as part of the great catholic faith of Abraham. We
find also Jewish restrictions as to certain kinds of food, but the positive
precepts as yet are few.
The flight to Medina changes the scene, and with it the character of the
portions of the Corân there revealed. The idolaters of Mecca disappear, and
their place is taken by the "hypocrites" of Medina. Here there was
no open opposition either to Mahomet or his doctrines; but, nevertheless, a
powerful faction was jealous of the stranger's advent, and an undercurrent of
disaffection prevailed which not unfrequently appears upon the surface. The
head of this party was Abdallah ibn Obey, who, but for the new turn in the
fortunes of his city, was on the point of being its chief. The disaffected
citizens continue the object of bitter denunciation in the Corân, till near
the close of the Prophet's career, when, before the success of Islam, they,
too, vanish from the scene.
But the most prominent subject of. discourse in the early Medina
revelations is the Jewish people and their religion. At the outset Mahomet
spared no endeavour to attach them to his cause. He dwelt upon the lives of
their prophets and worthies, and sought by recounting the interpositions of
the Almighty in the land of Egypt and elsewhere, to stir their gratitude, and
induce them to publish the evidence in his favour which he contended that
their books contained; but he failed. Excepting a few apostates, they refused
to admit his prophetic claims. Disappointment soon ripened into enmity; and
they who had been appealed to before as witnesses are now