death would merely gratify the lust of his murderers.

The persecution continued in spite of Mahomet's attempts to withstand it,
until he was forced to go to Abu Talib for protection. This was accorded
willingly, on account of kindred ties, but there can have been little
cordiality between uncle and nephew on the subject, for Mahomet was more
than ever determined upon the maintenance and growth of his principles.
Still the conversions to Islam continued, and the persecution of its
adherents, until there came to the Kureisch a sharp intimation that this
new sect arisen in their midst was not an ephemeral affair of a few
weeks, but a prolonged endeavour to pursue the ideal of a single God. In
615 the first company of Muslim converts broke from the confined
religious area of Mecca and journeyed into Abyssinia, where they could
practice their faith in peace. This move convinced the Kureisch of the
sincerity of their opponents, for they were almost strong enough to merit
the name, and compelled them to believe a little in the force lying
behind this strange manifestation of religious zeal in their midst.

Mahomet does not at this time seem to have been definitely ranged against
the Kureisch. He was still on negotiable terms with them, and they were a
little distrustful of his capacity and ignorant of his power. The stages
by which he developed from a discredited citizen, obsessed by one idea,
into a political opponent worthy of their best steel and bravest men was
necessarily gradual, and indeed the Prophet himself had no knowledge of
the role marked out for him by his own personality and the destinies
of Arabia. The cause of Islam stood as yet in parlous condition,
half-formulated, unwieldy, awaiting the moulding hand of persecution to
develop it into a political and social system.

CHAPTER VI

SEVERANCE

"Do you see Al-Lat and Al-Ozza and Manat the third idol beside?
These are the exalted females, and truly their intercession is to be
expected."--_The Kuran_ (last two lines excised later by Mahomet).

The little band of converts, driven by the Kureisch to seek peace and
freedom in Abyssinia, remained for two years in their country of refuge,
but in 615 returned to Mecca for reasons which have never been fully
explained, though it is easy, in the light of future events, to discover
the motive behind such a move.

Mahomet was not yet convinced of the impossibility of compromise, neither
was the powerful party