Apostle of God and consolation in him. Many indeed of his Companions, and those most familiar with him and nearest. to him in descent, used to pretend that they were his Followers and his Helpers, and he knew that they were hypocrites and the opposite of what they pretended to him to be. And that was evident to him. And they did not cease to desire for him misfortunes, and to wish evil to him, and to seek for him occasions of stumbling, and to aid the Polytheists against him . . . Then, after his death, they all apostatized; and there remained not one of them who thought that in him there was right guidance, but turned back and apostatized, and longed for the overthrow of this business" (Islam) "and its destruction, openly and inwardly and manifestly and secretly, until God aided it and patched up their divisions and cast into the hearts of some of them longing for the Khalifate and love of the world."

The revolt of the tribes after Muhammad's death is called by Muslim historians an apostasy. It was not therefore a mere refusal to pay the zakat, though that was a serious offence against Islam and the injunctions of the religious law of the Qur'an. Ibn Athir, for instance, says: "The ¹ Arabs apostatized (ارتدّت آلْعرب), whether common or noble, of every tribe, and hypocrisy became manifest and rejoiced. The Jews and the Christians refused (submission), and the Muslims remained like sheep in the rainy night because of the loss of their Prophet and their small numbers and the multitude of their enemies." The circumstances were so desperate that Abu Bakr was repeatedly urged to detain the army then assembled near Medinah under Usamah ibn Zaid for the conquest of Syria. But he refused to disobey Muhammad's last wish by doing so. Abu Bakr subdued the tribes, and brought them back to Islam" by ² promises and threats", and still more by

force of arms. This is admitted by As Suyuti, among others, who says: "When ¹ the Arabs apostatized, Abu Bakr and his companions waged a Jihad against them, until he brought them back to Islam.''

There now began the spread of Islam beyond the borders of Arabia. We must inquire how this took place, by whose command, what methods were employed to convince men that Muhammad was the Apostle of God and the Seal of the Prophets, in what spirit the conversion of the world was undertaken, and by what arguments the majority of the people of Syria, Egypt, and Persia were led to embrace the new Religion so effectively brought to their notice.

In despatching the army to Syria after Muhammad's death, Abu Bakr said: "Know ² that the Apostle of God had resolved to send his force to Syria: and God took him to Himself . . . And I verily purpose to direct the faces of the heroes of the Muslims towards Syria, ... for the Apostle of God announced that to me before his death, and said, 'The Earth has been Divinely decreed to me, therefore have I seen its eastern and its western parts: and what of it has been Divinely decreed to me shall come into the possession of my people.'" Abu Bakr also wrote a letter and sent a copy of it to Yaman and Mecca, urging the people to undertake this Jihad. This latter title is repeatedly given to the war by the Katibu'l Waqidi, and the same term is used of it in 'Umar's letter to Ibn 'Ubaidah, quoted in that author's Futuhu'l 'Ajam, p. 2.

To the army starting for Syria under the command of Yazid ibn Abi Sufyan, Abu Bakr gave the commission ³ mentioned in Chapter II of the Third Part of