stances are mentioned by which the anti-Christian character of his aims becomes particularly apparent. When the deputies of the Beni Sohaim, connected with the Beni Hanifa, returned to their home, the Prophet, besides having imposed a treaty upon them, also gave them a leather bag full of water, wherewith he had made his ablution, adding this injunction, ' having arrived in your country, demolish your church; then sprinkle the place with this water and build a mosque upon it.' And the Beni Taghlib, who sent a deputation of sixteen men, had to accept a treaty which, in addition to the usual burdensome stipulations, contained also a clause to the effect that, though they themselves might remain Christians, their children were no longer to be baptized, or brought up in the doctrines of Christianity.

These treaties, though Mohammed judiciously strove to make their conditions, at the first, as little galling as his vast and autocratic ulterior designs permitted, could not but be felt irksome and oppressive by tribes who hitherto were wont to manage their own affairs independently and without being interfered with by other tribes. The national movement in favour of Islam, which manifested itself by the arrival of a multitude of pliable deputies from every quarter, was spontaneous rather in appearance, than in reality. As a rule, these deputations were brought about by solicitations, very peremptory in tone, and by the application of more or less of direct and indirect pressure. Left to their own free choice, the tribes would have far preferred their ancient independence, with its relative weakness, to their union under the iron yoke of Islam, with its concomitant increase of power. Therefore Mohammed's great national work was not of a very sound and solid quality, as we can see from the fact that it threatened altogether to crumble to pieces, the moment he closed his eyes in death. But for the present, and in appearance, Mohammed's plan had proved completely successful; and the prophet of Medina, by means of the formidable military power which he had called into existence, ruled with the sovereign authority of an autocrat, over all the multitudinous tribes of Arabia.

Arrived at this pinnacle, he could afresh revert to his long-cherished idea, by preparing another serious attempt to invade

and conquer the Roman empire. But first of all he gave a grand spectacle to all Arabia, by exhibiting before their eyes the vastness of his success, in replacing the ancient religion of the whole nation by the victorious institution of Islam.

( 17.) Mohammed celebrates the Complete Triumph of Islam over Arabia, by attending the Reformed Pilgrim-Festival of the year 632, with a company of 114,000 Moslem followers.

Meanwhile the season for the annual festival of the pilgrimage to Mecca had come round again, which appears to have always been celebrated in spring, about March; and Mohammed resolved to give it this time a character of unprecedented grandeur. It was at the Festival of the previous year that he had caused a proclamation to be published by his son-in-law Ali to the effect that then, for the last time, Pagans were admitted to share in the ceremony; but that thenceforth the privilege should be open to professed Moslems only. Thus this ancient festival of Arabian heathenism was at one stroke converted into an exclusively Mussulman institution, for all future times; and, as such, it was also a token and proof of the public recognition of Islam as the national religion, for the whole of Arabia. Mohammed determined, formally to usher in this new era of the complete national triumph of the religion whose prophet he was, by arranging a pilgrimage for the spring 632, on the grandest scale, and by joining it in person, with his entire household. To make known his intention, he sent out messengers in all directions. The professors of the new religion responded to the call in vast numbers. It is recorded by some Mohammedan historians that the Prophet's retinue on this occasion consisted of 114,000 persons; by others, of 124,000; and again by others, that the multitude of pilgrims, accompanying him, was so immense that none, save God, could know their number. Ali was at this time commanding a body of troops in Najran, and therefore took Mecca on his march back, arriving early enough to have a share in the sacrifices at Mina. No special mention is made of the Prophet's concubines; but all his surviving married wives,