■A R A 
*.great de votion. Thcn'he entered tlte Caaba; where, ob¬ 
serving Several idols in the form.of angels, and the ftatues 
of Abraham and IShmael, with the arrows of divination 
in their hands, he caufed them,all to be deftroyed. Af¬ 
terwards entering into the interior part of the Caaba, he 
■repeated with a loud voice the form ufed at this day by the 
Mahometans, “ Allah A'kbar, God is great, dec.” turning 
"towards every part of the temple. Then he prayed be¬ 
tween the two pillars there, with two inclinations, as well 
as without the Caaba; faying to thofe that attended him, 
“ This is your Kebla, or the place towards which you are 
• 4 o turn your faces in prayer.” 
Having - thus Subdued the KoreiSh, and .purged the 
Caabanf 3C0 idols, the prophet’s next care was to ingra- 
■tiate himfelf with the people. Sending therefore for fome 
of the principal inhabitants, he alked them what kind of 
treatment they expeffed from him, now.he.had conquered 
them? To this-they replied, “ None but what is favour.- 
.able, O generous brother :” upon which hedifmirfeu them, 
faying, that from that moment they were a free people. 
He restored the keys of the Caaba to Othman Ebn Telha, 
who was in polfenion of them before; and who w.as lb 
much atfefted.by this unexpected generofity, that he im¬ 
mediately became a profelyte. Next day the prophet de¬ 
clared Mecca an afylum for all who would embrace his 
.new religion; aad publicly declared that he would main¬ 
tain, to the utmod. of his power, the inviolable fecurity 
.of the place. He was then Solemnly inaugurated; after 
which he proscribed, accoi img to fome, fix men and four 
women, according to others, eleven men and one woman; 
-but of thefe only three men and one woman were put to 
death; the reft being pardoned, on ■embracing'Mahoruet- 
.anifm. 
The ninth year of the Hegira, being that of Ghri,ffc.;6,31, 
is called by the Mahometans the year of Embajjies ; - for 
■ the Arabs, w ho-had waited tire ilfue of the war between 
Mahomet and the KoreiSh, no fooner.faw the prophet vic- 
; torious, than they began to come in to him in great num- 
’.bers, and fend embaflies to make their fubroHTions to'him, 
both while at Mecca and.after his return to Medina ; and 
thus good fortune continued without interruption to the 
year 632, when this famous impoftor breathed his laft, 
having reduced under his fubje&ion the whole peninfula 
of Arabia, and being ready to break into the neighbouring 
kingdoms in order to fatisfy his,ambition. 
The death of Mahomet occasioned fuch a consternation 
in Mecca, that the-governor hid himfelf, fearing to be 
(tailed in question for his.former conduit ; and-the inha¬ 
bitants-confidered themfelves destitute of. all protection. 
•They now began to meditate,?, revolt;. but were prevented 
l by Sohail Ebn Amru, a principal man of the KoreiSh. The 
(tumults of Medina, however, were not fo eafily appeafed. 
The news of this event was .no fooner puhlifhed there, 
rtlian a number of people affcmhled'before the prophet’s 
door, crying out, “How can our apoltle be dead ? Our 
intercelfor, our mediator, has not entirely left us! He is 
taken up into heaven, as wasTfa (Jefus) ; therefore he 
Shall not be buried.” This was confirmed by Omar; who 
drew his fword, and fwore, that, if any perfon affirmed 
Mahomet to be dead, be would, cut off his hands and feet. 
5 ‘ The apoftle of God (fays he) is not dead : he-is only 
gone for a feafon, as Mofes the fon of Amram was gone 
t from the people of Ifr.ael for forty days, and then returned 
to them again.” The populace therefore kept the body 
above ground, even after the belly began to fwell. Upon 
hearing of thefe tranfaflions, Abu Beer immediately poft- 
■- ed from A 1 Souah, and expoflulated with him in the fol¬ 
lowing manner : “ Do. you wovffiip Mahomet, or the God 
of Mahomet ? If the latter, lie Is immortal, and liveth 
-for ever ; but, if the former, you are in a manifeft error, 
, for he is certainly dead.” The -truth of this allertion he 
immediately evinced from feveral palfages of the Ko¬ 
ran, in fo clear and conclufive a manner, that he not only 
Xatisfied Omar, but calmed the minds of the people. 
The prophet having left-no directions.concerning a fi;c- 
B I A. 
celfor, very warm difputes arofe between the Mohajerin 
and. the Anfars about the right of electing a khalif. The 
former infilled on having that right, becaufe they had at¬ 
tended Mahomet in his flight to Medina ; and the others* 
becaufe they had fupported him when expelled from his 
native city, etc. In Short, the difputes Jaecame fo violent, 
that a-n open rupture,muft have commenced, had not they 
-been terminated "by a propofal that each party Should 
clioofe a khalif. This,amuSed them for tlie prefe.nt; but, 
not proving perfectly agreeable to the Mohajerin, Abu 
Beer propofed two perfbns, Omar .and Abu Obeidah, of¬ 
fering to fwear allegiance to him on whom tire Suffrages 
of both (liould fall. At length Omar voluntarily fwore 
fealty to Abu Beer, and, .bis example being-followed by 
all the’Moflems on the Spot, he was acknowledged both 
bv the Mohajerin and Anfars as the rightful fucceffor of 
Mahomet. Thefe tranfaCfions, however, were not re!idl¬ 
ed by Ali, who, as Ton-in-law to the prophet, had un¬ 
doubtedly the beft title to the fuccefficri. He expofculated 
with Abu Beer about the manner of his election, which 
had been effected without his knowledge-; .and received.for 
anfvver, that the exigence of affairs would not admit of de¬ 
liberation; and that,.had not the election been fo fudden, 
the opposite party would have wrefted the power entirely 
out of their hands. Ah was in Fatima’s apart ment when 
Abu Beer was eleCted khalif; and, upon the arrival of 
the news, expreffed great dillatisfaition. Ke found him¬ 
felf, however, obliged to Submit; -for the new khalif fent 
Omar with Qxders to • burn the houfe where he and his 
friends were affenvbied, in.cafe-he did not.concur ip.Sup¬ 
porting the election. 
Soon after Abu Beer’s aceeffion, many of the Arabs re¬ 
futed to pay the tribute impofed upon them by Mahomet, 
and even attempted to Shake off his yoke altogether. This 
fo alarmed the khalif and his fuhjeCts at Medina, that, 
fearing a general revolt, they fent all not able to bear 
arms into the. fa line lies of the rocks and mountains, and 
put themfelves in as.goed a pofture of defence.as the Short 
time would permit. In the mean time Khaied Was dif- 
p.atched with an army of 4500 men to reduce the. rebels.,; 
and foan coming up with them, gave them a total defeat,, 
brought off a-- y;afl quantity of plunder, antl-made many 
of their children Slaves. Nor was he content with this-;- 
for being fent by Abu Beer to Malec Ebn Noweirah, an 
eminent perfon among the Arabs, and famous for his Skill 
in poetry .as well as his horSernanfliip anti bravery, to bring 
him over by fair means,-he immediately ordered his head 
to be Struck off. By this means, indeed, he extinguished 
the feeds of rebellion ; hut. rendered himfelf exceedingly 
obnoxious to Abu Beer, who would have-put him to 
death, had .not Omar Strongly interceded for .him : for 
•Khateu had greatly exceeded his commission, as Malec 
had already returned to Mahometanifm. .About the fame 
time.another body of rebels committed great disorders in 
the province of Bahrein. A gain ft thefe Abu Beer dif- 
. patched A 1 Ola .at the head of a conliderable army, wlip 
Toon obliged them to-return to Mahometanifm; having 
put great numbers to the fword, .and plundered their coun¬ 
try in a dreadful manner. 
Abu Beer having now no enemy-to contend with in A- 
. rabia, .and being free from all apprehensions of a compe¬ 
titor, refolved to turn his arms againSt the Greek emperor. 
Someffiight Skirmishes had happened, in the lifetime of Ma¬ 
homet, between the Moflemsand Greek Christians; jn one 
-of which Zeid, a'Modem commander, bjad. been killed. 
To revenge his death, his fqr. Ofama was on the point of 
making an irruption into Syria at the time of Mahomet’S 
dcceafe. This enterpr.ife the khalif encouraged him to 
go on with ; and it was executed by Ofama with great fuc- 
cefs. The khalif next font Khaledat the head of a power¬ 
ful army to invade Irak, and put an end to the kingdom 
of Hira. In this alfo he was attended with Iris ufual fuc- 
cefs. The king A 1 Mondar A 1 Maghrur loft his life in 
defence of his dominions; and the kingdom was totally 
dellroyedj after it had existed C?.2 years and eight months. 
