, I,
ccxi.]

[Footnote 64: Sir W. Muir thinks: "The possession of Mecca now imparted
a colour of right to his pretensions; for Mecca was the spiritual centre
of the country, to which the tribes from every quarter yielded a
reverential homage. The conduct of the annual pilgrimage, the custody of
the holy house, the intercalation of the year, the commutation at will
of the sacred months,--institutions which affected all Arabia,--belonged
by ancient privilege to the Coreish and were now in the hands of
Mahomet.... Moreover, it had been the special care of Mahomet artfully
to interweave with the reformed faith all essential parts of the ancient
ceremonial. The one was made an inseparable portion of the other."--The
Life of Mahomet, Vol. IV, p. 169. But the remaining tribes who had not
hitherto embraced Islam, and the chiefs of the Southern and Eastern
Arabia, did not adopt Islam, because Mohammad possessed Mecca, a
position of no political supremacy. No paramount authority throughout
the Peninsula had ever been vested in the chief who possessed Mecca.
Mohammad on the surrender of Mecca had abolished all the idolatrous
institutions which might have served as political or social inducements
to the Pagan Arabs to embrace Islam. The intercalation of the year and
commutation of the sacred months were cancelled for ever in the plain
words of the Koran: "Verily, twelve months is the number of months with
God, according to God's book, _since_ the day when He created the
Heavens and the earth, of these, four are sacred; this is the right
usage." ... "To carry over _a sacred month to another_ is an increase of
unbelief only. They who do not believe are led into error by it. They
allow it one year and forbid it another, that they may make good the
number of _months_ which God hath hallowed, and they allow that which
God hath prohibited. The evil of their deeds hath been prepared for them
_by Satan_; for God guideth not the people who do not believe."--Sura
IX, verses 36, 37. The custody of the house was no more an office of
honour or privilege. The ancient ceremonial of pilgrimage was not
interwoven with the reformed faith. The rites of Kaaba were stripped of
every idolatrous tendency. And the remaining and essential part of the
pilgrimage was depreciated. "By no means can their flesh reach unto God,
neither their blood; but piety on your part reacheth Him."--Sura XXII,
verse 38. And after all the idolaters were not allowed to enter i