decree from heaven which formed the foundation of the Koran. You can imagine him often talking the affair over with Kadijah, she, with the eye of faith, accepting her husband as the chosen one. Then there was consultation with Waraka, the mystic, who was only too ready to believe. So there were three, and a new religion was born.
Zeid, a slave in the Mahomet household, was the first convert, and accepting his master as the true prophet of God, he gained his freedom. At the end of three years, there were forty converts, mostly young people and slaves, and the meetings were held in private, in households, or secretly in caves. Of course, there was persecution, without which no religion can grow, and meetings were broken up. In one rough and tumble fight, Saad, an armor maker, became the champion of the cause, wounding one of the rioters.
True to the wonder-seeking habits of humanity, there were calls for miracles. Some Moslem writers tell tales of magic: of the earth opening and jars of wine and honey coming forth, of doves dropping from heaven to whisper in Mahomet's ear, and of a bull coming to him in the presence of a multitude, bearing, in its horns a scroll. But it is more likely that Mahomet never descended to tricks, and depended in the beginning upon reason tor the promulgation of his teachings. Probably, a single manifestation of magic would have ended his career, for certainly there were not wanting those who had it in mind to do away with the heretic. There was once when the Koreishites,
