lers and augurs who cast lots before God and explained His
will in mysterious rhythmical utterances. Muhammed was at first more
intimately connected with this class of Arab fortune-tellers than is
usually supposed. The best proof of the fact is the vehemence with
which he repudiates all comparison between these fortune-tellers and
himself, even as early Christian apologetics and polemics attacked the
rival cults of the later classical world, which possessed forms of
ritual akin to those observed by Christianity. The existence of a
fortune-telling class among the Arabs shows that Muhammed may well
have been endowed with psychological tendencies which only awaited the
vivifying influence of Judaism and Christianity to emerge as the
prophetic impulse forcing him to stand forth in public and to stir the
people from their indifference: "Be ye converted, for the day of
judgment is at hand: God has declared it unto me, as he declared it
unto Moses and Jesus. I am the apostle of God to you, Arabs. Salvation
is yours only if ye submit to the will of God preached by me." This
act of submission Muhammed calls Islam. Thus at the hour of Islam's
birth, before its founder had proclaimed his ideas, the influence of
Christianity is indisputable. It was this influence which made of the
Arab seer and inspired prophet, the apostle of God.

Muhammed regarded Judaism and Christianity as religious movements
purely national in character. God in His mercy had announced His will
to different nations through His prophets. As God's word had been
interpreted for the Jews and for the Christians, so there was to be a
special interpretation for the benefit of the Arabs. These
interpretations were naturally identical in manner and differed only
as regards place and time. Muhammed had heard of the Jewish Messiah
and of the Christian Paraclete, whom, however, he failed to identify
with the Holy Ghost and he applied to himself the allusions to one who
should come after Moses and Jesus. Thus in the Qoran 61.6 we read,
"Jesus, the Son of Mary, said: Children of Israel, I am God's apostle
to you. I confirm in your hands the Thora (the law) and I announce the
coming of another apostle after me whose name is Ahmed." Ahmed is the
equivalent of Muhammed. The verse has been variously interpreted and
even rejected as an interpolation: but its authenticity is attested by
its perfect correspondence with what we know of Muhammed's
pretensions.

To trace in detail