ame to see that the worship of a single God
was a very excellent thing. His own people, the Arabs, still revered
queer stones and trunks of trees as their ancestors had done, tens of
thousands of years before. In Mecca, their holy city, stood a little
square building, the Kaaba, full of idols and strange odds and ends of
Hoo-doo worship.

Mohammed decided to be the Moses of the Arab people. He could not well
be a prophet and a camel-driver at the same time. So he made himself
independent by marrying his employer, the rich widow Chadija. Then he
told his neighbours in Mecca that he was the long-expected prophet sent
by Allah to save the world. The neighbours laughed most heartily and
when Mohammed continued to annoy them with his speeches they decided to
kill him. They regarded him as a lunatic and a public bore who deserved
no mercy. Mohammed heard of the plot and in the dark of night he fled to
Medina together with Abu Bekr, his trusted pupil. This happened in the
year 622. It is the most important date in Mohammedan history and is
known as the Hegira--the year of the Great Flight.

In Medina, Mohammed, who was a stranger, found it easier to proclaim
himself a prophet than in his home city, where every one had known him
as a simple camel-driver. Soon he was surrounded by an increasing number
of followers, or Moslems, who accepted the Islam, "the submission to the
will of God," which Mohammed praised as the highest of all virtues.
For seven years he preached to the people of Medina. Then he believed
himself strong enough to begin a campaign against his former neighbours
who had dared to sneer at him and his Holy Mission in his old
camel-driving days. At the head of an army of Medinese he marched across
the desert. His followers took Mecca without great difficulty, and
having slaughtered a number of the inhabitants, they found it quite easy
to convince the others that Mohammed was really a great prophet.

From that time on until the year of his death, Mohammed was fortunate in
everything he undertook.

There are two reasons for the success of Islam. In the first place,
the creed which Mohammed taught to his followers was very simple. The
disciples were told that they must love Allah, the Ruler of the World,
the Merciful and Compassionate. They must honour and obey their parents.
They were warned against dishonesty in dealing with their neighbours
and were admonished to be humble and charitable, to the poor and to the