.

Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyrightlaw means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works,so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the UnitedStates without permission and without paying copyrightroyalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use partof this license, apply to copying and distributing ProjectGutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark,and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by followingthe terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for useof the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything forcopies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is veryeasy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creationof derivative works, reports, performances and research. ProjectGutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away—you maydo practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protectedby U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademarklicense, especially commercial redistribution.

START: FULL LICENSE

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE

PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK

To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the freedistribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “ProjectGutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the FullProject Gutenberg™ License available with this file or online atwww.gutenberg.org/license.

Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg™electronic works

1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg™electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree toand accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by allthe terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return ordestroy all copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in yourpossession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to aProject Gutenberg™ electronic work and you do not agree to be boundby the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the personor entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.

1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only beused on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people whoagree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a fewthings that you can do with most Project Gutenberg™ electronic workseven without complying with the full terms of this agreement. Seeparagraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with ProjectGutenberg™ electronic works if you follow the terms of thisagreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg™electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.

1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“theFoundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collectionof Project Gutenberg™ electronic works. Nearly all the individualworks in the collection are in the public domain in the UnitedStates. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in theUnited States and you are located in the United States, we do notclaim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing,displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long asall references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hopethat you will support the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promotingfree access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg™works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping theProject Gutenberg™ name associated with the work. You can easilycomply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in thesame format with its attached full Project Gutenberg™ License whenyou share it without charge with others.

1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also governwhat you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries arein a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States,check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of thisagreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing,distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or anyother Project Gutenberg™ work. The Foundation makes norepresentations concerning the copyright status of any work in anycountry other than the United States.

1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:

1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or otherimmediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg™ License must appearprominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg™ work (any workon which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which thephrase “Project Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed,performed, viewed, copied or distributed:

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.

1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work isderived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does notcontain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of thecopyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone inthe United States without paying any fees or charges. If you areredistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase “ProjectGutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, you must complyeither with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 orobtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg™trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.

1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is postedwith the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distributionmust comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and anyadditional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional termswill be linked to the Project Gutenberg™ License for all worksposted with the permission of the copyright holder found at thebeginning of this work.

1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg™License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of thiswork or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg™.

1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute thiselectronic work, or any part of this electronic work, withoutprominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 withactive links or immediate access to the full terms of the ProjectGutenberg™ License.

1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, includingany word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide accessto or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg™ work in a formatother than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the officialversion posted on the official Project Gutenberg™ website(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expenseto the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a meansof obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original “PlainVanilla ASCII” or other form. Any alternate format must include thefull Project Gutenberg™ License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.

1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg™ worksunless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.

1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providingaccess to or distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic worksprovided that:

• You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from the use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the method you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, but he has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in Section 4, “Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.”
• You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™ License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg™ works.
• You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of receipt of the work.
• You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works.

1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a ProjectGutenberg™ electronic work or group of works on different terms thanare set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writingfrom the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager ofthe Project Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the Foundation as setforth in Section 3 below.

1.F.

1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerableeffort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofreadworks not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the ProjectGutenberg™ collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg™electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, maycontain “Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurateor corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or otherintellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk orother medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage orcannot be read by your equipment.

1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Rightof Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the ProjectGutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the ProjectGutenberg™ trademark, and any other party distributing a ProjectGutenberg™ electronic work under this agreement, disclaim allliability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legalfees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICTLIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSEPROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THETRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BELIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE ORINCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCHDAMAGE.

1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover adefect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you canreceive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending awritten explanation to the person you received the work from. If youreceived the work on a physical medium, you must return the mediumwith your written explanation. The person or entity that provided youwith the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy inlieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the personor entity providing it to you may choose to give you a secondopportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. Ifthe second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writingwithout further opportunities to fix the problem.

1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forthin paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’, WITH NOOTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOTLIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.

1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain impliedwarranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types ofdamages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreementviolates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, theagreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer orlimitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity orunenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void theremaining provisions.

1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, thetrademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyoneproviding copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works inaccordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with theproduction, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg™electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses,including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any ofthe following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of thisor any Project Gutenberg™ work, (b) alteration, modification, oradditions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg™ work, and (c) anyDefect you cause.

Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg™

Project Gutenberg™ is synonymous with the free distribution ofelectronic works in formats readable by the widest variety ofcomputers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. Itexists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donationsfrom people in all walks of life.

Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with theassistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg™’sgoals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg™ collection willremain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the ProjectGutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secureand permanent future for Project Gutenberg™ and futuregenerations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg LiteraryArchive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, seeSections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org.

Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation

The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of thestate of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the InternalRevenue Service. The Foundation’s EIN or federal tax identificationnumber is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg LiteraryArchive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted byU.S. federal laws and your state’s laws.

The Foundation’s business office is located at 809 North 1500 West,Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and upto date contact information can be found at the Foundation’s websiteand official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact

Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project GutenbergLiterary Archive Foundation

Project Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without widespreadpublic support and donations to carry out its mission ofincreasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can befreely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widestarray of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exemptstatus with the IRS.

The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulatingcharities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the UnitedStates. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes aconsiderable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep upwith these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locationswhere we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SENDDONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular statevisitwww.gutenberg.org/donate.

While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where wehave not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibitionagainst accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states whoapproach us with offers to donate.

International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot makeany statements concerning tax treatment of donations received fromoutside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.

Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donationmethods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of otherways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. Todonate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate.

Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg™ electronic works

Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the ProjectGutenberg™ concept of a library of electronic works that could befreely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced anddistributed Project Gutenberg™ eBooks with only a loose network ofvolunteer support.

Project Gutenberg™ eBooks are often created from several printededitions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright inthe U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do notnecessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paperedition.

Most people start at our website which has the main PG searchfacility:www.gutenberg.org.

This website includes information about Project Gutenberg™,including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg LiteraryArchive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how tosubscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.

I.	ARABIA: FELIX, PETRÆA, ET DESERTA	9
II.	EARLY YEARS	25
III.	ALLAH AND MOHAMMED	44
IV.	“A PROPHET IS NOT WITHOUT HONOR”	65
V.	THE HEGIRA	88
VI.	HOLY WARS	112
VII.	DEFEAT OF ALL INFIDELS	149
VIII.	AVOCATIONS	176
IX.	THE TRIUMPHANT RETURN	205
X.	MOHAMMED AND ALLAH	229

Movatterモバイル変換

The Project Gutenberg eBook ofMohammed

Mohammed

CONTENTS

IARABIA:FELIX, PETRÆA ET DESERTA

I

II

IIEARLY YEARS

I

II

III

IIIALLAH AND MOHAMMED

I

II

III

IV“A PROPHET IS NOT WITHOUT HONOR”

I

II

III

VTHE HEGIRA

I

II

III

VIHOLY WARS

I

II

III

VIIDEFEAT OF ALL INFIDELS

I

II

III

VIIIAVOCATIONS

I

II

III

IV

IXTHE TRIUMPHANT RETURN

I

II

XMOHAMMED AND ALLAH

I

II

III

IV

Transcriber's Notes

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE

I

ARABIA:FELIX, PETRÆA ET DESERTA

II

EARLY YEARS

III

ALLAH AND MOHAMMED

IV

“A PROPHET IS NOT WITHOUT HONOR”

V

THE HEGIRA

VI

HOLY WARS

VII

DEFEAT OF ALL INFIDELS

VIII

AVOCATIONS

IX

THE TRIUMPHANT RETURN

X

MOHAMMED AND ALLAH