clean, Abu Talib, the latter resented the suggestion.
The people of Mecca, fearing that their traffic and the enormous gains from the big pilgrimages to the Kaabah, might be stopped by a spreading of the new doctrine, finally proposed to Mohammed an arrangement, under which they would agree to worship Allah, as Mohammed directed, provided he would acknowledge some of the deities which they worshipped, as "intercessors" before Allah. Mohammed did this, and there was great rejoicing—but on the next day he recanted and the feud broke out again. This time he was compelled to leave the city, together with the whole of the clan, under a public "ban" or boycott. This boycott lasted two years, and was lifted when the document ordering it was found to have been completedly eaten by worms, where it had been fastened to the walls of the Kaabah.
After strenuous years of preaching, Mohammed lost his wife, ʾHadichah, and married a widow Sauda; later a young girl named Ayeshah—who is undoubtedly the most important female figure in Mohammedan history. She exerted a tremendous influence upon all Islam. For ten years Mohammed traveled from place to place, preaching his religion, but finding few disciples. One day, however, he came upon two Arab tribes who were fighting against Mecca, and who had just taken a fairly good-sized city from the Jews. They welcomed the exile from Mecca with open arms, and the beaten Jews hailed him as the promised Messiah, for whom they had been waiting anxiously.
