denounced as blind and reprobate, fit descendants of the
people who killed their Prophets and rejected their Messiah. The Pentateuch and
the Gospel are still appealed to; but it more and more becomes the mission of
Mahomet, in an ever-widening circle, to bring back all those who had perverted
the doctrines of their sacred books to the old catholic faith. Abraham was
neither Jew nor Christian, but a true Moslem; and the faith of Abraham was now
at last recovered and perfected in the Corân. The Scriptures had foretold the
coming Prophet; the Jews recognized him as they would one of their own children;
but, perverted by bigotry and malice, they falsified their evidence. Their
hearts were seared; a "thick covering" enveloped them; and the Suras
of the period abound with passages to enforce and illustrate this conclusion.
The first year of Mahomet's residence at Medina was chiefly occupied in
building the great Mosque, and providing houses for himself and his followers,
who for the first few months had been received into their homes and hospitably
entertained by the citizens of Medina. The authority of the Prophet was at the
outset recognized only by the professed converts to Islam; but it gradually
extended, till soon he became virtual chief of the whole city.
The ritual for prayer, preceded by lustrations of a Jewish character, was
observed from the first arrival of Mahomet;
but it grew rather out of his
practice than by Divine prescription. At the five stated periods of the day the
believers were summoned by the Adzân, or call of the