been hostile to him, injuring, and persecuting him."¹ Not long after this, Waraka died, without reaching the time of the gathering of disciples.' ²

(16.) They and their public mission are the Object and End of all previous Prophecy, as ushering in the grand era of Fulfilment.

a. 'Jesus began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears' (Luke iv. 16-21).
'This that is written must yet be accomplished in me, . . for the things concerning me have an end' (Luke xxii. 37).
'All this was done that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled' (Matt. xxvi. 56).
' And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself (Luke xxiv. 27).
'God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son.' (Heb. i. 1, 2).

b. Ibn Ishak says, 'When Mohammed was forty years old, God sent him as a prophet, from compassion towards the world and all mankind. He had already before rendered it obligatory on every prophet whom He sent, to believe in him, to declare him to be true, to assist him against his enemies, and also to announce this to all those who were going to believe in him. Therefore it is written in the Koran: "When God made a firm covenant with the prophets, saying, I have brought you a Scripture and instruction, then also there comes an apostle to you, confirming what you had already: verily, ye are to believe in him and to assist him. Do you acknowledge this and do you recognise the burden of my covenant? They answered, We acknowledge it. Then God said, Bear witness, and I myself shall bear witness with you." In this way God took a promise

from all the prophets, to declare Mohammed to be true, and to assist him against his enemies: and they proclaimed this to those who believed in them; and many of the professors of both the sacred books believed it.'

In the Rawzat we read: 'Sundry portentous events, which took place in the night of Mohammed's birth, having been brought to the knowledge of Chosroes, the king of Persia, he wrote a letter to Naeman Ibn Munzir, saying, "Send us a man who is able to answer questions which we may put to him." Then Naeman sent Abdu-l-Massiah, to whom Chosroes narrated what had taken place, and then asked him what was portended thereby. Abdu-l-Massiah replied, "The answer to this question is not with me, but with my friend Satih, who is now living in Syria." It is said that Satih was a diviner, of the tribe of the Beni Zeeb, who had no joints in his body, so that he could neither stand up nor sit down, but only, on being angered, he became swollen up, bloated, and sitting. In his limbs there were no bones at all, except that he had a skull and bones in the top of his fingers: he was, as it were, a flat surface (=sath) of flesh. When he had to be taken anywhere, he was rolled up and folded together like a cloth. His face was on his chest, and he had no neck. The historians say that Satih lived in a district of Syria, called Gabie. He was born in the days of Seil the Syrian, and, after quitting the country Marab, with the tribe of Azad, and wandering over the world, he had come with them to Gabie. Living till the birth of the Prophet, he must have been about 600 years old: but God knows it best. And it is said that when they wanted him to prophesy and to announce something unknown, they shook him, as the buttering-skin is shaken in making butter, and thus they caused him to move; then he spake and made unknown things known. It is recorded, on the authority of Heb Ibn Munhib, that they asked Satih, "Whence didst thou obtain the knowledge of prophecy?" Satih answered, "I have a friend amongst the demons (jin), who hears the news of heaven, and who told me many of the things which God had told Moses on Mount Sinai, and which I tell the people."

'Abdu-l-Massiah was ordered to resort to his friend in