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24 Similar letters were received by the kings and rulers of various countries from Persia to Egypt. Great was the curiosity in the courts and palaces of the countries surrounding Arabia. "Who is this Mohammed?" "What is this religion of Islam that he invites us to accept, implying something serious will happen if we do not?" They did not have to wait long for the answer. For this new religion was soon to spread far beyond the bounds of the Arabian desert, and to extend the influence of this "last of the prophets" to three continents, from North Africa and Spain to China.

But we are going too fast. In order to understand the rise of Islam it is necessary to picture to ourselves something of the political, social and religious condition of Arabia some six hundred years after the time of Christ. In the first place, there was no national government. The Arabs of the desert, or Bedouins, belonged to various tribes and raised sheep and camels. They had no settled abode, and lived in tents, which on the approach of an enemy they could quickly fold up for a silent departure. As is true even today, very few of the Arabs of that time lived in cities. Only a very small proportion of the population lived in the few cities and settled towns in the oases or on the coast; and of these cities Mecca was the largest. The tribes, which were ruled by chiefs known as sheikhs, were very jealous of their individual independence.