Ubaid Allah b. Jahsh, who separated himself from idolatry, but adopted no other faith until he became a Moslem, then emigrated with other Moslems to Abyssinia in the days of persecution in Mecca; became there a Christian, and died as such;
Zaid b. 'Amr b. Nufail, who remained a seeker until his death; and
Uthman b. Huwairith, who emigrated to Roman territory and became a Christian.

Modern scholars are disposed to question these traditions, and probably in their details they cannot be accepted. The meaning of the term is also in dispute. It has usually been regarded as derived from the Syriac hanpa = "heathen", and it is suggested that it may have been applied as a hostile epithet to those who rejected the old heathen gods. Hanif is, however, not linguistically the equivalent of hanpa, but is a proper Arabic form. It is therefore simpler, and comes to much the same thing, if we regard it as derived from the Arabic root hanaf, which means to decline or turn away from. Hanif would then mean one who turns aside or secedes from his community in the matter of religion.¹ Now Muhammad uses the word in the Qur'an. That may have given rise, as has been suggested, to the whole tradition about the Hanifs; but I think his use of it implies that the term was in use, and in use to denote a class of religious men who were known and respected. He declares Abraham to have been a Hanif and also a Moslem.

Muhammad gives his own sense to the word, as we shall see ; but his use of it seems to imply that there was such a class of men, and that the religion which they sought was not so far removed from Islam but that he could represent it as the fulfilment of their aspirations. By hanif he means one who follows the original natural religion which God has implanted in the heart of man from the first. It does not seem the term he would have invented to express that. He must, I think, have adopted it because he found it in use, applied to a class of men who, turning away from idolatry, cherished some such idea of what the true religion was.

As a further indication that Muhammad did not stand quite alone and was not the only individual upon whom Jewish and Christian ideas exerted an impulse towards Prophetism, we may cite also the fact of the appearance of other prophets in Arabia. To mention the Elkasaites in this connection is perhaps to jump back over too long a period of time. But to judge by his name, their founder Elkasai was an Arab and may illustrate the effect of mingled Jewish and Christian ideas upon the Arab mind. His activity fell in the time of Trajan. He was the revealer of a book which was held by his followers to have come down from heaven. There were also other points of similarity between the religion of the Elkasaites and that of the Prophet of Arabia. They believed in one God and in the Last Judgement. In prayer they turned towards Jerusalem, as Muhammad at one stage did, though probably in his case it was due to direct