were still unbelievers listened to all that 'Ali had to say, including the statement:—

O Believers! only the polytheists are unclean! Let them (i.e., pagans) not, therefore, after this year come near the Sacred Temple. Sura At-Taubah (ix) 28.

This order was so clear and distinct, and was now so well supported by material force that there was nothing to do but to submit, which the Arabs then did.

All opposition had now been broken down, and, as the Ka'ba was purged of all idolatrous connexions and none but believers might enter it, Muhammad determined to make the 'Greater Pilgrimage' in this the tenth year of the Hijra. It is said that he was attended by more than one hundred thousand persons. After the circumambulation was over he turned to the Maqam-i-Ibrahim, or Place of Abraham, and said, 'consider the Place of Abraham as a place of prayer.' He then said the Fatihah, the opening Sura of the Qur'an, then Sura Al-Kafirun

(cix), then the Sura Al-Ikhlas (cxii).. He then went most carefully through the whole ceremonial, including the kissing of the black stone and the drinking of water from the sacred well, and all other of the old pagan rites.¹ The opportunity was taken to deliver an address on inheritance, adultery, treatment of women, who on occasion

were to be 'beaten with stripes, yet not severely,' on slaves, and on the equality of Muslims. The portion¹ of the Sura At-Taubah (ix) abolishing the triennial intercalation of a month to reduce the lunar to the solar years was recited, and the month of the Pilgrimage fixed according to the changing seasons of the lunar year. This change seriously affected the commerce of Mecca, though the institution of the Hajj, with the large number of pilgrims it brings to the city, to some extent compensated for it. 'Previously by unscientific intercalation the months had been made to correspond roughly with the seasons; Muhammad, by now making twelve lunar months, destroyed all relation between them. Of any accommodation of the Pilgrimage months to the needs of commerce there would no longer be any question . . . . The commerce of Mecca was ruined.' ²

On one of the days he went to the top of the Mount 'Arafat and then, standing erect on his camel, said:—³

This day I have perfected your religion unto you and fulfilled my mercy upon you, and appointed Islam to be your religion.⁴ Sura Al-Ma'idah (v) 5.