themselves at a disadvantage and fearing vengeance, fled back to Mecca.  The Hawazin pursued them remorselessly to the borders of the sacred precincts, beyond which it was sacrilegious to wage war.  Some traditions say they followed their foe undaunted by fear of divine wrath, and thus incurred a double disgrace of having fought in the sacred month and within the sacred territory.  But their pursuit cannot have lasted long, because we find them challenging the Kureisch to battle at the same time the next year.  All Mahomet’s uncles took part in the Sacrilegious War that followed, and stirring times continued for Mahomet until a truce was made after four years.  He attended his uncles in warfare, and we hear of his collecting the enemy’s arrows that fell harmlessly into their lines, in order to reinforce the Kureisch ammunition.

A vivid picture by the hand of tradition is this period in Mahomet’s life, for he was between eighteen and nineteen, just at the age when fighting would appeal to his wild, yet determined nature.  He must have learned resource and some of the stratagem of war from this attendance upon warriors, if he did not become filled with much physical daring, never one of his characteristics, nor, indeed, of any man of his nervous temperament, and his imagination was certainly kindled by the spectacle of the horrors and triumphs of strife.  Several battles were fought with varying success, until at the end of about five years’ fighting both sides were weary and a truce was called.  It was found that twenty more Hawazin had been killed than Kureisch, and according to the simple yet equitable custom of the time, a like number of hostages was given to the Hawazin that there might not be blood feud between them.

The Kureisch passed as suddenly into peace as they had plunged into strife.  After the Sacrilegious War, a period of prosperity began for the city of Mecca.  It was wealthy enough to support its population, and trade flourished with the marts of Bostra, Damascus, and Northern Syria.  Its political condition had never been very stable, and it seems to have preserved during the Omeyyad ascendancy the same loose but roughly effective organisation that it possessed under the Hashim branch.  The intellect that could see the potentialities of such a polity, once it could be knit together by some common bond, had not arisen; but the scene was prepared for his coming, and we have to think of the Mecca of that time as offering untold suggestions for its religious, and later for its political, salvation to a mind anxious to produce, but uncertain as yet of its medium.

Mahomet returned with Abu Talib, and passed with him into obscurity of a poverty not too burdensome, and to a quiet, somewhat reflective household.  He lived under the spell of that tranquillity until he was twenty-five, and of this time there is not much notice in the traditions, but its contemplation is revealed to us in the earlier chapters of the Kuran.  At one time Mahomet acted as shepherd upon the Meccan hills—­low, rocky ranges covered with a dull scrub, and open to the limitless vaults of sky.  Here, whether under sun or stars, he learned that love and awe of Nature that throbs through the early chapters of the Kuran like a deep organ note of praise, dominated almost always with fear.