I.— MOHAMMED'S ILL SUCCESS IN SEEKING RECOGNITION AS THE PROPHET OF ISLAM, OR, THE MECCAN PERIOD OF HIS PUBLIC LIFE FROM ABOUT THE FORTIETH TO THE FIFTY-THIRD YEAR OF HIS AGE.

(1.) Mohammed's Diffident Start as a Prophet.

When, by the process described in the first chapter, Mohammed had become persuaded that he might regard himself as a chosen apostle of God, he was, according to the common belief of his followers, just forty years old. His age at the Flight to Medina being 53 years, his prophetic period in Mecca must have lasted about 13 years. But during all this time he did not succeed in effecting anything like a general recognition of his assumed new character; and at its close there was nothing left him but to flee from his home in despair and to seek in a distant city a better starting-point for realising his plans.

The cautious, not to say timid, manner in which Mohammed entered upon his prophetic mission is quite in keeping with the assumption that he did not consider religious reform as his exclusive object, but that he rather looked already beyond it to a more material and secular goal. His start as a prophet by no means calls to mind the saying: 'The zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up' (John ii. 17). He did not court martyrdom, or give proof, at this time, that he had the stuff in him of which martyrs are made. Ibn Ishak has a short sentence in his biography of the prophet which throws an important light on his personal character and courage, namely, 'For the space of three years, after his mission, he concealed his faith.' So long an interval he needed, before he could summon courage enough to profess openly what he contemplated and believed in secret. It required a fresh supposed admonition from God to induce him to take that further step. Ibn Ishak reports: 'Then God commanded him to come forward with his revelation, to acquaint the people with it, and to invite them to embrace Islam.' The Rawzet ul Ahbab, instead of saying that Mohammed 'concealed' his faith, uses the expression that he invited to Islam 'secretly, so that only one or two at

a time embraced the faith.' In either case the admission is forced upon his biographers that at first he showed great diffidence and timidity in spreading the imagined revelations.

This is also confirmed by the circumstance that his earliest converts all belonged to the circle of his own family and friends. His biographers are careful to enumerate them by name. The lists handed down to us date from about a century after his own life, when priority of belief in Islam and its prophet, among ancestors, already constituted an honourable distinction in Moslem society with which valuable privileges and worldly advantages were connected. This naturally caused a tendency amongst the believers to date the conversion of their ancestors as early as possible; and we may take for granted that none of them was omitted from the list of early converts, and that every one's claims were insisted upon without any lack of interest and zeal.

The fact that Mohammed 'concealed' his faith for three years and invited to Islam 'secretly,' or ventured to persuade only members of his own family and dependent persons, might be looked upon as little creditable to a prophet called in so supernatural a manner and commissioned with so wonderful a charge direct from heaven. Perhaps Ibn Ishak felt something of this kind, and wanted to forestall possible objections on that score, when he found it judicious to make the following observation: 'The office of a prophet carries its troubles and burdens with it which only the constant and strong of God's apostles can bear, with His help and assistance; for they have to suffer much from men, and people quarrel with them about that which they proclaim in the name of God. But Mohammed acted according to the command of God, despite all the contradiction and ill-treatment from his people.' Such an assurance by the biographer is all the more opportune the less the actual life and conduct of his hero renders it superfluous, at this period.

(2.) Mohammed's Earliest Converts.

The first of his converts was his devoted wife Khadija. Traditions differ with regard to the order in which others