the government continued
as if under his personal supervision.

Whether the Jews were overbold because of Mahomet's frequent absences, or
whether they now became conscious of the trend of Mahomet's policy
towards the absorption of the Jewish element within the city into Islam,
will never be made clear, beyond the fact that the Jewish tribes were not
enthusiastic in their union with the Muslim, and that their national
character precluded them from accepting an alliance that threatened the
autonomy of their religion. It is, however, certain that the discontent
of the Jews voiced itself more and more loudly as the year advanced. The
suras of the period are full of revilings and threats against them, and
form a greater contrast coming after the later Meccan suras wherein
Israel was honoured and its heroes held up as examples. A few Jews had
been won over to his cause, but the mass showed themselves either hostile
or indifferent to the federal idea. As yet no definite sundering
of relationships had occurred, but everything pointed to a speedy
dissolution of the treaty unless one side or the other moderated its
views.

The autumn of 628 saw Mahomet fully established in Medina. He had made
his worth known by his energy and organising power, by his devotion to
Allah and his zeal for the faith he had founded. The Medinans regarded
him already as their natural leader, and he had definitely adopted their
city as his headquarters. Through his skill as a statesman and his
loyalty to an idea he wrought out, the foundations of his future state,
and if the latter months of 623 saw him not yet strong enough to overcome
the Meccans, at least he was so firmly established that he could afford
to dispense with any overtures to the increasingly hostile Jews, and he
had gained sufficient adherents to allow him to contemplate with
equanimity the prospect of a sharp and prolonged struggle with the
Kureisch.

CHAPTER X

THE SECESSION OF THE JEWS

_"Even though thou shouldst bring every kind of sign to those who have
received the Scriptures, yet Thy Kibla they will not adopt; nor shalt
thou adopt their Kibla; nor will one part of them adopt the Kibla of the
other."--The Kuran_.

Mahomet realised the position of affairs at Medina too acutely to allow
of his undertaking in person any predatory expeditions against the
Kureisch during the autumn and winter of 623. The Jews were chafing under
his tacit assumption of State control, and