genius; in the later suras it is the
reflection of his energy that looks out from the pages; the flame itself
has now lighted his actions and inspired his dreams of conquest. The
Kuran is the best revelation of Mahomet himself that posterity possesses,
imperfect as was the manner of its handing down to the modern world. It
shows us both the beauty and strength of his personality and his cruelty,
evasions, magnanimities, and lusts. More than all, the passionate zeal
beating through it makes clear the secret of his sustained endeavours
through discouragement and defeat until his triumph dawned.

To those outside the sphere of his magnetism, Mahomet seems urged on by a
power beyond himself and scarcely within his control. His gifts bear
intimate relation to the particular phase in the task of creating a
religion and a political entity that was uppermost at the moment.

In Mecca he is poet and visionary, the man who speaks with angels and has
seen Gabriel and Israfil, "whose heart-strings are a lute, and who has
the sweetest voice of all God's creatures." He penetrates in fancy to the
innermost Holy Place and beholds the God of battles, even feels his
touch, icy-cold upon his shoulder, and returns with the glow of that
immortal intercourse upon him. It sustains him in defeat and danger, and
by the power of it he converts a few in Medina and flees thither to
complete his task. In Medina he becomes a watchful leader, and still
inspired by heavenly visitants, he produces order out of chaos and guards
his power from numberless assaults.

In attempting to explain his achievements, when allowance is made for all
those factors which gave him help, we are compelled to do homage to the
strength of his personality. Neither in his revelations through the Kuran
nor in the traditions of him is his secret to be found. He lived outside
himself, and his actions are the standard of his accomplishments. He
found Arabia the prey of warring tribes, without leader, without laws,
without religion, save an idolatry obstinate but creatively dead, and he
took the existing elements, wrought into them his own convictions,
quickened them with the fire of his zeal, and created an embryo with
effective laws, fitting social and religious institutions, but greater
than all these, with the enthusiasm for an idea that led his followers to
prayer and conquest. The Kuran, tradition, the later histories, all
minister to that personality which informed the Mu