naturally had to suffer great privation and hardship in their social isolation, though it appears that they were not closely blockaded or forbidden to move about singly.

It is likely that at this juncture any Moslems who had not previously emigrated or could find effectual protection in Mecca, went to participate in the shelter which a number of their fellow-believers were already enjoying in Abyssinia. For it is recorded that even Abu Bekr decided on emigrating, and had actually left the town with that view, when he was brought back again by one of the leading men who met him on the way and compassionately took him under his protection.

Mohammed himself could remain, protected by his family, though burning with feelings of resentment at the contumely to which he was exposed whenever he showed his face. We read: 'When the family of Hashim and Mottaleb, together with his uncle, prevented the Koreish from using violence against him, these latter maligned and ridiculed him; whereupon there appeared revelations in the Koran against the Koreish and all those who signalised themselves by their hostility to Mohammed.' Against one of his uncles and his wife who persevered in rejecting the upstart prophet these words were revealed, 'May Abu Lahab's hands wither and himself perish! Of no avail shall be to him the wealth he has acquired. He shall be burned in a flaming fire and his wife shall have a rope tied round her neck!' Many instances are given by the biographers of persons openly contradicting and exposing Mohammed. Amongst others it is reported that when he recited passages of the Koran to assemblies of Koreishites, E1 Nadhr used to object, 'Mohammed's recitations are not better than mine: they are only copied from ancient books like my own.'

It appears that under these circumstances Mohammed moderated himself and that his preaching assumed a less aggressive form. Abu Jahl had said to him, 'Cease blaspheming our gods, or else we will blaspheme the God whom thou worshippest;' and we are told that, in consequence, 'Mohammed desisted from blaspheming their gods and only called upon them to believe in Allah.' This moderation on the part of Mohammed, and the inconvenience caused by the state of things to the community at large,

seems to have gradually led to a relaxation, and ultimately to have brought about the formal discontinuation of the social ban. A growing party of sympathisers ventured to propose in a public assembly the tearing up of the ban document, suspended in the Kaaba. The biographers do not omit tracing in the event a special Divine interposition, by informing us that when the document was fetched, it was found to have been completely obliterated by worms, and that the hand of the man who originally wrote it had afterwards withered away.

(9.) Mohammed, bereft by death of Khadija and Abu Talib, finds Mecca increasingly unsympathetic and at last fixedly hostile.

The ban was indeed removed, but it had been sufficiently severe and protracted to show how determined was the opposition of the majority of the Meccans to the would-be prophet, and how little chance he had of ever being voluntarily recognised by them as their supreme teacher and ruler. About this time a 'great loss befell him which still further darkened his prospects in Mecca. In one year death deprived him of his uncle Abu Talib and his wife Khadija. The place of the former was ill supplied by another of his uncles, Abu Lahab; and we have already seen (p. 79) that, in compensation for the latter, he with great haste engaged himself to two ladies at once, namely, the widow Sewda, and the extremely youthful maiden Aisha. Ibn Ishak says, concerning his loss, 'This was a great misfortune to him; for Khadija had been his faithful support in Islam with whom he always found reassurance; and Abu Talib had been his staunch defender and protector against his fellow-tribesmen. They died three years before the Flight to Medina. After Abu Talib's death the Koreishites ill-treated Mohammed in a way they would never have ventured to do during his lifetime. One of the fools went so far as to strew dust on his head. When this had happened and he went to his house, with the dust still on his head, one of his daughters washed his head, weeping. He said to her, "Weep not, my daughter, God will protect thy father;" and he added, "Whilst Abu