of a new
jurisprudence. A pure theocracy was set up at Medina, and he as the
prophet was its sole organ and administrator. In this capacity he
displayed consummate ability. Alike in religious and in civil matters
he showed the most perfect comprehension of his countrymen. He
resorted freely to compromise in order to make his religion and
policy suitable to the masses of his people and to secure their
adhesion. In this way he soon secured for himself an absolute
authority.

The new religion thus became the cement by which a strong
commonwealth was formed out of elements formerly at variance.
Mahomet's first care on reaching Medina was to organise the service
of the faith. A place was built where the congregation could meet for
prayer and exhortation; the prophet's house beside it, or rather the
apartments of his wives, for he now had two, and was soon to have
more. The mosque, which all over the world is the local habitation of
Islam, may have been derived from the synagogue or the Christian
church. The service which takes place in it is not a sacrifice, but
consists of intellectual exercises which nourish in the hearers the
spirit of the religion. In the Mosque of Medina Mahomet taught his
converts the practices and duties which were required of them. He
taught this with great precision, and himself set an example how each
exercise was to be done; so that, as Wellhausen says, the mosque
became the exercise ground where the people were drilled in the
requirements of the new faith. "There the Moslems acquired the
_esprit de corps_ and the rigid discipline which distinguish their
armies."

New Religious Union.--A new bond of union thus took the place of the
old tie of blood, which had been by far the strongest in Arabia.
Every Moslem regarded every other Moslem as his brother, even though
belonging to a different tribe. The claims of religion came to
supersede all others; all natural tastes, all family affections, were
taught to yield to them. Within a few years of his coming to Medina
Mahomet had forbidden the use of wine and the pursuit of art, and had
imposed on all women who adhered to him the use of the veil. In every
way the community was taught to regard itself as separated from the
former life of the country and from all who did not share the new
faith. It was represented as the duty of believers to fight against
all unbelievers: in this way the universal prevalence of the religion
was to be brought about. The