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 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