lie foltrt vein' of his mission he had made forty proselytes.ehietly slaves and people from the lower ranks: and now first he claimed to have received a command to forward pliblicly as a preacher, :Ind to defy the unbelievers. Ile viwirou,ly assailed lhe superstition of the I lee cans. and exhorted them to believe in a just but mereiful trod. eternal, indivisible, almighty. and all wise•, and in him-elf as chosen, like the prophets of old. to teach mankind how to escape the punishments of hell and attain eternal happi ness. Ile adopted a primitive Oriental doctrine that the mercy of t;od is to be obtained by prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Ile was too practical to challenge the strong belief in the sacredness of the Kaaba and the ceremonies of the pilgrimage, and he made them a part of the new religion; hut he unsparingly condemned certain barbarous habits of the Bedouins, such as the killing of their new-born daughters. The prohibition of certain kinds of food also belongs to the first period. when lie was still under the influence of Judaism; the prohibition 11f gambling, usury, etc., probably are of a somewhat later date. Whether he did or did not understand the art of writing and reading is not quite clear•; but he employed the services of amanuenses for his Koranic dicta, which at first consisted merely of brief rhymed sentences, in the manner of the ancient Arabic soothsayers. The 3Jeccans looked upon ldm as a common 'poet' or *soothsayer,' who was not in his right senses, or simply a liar. Nevertheless, the number of his converts in creased midi his progress compelled attention; and, finally, fearing for the sacredness of Mecca, the rejection of which would deprive them both of their preeminence and of revenue, they assailed the new prophet and his adherents. who dared "to call their ancient gods idols, and their an fools." The converted slaves and freed men had to undergo terrible punishment ; and others suffered so much at the hands of their own relatives that they were fain to revoke their erect]: so that the Prophet himself advised Ids followers to emigrate to Abyssinia. lohannned himself yielded so much as to acknowledge the idols hl• had assailed as intermediate between tied and 1111111: but he soon revoked this as an in spiration of Satan, thereby increasing the hatred of his adversaries, who in every way tried to throw ridicule upon him. At last it became necessary that he should lie put beyond the reach of his persecutors. and Abu Tali!) hid hint in a fortified castle of his own in the country. Ilam za. his uncle. and Omar, who was formerly an enemy of Mohammed, and who later succeeded Alm Bekr as the third head of Islam, continued in the meantime to spread the new doctrine. The Koreish now demanded that Mohammed should lie delivered into their hands: but Abu Talib stead fastly refused to comply with their a feud thereupon broke out with the family of the Ilashimites. and Mohammed and all the mem bers of id, family. exeept. perhaps, Alm Lahab, were excommunit.ateil. After the space of three years. however. the 'peace party' in \ie•ca brought about a reconciliation. and Mohammed was allowed to return. A great grief befell him at this tina—his faithful wife Khadija died, and shortly afterwards his uncle, Alm Talih, and to add to his misery the vicissitudes of his 'mn•cer had reduced him by this time to poverty. A migration to Taif. he sought to improve his position. proved a failure; it was with great difficulty that he escaped with his life. Shortly after his return from Taif lie married Salida, and in the course of his later life so increased the number of Ids wives that at his death he left nine, of whom Avesha, the damditer of Alm Bekr, and Ilafsa, the daughter of Omar. are best known.
In the course of time Mohammed succeeded in eonverting several tnen from Yathrib, who came to Mei...a on pilgrimage. The inhabitants of that city had long been accustomed to hear from the numerous Jews living there the words Ilevela lion.' 'Prophecy,' *God's Word,' the Meceans mere sounds without meaning. In lath rib the new faith took a strong hold. The next pil grimage brought twelve, and the third more than seventy, adherents of the new faith front that city ; and with these Mohammed entered into a close alliance. He now conceived the phut of seeking refuge in the friendly city, and in the year 622 (about twelve years after entering upon his work), after,encouraging about 150 of his ad herents to migrate to Yathrib, he fled thither, ac companied by Abu Bekr. The fugitives reached their destination not without danger, and were enthusiastically received. Thenceforth Yathrib was known as Madinat al-Nabi (City of the Prophet I, or Medina. The flight ( the Ilejira ) is one of the great events of Islam and the starting point of the Mohammedan calendar. See IIEJtaA, The Hejira was also a turning-point in the career of Mohammed. Previously he hind been despised as a madman or impostor; now he be came judge, lawgiver. and ruler of Medina, and of two powerful Arabian tribes. Ilis first care was to organize his forms of worship: his next to proselytize the numerous Jews who inhabited the city. to whom, besides having received their prin
cipal dogmas into his religion, lie made many important concessions in the outer observances of Islam, and concluded alliances with many of their tribes; hut the Jews resisted conversion. They ridiculed his pretensions, and by their con stant taunts made him their hitter adversary np to the hour of his death. The most important net in the first year of the Ilejira was his permis sion to go to war with the enemies of Islam in the name of God, a kind of manifesto chiefly directed against the Meccans. Not being able at first to fight his enemies in the open field. he en deavored to weaken their power by attacking the caravans of the Koreish nn their way to Syria. He interfered materially with their trade. con chided alliances with the adjoining Bedouin tribes, and at last the signal for open warfare was given. A battle between 314 Moslems and about 600 Meccans was fought at Bed r. in the second year of the Hejira : the former gained the victory, and made many prisoners. A great num ber of adventurers soon flocked to Mohammed's colors, and he made successful expeditions against the Koreish and the Jewish tribes, chiefly the Rani Kainuka, whose fortified castle he took after a long siege. He sustained heavy hisses, and was himself wounded in the battle near Ohod, but his power increased so rapidly that in the sixth year of the Tlejira he was able to proclaim a public pilgrimage to Mecca. Although the Ind not allow this to be carried out, he gained the still greater advantage that they concluded a formal peace with him. and thus recognized him as an equal power and ent. He now sent missionaries all over Arabia and beyond the frontiers without hindrance: and in the following year celebrated the pilgrimage for three days undisturbed at Mecea. Soon after wards he narrowly escaped death from poisoning at the hands of a Jewess, one of whose relatives had been killed while fighting against him. His missionaries went to Khosru il., of Persia. to the Byzantine Emperor Ileraclins, to the King of Abyssinia, and to the Governor of Egypt, and the ehiefs of several Arabic tribes received the new gospel ; but the King of Persia, and Antru, the Glnssanide, rejected his proposals, and Amru had the messenger executed. This was the cause of the first war between the Christians and the Slosletns, in which the latter Were beaten with great loss by Aniru. The Mvecans took the occa sion to commit depredations upon certain allies of Mohammed, with the result that the Prophet Ilia relied upon the city, captured it without a blow, and was recognized as ruler and prophet. This completed the triumph of the new faith in Arabia. Mohammed now undertook to destroy all traces of idolatry in Sheen, and to establish the laws and ceremonies of his true faith: lint he soon learned of a new attack by a consblerable force of Arab tribes, gathered near Tail (630). Again he was victorious, and his influence and reputation cor respondingly expanded. Deputations came to do homage to him in the name of the various tribes, either as the messenger of God or at least as the Prince of Arabia, and the year 0 of the Hejira was therefore called the Year of the Deputations. He made extensive preparations for a war against the Eastern Empire, but was not able to assemble forces enough to carry out his plan. Toward the end of the tenth year of the TIejira he snider took, at the head of at least his last solemn pilgrimage to Alccea, and there (on Mount Arafat) instructed them in the important laws and ordinances, chiefly of the pilgrimage; and the ceremonies observed by him on that occa sion were fixed for all time. (See He exhorted his believers to righteousness and piety, recommended them to protect the weak, the poor, and women, and to abstain Iron usury. Soon after his return from Mecca he became ill and began to decline rapidly. Ile took part in public prayers as long as he could. At last, realizing the near approach of death. he preaehed to the people. reeommending Bekr and trsanm, the son of Zaid, for the leadership of the army. He asked whether he had wronged any one, read passages from the Koran. and exhorted the peo ple to peace among themselves. and to strict obedience to the tenets of the faith. A few days' afterwards he died in the arms of Ayesba. his favorite wife, on the I2th of the third month, in the year 11 of the lIejira (June 8, 632). His death caused intense excitement, and Omar tried to persuade the people that he was still alive. But Abu Bekr said to the assembled multitude: • you has served Slohammed, let him know that :Mohammed is dead; lint he who has served the God of Mohammed, let him con tinue in His service, fur Ile is still alive, and never dies." Ile had made no provision for a suc cessor, and the quarrel over the leadership. which not long after divided the Sfosleum world into two warring sects. began before Mohammed's holy Was bullied. _UM Bekr filially received the hom age of the principal Moslems at Mo hammed was buried in the night in the house of Aye.ha, Where he had died, and which afterwards In•ealrie part of the adjoining mosque.