inging all Arabia under its sway. Abu Sofian
listened, and it may be that the chief's words induced him to consider
seriously the possibility of ranging himself beneath the banner of the
Prophet.

Meanwhile Mahomet had summoned all the matchless energy of which he was
capable, and set on foot preparations for the overwhelming of Mecca.
Every Believer was called to arms; equipment, horses, camels, stores were
gathered in vast concourse upon the outskirts of Medina, awaiting only
the command of the Prophet to go up against the scornful city whose
humiliation was at hand. The order to march was given on January 1, 630,
and soon the whole army was bearing down upon Mecca with that rapidity
which continually characterised the Prophet's actions, and which was more
than ever necessary now in face of the difficult task to be performed. In
a week the Prophet, with Zeinab and Dram Salma as his companions, at the
head of 10,000 men, the largest army ever seen in Medina, arrived within
a stage of his goal. He encamped at Mar Azzahran and there rested his
army from the long desert march, the toilsome and difficult route
connecting the two long-sundered cities that had given feature to the
origin and growth of Islam. While he was there he received what was
perhaps the most important asset since the conversion of Khalid. Abbas,
his uncle, still timorous and vacillating, but now impelled into a firmer
courage by the powerful agency of Mahomet's recent triumphs, quitted
Mecca with his following and joined his nephew, professing the creed of
Islam, and enjoining it also upon those who accompanied him.

The conversion did not come as a surprise to Mahomet. He had been
watching carefully by means of his spies the trend of events in Mecca,
and he knew that the allegiance of Abbas was his whenever he should
collect sufficient force to demonstrate his superiority. Abbas loved the
winning cause. When Mahomet was obscure and persecuted he had befriended
him as far as personal protection, but his was not the nature to venture
upon a hazardous enterprise such as the Prophet's attempt to found a new
religious community in another city. Now, however, that the undertaking
had proved so completely victorious that it threatened to make of Mecca
the weaker side, Abbas, with the solemnity which falls upon such people
when self-interest points the same way as previous inclination, threw in
his lot with Islam.

The Muslim rested that night at Mar Azzahr