teway cut them
off from the outer world, and within they had to suffer all privations
of a beleaguered garrison. No one would venture forth except in the
sacred months, when all hostile feelings and acts had to be laid aside.
The citizens could hear the voices of the half-famished children inside
the _Sheb_ and this state of endurance on the one side, and persecution
on the other, went on for some three years. Five of the chief
supporters of the adverse faction detached from the league and broke up
the confederacy and released the imprisoned religionists. This was in
the tenth year of Mohammad's ministry. Soon after Mohammad and the early
Moslems suffered a great loss in the death of his venerable uncle and
protector Abu Talib. Thus, Mohammad and his followers became again
exposed to the unchecked insults and persecutions incited by Abu Sofian,
Abu Jahl, and others; and being a handful in the hostile city, were
unable to cope with its rich and powerful chiefs. At this critical
period, either because he found it unsafe to remain at Mecca, or because
he trusted his message would find more acceptance elsewhere, Mohammad
set off to Tayef of the Bani Thakif,--the town was one of the great
strongholds of idolatry. There was a stone image, called Al-Lat, adorned
with costly vestments and precious stones, was an object of worship, and
esteemed to be one of the daughters of God. Here Mohammad preached to
unwilling ears, and met with nothing but opposition and scorn from the
chief men, which soon spread to the populace. He was driven out of the
town, maltreated, and wounded. He could not return to and enter Mecca
unless protected by Mut-im, a chief of the blood of Abd Shams.

At the yearly pilgrimage, a little group of worshippers from Medina was
attracted and won over by the preaching of Islam; and the following
year it increased to twelve. They met Mohammad and took an oath of
allegiance. A teacher was deputed by Mohammad to Medina, and the new
faith spread there with a marvellous rapidity. Again the time of
pilgrimage arrived, and more than seventy disciples from Medina pledged
themselves to receive and defend him at the risk of their lives and
property. This was all done in secret; but the Koreish, having got
notice of it, renewed such severities and persecutions, including, in
some cases, imprisonment, as hastened the departure of the Moslems to
Medina, their city of refuge.

[Sidenote: 5. The Hegira.]

Mohammad, being mu