among the Kureisch utterly indifferent to
Mahomet's ancestry as a member of the house of Hashim, and his position
as the husband of Khadijah. He had been respected among men for his
uprightness before he affronted their prejudices by scorning their gods.
His power was daily becoming a source of strife and faction within the
city, and the Kureisch were not averse from attempting to come to terms.
Mahomet for his part, as far as the scanty evidence of history unfolds
his state of mind, seems to have been almost desperately anxious to
effect an understanding with the Kureisch. His cause still journeyed by
perilous ways, and at the time hopes of his future achievement were
apparently dependent upon the goodwill of the dominant Meccan party.

The story runs that the chief men of Mecca were discussing within the
Kaaba the affairs of the city. Mahomet came to them and recited Sura
liii--The Star--a fulgent psalm in praise of God and heavenly joys. When
he came to the verses:

"Do you see Al-Lat and Al-Ozza and Manat the third beside," he inserted:

"Verily these are the exalted females, and truly their intercession may
be expected."

They Kureisch were rejoiced at this homage to their deities, and
speedily welcomed Mahomet's change of front; but he, disquieted,
returned moodily to his house, where Gabriel appeared to him in
stern rebuke:

"Thou hast repeated before the people words I never gave to thee."

And Mahomet, whether conscience-stricken by his lapse from the Muslim
faith, or convinced that compromise with the Kureisch was impossible and
also undesirable in face of his growing power, quickly repudiated the
whole affair, which had been unquestionably born of impulse, or possibly
an adventurous mood that prompted him "to see what would happen" if he
ministered to the prejudices of the Kureisch. It must be acknowledged,
however, that repentance for his homage to heathen idols was the
mainspring of his recantation, for the period immediately following was
one of hardship and persecution for him, and his transitory lapse injured
his cause appreciably with the brethren of his faith. The attempt was
honourably made, and only failed by Mahomet's swift realisation that his
acknowledgment of Lat and Ozza as spirits sanctioned the worship of their
images by his fellow-citizens, and this his stern monotheism could not
for a moment entertain.

The Muslim, with numbers that increased very slowly, were harried afresh
by the