met, standing at the door of
the Kaaba, made a harangue to the following effect: "There is no other
god but God, who has fulfilled his promise to his servant, and who alone
has put to flight his enemies, and put under my feet everything that is
visible, men, animals, goods, riches, except only the government of the
Kaaba and the keeping of the cup for the pilgrims to drink out of. As
for you, O ye Koreishites, God hath taken from you the pride of
paganism, which caused you to worship as deities our fathers Abraham and
Ishmael, though they were men descended from Adam, who was created out
of the earth." Having a mind to bestow on one of his own friends the
prefecture of the Kaaba, he took the keys of it from Othman the son of
Telha, and was about to give them to Al Abbas, who had asked for them,
when a direction came to him from heaven, in these words, "Give the
charge to whom it belongs." Whereupon he returned the keys by Ali to
Othman, who, being agreeably surprised, thanked Mahomet, and made a new
profession of his faith. The pilgrim's cup, however, he consigned to the
care of Al Abbas, in whose family it became hereditary.

The people of Mecca were next summoned to the hill Al Safa, to witness
Mahomet's inauguration. The prophet having first taken an oath to them,
the men first, and then the women, bound themselves by oath to be
faithful and obedient to whatsoever he should command them. After this
he summoned an extraordinary assembly, in which it was decreed that
Mecca should be henceforward an asylum or inviolable sanctuary, within
which it should be unlawful to shed the blood of man, or even to fell a
tree.

After telling the Meccans they were his slaves by conquest, he pardoned
and declared them free, with the exception of eleven men and six women,
whom, as his most inveterate enemies, he proscribed, ordering his
followers to kill them wherever they should find them. Most of them
obtained their pardon by embracing Islamism, and were ever after the
most zealous of Mussulmans. One of these, Abdallah, who had greatly
offended Mahomet, was brought to him by Othman, upon whose intercession
Mahomet pardoned him. Before he granted his pardon, he maintained a long
silence, in expectation, as he afterward owned, that some of those about
him would fall upon Abdallah and kill him. Of the women, three embraced
Islamism and were pardoned, the rest were put to death, one being
crucified.

Mahomet now sent out Kaled and oth