obtained permission to stay on the pasture of his she-camels and drink their milk, for the benefit of their health. But as soon as they had recovered, they decamped with fifteen milk-camels and slew the keeper who tried to prevent them. Mohammed sent twenty fleet horsemen in their pursuit who easily captured them. When they were brought back to Medina, he had their eyes put out, their hands and feet cut off, and their bodies impaled, till death delivered them from their miseries (compare also Sura v. 39). It argues no tender feelings of humanity, to inflict such terrible punishments for these offences; and they are little creditable to a prophet claiming to supersede Jesus Christ, though they may not have been unusual amongst the Arabs in those days. So also we have to discriminate between the two cases, when we are informed that both Abu Sofyan and Mohammed despatched assassins, each with the object — fortunately unattained by either side — of ridding himself of his adversary: for, in the one case, the intended assassination was prompted by a person who claimed to be God's chosen prophet, and in the other, by a man of the world who put forth no such claim.

(10.) Mohammed shows his veneration for the Kaaba by arranging a pompous Pilgrimage to it; but the Koreish prevent his caravan of pilgrims from approaching nearer than Hodeibia, where he succeeds in concluding an armistice with them.

Meanwhile, in spring A.D. 628, the time of the annual festival at the shrine of Mecca was coming round, and Mohammed resolved to attend it, with a great number of his followers. This was the first attempt of the kind since his flight to Medina, six years previously. To please the Jews, he, for two years, as we have already learned, disregarded the Kaaba and took the temple of Jerusalem for his Kibla. But now, Since the power of the Jews in Medina was completely broken, he was free to humour and conciliate the Arabs, by an ostentatious participation in the annual pilgrimage. Thus he afforded them a proof that he was not hostile to their renowned national sanctuary, as they might — not

without apparent good reason — have supposed; but that he rather allowed it a central position in the deistic religion of which he claimed to be the prophet. It must be owned that, in a man whose supreme object of aspiration was not Divine truth, but worldly influence and power, the intended step argued a wise and clever appreciation of circumstances, and was justified by its substantial and prospective, though not formal and immediate, success. Mohammed could reasonably hope that his show of power, thus far, had made a sufficient impression upon the Koreish, not to insist on excluding him, by force, from a visit to the sacred territory, professedly undertaken only for purposes of devotion.

It is true, this hope was not at once completely fulfilled; but his present attempt secured for him a guarantee of its realisation a year later; and the wisdom of the step was shown by an immediate rapid increase of accessions to his cause, amongst the Arabs generally. He took with him seventy camels, marked for sacrifice, and donned the pilgrim's garb, to let it be seen that he did not intend war, but came merely to do honour to the Meccan temple. Still, he wished to be prepared for any eventuality, by inviting the Arabs and Bedouins within reach, to swell his train. He thus succeeded in raising the number of his followers altogether to about 1400 men, more or less armed.

When the company had reached Osfan, they heard that the Meccans were preparing to oppose them by force and that Khalid had already set out with the cavalry. On receiving this information, Mohammed said, 'Woe to the Koreish, who are already nearly ruined by war! What harm would it have done them, had they let me fight out the matter with the Arabs? For had I succumbed, their wish would have been fulfilled; and had God made me victorious, they could either have embraced Islam in a body, or fought against me with their whole strength.' This declaration, reported by Ibn Ishak, shows how naturally it came to Mohammed to assume, that men in general were prepared to subordinate religion to politics, and that, if he could but show them great military success, they would readily join his banner and accept his religion into the bargain. Thus