mer exiles. Ye thought not that they would go forth; verily, they thought that the fortresses would defend them against Allah, but Allah came upon them from a quarter unexpected and covered their hearts with dread. They ruined their houses with their own hands and with the hands of the believers; wherefore, take warning, ye who can see. They set themselves up against Allah and his prophet; and whoso opposeth Allah-verily, Allah is keen to punish!— Sura lix.

Not long after the defeat at Ohud, Mohammed took an additional wife, who was, like most of his others, a widow. She had a son, to whom the prophet promised to be a father. Not yet satisfied, he soon afterwards become enamoured of Zeinab, the handsome wife of Zeyd, his own adopted son, and she proved as ambitious to share the prophet's home as he was to take her to wife. When Zeyd suspected that Mohammed wished his wife, he did not become indignant, but very willingly divorced her, with the proper dutifulness of a prophet's son, and an apartment was built for her adjoining those of Ayesha and the others. The sense of propriety of the people of Medina was scandalized by this union, not because they saw the prophet's harem growing too rapidly, but because of the relationship that existed between Zeinab's first husband and her second. It was to allay this feeling that Mohammed “received" the revelation contained in the thirty-third sura, to the effect that Allah does not consider adopted sons real children, and that no offence. ought to be taken because Zeyd's wife was joined to Mohammed after Zeyd had voluntarily divorced her. This "revelation," which was in reality an act of legislation, seems to imply an advance or change.

ALI AND FATIMA MARRIED.

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in the Arabic idea of relationship, from the tube (son by adoption), to individual (son by blood).

This revelation made the favorite Ayesha not unnaturally solicitous lest Zeinab should pride herself overmuch on the fact that she was given to the prophet directly by Allah, while none of the other wives could boast such an honor. Zeinab, on her part, was not slow to perceive the advantage that she had in this respect. It may be noted here, incidentally, that Zeyd's is the only name of a follower or contemporary mentioned in the Koran.

It was two or three years before the time of this marriage (about 624), that Mohammed gave his daughter Fatima to Ali to wife, and the marriage is one to be remembered, because from it sprang a line of great importance in this history. Ali, of whom Mohammed was wont to say: "I am the city of wisdom, but Ali is its door," was son of Abu Talib; but had been brought up in the household of the prophet, and was, as we know, one of his first disciples. Fatima was daughter of the beloved Kadija, and was one of the "four perfect women" mentioned by the prophet.*

The attention of Mohammed being at this time directed towards the subject of domestic life, he made many regulations in regard to it. As he would not have fallen in love with Zeinab had he not accidentally seen her without her veil, it was now prescribed that all of his wives should veil themselves from the

* At about this time (625) Mohammed declared wine and games of chance prohibited (Sura v.). He had, however, soon after coming to Medina, recommended abstinence from them (Sura ii.).

gaze of the world; that when walking out they should even conceal their ornaments; that they should not harbor feelings of jealousy the one for the others, but should be content with whatever share of his society the prophet should give them. The faithful were warned not to enter the apartment of Mohammed except by special invitation and not to indulge in familiar discourse there; indeed, they were not to venture into any dwelling without first asking leave and offering salutations to the family. These are but a few of many such like "revelations" as to conduct made in the suras.

The wives of Mohammed were henceforth each to be honored with the title "Mother of the Faithful," and it was declared that it should be unlawful for him to add to their number, even though their beauty might please him. The command is still repeated in the daily service; but it did not prove adequate to its avowed purpose at the time it was promulgated, and has of course, no relevancy whatever to present affairs.

At about this time, there was a temporary estrangement from Ayesha, but a suspicion upon which it was based was removed by a passage in the twenty-fourth sura, and the persons who had calumniated the lady were scourged. Ali did not accept the decree establishing the innocence of Ayesha with cordial promptness, and thus won her inalienable enmity which led to important results years after the prophet's death. The occasion was embraced to lay down rules regarding the relations between husbands and wives, which though much needed in

a community where men were permitted more companions than one, were, notwithstanding, powerless to insure agreeable relations between the members of a household. The mother of Ayesha struck the evil directly when she tried to comfort her at the time of her calumniation: "It is not often that a woman, who is beautiful, married to a man who loves her, is free from scandals raised by less favored and less. loved wives." Patience is the only resource of such, and Ayesha cried out, in the bitterness of her soul: "Allah is my helper!"

Military operations against the tribes about Medina were frequent, and in the spring of 627, the Meccans, who were always nursing their wrath and preparing themselves to break forth against their exiled prophet, gathered a large army, comprising fifteen hundred camel-riders, and reaching a total of some ten thousand men, to march towards Medina. Mohammed saw that he could not successfully go out against such a force, and that there was no alternative but to fortify his position and await the onset. He erected earthworks and dug a ditch, himself carrying his share of the earth, and joining in the song with which the workers endeavored to cheer themselves. The Arabs had up to this time been unaccustomed to any style of warfare that allowed such a mode of defence as this, and the Meccans taunted Mohammed with his pusillanimous resort to a foreign artifice unworthy of a free-fighter of the desert.

Medina was surrounded and put in a state of siege; there was great alarm, and much actual suffering for