Page:William Muir, Thomas Hunter Weir - The Caliphate; Its Rise, Decline, and Fall (1915).djvu/38



after days Abu Bekr was used to look back with just pride upon having despatched Usāma's force the universal reclamation notwithstanding. Public opinion was not long in justifying the act. His bold front struck the Bedawīn mind with the stability of his rule. If the leaders at Medīna had not been confident in strength at home they would not have sent away their army; and the Arabs reasoning thus, were restrained from much that they might otherwise have done. Still the position was critical, and at times alarming.

It was indeed a thing for the brave old Caliph to be proud of. "The Arabs," we read, "were on all sides rising in rebellion. Apostasy and disaffection raised their heads; Christians and Jews began to stretch out their necks; and the Faithful were as a flock of sheep without a shepherd, their Prophet gone, their numbers few, their foes a multitude." In face of all this Abu Bekr had sent away beyond recall his only force, and left Medina open and apparently defenceless.

There was danger all around, for towards the close of Moḥammad's life, three rivals, incited by the success of Moḥammad, laid claim to the prophetic office, and had already raised the standard of rebellion. In the south, insurrection was hardly quelled by the death of the "Veiled Prophet" of the Yemen, when, on tidings of the decease of Moḥammad, it burst forth again with redoubled violence. Northwards in the centre of the Peninsula, Museilima had