which had been in use among the Faithful
during the whole of his Medinan rule. The Believers were now subject to
the fluctuation of their months, so that their years follow a perpetually
changing cycle, bearing no relation to the solar seasons.

When the exhortation was ended Mahomet departed to Mecca, and there he
encircled the Kaaba and entered its portals for prayer. But of this last
act he repented later, inasmuch as it would not be possible hereafter for
every Muslim to do so, and he had desired to perform in all particulars
the exact ceremonies incumbent upon the Faithful for all the future
years. He now made an ending of all his observances, and with every rite
fulfilled, at the head of his vast concourse, summoned by his tireless
will and held together by his overmastering zeal, the Prophet returned to
his governmental city, ready to take up anew the reins of his temporal
ruling, with the sense of fine things fittingly achieved, a great purpose
accomplished, which rendered him as much at peace as his fiery
temperament and the flame of his activity could compass.

Fulfilment had come with the performance of the Greater Pilgrimage, but
still his state demanded his personal government. Death alone could still
his ardent pulses and bring about his relinquishment of command over the
kingdom that was his--death that was even now winging his silent way
nearer, and whose shadow had almost touched the fount of the Prophet's
earthly life.

In such manner the Greater Pilgrimage was fulfilled, and the burden of
its accomplishing is the Muslim reverence for ceremony. The ritual in all
its forgotten superstition and immemorial tradition appealed most
potently to the emotions of every Believer, all the more so because it
had not been imposed upon him as a new and untried ceremony by a
religious reformer, but came to him with all its hallowed sanctity fresh
upon it, to be bound up inseparably with his religious life by its
purification under the Prophet's guidance.

Its use by the founder of Islam bears witness at once to his knowledge of
the earlier faith and traditions and his reverence for them, as well as
his keen insight, which placed the rite of pilgrimage in the forefront of
his religious system. He knew the value of ritual and the force of
age-long association. The Farewell Pilgrimage is the last great public
act he performed. He felt that it strengthened Islam's connection with
the beliefs and ceremonies of his anc