to the sword, prime artificer in his career of conquest. But in those
confidently intimate traditions handed down to us from his immediate
entourage, and especially from Ayesha, we find him alternately passionate
and gentle, wearing his power with conscious authority, mild in his
treatment of the poor, terrible to his enemies, autocratic, intolerant,
with a strange magnetism that bound men to him. The mystery enveloping
great men even in their lifetime, among primitive races, creeps
down in these documents to hide much of his personality from us, but his
works proclaim his energy and tireless organising powers, even if the
mythical, allegoric element predominates in the earlier traditions. The
man who undertook and achieved the gigantic task of organising a new
social and political as well as religious order may be justly credited
with calling forth and centering in himself the vivid imaginations of
that most credulous age.

The year 620-621 passed chiefly in expectation of the Greater Pilgrimage,
when the disciples from Medina were to come to report progress and to
confirm their faith. The momentous time arrived, and Mahomet went almost
fearfully to meet the nucleus of his future kingdom in Acaba, a valley
near Mina. But his fears were groundless, for the little party had been
faithful to their leader, and had also increased their numbers.

They met in secret, and we may picture them a little diffident in so
strange a place, ever expectant of the swift descent of the Kureisch and
their own annihilation. Withal they were enthusiastic and confident of
their leader. One is irresistibly reminded, in reading of this meeting,
of that little outcast band from Judea which ultimately prevailed over
Cæsar Imperator through its mighty quality of faith. The accredited words
of the first pledge given at Acaba are traditionally extant; they combine
curiously religious, moral, and social covenants, and assert even at that