surrounded by his companions. He therefore tied his camel to the door of the mosque, and, being admitted to Mohammed's presence, addressed him thus, 'I adjure thee to tell me, whether God did really send thee to us as His ambassador and forbid the worship of idols, and whether He commanded thee to enjoin five daily prayers, alms, fasts, the pilgrimage, and other ordinances?' On Mohammed answering these questions in the affirmative, he forthwith exclaimed, 'I confess that there is no God but Allah and that Mohammed is His ambassador, whose precepts I shall obey, neither adding thereto, nor taking therefrom.' Then, untying his camel, he remounted and hastily travelled back to his tribe. On arriving, his first word to them was, 'The idols Lat and Ozza have been put to shame.' They called out, 'Keep silence, Dhimam! be afraid of leprosy, elephantiasis, and madness!' He answered, 'Woe to you: they can neither harm nor help.' Having added some further account of his visit, the effect was truly magic, and the historian describes it in these words, 'By Allah! before it had become evening, all the men and women in the whole camp were converted to Islam.'

Sometimes, when deputations, suing for treaties of submission, did not come forward as fast as Mohammed expected, he used means to bring them about, quite characteristic of his peculiar method. When the Christians of Najran, as recorded above (p. 138), had already secured a treaty for themselves, the Beni Harith, a heathen tribe of Najranites, were still sullenly holding back. Mohammed, apprehending that this might lead to unpleasant consequences, by unsettling others, despatched his daring cavalry commander Khalid, with a body of chosen troops, to either convert or conquer them. Khalid was instructed not to fight them till he had first, for three days, invited them to Islam and they had refused. Accordingly he sent forth his horsemen in every direction, calling out to the people, 'O ye Beni Harith, believe in Islam, and you shall be spared.' The invitation of these martial missionaries had the desired result. All the people turned Moslems; and the cavalry commander, as far as his own knowledge went, instructed them in the doctrine and usages of Islam. On writing to the Prophet whether he was to continue his teaching still longer, he was

directed to return home and to bring with him a deputation from those new converts, to solicit and receive a formal treaty. This was accordingly done; and when the deputies, on their arrival in Medina, wished to show some independence, and calmly reiterated that they were men who, after being beaten, returned to the attack, Mohammed cowed them by the declaration, 'If Khalid had not written to me that you did embrace Islam, without going to war, I should now lay your heads before your feet.' It is evident, therefore, that the treaties of amity, concluded with the deputations of so many different tribes, proceeding as they did from a sense of fear and worldly interest, were often of a very hollow character, and glaringly failed in establishing a state of mutual confidence and cordial agreement.

Sometimes they did no more than momentarily conceal and gloss over a still-continuing and deep-seated disagreement, which at any moment might break out into an open rupture. The treaty effected with the Beni Hanifa of Yemama was of this nature. Their deputation to Medina included Abu Thumama, who, in Mohammedan documents, figures only by the opprobrious appellative of 'Moseilama' (i.e. 'the diminutive Moslem'). He claimed to be Mohammed's equal, entitled to share with him the authority over Arabia, and eventually to succeed him. Mohammed, as was his wont, received him in the mosque, sitting amongst his companions; and though we are assured that, in reply to the rival's demands, he, holding a dry palm-branch in his hand, declared to him, 'Even if thou wert to demand this branch only, I should not give it thee'; yet the subsequent pact seems to have resulted from concessions on both sides. Tradition affirms that Moseilama received presents, like his fellow-deputies, but that, on returning to Yemama, he apostatised, like an enemy of God, and began to speak to his people in rhyme, imitating the Koran. After a time, he despatched two messengers to Mohammed, to hand to him the following letter: 'From Moseilama,¹ the Apostle of God, to