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appears in the appeal which Mahomet now makes frequently
in the Corân to the former Scriptures and to the Jews, as witnesses to his
claims. His position is fortified by long and discursive narratives from Old
Testament history,—such as the creation and fall of man, the flood, the
stories of Abraham, David, and Solomon, given sometimes in the very language of
the Bible, but overlaid and distorted by rabbinical fiction and conceits, and
sometimes also by native legend. There is evidently Jewish inspiration, but
whence derived we have not the means of saying. Mahomet was accused by the
Coreish of plagiarism and fabrication. "They are fables of the
ancients," said his adversaries, "which he hath had written down; they
are dictated to him morning and evening." "Nay," replied the
Prophet, "He hath revealed it who knoweth that which is hidden in the
heavens and in the earth." The revelations were, in fact, fresh evidence of
his inspiration.
The severity of the ban at last over-reached its object. . The sympathies of
many were enlisted by their privations in favour of Mahomet and his followers;
and in the tenth year of his ministry the interdict was cancelled and the
Hâshimites restored to freedom. But soon Khadîja died, and shortly after, Abu
Tâlib. Dispirited by the double bereavement and the failing prospects of his
cause, Mahomet, accompanied by Zeid alone, proceeded to Tâif, a city lying some
sixty miles to the east of Mecca. But his appeal, though urged for several days
upon them, was unheeded by the leading men of Tâif, and he was at last driven
forth of
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EXPLAINED BY THE LIFE OF MAHOMET
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| the rabble, wounded by showers of stones. As he
rested on his way back, at Nakhla, he had a vision, in which a body of the
Genii pressed around him, eager to listen to the Corân and embrace the new
faith. He returned to Mecca with darkening
prospects. Within two months of
the death of Khadîja he married Sauda, the widow of one of the Abyssinian
emigrants, and also betrothed to himself Ayesha, the daughter of his friend
Abu Bekr, then but six or seven years of age.
Hope dawned at last from an unexpected quarter. At the yearly pilgrimage
a little group of worshippers from Medina was attracted and won over at
Minâ by the preaching of Islam; and the following year, now increased to
twelve,
they met Mahomet on the same spot, and took an oath of allegiance.
At Medina the claims of the new Prophet found a ready response. The
circumstances were all favourable. Several Jewish tribes had been long
settled in the immediate neighbourhood; and the religion and Scripture of
the Jews, on which Mahomet had now begun to lean as one of his chief
supports, were familiar there. The city had for years been distracted by
civil war; the factions of the Aus and Khazraj were nearly balanced, and
there was no one to take the lead. A teacher was deputed from Mecca to
Medina and the new faith spread with marvellous rapidity.
There was now a lull at Mecca. The two parties remained at bay, watching
one the other. The Suras of the period breathe a calm and lofty spirit of
assurance, with occasional warnings of Divine wrath and punishment against
the ungodly city. There
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