some verses of Ali, which are still extant,
exhibit an interesting picture of his anxiety, his tenderness, and
his religious confidence. Three days Mahomet and his companion were
concealed in the cave of Thor, at the distance of a league from Mecca;
and in the close of each evening, they received from the son and
daughter of Abubeker a secret supply of intelligence and food. The
diligence of the Koreish explored every haunt in the neighborhood of the
city: they arrived at the entrance of the cavern; but the providential
deceit of a spider's web and a pigeon's nest is supposed to convince
them that the place was solitary and inviolate. "We are only two," said
the trembling Abubeker. "There is a third," replied the prophet; "it is
God himself." No sooner was the pursuit abated than the two fugitives
issued from the rock, and mounted their camels: on the road to Medina,
they were overtaken by the emissaries of the Koreish; they redeemed
themselves with prayers and promises from their hands. In this eventful
moment, the lance of an Arab might have changed the history of the
world. The flight of the prophet from Mecca to Medina has fixed
the memorable aera of the Hegira, [118] which, at the end of twelve
centuries, still discriminates the lunar years of the Mahometan nations.
[119]

[Footnote 116: In the time of Job, the crime of impiety was punished
by the Arabian magistrate, (c. 21, v. 26, 27, 28.) I blush for a
respectable prelate (de Poesi Hebraeorum, p. 650, 651, edit. Michaelis;
and letter of a late professor in the university of Oxford, p. 15-53,)
who justifies and applauds this patriarchal inquisition.]

[Footnote 117: D'Herbelot, Bibliot. Orient. p. 445. He quotes a
particular history of the flight of Mahomet.]

[Footnote 118: The Hegira was instituted by Omar, the second caliph, in
imitation of the aera of the martyrs of the Christians, (D'Herbelot,
p. 444;) and properly commenced sixty-eight days before the flight of
Mahomet, with the first of Moharren, or first day of that Arabian year
which coincides with Friday, July 16th, A.D. 622, (Abulfeda, Vit Moham,
c. 22, 23, p. 45-50; and Greaves's edition of Ullug Beg's Epochae
Arabum, &c., c. 1, p. 8, 10, &c.) * Note: Chronologists dispute between
the 15th and 16th of July. St. Martin inclines to the 8th, ch. xi. p.
70.--M.]

[Footnote 119: Mahomet's life, from his mission to the Hegira, may
be found in Abulfeda (p. 14-45) and Gagnier, (tom. i. p. 134-251,
342-383