them, who likewise took his hand and pledged their troth. The intended chief, Saad Ibn Ubada, thus deserted, could easily be disposed of. Omar proceeds with his narrative 'We fell upon Saad, so that one of them said, "You are murdering him;" but I replied "May God kill him!"'

This looks remarkably like a coup de main, such as are not uncommon in the sphere of worldly politics; and the Arabs were too keen-sighted not to have viewed it in this light. Ibn Ishak records that, towards the end of Omar's Califate, some talked to him of overruling the choice of a successor, in favour of a certain individual, in case it should become necessary, and that they justified their intention by saying: 'Verily, the oath of allegiance to Abu Bekr was nothing but a surprise, which was afterwards ratified.' The public reply which Omar made to this suggestion shows, that he could not altogether deny this character of Abu Bekr's appointment, and that he justified it merely on the ground of its inevitableness. He said: 'Let none be so blinded as to affirm that the allegiance to Abu Bekr was only a coup de main which succeeded. For though it was such, God thereby averted evil, and there was none amongst you before whom the people bowed more readily than before Abu Bekr.'

By these efforts to prevent an open rupture between the helpers and the refugees, and to unite the leading men of both parties in the election of Abu Bekr to the Califate, the whole afternoon and evening of Monday were taken up. The great work remaining to be done on Tuesday was, to consolidate and secure the success of the previous day, by laying it before the general assembly of the Moslems, and by having it publicly indorsed by the entire population of Medina. For a Calif, once chosen and obeyed by all Medina, would be the exponent of a strong centre of power, for upholding the Koran and the Mohammedan institutions throughout Arabia, where the Prophet's death might possibly unchain centrifugal forces, similar to those which had so soon manifested themselves in Medina. Accordingly, on Tuesday, when the way had been sufficiently prepared amongst the bulk of the inhabitants, Abu Bekr occupied Mohammed's place in the mosque, and Omar, rising up

before him, addressed the following oration to the assembly, as reported by Ibn Ishak: 'O ye people, I have yesterday spoken words to you which I had neither found in God's Book, neither had the Apostle of God commissioned me with them. It had only appeared to me that Mohammed would direct our affairs by his last word. But God has left His Book amongst you, which contains the directions of His apostle. If you hold this fast, God will direct you by it, as He directed him. Now God has united you around the best amongst you, around the "companion of the Apostle of God," who had been the only one with him in the cave. Therefore arise and take the oath of allegience to him!' To this exhortation the whole body of Moslems at once responded, by taking the oath proposed to them, and thus ratified the arrangement and oath of the previous day.

These State affairs, claiming precedence before even the Prophet's burial, furnish us with a fresh illustration of the predominance of the political and secular in the system of Islam. Notwithstanding the intense summer-heat, prevailing at the time, the Prophet's dead body was left unburied, contrary to the universal practice, from noon on Monday, all through Tuesday; and it was not till late at night, between Tuesday and Wednesday, that the pressure of State business permitted a grave being dug for him. This was done in a corner of Aisha's room, on the very spot where he had died, and there his more immediate friends, during the hours of midnight darkness, consigned his mortal remains to the keeping of mother earth. He still tenants the grave which then received him; and no resurrection has as yet testified to his pretended equality with Christ, Whom he ventured to call his brother-prophet. For a time, the tomb was only separated by a partition-wall from the rest of the apartment, which continued in Aisha's occupation; but later on, the whole area was added to the mosque, of which it still forms part, and where it is annually visited by crowds of Moslem pilgrims.

No sooner had the news of Mohammed's death reached the city of his birth, than most Meccans, as Ibn Ishak records, wanted to throw off the fetters of Islam, which, for some years, they had been obliged to bear. Attab, Moham-