Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/145

 THE EASTERN EMPIRE 133 to unspiritual minds. The Judaic and Christian elements were both very much garbled. No doubt he believed in the reality of his mission, and what he taught was something very much higher than the gross superstitions which nourished around him. No doubt he also lost the power of distinguishing between the imaginations which beset him without any conscious activity on his part, and his own deliberate invention. At any rate by slow degrees he began to persuade other people to accept him at his own valuation. When he began publicly to assume the character of a prophet, he found Mohammed's himself unpopular in Mecca, a town whose com- flight from mercial prosperity depended very largely on its Mecca » 622 - prestige as the guardian of the Kaaba. In Medina, however, his doctrines found a readier acceptance, and thither he migrated in the year 622 a.d., known as the year of the Hejira, that is, the flight. The Mohammedan era dates from the year 622 of the Christian era. There was a keen rivalry between Medina and Mecca, and Medina began zealously to support the prophet who had found no honour in his own city. Hostility began chiefly in the form of raids on the caravan routes leading to Mecca. Outside of Mecca the prophet's influence gradually increased, and in 630 a.d. he was able suddenly to appear before the Sacred City with an irresistible force. The townspeople submitted, and were at once admitted to favour. The idols were Triumph of destroyed, but the shrine of the Kaaba was islam, 630. preserved as the Temple of the Most High, and the Kaaba itself as His Symbol. Instead of being the Sacred City of pagan superstition, Mecca became the Holy City of the new faith. Islam defeated the false gods ; and the Moslems, as the followers of Mohammed are called, were about to start on a new and terrific career of conquest. Thenceforth also the faithful made pilgrimages to Mecca as the infidels had done before. Two years later Mohammed died. He left no children except his daughter Fatima, concerning whose husband AH the prophet, in his last days, had used an ex- __ _ mM _^ 4. The Kaliphs. pression which some of his followers regarded as an order that AH should succeed him ; out of which there