THE RISE OF MOHAMMEDANISM 175 ence of Gabriel and other angels, but refused to recognize Christ as the son of God, although admitting that he was a prophet. Like Gregory the Great, Mohammed seems to have believed that the end of this world was close at hand, though he always refused to set a date. Like Gregory, too, who at Constantinople had strenuously opposed the doctrine that the resurrected body will be impalpable, Mohammed believed absolutely in a physical after life. For the Arabs, whose ideas of the life after death had hitherto been rather hazy, he drew a vivid picture of the torments of the damned and the sensual delights of Paradise reserved for those who have been true believers. While, however, he both permit- ted and practiced the previous Arabian custom of polygamy, he ordered that fornicators should be whipped, and he prohibited the exposing of infants. He also somewhat im- proved the position of women and of slaves in Arabian society. He enjoined frequent ablutions upon his followers and "made the use of the toothpick almost a religious or- dinance." He also forbade certain articles of food and the drinking of wine. In all this he in large measure may have been simply perpetuating primitive notions of ceremonial purity and taboo. Yet his religion is probably the first to emphasize physical cleanliness and to prohibit the use of alcohol. Among Christians even monks were allowed a cer- tain amount of wine every day by the Benedictine Rule, although it forbade them to eat meat except in case of sickness. Mohammed commanded his followers to forgive those who injured them, not to seek vengeance, and to give alms to the poor. Moslems were to pray five times a day, to attend a public religious service every Friday, and to fast during one month each year from sunrise to sunset of each day. Islam has so many points in common with Judaism and Christianity that Mohammed has been charged with borrowing from both those faiths, but his knowledge of them seems to have been extremely vague. At Medina, Mohammed and his fellow-refugees found it difficult to earn a living and soon resorted to plundering caravans for a livelihood, a practice which they justified upon
