(5.) Mohammed, by sacrificing principles, enters into a Compromise with the Koreish.

As by all their hostile measures the authorities of Mecca did not succeed in stopping the evil at its source, and could not effectually silence Mohammed, they tried to accomplish their object — for the Arabs are a cunning people — by inducing him to accept a compromise which was to put an end to the existing dissension. With this view, one of the leading men of the Koreish, Otba by name, was deputed to him, and addressed him thus: "Thou knowest, my cousin, that thou occupiest a high rank in our tribe, and that thou hast brought before us a grave matter by which thou hast divided the community. Thou hast called us fools, hast blasphemed our gods, reviled our religion, and charged our departed fathers with unbelief. Now, listen to me whilst I submit to thee proposals, which, after reflecting upon them, thou mayest deem acceptable.' Then Mohammed was offered 'money enough to make him the richest man, honour like that of an Elder or even a Prince, physicians to heal him if he considered himself troubled by evil spirits' — all this on the condition that he would openly recognise their local deities, or at least some of them, as mediators and intercessors with Allah, the Creator and Preserver. The Koreish, in their turn, were ready to acknowledge and worship Allah.

Mohammed was not at once prepared to accept the proposition, but promised to see what God would reveal to him on the subject. After this interview, Otba counselled his friends to leave Mohammed alone, shrewdly assigning for his reason, 'If the Bedouins fight him, you will get rid of him by others; if he conquers them, his dominion will also become your dominion, his power your power, and you will be made the happiest men through him.' This advice of Otba to the Koreish was no doubt suggested, in substance, by the interview he had with the prophet, and throws light on the kind of subjects discussed between them. Viewed thus, it incidentally reveals that Mohammed's plans of conquest by no means sprang from his altered circumstances in Medina, but were harboured from the first, and never lost sight of, even amidst his gloomiest prospects in Mecca. He

wished to reduce the Arab tribes under one rule: and it was with this object in view that he strove so hard to become the highest authority of his own tribe, and to obtain a solid centre for his power in his native town. Accordingly we are told that he was now most desirous to receive a fresh revelation which might lead to a reconciliation with the people and a recognition of his claims.

Deeply occupied with these hopes and wishes, he embraced an opportunity, when the leading men of Mecca were assembled round the temple, to openly accept the proposed compromise. He rehearsed before them what was to be regarded as the Divine revelation which he had promised, and it contained the words: 'Do you see the Lat and the Ozza and the Manah, as the third of them? They are exalted Gharaniks and, verily, their intercession can be expected.' The Meccans were much pleased with this recognition of their idols, and in token of their acceptance of the concession, there and then prostrated themselves together with him and his remaining partisans as a public act of united worship. It was felt a relief by the whole town that a reconciliation had been effected and openly manifested in so unequivocal a manner.

But this result was obtained by a sacrifice of principles on the part of the new prophet. He had sustained a moral defeat, and allowed his adversaries to gain a victory. Such weakness could not much recommend him to the leadership of Arabia, nor raise his prophetic character in the estimation of his keen-eyed countrymen. He could not be long in discovering that, with regard to his ulterior design, the compromise into which he had been led was not a gain but a decided loss. Those of the Hanifite fraternity, whose Deistic convictions were clearer and purer than his own, could not approve of the compromise, and that portion of his followers who had fled to Abyssinia could not fail to become still more decidedly opposed to any recognition of idol-worship, by their sojourn in a Christian land. Mohammed awoke to the consciousness that he had made a great mistake, and that it was necessary to extricate himself from his unsatisfactory position as best he might. For he saw no chance of becoming the dictator of Mecca and of Arabia, except in a prophet's