who disbelieves in Allah.' Osama, thus accredited and instructed, took up his quarters outside the city, in a place called Jorf, about three miles distant, where the army was to gather round him, and to get into a state of readiness for starting.

But as Osama was still very young for so important a post, only about twenty years old, and as experienced elderly men, such as Abu Bekr, Omar, Othman, etc., had to serve in the army, murmurs against the appointment soon became loud, and it was said: 'He has appointed this youth over the most noble refugees and helpers!' When this reached the Prophet's ears, he became very angry, we are told, and although fever and headache had already a strong hold on him, yet he left his room to ascend the pulpit in the mosque close by, and, with a cloth tied round his head, freely vented his mind to the people, saying: 'What word is this which has reached me from some of you, concerning my appointment of Osama as commander of the army? If you now object to his appointment, you also blamed that of his father Zeid, in the late expedition to Muta. But I swear by God that Zeid was a man worthy of the commandership, and that his son Osama is likewise worthy of it. Zeid was most dear to me, and his son also is one of those I love. Both of them are worthy the esteem of all good persons. Therefore, accept my appointment of him with pleasure, and fulfil your duties respecting it.'

Returned to his own room, the fever naturally became aggravated. Yet he still urged the departure of the army upon those of its leading men who, before leaving, paid him their farewell visit. But Osama was regularly informed about the progress and alarming character of the sickness, by his mother, who attended on the Prophet. He therefore delayed his departure under these critical circumstances. So it happened that he did not actually start till some time after Mohammed's death, when Abu Bekr, the first Calif, insisted on the despatch of the army, exactly as the Prophet had appointed it. The expedition retained the character, probably intended for it from the first, of being a mere sudden incursion to strike terror into the population of Syria, and as the precursor of a speedily succeeding permanent conquest.

(19.) Mohammed is arrested in his career of conquests and sensuality, by the unsparing hand of Death.

In the midst of the preparations for this unprovoked aggression upon the Christian empire of Rome, Mohammed was struck down by the interposing hand of death. The course of unrestrained sensuality, in which, for years, he had been indulging,¹ had a natural tendency to undermine his constitution and to ruin his nervous system — not of the strongest from the first — so that he had no stamina left to resist the ravages of disease. We cannot wonder that despite the exhilarating air he breathed, especially during his frequent war-expeditions, the oil of his lamp of life was consumed so soon. The fever which at last fastened upon him, exhausted his vital powers and caused death in less than a fortnight.

His illness began in the chamber of his wife Meimuna, whose turn it was to have him stay with her that day. From her he went to his favourite wife Aisha. She relates that, suffering herself also from headache, she called out, 'Oh, my head!' He said to her, 'Thy headache will pass away easily; but mine is one whose cure is difficult.'² So he went back to Meimuna's room; and as his symptoms grew worse, all his wives gathered there to see him. He asked them several times in whose apartment he was to be on the day following; and they, perceiving his desire to be with Aisha, consented with one accord to his remaining in Aisha's chamber for the rest of his illness, promising to come and attend upon him as occasion might require. Accordingly he removed from Meimuna's to Aisha's apartment; and the fever had already so much told upon him, that he could not walk the short distance without assistance. The malady progressed rapidly, and, with it, the distress he felt. He could not lie quiet; but, turning from one side to the other, restlessly threw himself about in his bed. So great was his impatience and disquiet, that Aisha felt called upon to rebuke him, saying, 'O Apostle of God, if one of us had been ill and shown so much distress and restlessness, thou surely wouldest have been angry with us.' He replied, 'O Aisha, my illness is exceedingly severe; and verily the Most High