CHAPTER VI.

The Koreish exasperated and alarmed by Mohammed's growing suc cess-Commence persecution-Some of his followers seek safety in flight-New converts-The Koreish form a League against himAbu Taleb and Cadijah die-He makes a temporary Retreat from Mecca-Returns and preaches with increased zeal-Some of the Pilgrims from Medina converted.

THE zeal of the prophet in proclaiming his doctrines, together with the visible increase of his followers, at length alarmed the fears of the head men of the tribe of Koreish; and had it not been for the powerful protection of his uncle, Mohammed would doubtless at this time have fallen a victim to the malice of his opponents. The chief men of the tribe warmly solicited Abu Taleb to abandon his nephew, remonstrating against the perilous innovations he was making in the religion of their fathers, and threatening him with an open rupture in case he did not prevail upon him to desist. Their entreaties had so much weight with Abu Taleb, that he earnestly dissuaded his relative from prosecuting his attempted reformation any farther, representing to him in strong terms the danger he would incur both for himself and his friends by persisting in his present course. But the ardent apostle, far from being intimidated by the prospect of opposition, frankly assured his uncle, That if they should set the sun against him on his right hand, and the moon on his left,

yet he would not relinquish his enterprise." Abu Taleb, seeing him thus determined, used no farther arguments to divert him, but promised to stand by him against all his enemies; a promise which he faithfully kept till he died, though there is no clear evidence that he ever became a convert to the new religion.

The Koreish, finding that they could prevail neither by fair words nor by menaces, had recourse to violence. They began to persecute his followers; and to such a length did they proceed in their injurious treatment, that it was no longer safe for them to continue at Mecca. Mohammed therefore gave leave to such of them as had not friends to protect them, to seek refuge elsewhere. Accordingly sixteen of them, among whom was Mohammed's daughter and her husband, fled into Ethiopia. These were afterward followed by several others, who withdrew in successive companies, till their number amounted to eighty-three men, and eighteen women, with their children. These refugees were kindly entertained by the king of Ethiopia, who peremptorily refused to deliver them to the emissaries of the Koreish sent to demand them. To these voluntary exiles the prophet perhaps alludes in the following passage:

As for those who have fled from their country for the sake of God, after they had been unjustly persecuted, we will surely provide them an excellent habitation in this world, but the reward of the next life shall be greater, if they knew it." *

* Koran, ch. xvi.

In the sixth year of his mission, he had the pleasure of seeing his party strengthened by the conversion of his uncle Hamza, a man of distinguished valour, and of Omar, a person of equal note in Mecca, who had formerly made himself conspicuous by his virulent opposition to the prophet and his claims. This new accession to the rising sect exasperated the Koreish afresh, and incited them to measures of still more active persecution against the proselytes. But as persecution usually advances the cause which it labours to destroy, so in the present case Islamism made more rapid progress than ever, till the Koreish, maddened with malice, entered into a solemn league or covenant against the Hashemites, and especially the family of the Motalleb, many of whom upheld the impostor, engaging to contract no marriages with them, nor to hold any farther connexion or commerce of any kind; and, to give it the greater sanction, the compact was reduced to writing and laid up in the Caaba. Upon this the tribe became divided into two factions; the family of Hashem, except one of Mohammed's uncles, putting themselves under Abu Taleb as their head, and the other party ranging themselves under the standard of Abu Sophyan. This league, however, was of no avail during the lifetime of Abu Taleb. The power of the uncle, who presided in the government of Mecca, defended the nephew against the designs of his enemies. At length, about the close of the seventh year of the mission, Abu 'Taleb died; and, a few days after his death, MoH

hammed was left a widower, by the decease of Cadijah, whose memory has been canonized by the saying of the prophet; "That among men there had been many perfect, but of women, four only had attained to perfection, viz. Cadijah, his wife; Fatima, his daughter; Asia, the wife of Pharaoh; and Mary (Miriam), the daughter of Imran and sister of Moses." As to Abu Taleb, though the prophet ever cherished a most grateful sense of the kindness of his early benefactor, yet if the following passage from the Koran has reference, as some of the commentators say, to his uncle, it shows that the dictates of nature in the nephew's breast were thoroughly brought into subjection to the stern precepts of his religion. "It is not

allowed unto the prophet, nor those who are true believers, that they pray for idolaters, although they be of kin, after it is become known unto them that they are inhabitants of hell.” * This passage, it is said by some, was revealed on account of Abu Taleb, who, upon his death-bed, being pressed by his nephew to speak a word which might enable him to plead his cause before God, that is, to profess Islam, absolutely refused. Mohammed, however, told him that he would not cease to pray for him till he should be forbidden by God; such a prohibition, he affirmed, was given him in the words here cited. Others suppose the occasion to have been the prophet's visiting his mother Amina's sepulchre, who also was an infidel, soon after the capture of Mecca. Here, while standing at the * Koran, ch. ix.

tomb of his parent, he is reported to have burst into tears, and said, "I asked leave of God to visit my mother's tomb, and he granted it me; but when I asked leave to pray for her, it was denied me." This twofold affliction of the prophet, in the loss of his uncle and his wife on the same year, induced him ever after to call this "The Year of Mourning."

The unprotected apostle was now left completely exposed to the attacks of his enemies, and they failed not to improve their advantage. They redoubled their efforts to crush the pestilent heresy, with its author and abettors, and some of his followers and friends, seeing the symptoms of a fiercer storm of persecution gathering, forsook the standard of their leader. In this extremity Mohammed perceived, that his only chance of safety was in a temporary retreat from the scene of conflict. He accordingly withdrew to Tayef, a village situated sixty miles to the East of Mecca, where he had an uncle named Abbas, whose hospitality afforded him a seasonable shelter. Here, however, his stay was short, and his prophetic labours unavailing. He returned to Mecca, and boldly taking his stand in the precincts of the Caaba, among the crowds of pilgrims who resorted annually to this ancient shrine, he preached the gospel of Islam to the multitudinous assemblies. New proselytes again rewarded his labours; and, among the accessions now made to his party from these pilgrim hordes, were six of the inhabitants of Medina, then called Yatreb, who, on their return