Thus it is manifest that Mohammed, as soon as he possibly could, employed violence and force in stopping the spread of Christianity, and in seeking to replace the ancient Heathenism by his newly manufactured Islam. The Christians had to emigrate, and those who differed from him, by adhering to the traditional idolatry, had to fear for their life, and simulated faith in the new order of things, from sheer fear of death. Though to all who look below the surface and judge by the high standard of 'the truth as it is in Jesus,' it cannot but be abundantly patent that the religious standpoint occupied by this singular prophet was essentially of a heathen character, opposed to the 'worship in spirit and in truth,' and that he knew only of an external relation to the Deity; yet it will also be readily admitted that he stoutly opposed the outward forms of Paganism, the honour paid to idols of wood and stone, and that he went so far in his iconoclastic zeal as to place before the unfortunate idolaters the trenchant alternative of 'Death or Islam!' In this way, and to this extent, he amply merited the praise which has always been claimed for him, that the object for which he laboured and fought was anti-Pagan. But it must never be forgotten that this anti-Paganism was such more in form than in substance. False views, underlying Heathenism, were retained in a modified form. A man so consciously and honestly striving to give full weight to whatever may be urged in favour of Islam and its author, as Professor Dr. L. Krehl, one of Mohammed's most recent biographers, has yet to confess that 'under the apparently Islamic and Monotheistic surface, Heathenism long continued to live on in Arabia and even today is not yet fully eradicated.' (See p. 325 of Das Leben des Muhammed, dargestellt von Ludolf Krehl.)

(3.) Mohammed at first accommodates himself to the Jews, in the hope of gaining them over to Islam; but, failing in this, deliberately turns against them and shows himself decidedly anti-Jewish.

It was unfortunate for the Jews that the unconvinced Arabs betrayed a tendency rather to side with them than

with the Moslems, and that they often justified their own disbelief in Mohammed by theirs. Such a combination might become dangerous, might even prove subversive to the very foundation of Islam, and therefore could not be viewed with indifference by the new ruling power of Medina. It helped to bring on a crisis in the position of the Jews, which had already become shaken by other causes. Mohammed's relations and dealings with the Jews, which now begin to claim our attention, form an important chapter in his history, and cast a dark shadow on his character. This is all the more remarkable, as he had set his eyes upon them from the time when he first formed the idea of removing to Medina, and had reckoned on their sympathy and support in asserting himself as a prophet.

The Arabs, being heathens, and possessing no religious literature, were accustomed, from olden times, to look up to the Jews and Christians as 'the people of the book,' the depositaries of Divine revelations. Mohammed shared this view; and as he professed that his new religion was nothing else than the ancient 'Faith of Abraham,' he felt naturally called upon to trace a connection between it and those previous religions which likewise regarded Abraham as 'the father of the faithful.' He maintained that Islam, with the religion of the Jews and Christians in its primitive purity, had but one common source: Divine revelation of 'the Book,' preserved in heaven. In return for this admission he expected of the Jews and Christians that they would admit the same heavenly origin for his religion which they claimed for their own. Already in his conversation with the leading Khazrajites, before he left Mecca, he had referred to the Jews; and from the beginning of his residence in Medina he made it a special aim to conciliate the Beni Israel, and to obtain from them the acknowledgment that he was a divinely chosen prophet, at least for the Arabs, and equal in rank with the heaven sent prophets of former times. He even affirmed that his coming had been foretold in the Law and the Gospel. We have already seen that in the document embodying his first constitution for Medina, he treated the Jews as valuable confederates, whom he guaranteed in the free exercise of their religion. As they, in worshipping God, turned their