n safety
with their toll. Almost it seemed as if peace had settled for good upon
the land. The only threatenings came from the Beni Harith of the country
bordering Najran, and the Beni Nakhla, with a few minor tribes near
Yemen. Khalid was sent to call the Beni Harith to conversion at the point
of the sword, and Ali subdued without effort the enfeebled resistance of
the Beni Nakhla. Continual embassies poured into Medina. The country was
quiet at last. After years of tumult Arabia had settled for the
moment peaceably under the yoke of a religious enthusiast, who
nevertheless possessed sufficient political and military genius to found
his kingdom well and strongly.

Mahomet had attained his aims, and whether he could keep what he had now
rested with himself alone. After this period of calm there is a
diminution in his energy and fiery zeal. The effort of that continual
warfare had kept him in perpetual fever of action; when its strain was
removed he felt the weight of his kingdom and the religion he had so
fearlessly reared. Until the end of his life he kept his hold upon his
subjects, and every branch of justice, law, administration, and military
policy felt his detailed guiding, but with the attainment of peace for
Arabia under his sway, his aggressive strivings vanished. Virtually he
had accomplished his destiny, and with the keen prescience of those who
have lived and worked for one object, he knew that the outermost
stronghold of those which Islam was destined to subdue had yielded to his
passionate insistence. His successors would carry his work to higher
attainments, but his personal part was done, and it was with a sense of
finality that almost brought peace to his perpetually striving nature
that he prepared for his last witness to the glory and unity of Allah,
the performance of the Greater and Farewell Pilgrimage.

CHAPTER XXI

LAST RITES

"This day have I perfected your religion for you, and have filled
up the measure of my favours upon you; and it is my pleasure that
Islam be your religion."--_The Kuran_.

A year had passed since Abu Bekr's purgatory Pilgrimage, and now the
sacred month drew near once more and found Mahomet secure in his adopted
city, the acknowledged spiritual and political leader among the Arabian
tribes. Not since his exile had the Prophet performed in their entirety
the rites of the Greater Pilgrimage. Now he felt that his achievements
would receive upon them the seal