Abubeker, succeeded in getting safely out of the city, and in reaching a cave three miles distant, called the cave of Thor, where the two fugitives concealed themselves three days from their pursuers. A tradition of his followers states that the assassins, having arrived at the mouth of the cave, were deceived by the nest of a pigeon made at its entrance, and by a web which a spider had fortunately woven across it. Believing this to be sufficient evidence that no human being was within, they desisted from all farther examination. The manifest tokens of divine protection vouchsafed to the prophet on this occasion, afforded him signal encouragement ever after, even in the entire destitution of human resources. "If ye assist not the prophet, verily God will assist him, as he assisted him formerly, when the unbelievers drove him out of Mecca, the second of two (i. e. having only Abubeker with him); when they were both in the cave; when he said unto his companion, Be not grieved, for God is with us. And God sent down his security upon him, and strengthened him with armies which ye saw not."* Leaving the cave after the departure of their enemies, they made their way as rapidly as the perils of their flight would permit towards the city of refuge, where they arrived sixteen days after leaving Mecca. Having halted at Koba, two miles from Medina, he was there met by five hundred of the citizens who had gone forth for the purpose, and

* Koran, ch. ix.

by whom his arrival was greeted with a cordial welcome. The prophet, having mounted a camel, with an umbrella spread over his head, and a turban unfurled instead of a banner, made his public and solemn entry into the city, which was hereafter to be sanctified as the place of his throne. This flight of the apostle of Islamism, called in the Arabic tongue the HEJIRA, or more properly the HEJRA, has become the grand era of all the Mohammedan nations, being employed by them for the same purposes as the year of our Saviour's birth is throughout the nations of Christendom. It took place A. D. 622, in the fifty-third year of the prophet's age.

The waiting adherents of the messenger of truth, composed of those of his friends who had by his orders fled from Mecca a short time before him, and the proselytes of Medina whom he had never seen, now flocked obsequiously about his person, and the distinction henceforth became established among his followers, of the Mohajerins, or the companions of his flight, and the Ansars, or helpers; familiar appellations for the fugitives of Mecca, and the auxiliaries of Medina. "As for the leaders and the first of the Mohajerin and the Ansars, and those who have followed them in well doing; God is well pleased with them, and they are well pleased in him; and he hath prepared them gardens watered by rivers; they shall remain therein for ever; this shall be great felicity.”*

* Koran, ch. ix.

At this distance of time it is not possible to decide what class of citizens had the principal share in tendering this invitation to the prophet, and granting him such a ready reception. From the following passage, occurring in the first published chapter of the Koran after entering Medina, some writers have inferred that the nominal Christians of that city were the most active agents in introducing the impostor. “Thou shalt surely find the most violent of all men in enmity against the true believers to be the Jews and the idolaters (i. e. pagan Arabs); and thou shalt surely find those among them to be the most inclinable to entertain friendship for the true believers who say, We are Christians. This cometh to pass because there are priests among them and monks, and because they are not elated with pride: and when they hear that which hath been sent down unto the apostle read unto them, thou shalt see their eyes overflow with tears because of the truth which they perceive therein; saying, O Lord, we believe: write us down therefore with those who bear witness to the truth: and what should hinder us from believing in God, and the truth which hath come unto us, and from earnestly desiring that our Lord would introduce us into paradise with the righteous people ?"* This is certainly important as a historical document, and if the inference drawn from it be correct, it affords a melancholy proof of the deep degeneracy of the eastern churches, that they

*Koran, ch. iii.

should be among the first to embrace the foul imposture. If that were the fact, it furnishes palpable demonstration also, that when men have once began to swerve and deviate from the truth, no limits can be set to the degree of apostacy into which they are liable to fall. A fearful illustration is thus afforded of the law of the divine judgments, that where men, under the cloak of a Christian profession, receive not the love of the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness, God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie, and that too to their inevitable ruin.

CHAPTER IX.

The Prophet now raised to a high Pitch of Dignity-Builds a Mosque -A Change in the Tone of his Revelations-The Faithful now com manded to fight for the true Religion-His first war-like Attempt unsuccessful-The Failure compensated in the Second-Account of the Battle of Beder-This Victory much boasted of-Difficulties in the Division of the Spoil-Caab, a Jew, assassinated at the Instance of the Prophet.

FROM a fugitive Mohammed became a monarch. No sooner had he arrived at Medina than he found himself at the head of an army devoted to his person, obedient to his will, and blind believers in his holy office. He began at once to make arrangements for a permanent settlement, and his first business, after giving his daughter Fatima in marriage to Ali, was to erect a dwelling house for himself, and a temple or mosque, adjacent to his own residence, for a place of religious worship, in which he might publicly pray and preach before the people. For he now, in his own person, combined the temporal and the religious power; he was leader of his army, judge of his people, and pastor of his flock.

With the change of his fortunes, his doctrines began also to vary. Hitherto he had propagated his religion by the milder arts of arguments and entreaties, and his whole success before leaving Mecca is to be attributed solely to the effect of persuasion, and not of force. "Wherefore warn thy

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