him any longer, had already made up his mind actually to withdraw his protection and to surrender him to his adversaries. Yet we are informed that far from yielding, he plainly told his uncle he would never give up his cause; and, bursting into tears, rose up to go away. Abu Talib, moved by seeing his nephew in such a plight, called him back and said, 'Go on, speak what thou wilt: by Allah, I shall in no case surrender thee to them.' Still, it appears, that Mohammed was not altogether free from anxiety, as to the precariousness and danger of his position.

(4.) Mohammed finds Safety from Persecution by removing to the house of Arkam; and his believers, by emigrating to Abyssinia.

It was most probably under these circumstances, about five or six years before the Hegira, that Mohammed quitted his own residence, where he had been surrounded by unfriendly and vexatious neighbours, to live at some distance on Mount Safa, in the house of one of his well-to-do followers, Arkam by name. This change of habitation, by which he placed himself under the protection of Arkam and his clan, reflected, according to Arab notions, on the honour of his own family, to which he clung, and whose protection he had hitherto enjoyed. Therefore he remained in this place of safety no longer than was found quite necessary. Still it appears that he had to continue his stay on Mount Safa for a term lasting about two years. In Arkam's house Mohammed was indeed sufficiently safe for his own person, and even found the opportunity of proselytising with some success; but he had no power to shield his more dependent followers, especially the slaves, from the persecution to which they were exposed. Ibn Ishak thus continues his narrative: 'The Koreish showed themselves hostile to those who believed in Mohammed, each clan rising up against the weak Moslems who were in their midst. These were shut up, beaten with stripes, had to suffer hunger and thirst, and were exposed to the sun, so that many of them relinquished their faith, to escape from ill-treatment, whilst others were strengthened by God to persevere.'

When Mohammed saw the persecution of his defenceless followers, whom he was powerless to protect, and who could find no other influential men under whose auspices they might place themselves, he said to them: 'Had you not better emigrate to Abyssinia? There reigns a prince who tolerates no injustice. It is a land of honesty,¹ where you can remain until God delivers you from the present condition.' A small number of his followers acted on his advice without delay; and others did so, from time to time, during the following years, down to the Hegira, so that eventually all the emigrants in Abyssinia were computed to amount to no less than 83 men. This emigration to Abyssinia was greatly facilitated by the close commercial relations which existed with that country. Besides, the Abyssinians being professed Christians, they doubtless felt all the more disposed to treat the fugitives kindly. These were at present needy suppliants, not the haughty adversaries of a later period; and their Deism could still be expected to prove a stepping-stone to the religion of Christ. Such hope was actually realised in the case of several of the emigrants, who joined the Church in Abyssinia and died there as Christians.

It is a remarkable circumstance that Mohammed, who, by setting up a rival religion, practically tried to supplant Christianity, had to apply to a Christian country for the protection of his early converts; and that the Mohammedan historians dwell with complacency on the kind hospitality of the Abyssinian king to the refugees and on his laudable firmness in refusing their extradition, when demanded by a formal embassy from the idolatrous Koreishites of Mecca. But Mohammed soon forgot these strong obligations under which Christianity had placed him; and in his later dealings with the Christians, he did not extend to them the same magnanimous treatment which they had shown to his early followers in their distress.