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MAH banishment. The children of Israel were severely dealt with ever after, and no attempts made to conciliate them. The battle of Beder still rankled in the bosoms of many in Mecca, especially of those whose relatives had fallen. A desire of revenge had seized upon none more than Henda, wife of Abu-Sofian, who continued to spur on her husband. In the third year therefore of the Hedschra, Abu-Sofian took the field at the head of three thousand men. Henda herself and other women followed the army. Mahomet and his little band of seven thousand took up their position on the hill Ohod, six miles from Medina. The fight was severe and bloody, but victory declared in favour of numbers. The prophet himself was wounded, though not mortally. Abu-Sofian did not follow up his triumph, but retired, having made peace with the Moslems for a year. Soon after, certain Jewish tribes who acted treacherously, pretending that they were either Moslems or wanted preparatory instructions for becoming so, were punished with a decree of banishment, and their goods appropriated by the prophet himself. In his next battle against the powerful Arabian tribe Beni Mostalek, whom he encountered not far from the Red Sea, he was more successful, gaining an easy victory and much booty. After the year of truce was ended, Abu-Sofian having formed alliances with various tribes as well as with the Jews whom Mahomet had banished, prepared to march against Medina with ten thousand men. The city was therefore put in a state of defence; a moat was dug; and Mahomet went forth with three thousand men. A skirmish took place at the moat, in which the Koreishites were worsted. In consequence of suspicions artfully spread among various tribes of the invading army there was no pitched battle; for Abu-Sofian with his army retreated in confusion. Being thus released from fear of the Meccans, Mahomet took vengeance on the Jewish tribe, Beni Koraida, who were condemned to death and their goods divided among the Moslems. This massacre in the marketplace of Medina is a foul blot in the prophet's life. In the sixth year of his flight from Mecca the prophet made a pilgrimage to the place of his nativity, availing himself of the sacred month, and attended by fourteen hundred men. The Koreishites were very unwilling to allow him admission to their city and temple; but deeming it unwise to carry on active hostility against such a man, they came to terms with him for ten years, during which he and his followers were to have free access to the place as pilgrims for three days at a time. He did not enter the Caaba at this time; and therefore his party returned somewhat dispirited. The prophet's next expedition was against Khaibar, mostly inhabited by wealthy Jews and by many who had been treated with severity by Mahomet. After minor fortresses had been captured as the Moslems approached, the city itself was besieged, strongly built and fortified as it was. Much labour and many privations were undergone before it was taken and ransacked, for the wealth the Jews were supposed to have hid. The prophet himself was almost poisoned by eating of a lamb that had been cooked by a female captive. For some time after he remained at Medina, whence he sent forth his trusty followers on various expeditions and errands. A mission was despatched to Khosru II., king of Persia, who tore the letter before its contents were read; to Heraclius, the Roman emperor at Constantinople, who received the ambassador very favourably; and to the governor of Egypt, who sent the prophet beautiful and costly presents—among them a Coptic maiden, whom he took for his concubine. His second pilgrimage to Mecca was performed under more favourable circumstances than the first. The prophet observed all the prescribed ceremonies, and won to himself many followers—especially Ibn al Waled, nephew of the widow Maimuna, whom he now married, and Amru Ibn al Aass, two mighty warriors. In consequence of his envoy being slain at Muta in Syria, an expedition was sent against the city under the command of Zeid, his freedman. Notwithstanding the superior numbers of the army opposed to them the Moslems finally gained the victory, though it was dearly purchased with the death of the three leaders. The rich booty did not make amends for the valiant that fell. The state of his native city was still a sore in the prophet's mind. It held out obstinately against him, refusing to adopt the new faith. Thinking himself strong enough, he resolved to get it into his power if possible. With this view, pretexts were found for violating the treaty; and the Koreishites began really to fear the power of Mahomet and his enthusiastic votaries now so numerous. Abu-Sofian's mission to the prophet ended in nothing but a deeper sense of humiliation to the Meccans. A secret expedition was sent to surprise Mecca. In compliance with the favourable terms offered the Koreishites through Abu-Sofian now a convert, the inhabitants admitted the prophet unresistingly; and the latter rode at once to the Caaba, whose door was opened to him. The temple was purified and its three hundred and sixty idols destroyed. After religious ceremonials had been performed, the prophet took his place on the hill Safa, where all the people passed before him, renouncing idolatry and taking the oath that bound them to Islamism. It is creditable to Mahomet that he acted with clemency in taking possession of Mecca, frequently repressing the sanguinary spirit of his leading officers, and pardoning offenders who had injured him before. Thus Mecca became again the metropolis of Islam; and pilgrimages to the Caaba were now an essential part of the religion. The edict in favour of turning to Jerusalem was abolished. After this peaceful and most important conquest, he continued to send forth his apostles through the plains round about, to make proselytes at the point of the sword. The prophet himself narrowly escaped with his life in the battle at the pass of Honein among the mountains; where, however, the Moslems were finally victorious, capturing the enemy's camp in the valley, and gaining immense booty, which was divided among his greedy followers. Mahomet was now constantly receiving at Medina deputations from chiefs, some professing conversion to the faith, others promising to pay him tribute as a temporal ruler. The city of Tayef itself, which had so gallantly withstood his siege, now sued for peace, submitted unconditionally to the conqueror, and had its idols destroyed. Having become ruler of nearly all Arabia, he resolved to march into Syria, then a Roman province; but his followers were by no means eager for the expedition, and after setting out many turned back. On arriving at Tabuc, midway between Medina and Damascus, the army halted twenty days and proceeded no farther. Several princes and heads of tribes had sent their submission to the prophet during this march; otherwise it ended in nothing substantial. After Ali had promulgated at Mecca, in presence of the assembled pilgrims, the severe chapter of the Koran denouncing exterminating war against all who should refuse to submit or believe, numerous converts and tributaries hastened to Medina to pay their homage. Two lieutenants were sent to preside over Arabia Felix; and Ali was despatched to Yemen to compel the refractory there to the faith. This he did by the orthodox weapon—the sword. The prophet, amid all his successes and growing power, had now to mourn the death of his only son Ibrahim, whom he lamented with a deep-felt grief. Soon after the sad event he made a final pilgrimage to Mecca, where he preached often; anxious to impress his doctrines and precepts on the minds of his disciples. After returning to Medina his health continued to fail, but he did not on that account abate in his ambitious schemes for the subjugation of more distant nations to Islamism. In the eleventh year of the Hedschra, after much preparation, a great army marched forth to invade Syria, commanded by Osama, son of Zeid. The prophet's fever increasing, he was assisted to the mosque, where he prayed devoutly and addressed the congregation. Having been supported back to Aïscha's house, he became worse. On Friday he was helped again to the same place, where he spoke his last words in public. The death of the prophet happened when he had just completed his sixty-third year, in June, the eleventh year of the Hedschra, either 631 or 632 of the christian era. After much disputing about the place, he was interred in a grave dug in the house of Aïscha, near the mosque. At his death he had nine wives, the best known of whom are Aïscha his favourite one, daughter of Abubekr; and Hafsa, daughter of Omar. The Bible legends interwoven with Mahomet's revelations were derived from others; for he himself was obviously unacquainted with the Jewish and Christian sources. Waraka, cousin to his wife Chadidscha, a baptized Jew who had read the Old and New Testaments, was his principal informant in such matters. The revelations were dictated at different times to different persons who wrote them down, and immediately committed to memory by his disciples; but they were not put together as the "Koran" till after his death.

It is difficult to pourtray the character of Mahomet, composed as it is of many heterogeneous qualities. That he was an enthusiast is unquestionable. His temperament was irritable and excitable. His nervousness predisposed him to paroxysms in which he may have thought he was favoured with visions or revelations. He appears to have been not unfrequently in a sort