ceived instructions which were duly set down in the Koran.
But while things spiritually went very well with him, materially and politically the clouds were dark. Pilgrims from the town of Yathreb, afterwards Medina, who had heard Jews talk of the expected Messiah, took an interest in the strange figure in Mecca who preached on the hill Al-Akaba and he found many new followers. His new converts invited him to their city, and, pressure from his enemies at home being great, Mahomet made a pact, by the terms of which the people of Medina were to worship the one true God and be subject to Mahomet, His prophet, and in return, the prophet would make his home among them. But the enemies of the new religion were not idle and a plot to murder the heretic was hatched. The murderers surrounded the house where Mahomet lived, entered and made for the bed where he was known to be, to find, instead of Mahomet, his loyal supporter Ali. The myth-makers have had it that while the would-be murderers were at the door, Mahomet threw dust into the air, and, by a miracle, his enemies were blinded. To quote the thirtieth chapter of the Koran, "We have thrown blindness upon them that they shall not see." And again in the eighth chapter, "And call to mind how the unbelievers plotted against thee, that they might either detain thee in bonds or put thee to death, or expel thee from the city." The probability is that Mahomet slipped out of the back door after being warned. At any rate, Mahomet fled and reached Medina in
