THE HEGIRA. 265 



insecure. His religion also made but small progress. 

 The fact is that he failed at Mecca as Jesus had failed 

 at Jerusalem. He had made a few ardent disciples, 

 who spent the day at his feet, or in reading snatches 

 of the Koran scrawled on date leaves, shoulder blades 

 of sheep, camel bones, scraps of parchment, or tablets 

 of smooth white stone. But he had not so much as 

 shaken the ruling idolatry, which was firmly based on 

 custom and self-interest. No doubt his disciples would 

 in course of time have diffused his religion throughout 

 Arabia. Islam was formed ; Islam was alive ; but 

 Mahomet himself would never have witnessed its 

 triumph had it not been for a curious accident which 

 now occurred. The Arabs belonging to that city, which 

 was afterwards called Medina, had conquered a tribe of 

 Jews. These had consoled themselves for the bitter- 

 ness of their defeat by declaring that a great prophet, 

 the Messiah, would soon appear, and would avenge 

 them upon all their foes. The Arabs believed them 

 and trembled, for they stood in great dread of the book 

 which the Jews possessed, and which they supposed to 

 be a magical composition. So when certain pilgrims 

 from Medina heard Mahomet announce that he was a 

 messenger from God, they took it for granted that he 

 was the man, and determined to steal a march upon the 

 Jews by securing him for themselves. At their request 

 he sent a missionary to Medina ; the townsmen were 

 converted, and invited him to come and live among them. 

 In a dark ravine near Mecca, at the midnight hour, 

 his Patriarch or Father delivered him solemnly into 

 their hands. Mahomet was now no longer a citizen of 

 Mecca; he was no longer "protected;" he had 

 changed his nationality ; and he was hunted like a 

 deer before he arrived safely in his new home. 



