orch of some malcontents to set
alight the flame of rebellion. Therefore Mahomet, with his inexorable
determination and force of will, took the only course possible in such a
time. The singer was slain by his express command.

"Who will rid me of this pestilence?" he cried, and like all strong
natures he had not long to wait before his will became the inspired act
of another.

So fear entered into the souls of the people at Medina, and for a time
there were no more disloyal songs, nor did the populace dare to oppose
one who had given so efficient proof of his power.

But it was not enough for Mahomet to have silenced disaffection. He
aimed at nothing less than the complete union of all Medina under his
leadership and in one religious belief. To this end he went in Shawwal of
the second year of the Hegira (Jan. 624) unto the Jewish tribe, the Beni
Kainukaa, goldsmiths of Medina, whose works lay outside the city's
confines. There he summoned their chief men in the bazaar, and exhorted
them fervently to become converted to Islam. But the Kainukaa were firm
in their faith and refused him with contemptuous coldness.

"O Mahomet, thou thinkest we are men akin to thine own race! Hitherto
thou hast met only men unskilled in battle, and therefore couldst thou
slay them. But when thou meetest us, by the God of Israel, thou shalt
know we are men!" Therewith Mahomet was forced to acknowledge defeat, and
he journeyed back to the city, vowing that if Allah were pleased to give
him opportunity he would avenge this slight upon Islam and his own
divinely appointed mission. Friction between him and the Kainukaa
naturally increased, and it was therefore not long before a pretext
arose. The story of a Jew's insult to a Muslim girl and its avenging by
one of her co-religionists is probably only a fiction to explain
Mahomet's aggression against this tribe. It is uncertain how the first
definite breach arose, but it is easy to see that whatever the actual
_casus belli,_ such a development was inevitable.

The anger of the Prophet was aroused, for were they not presuming to
oppose his will and that of Allah, whose instrument he was? He marshalled
his army and put a great white banner at their head, gave the leadership
to Hamza, and so marched forth to attack the rebellious Kainukaa. For
fifteen days the tribe was besieged in its strongholds, until at last,
beaten and discouraged, faced by scarcity of supplies, and the certainty
of disease