About a league from IVIecca, at the cave of Thor, the fugitives halted, and there they remained hiding for three days from their Jleccan pursuers. According to one account, these, after exploring every hiding-|)lace in the vicinity, came to the mouth of the cave. But a spider having providentially spread her web over the entrance, tlie Koreishites, deeming it impossible that Mohammed could liave entered there, turned back from their jjursuit. Perhaps a more proliablc ex|ilanalion is that as the Koreishites knew Jledina to be the destina-
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tion of the fugitives, they never suspected that they could be concealed in the cave of Thor, which lay in an opposite direction. While they were in the cave, the legend goes, Abu-Bekr, contrasting their weakness with the strength of their enemies, said, trembling, " We are but two." " No," replied Mohammed, " there is a third : it is God himself." On the fourth night the prophet and his companion left their hiding-place, and, riding on camels which the servant of Abu-I5ekr had brought, ar- rived safely at Medina sixteen days after their flight from Mecca.
IMoharamed's reason for turning his face towards Me- dina may be found in the sympathy which the Medi- nans had frequentlj' manifested towards the prophet. They had been moved to this by various causes. Mo- hammed's mother was a Medinau, on account of which her clansmen considered themselves under obligation to take sides with him. There was another motive still : the Mediiians, jealous of the authority of INIecca as a place of pilgrimage, might have hoped to attain the ascendency over Mecca by the aid of Mohammed and his followers. There were, moreover, many adherents to the new cause among the inhabitants of Medina, who had paid homage to the prophet while he was yet at Mecca. There were some who looked to him as per- chance the Messiah expected by the Jews. According- ly a considerable part of Medina was enthusiastic in the new cause, and when Mohammed's approach was made known to them, hundreds of its citizens advanced in procession to meet the coming prophet, welcoming him with loud acclamations; and he who a few days before had left his native city as a fugitive, with a price upon his head, now entered Medina more like a king return- ing victorious from battle than an exile seeking a place of refuge. This separation or flight of Mohammed from the city of his nativity, called in Arabic Hejrah, or an- glicized Hegira (q. v.), formed not only an auspicious turning-point in the prophet's own life, but became the point of departure in the Jlohammedan movement.
His earhest attention after his arrival at Medina was given tovv'ards the consolidation of the new worship and the minor arrangements in the congregation of his flock. At this time jNIohammed endeavored, by various con- cessions, to gain the Jews over to his faith. He select- ed Jerusalem as the point of direction in prayer, ap- pointed the tenth day of the first month as a day of fasting, and allowed the new converts to celebrate their Sabbath. But when the Jews, notwithstanding these advances, would not acknowledge him as prophet, rid- iculed his pretension to be the Messiah, and enraged him by their constant taunts, he soon abrogated his concessions, became their bitterest enemy, sought closer alliance with the heathenish Arabs, and substituted practices likely to please them. In prayer the worship- per was now directed to turn towards Mecca, the month Ramadan was henceforth fixed upon as a fasting-time, and Friday as the day of rest.
Gradually Mohammed now appears in a new charac- ter. His internal arrangements perfected, his follow- ers increased, and his allies concluding to yield him armed assistance, he was no longer content to convert his adversaries by words ; he was no longer come to give peace, but to make war; where the warnings of the prophet had failed to convince, the strong arm of the conqueror must compel, and the persecuted apostle ap- pears suddenly transformed into the triumphant soldier. He who had formerly insisted upon liberty of conscience for himself, and had opposed religious violence, now maintained that Islam should, if necessary, be defended and propagated by the sword. " The sword," said he, " is the key of heaven and of hell : a drop of blood shed in the cause of God, or a night spent in arms, is of more avail than two months of fasting and prayer ; whoever falls in battle, his sins are forgiven him, and at the day of judgment the loss of his limbs shall be supplied by the wings of cherubim." This was a sort of manifesto, directed mainly against the Meccaus, and he was not
long in carrying his new principles into practice. Not powerful enough to warrant an open fight with his ene- mies, he determined to weaken their strength by at- tacks and pillage upon the caravans of the Meccans, which on their commercial expeditions to Syria passed in the neighborhood of Medina, and ere long plunder and robbery were sanctioned, even during the sacred months — yea, many an assassination, consequent u]3on these at- tacks, was instigated by Mohammed himself.
Henceforth Mohammed ceases to be a religious leader in the eyes of the impartial biographer; he cannot pos- sibly have, at this time, fancied himself inspired of God, and as acting according to divine pleasure; for, aside from the circumstance that some pretended revelations concerned only his own advantage, or even sometimes solely the gratification of his lust, he frequently with- held them, and waited for the temper of his adherents to manifest itself before he dared to proclaim them. Thus, to mention one instance of his irresolution and trickery, he commanded one of his votaries to waylay a caravan which he was cognizant could be reached only in a sacred month ; and when the order had been com- plied with, and great dissatisfaction prevailed on ac- count of this desecration of the holy month, he main- tained not to have arranged the same, for he had given the order in so ambiguous a manner that he could clear himself of the responsibility of an act execrated by all Arabia.