igion. In the other case Muhammad, failing at Mecca,
succeeded at Madinah, and before his death had so far settled matters
that the religion was fairly established, and was thus saved the
severe and bitter struggles of the first centuries of the Christian
Churches.

It has seldom been a matter of speculation as to what would have been
the course of the world's history if Muhammad had been slain by the
Koraish before he left Mecca, or if Jesus had not been crucified by
the Jews. It is probable that in the end both religions would have
been eventually established in other ways, and by other means,
depending a good deal on the followers of the two men. But as the
subject is purely speculative, it can hardly be entertained in this
purely historical chapter.

Once at Madinah, Muhammad became a personage. Supported by his Meccan
followers (al-Muhajirun), and the Madinese auxiliaries (Ansars), he
assumed immediately a spiritual and temporal authority, and became a
sort of Pope-King. He kept that position for the rest of his life,
improving it by his military successes, his diplomatic arrangements,
his spiritual instructions, and his social legislation.

It was probably shortly before he went to Madinah, or very soon after
his arrival there, that he gave up all ideas of bringing over Jews,
Christians, and Sabaeans to his views. He determined to adapt them to
the manners and customs of the Arabs only. In this he showed his
wisdom and his knowledge of business. He changed the Kiblah from
Jerusalem to Mecca. In the place of the Jewish trumpet, or the
Christian bell, he introduced the call to prayer still heard from the
tapering minarets of every mosque throughout the Muhammadan world.

By the Christian world it has been sometimes considered that Muhammad
was good and virtuous at Mecca, but vicious and wicked at Madinah.
Such calls to mind the reply of an Indian youth when asked in an
examination to give an outline of the character of our good Queen
Elizabeth. He briefly described her as 'a great and virtuous princess,
but in her old age she became dissolute, and had a lover called
Essex.'

But the position of Muhammad at Madinah was entirely different to what
it had been at Mecca. At the latter place he was unable to assert
himself. Indeed, it was as much as he could do to keep himself and his
followers going at all, constantly subject as they were to persecution
from the Koraish. All this was changed at Madinah, and his ten