a few had died. Those at Medinah numbered perhaps somewhat fewer, and had been won by more, worldly motives.

In his speech in the Mosque at Medinah soon after Muhammad's death, Abu Bakr admitted the comparative failure of all Muhammad's efforts at Mecca to spread Islam by gentle means. He said: ¹ "Muhammad having for more than ten years remained among his own people, and having invited them to Islam, that community did not believe, except a few. Finally, by the will of God Most High, he cast upon your dwellings the ray of his notice, and made your city the abode of his exile and the refuge of the Migration."

Muhammad had now for thirteen years tried to spread his religion by the peaceful means by which alone any true Prophet had ever endeavoured to turn men to God. Probably he himself agreed with Abu Bakr in thinking that he had failed. He had been driven from his native city with his followers, and they were now exiles among men of tribes often hostile to the Quraish. He had retained in his religion many ancient Arabian practices,—for instance, the habit of. Tawwaf or circling round the Ka'bah, the Hajj or Pilgrimage, and reverence for the Black Stone. It was impossible for himself and his followers to perform these duties unless he went to ² war. Nor could he otherwise satisfy the Ansars, whom he had already told that God had sanctioned fighting for the Faith. Hence he now became "the Prophet with the Sword", and henceforth Islam had its one and only trenchant proof in that weapon.

If we may judge by Muhammad's own conduct and that of his followers after this, they seem to have imagined that the moral rules made and accepted at 'Aqabah were now no longer binding upon them. All that God now required of them was to "fight in the way of God", with sword and spear, with bow and

arrow, with dagger and the assassin's knife. Hence it is that we read of such conduct as that of Abu Na'ilah and Muhaisah and other Muslims already mentioned. In reference to chastity, it is unnecessary to refer to Muhammad's own conduct. Let us consider that of 'Abdu'r Rahman, who left children by sixteen wives, besides concubines. When this man first came to Medinah, one of the Ansars, Sa'd by name, offered to divorce on his behalf whichever of his own two wives his guest preferred. 'Abdu'r Rahman accepted the offer. Muhammad expressed no condemnation of this marriage, which, of course, by God's Law was adultery.¹ Again, the conduct of Khalid ibn Walid, especially in his Syrian ² campaign, was notorious at the time, but in Islam there was nothing to hinder or to discountenance it. Nay, rather the Qur'an directly encouraged polygamy and servile concubinage, as did Muhammad's own example and the promise of sensual delights as a reward in Paradise for those who believed in Muhammad, and especially for those who "fought in the way of God". Such of them as died in battle were entitled "martyrs" and believed to be rewarded as such, and especially welcomed by the Houris (Hur) in Paradise, even if they had been slain in a plundering expedition (غزوة) in which they sought to take other men's property by force.

As soon as Muhammad sanctioned and encouraged war and plunder, the Arabs flocked to his standard. In a few months after his arrival at Medinah, as we learn from Ibn Hisham, "there ³ was not a household in Medinah but believed, except certain of the tribe of Aus." An agreement was drawn up between the Muhajirun and the Ansars, and a mosque was built.

We have seen how few converts were won to Muhammad during the thirteen years before the Hijrah.