356 THE DECLINE AND FALL diligence of the Koreish explored every haunt in the neighbour- hood of the city ; they arrived at the entrance of the cavern ; but the providential deceit of a spider's web and a pigeon's nest is supposed to convince them that the place was solitary and inviolate. " We are only two," said the trembling Abubeker. "There is a third/' replied the prophet; "it is God himself." No sooner was the pursuit abated than the two fugitives issued from the rock and mounted their camels ; on the road to Medina, they were overtaken by the emissaries of the Koreish ; they redeemed themselves with prayers and promises from their hands. In this eventful moment the lance of an Arab might have changed the history of the world. The flight of the prophet from Mecca to Medina has fixed the memorable aera of [Hijra] the Hegira}- which, at the end of twelve centuries, still dis- criminates the lunar years of the Mahometan nations.^^*^ Received as The religion of the Koran might have perished in its cradle, Siedina° had not Medina embraced with faith and reverence the holy out- casts of Mecca, Medina, or the city, known under the name of Yathreb before it was sanctified by the throne of the prophet, [Khazrajites] was divided between the tribes of the Charegites i^*** and the Awsites, whose hereditary feud was rekindled by the slightest provocations : two colonies of Jews, who boasted a sacerdotal race, were their humble allies, and without converting the Arabs, they introduced the taste of science and religion, which distinguished Medina as the city of the Book. Some of her noblest citizens, in a pilgrimage to the Caaba, were converted by the preaching of Mahomet ; on their return, they diffused the belief of God and his prophet, and the new alliance was ratified by their deputies in two secret and nocturnal interviews [AD. 620-1] on a hill in the suburbs of Mecca. In the first, ten Charegites and two Awsites, united in faith and love, protested, in the name of their wives, their children, and their absent brethren, that 127 The Hegira was instituted by Omar, the second caliph, in imitation of the aera of the martyrs of the Christians (d'Herbelot, p. 444) ; and properly commenced sixty-eight days before the flight of Mahomet, with the first of Moharren [Muharram] , or first day of that Arabian year, which coincides with Friday, July i6th, A.D. 622 (Abulfeda, Vit. Moham. c. 22, 23, p. 45-50, and Greaves's edition of Ullug Beig's Epochas Arabum, &c. c. i, p. 8, 10, &c.). [Before Islam, early in the fifth century A.D. , the Lunar and Solar years had been reconciled by intercalated months. The flight cf Mohammad took place on Sept. 20 ; the era was dated from the new moon of the first month of the same year, corresponding to July 16. See al-Biruni, Chronol. of Ancient Nations, tr. Sachau {1879), p. 327.] 1*8 Mahomet's life, from his mission to the Hegira, may be found in Abulfeda (p. 14-45) ^"d Gagnier (torn. i. p. 134-251, 342-383). The legend from p. 187- 234 is vouched by Al Jannabi, and disdained by Abulfeda. i2S;i [This tribe of the Khazrajites must not be confused with the Kharijites or rebels, who are noticed below, p. 385.]
