nstraint."[37] At Medina the precepts of toleration were quickly cast
aside and his whole policy reversed. No sooner did Mohammed begin to be
recognized and obeyed as the chief of Medina than he proceeded to attack
the Jewish tribes settled in the neighborhood because they refused to
acknowledge his claims and believe in him as a prophet foretold in their
Scriptures; two of these tribes were exiled, and the third exterminated
in cold blood. In the second year after the Hegira[a], or flight from Mecca
(the period from which the Mohammedan era dates), he began to plunder
the caravans of the Coreish, which passed near to Medina on their
mercantile journeys between Arabia and Syria. So popular did the cause
of the now militant and marauding prophet speedily become among the
citizens of Medina and the tribes around that, after many battles fought
with varying success, he was able, in the eighth year of the Hegira[b] to
re-enter his native city at the head of ten thousand armed followers.
Thenceforward success was assured. None dared to oppose his pretensions.
And before his death, in the eleventh year of the Hegira[c], all Arabia,
from Bab-el-Mandeb and Oman to the confines of the Syrian desert, was
forced to submit to the supreme authority of the now kingly prophet and
to recognize the faith and obligations of Islam.[38]

[Sidenote: Religion of Mohammed described.]
This _Islam_, so called from its demanding the entire "surrender" of the
believer to the will and service of God, is based on the recognition of
Mohammed as a prophet foretold in the Jewish and Christian
Scriptures--the last and greatest of the prophets. On him descended the
Koran from time to time, an immediate revelation from the Almighty.
Idolatry and polytheism are with iconoclastic zeal denounced as sins of
the deepest dye; while the unity of the Deity is proclaimed as the grand
and cardinal doctrine of the faith. Divine providence pervades the
minutest concerns of life, and predestination is taught in its most
naked form. Yet prayer is enjoined as both meritorious and effective;
and at five stated times every day must it be specially performed. The
duties generally of the moral law are enforced, though an evil laxity is
given in the matter of polygamy and divorce. Tithes are demanded as alms
for the poor. A fast during the month of Ramzan must be kept throughout
the whole of every day; and the yearly pilgrimage to Mecca--an ancient
institution, the rites of